I have experienced true love, affection, adventure, friendship, thrill and enjoyment for the past four days. Yes. All this was possible due to the trip to theni. We went to Arun’s house to celebrate the pongal festival. The experiences which we had are something which is so close to our hearts. Village always rocks in its way of treating the people with respect and guests as their family members. Right from day 1 till yesterday night till we boarded the bus it was ultimate affection and care which was always there from arun’s family.
Day 1-
We reached theni by 7.20 in the
morning and from there we reached Veerabandi by 7.40. We took a auto and reached to aruns house. We kept our bags in the room allocated for us in first floor and then we did our morning jobs and then came down and got the intro procedures done. We planned that day to go to suruli falls and so we started to suruli falls by 10.30. We reached Suruli falls by 1. We thought of kulichifying in the lower falls but all guys wanted to go to the upper falls and so we trekked to the upper falls. Such a great place to be! There was so much fungus there in the rocks that we were sliding every now and then. There happened the worst incident of the tour. Some other group of people came to kulichufy there and one man slipped in the fungus and pushed me too. I totally missed my balance and fell right on his head. His eye got hit in a stone and the skin peeled off. All of us got terrified. So we came down in an hour and in the lower falls we had a great bath for an hour. Then we came down and had the tamarind rice which we took from arun’s house. First impression of aruns mom was that tamarind rice and that proved to be best! We came back home by 6 o clock in the evening. Then we experienced the delicious meals by arun’s mom assisted by his sister aarthy. A great day to begin the trip! Then we went to the maadi room and dozed off.
Day 2-
We woke up by 8 in the morning and it was the day of pongal and we thought that there would be pongal celebrations and all. But then we came to know that in villages Maatu pongal is more special than pongal and that all will keep pongal on the day of maatu pongal only. So we all went to have a game of cricket there and we had a broken bat and so we were forced to put a match with the local team. We won the first one and lost the second. Then we came back and had the lunch. Then we planned to go to the periyaar(big river) to bath. Vijay,myself and sano weren’t in a mood to bath there. But after seeing the flowing river we also went in. Satish tried some of the fashion tv shots with vijay. We were enjoying in the water making some formations and catch-catch game for nearly three hours. Then myself and sano came out before all and we were sitting near the temple. But all of them didn’t come via that route and we both came home after being chased by dogs nearly an hour after they had reached. Then we went to the
“Karupannasamy temple” who is the family deity for them and there we offered pongal to Karuppannasamy and then we all had a round of pongal there. Then we went to watch the “Kabaddi match” which was going on there. The commentary which was there was ultimate and it was perfect example of what is called “gramathu kusumbu”. Then we came back home, ate and slept. It was appu the rajapalayam dog which woke up all of us daily. We miss him too!!
Day 3-
We planned to go to thekkadi on that day, but aruns dad told that only boating was there at thekkadi and that too not so good as it used to be in
the season times. So we changed our plan and we went to the thoppu of arun. It was a tough way with marshy one way sand roads and when we reached there we could see arun’s grandfather who is 85 years of age but still firmly working in the fields. He came there and he chiseled off the tender coconuts and gave it to us. The sweetest tender coconut you could imagine of! After having stomach full of tender coconuts and a small visit around the thottam-thuravu of arun we went into the coconut grove and had a nice sleep for an hour. Then we came back home and had our lunch. By 6, it was the most awaited event- the pongal keeping ceremony. We changed our costumes and were ready to shout “Pongalo pongal”. But the full verse was a different one as follows,
“Pongalo pongal, paal paanai pongal
Patti peruga, paatha kannu vedikka
Noyum piniyum theruvodu poga”
So after the pongal here we went to have a second round of pongal in aruns uncle’s house. There too we had a good time with the pongal and sugarcane. All the four days we had sugarcanes in our hands and our mouths chewing them. By that time, we were so close to arun’s family members and we came back home by ten and had our dinner and we dozed off.
Day 4-
All of them were saying us not to go, but we all were in a plan to start that evening. Arun’s brother said that we can go to “vaigai dam” on that day. So we started to vaigai dam and we had a nice time hanging out there and all of them revisited their childhood by going in the park fun rides. Then we came back by 3 to arun’s home. We were really out of energy and we had a great meal(veg and non veg separately). Then arun’s mom showed us the photo album which she hadn’t even shown to her relatives. Arun’s sister got all our address and birthdays written in her diary. We then witnessed the “JALLIKATTU” where the temple bull, mr.karuppu proved to be the most devastating bull of the event. We had a family photograph with all the members of arun’s family…no…our family. Then we started by 6 from his house. All of them came with us till the bus stand and arun’s father came till theni and was t
here waving his hands till the bus left from his eyesight.
These are just the happenings which can be expressed. Beyond these we gained a new family for us. A brother, a sister and loving parents for us in theni welcoming us always is there for us now. Friendship has beautiful things like this which no other thing in this world can bring. All should realize this as a matter of fact. Thanks ARUN for this scintillating experience and for opening us towards a loving family. We are going to go once again in the month of may as there will be thiruvizha in the temple there. So expecting the month of may and still I’m not out of the village of veerabandi.
“Kalloori enna thandhadhu, kanmoodi paarthal puriyudhu,
Verum kalvi mattumalla, kanavu mattumalla, KANGAL KALANGA VAIKKUM URAVUGAL”. Its true…its true.
