The Hindu Business Line : Of folk world and habits of a town

Between the folk world of Tirunelveli town and its villages on one bank and the town world of Palayamkottai on the other, the Tamraparani river flows without a tinkle, almost shy to announce its existence.

Riding on a two-wheeler with Venkatasubramanian Muthukrishnan through the town in the morning, one watched a woman and her bullock taking a morning bath in the river, while a few others were washing their vehicles. She scrubbed her bullock hard which did not like it and tried to make its way to the bank. School children in traditional white shirts and blue pants (the girls wore white tops and a blue frock) and bare feet laughingly tugged at school bags while making their way to the school.

Egrets (cattle, large and median ), pond and grey herons, peacocks and sometimes a black ibis searched the rice fields where men and women were busy; large lots of little cormorants can be seen in the area either packing the skies or the water bodies, of which there are a large number. With migration picking up, one presumes the water bodies could be housing a large number of birds by January.

In the evening at a temple of Lord Murugan on the banks of Tamraparani, one noted aiyyappas in black dhotis (they are on their way to Sabarimala in Kerala) taking the ritual bath with the little cormorants for company.

Dr. Salim Ali says these birds live exclusively on fish “which it chases and captures under water, being an expert diver and submarine swimmer.” They duck into the water and surface a few feet away and are not bothered about the aiyyappas.

Over three days, Muthu took one round the villages and at some places one saw bats (Flying Fox) resting upside down from tall, thick what looked like Arjun trees. The Tirunelveli town is scarred by a two-tier flyover with small shops doing business underneath.

Wildlifer Kenneth Anderson, in his book Tales from the Indian Jungle, offers the reasons for staying back in South India after Independence, when a wildlifer like Jim Corbett left the country for Africa: “Where in the world would time be of so little, if any consequence, as in India? Where in the world would consequences themselves be of so little importance? ….The bare requirements of existence are all that do matter.

“Moreover, death follows life and life follows death, so it really does not matter where you start and where you end, as it all works out to the same thing. My friends cannot understand when I tell them that these things are the reasons why I love India, why I do not think I shall ever leave it.”

His observation still holds in the folk world of ancient villages around Tirunelveli town.

But Muthu reminds one agriculture is not paying and one farmer, owning 100 acres of land near Koonthankulam, said as much. “Krishi le paisa illai. Konjam vera vellai cheyanum (Farming is not paying; one has to take up allied jobs),” he told me in Tamil.

Most of the farm products are lorried to nearby Kerala in search of better quotes. This farmer doubles or trebles as a real estate builder apart from being active in local politics.

Muthu admits to migration of the young from Tirunelveli in search of living; there is not even the compensation of the IT boom. Where else can you get a regular sized idli for Rs 1 or for Rs 10 have a splendid, unlimited breakfast?

The Nagercoil Express from Mumbai touched Tirunelveli town at 1.30 midnight after a 36-hour run and one crossed over to Palayamkottai, budding with the habits of the town.

Recently, Spencer’s Daily has opened a retail shop and there is a small crowd in the evenings. Every morning we went on long walks and on the way parked ourselves at small joints serving filter coffee, paruppu wada, dosa, sambhar and chutney cooked in the spicy Tamil manner.

White-breasted, pied and common kingfishers, common swallows, rose-ringed parakeets, an occasional pelican (one was unsure of the variety) and a coot can be seen at the sizable water tanks near the public works department adjacent to the quarter of the armed reserve police at Palayamkottai.

We regularly bought vegetables at the Uzhavar Chandai (Farmers’ Market) and one has rarely come across such newness; overhanging the clean market space, with booths for every trader, is the aroma of cut coriander.

A large population, particularly the neatly dressed school going children in their uniforms, still move on bicycles on narrow roads bordered by neem trees and frangipani bushes.

Most of the independent houses are fronted by white and coloured kolams, while the apartments are generally two-storied. Sad to note, one cannot see house sparrows; they have become rare, admits Muthu.

On a Saturday morning, walking past the Mayor’s bungalow and the Sara Tucker Girls School (set up in 1897), we made it to the Anna Stadium with its basketball and indoor shuttlecock courts. Unusual, was a synthetic turf hockey pitch with boys and girls playing hockey.

On our way, we saw schoolgirls holding hockey sticks discussing the tournament they were to play in.

We watched a young kid making a faulty clearance in front of the goal for an opposing left out to latch on to the ball and pass it square to his forward who shot it into the goal. The kid threw his stick in the air. A Dhanraj Pillai would have beamed at the sight.

In the evening, one went to a volleyball tournament with some good teams like Indian Bank and Indian Overseas Bank. You could overhear the crowd discussing the niceties of a serve and a smash, instead of pace, offspin and the straight bat.

In this southern nook of Tamil Nadu, lifestyles could change and there may not be many folk tales left when globalisation steps up the pace in the coming years. Till that happens, the Tamraparani will continue in its loving ways.

P. Devarajan

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Of folk world and habits of a town