Kallidaikurichi Memoirs

Recently, I made a visit to Kallidaikurichi, the quaint little town tucked away in the foot hills of the Western Ghats. This little town, on the northern bank of the great river Tamirabarani in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. steeped in tradition and a rich culture is the place where my mother was born and even as the gentle summer breeze caresses the paddy sheaf, the pages of memory unfold gently and slowly before my eyes, engulfing me in their fold.

  My grandfather was an agriculturist, who cultivated paddy, groundnut and sugarcane. A typical agrarian household, the machil or upstairs was stacked with sacks of rice, red chillies, groundnut. My uncle also engaged in cultivation of sugarcane and as  children, we would eagerly wait for the big container, filled with molasses syrup, which grandma would ladle on top of steaming dosas onto our eager plates. Summer holidays were the time of the year,when as a child, I along with my parents would visit Kallidaikurichi. The long summer holidays would be filled with games like Hopping Squares and  Thinnai jumping. Every house in Kallidaikurichi had a thinnai or a raised, flat platform where the men would sit  and talk in muted tones in the summer evenings, after visiting the temple. We, cousins had a great time, high jumping off these thinnais. Rarely did anyone take a bath at home, even though my grand father had installed pipes for the river water supply. Everybody in Kallidaikurichi except infants or the very old and feeble bathed either in the Taamribarani or the Kaalvaai.  For how could a bathroom tap ever replace the cool, refreshingly sweet water of the Tambiraparani or its irrigation anicut, the Kannadiyin kaalvaai  which snaked through Kallidai. Most well to do families had access to the canal with their own private bathing ghats, to which a small garden was invariably attached. This garden with its colourful, sweet-smelling flowers and  coconuts catered to the Pooja requirements of the household The irrigation canal was dry in summer till Mid June  when  water was pumped after the first south-west monsoon shower. 


The festival of Aadi Perukku was celebrated to welcome the monsoon gods and herald the onset of monsoons. While grey clouds billowed overhead and all vegetation looked  sylvan fresh and shining moist, the Kallidai maidens sang “Aadi Chevvai, Thedi Kuli “  and bathed in the startlingly cold waters of Kannidayin Kaalvaai, playfully splashing their mates and holding swimming races! The water which had emerged from the ghats  was always crystal clear and had immense medicinal properties. A dash of wet turmeric paste obtained by rubbing a turmeric piece against a clean smooth piece of rock in the river bed had a lingeringly pleasant fragrance  that modern day deodrants  and perfumes cannot match!  No soap, no powder for the Kallidaikurichi maiden, if you please; she drew her toileteries from bountiful nature.   A bath in the monsoon waters immediately set our stomachs on fire. On aadi chevvai day, we would  gorge on delicacies like Lemon rice, coconut rice etc. after offering these delicacies to Goddess Tamirabarani.  Sitting on the steps of the bathing ghat with feet dangling onto the water and eating savouries was a heavenly experience.In other seasons, we would walk home on the kutcha road in the paddy fields  after a  soothing bath in the main Tamirabarani river. We would carry steel kudams full of the river water, shepherded by the womenfolk. I still remember the  swishing of wet clothes draped around our bodies because we would dress properly  only after reaching home. Thereupon, our clothes would be hung with the help of a long stick on poles suspended from the roof. For spiritual considerations, it was important that the clothes were out of everybody’s reach, till the next day when the self-same stick was  used to remove the clothes and shove them into a bucket, kept in a corner till used the next day. Lunch was a simple affair with children and adults sitting on the floor in straight rows  in front of banana leaves onto which the women folk served a menu consisting chiefly of  sparkling white rice, dollops of ghee,  an avial ( South Indian  mixed vegetable stew cooked in a coconut gravy ), a Sambhar and Rasam along with a thin, spiced buttermilk.

Lunch was followed by a forty- winks ( no more) in the Nadai,  which adjoined the Kottadi or Visitors’ room. There was no need of a fan even in sweltering, summer afternoons, a cool afternoon breeze somehow found its way into the  Nadai, gently lulling us to sleep. Natural air- conditioning at its best! Housing in Kallidaikurichi was strictly on caste basis with the Brahmin streets called Agraharams, making up almost three- fourth of the small town population. These houses were long  and  connected to the next house by a common wall, with a connecting door which was only latched in the night. Thus visitors, neighbours  and even family functions and guests  spilled over to the next house. But nobody ever grudged this intrusion into their privacy- they were too simple and large hearted for that!  Mattresses were spread out  on the floor  in long straight rows, on which our tired limbs would stretch out in a dreamless slumber late in the night after  a round of bed games or a round of story telling by  elders.

 Kallidaikurichi has many temples; our street had a  Pillaiyaar temple at the northern end adjoining the canal. In summer, the leaves of the coconut trees in the temple yard would sway gently with the river breeze, fanning the sweating brow of many a devotee.The presiding deity of Kallidaikurichi is Shri Lakshmi Varaham also known as Lakshmipathi. Muthuswamy Deekshithar of the Carnatic Trinity has composed a beautiful Kriti on this deity in the Raga Aabohi. In the Adivarahar temple, the moolavar sits with  his consort Laxmi and showers his grace and blessings on the townspeople. Garuda seva, which is an important form of worship of the lord, implies the adorning and feeding of Lord Lakshmipathi seated on his favourite vehicle Garuda for one full day in the whole year. This Seva, a grand event with elaborate ritualistic offerings and  adornments which takes place on a Saturday in the Tamil month of Purratasi is undertaken by well- to- do Brahmin families in turn.

Kallidaikurichi, the village, rich in traditions, art and culture has lost many of its past sheen. It saddens me to see the Kannidiyan Kaalvaai, the lifeline of the village  being  diverted out of the village totally for irrigation purposes, thus depriving the residents of its innumerable benefits. I walk through the street where my uncle now lives in the ancestral house and my ears and eyes long for that friendly smile and eager voice asking in Tamil, " Pattuaa? Eppo vandhaai?"( Is that you, Pattu? When did you come?)" But nothing happens. People give me curious looks, but there is no welcoming smile or friendly enquiry. The agraharam which used to resound with the voices of  maamis,calling out and speaking to each other, is now mostly desolate, with  many houses being shut or sold to outsiders. Economic and social constraints have turned Kallidaikurichi also into an empty nest.  Even as my nostrils tingle at the aroma of a bygone of eats like murukkus and appalams, the values and traditions that Kallidaikurichi instilled in me will always be a part of me.  Kallidaikurichi may have frozen in time  but it has handed down over generations a tradition of simple living and family values!