GOODBYE TO NATURAL LIVING

In 1972, my paternal grandfather’s younger brother celebrated his 60^th birthday, in our village. My dad and I went to our village. That was the first time I had gone to my village, after I had become a teenager. I had visited the place as a small child and so did not any memories of it at all.

We boarded a local train from Madras, and got down at Mayiladuthurai junction. Form the station we took a local bus and at 4 PM, reached Keeranoor, our village. As I got down from the bus, I could smell the paddy growing in fields. The afternoon sun had turned the paddy crop into a brilliant green, and with the slow breeze, the crops swayed, as green undulating waves.

I was enthralled. I was a city born child, and had seen only roads, traffic, buildings and crowd.  Here it was so silent, except for the sounds of the sparrow and the crow. As my dad and I walked to our village through the paddy fields, I soaked in all the calmness, the smell, the pure air, and the greenery. It was so uplifting. I wished I could stay in this wonderful place for a week. My father readily agreed.

We arrived at our relatives place. It was an old typical tiled house. 

We were welcomed with warmth. My father proudly introduced me to all our relatives. We had hot freshly brewed coffee. Evening came and all the relatives, were participating in stringing mango leaves with young coconut leaves  made into festoon. 

These were tied from pillar to pillar. The floors were decorated with traditional designs made with white wet rice flour, and dark saffron lines made of ground burnt clay. 

There was no electricity in our village, and we had the light from petromax lamps. 

There were at least 60 relatives and friends, in the house that night.  After an amazing delicious dinner, all of us went to sleep as early as 8PM. With no electricity there was no reason to stay awake. All of us were give a mat, a pillow and a blanket to sleep.

We lay down in a raised common area near the entrance, where people generally sat and talked with the neighbors during the day time.

Within a few minutes of lying down, a swarm of mosquitoes descended on me. They droned near my ears, and bit my face. I did not know what to do.  I covered myself completely from head to feet with the thick blanket. Within a few minutes of doing this I was drenched in sweat, due to the hot humid weather. 

So I took the blanket off. Then the mosquitoes attacked me once again. My relatives who were always in the village were snoring in deep sleep. And here I was alternating between the mosquitoes and sweating. The entire night went off, like this, and I could not get a wink of sleep. It was in the wee hours of the morning, I finally dozed off, as the mosquitoes flew back to the paddy fields, and left me in peace.

Within minutes, the women folk, of the house shook me awake, for they had to sprinkle the front yard with water, and make traditional designs, with dry rice flour.

My village at that time did not have toilets. We men folk had to go to the open fields for answering natures’ call. I was given a small brass pot with water and six of us went to the fields. That was the first time I participated in group defecation. It was very embarrassing for me. But the village men were not bothered about exposing. For them it was a daily activity. 

Then went the village pond for bathing. As I stepped waist deep inside the pond, small fishes came and started biting my feet, legs and things. I wriggled and squealed, as my relatives launched at my plight. They told me that the fish were actually helping in cleaning my legs. I had a perfunctory bath and ran out of the pond as quickly as I could.

 The ceremony went off very well, and by 11 AM, I had a really grand tasty  lunch. It was 12.30 PM. I told my dad that I wanted to leave for Madras immediately. He tried to stop me, but I was adamant. I could not survive one more sleepless night fighting with the mosquitoes, or  defecating in public or bathing with the fishes.

I took an afternoon train, and reached home by 8PM. I had a good bath, in privacy. I  had a simple dinner prepared by mom, and switched on the fan at full speed and fell flat on the cozy bed, and as I sank into deep undisturbed sleep, murmured to myself, “ Goodbye to natural living, welcome to modern life style.”