1980 s village life – my experience

I should thank God for giving me an aunt in the village. Otherwise I would not have ever known what is the lifestyle there.

so grounded and connected to the nature.

for school vacations, our parents used to send us for two weeks or so there.

First thing is, we have to wake up by 6. my Chithi and Chittappa would have woken up at 4, because they have to milk the cows and send it to Trichy.

Since 4 a.m. you can’t sleep, because there will be so much noise out there, the milking guys talking, and Chithi and Chittappa taking something out from the hall cupboards where we all are sleeping.

but purandu purandu paduthu, will try to sleep. no point.

around 5.45 my cousins will wake up and they will start nudging us, get up, get up, we need to fold the mattresses. we slept in the cotton mattresses that were made in-house.

we were 5 of us, other cousins were in their respective houses.

all 5 of us, need to fight after rolling the mattress, because you need to arrange the mattress one on top of the other on a big table. the table height will be around 3 feet so this huge mattress when rolled will be bigger. you need to carry that and keep on it. the more late you are to keep the mattress, the more effort you have to take it to keep on top of the other. so each of us will be carrying our mattresses and in hand with so much difficulty, imagine we were all around 4 feet and in each hand huge mattress and we had to push the other one with ours. the mattress will fall down sometimes, roll it again. I am laughing as I remember that now.

so we all fight there. finally our cousins will give way for us, because we are town people.

all sleep gone, and you are fresh now after the exercise.

when you leave the hall, there is no sign of us having slept there. neat and clean.

tooth powder and brushes will be ready on the thinnai inside the house.

start brushing in the mutram, with the cool breeze. enna sugam.

as we take water out of a thotti and wash our teeth, our Chithi would have got the coffee ready.

she will bring in a big vessel and pour it for all of us. as we drink we watch them do their work.

again there will be so many discussions with the milking guys, they will be measuring the milk and making notes.

we will sit and watch all of it.

by 6 the local supplies of milk will be done. neighbours, few village people will visit to get milk.

they bring their own container.

10 minutes only. my chiti will start nudging is to go and take bath. imagine. the time is only around 6.30 or so.

so we all line up to the cows shed, where there is a well and also a huge bathroom built. few guava trees and around 10 native cows were there.

the cows food fodder, grass everything will be stored there.

its a 100 meters walk from the house. and we will carry all our new clothes to the Patti we call it.

the entire place will smell of cow dung and smoke from the wood that is used to make hot water.

now when I recall, there is so much divinity in that place.

it is a huge bathroom with one small bulb on. in a corner a huge wood stove is burning, and a 200 litres anda is sitting on top of it. with water boiling. the anda is a copper one I think.

we cannot lift it. so carefully we need to use a container to take out the qty of hot water in a steel bucket. hardly 3 or 4 times. after that we can’t because it will be so hot and second we are allowed only so much.

the next thing is, the qty of water that we used for our hot water, needs to be refilled because the next person needs hot water.

what planning.

and the best part is the cold water has to be drawn from the well just outside the bathroom steps. on the side of course.

my favourite part, I just love drawing water from the well. uses all your energy and corrects your posture. in retrospect I think that is the best exercise. in Bangalore when I was working in ITPL we had a gym downstairs and they gave the same thing. like a pulley and rope. adapaavi.

my cousins usually they don’t allow me to do, because they are worried if we get hurt, my mom will be upset.

but I am one adamant soul. and almost draw water for everyone.

two three small buckets to mix with the hot water to take bath, 2 or 3 for the hot water to boil.

then close the door take bath. the fragrance of the Chandrika soap, the smoke from inside the bathroom now seems so nice, then it was such an inconvenience . the water was fed to the plants at the backyard.

once I am outside my cousin takes bath while I wait for her I sit outside watching our helpers feeding the cattle etc,,. and they will be asking us something about the city, school etc.

once we are done both girls when we are outside, my cousin will ask me see if I am looking fresh, no dirt anywhere? I asked her why? she said no, the village people will make fun if we don’t look clean after the bath.:). on the way people will look at us and ask ennama kulichiteengala? 🙂

walk back, and seriously I ll tell you we are famished by then

go straight into the kitchen to have breakfast.

Chithi would have made idlis in the wood stove and coconut chutney made in Aatukal.

steaming idlis and coconut chutney. that was pure bliss.

and the time is around 7.30 to 7.45. and we are done with our breakfast.

my Chithi and Chittappa finishes their breakfast after that and then brings out all the vessels to the mutram to wash. Chithi and my cousin washes and rinses, I used to help them dry by placing it on the thinnai. Only Arapu was used to wash the vessels and coconut fibre as a brush. all from the kitchen. the cows are fed with the waste rice washed water, vegetable peels etc the coconut shell to burn the fire.

then Chithi goes again into the kitchen to cook lunch. the mutram is between the main house and kitchen, so to take anything we all need to pass the mutram. we make so many trips a day between them. and then as my cousin and I chat as we take out the broom to sweep the huge house.

I don’t like to collect the dust that I have accumulated at each corner of the house. I will just keep on sweeping. while my cousin with a pan removes all the collected dust from the corners.

and she always chides me that I should not do that, because then for all festivals and functions I cannot participate and I will be left in a corner ( because of periods). The best part is she has not been able to participate in many but I have been able to:)

for the entire big house there is not even a handful of dust. because those days the wastes were papers and they were used to for the fire along with the woods. and most white sheets or papers were torn into small pieces neatly pinned to make notes. “post it”s those days.

around 9.30 am we all gather in the thinnai outside the house. and start playing cards, pallanguli, gilli thanda, cycling, dhaayam and all village games possible,

while we are outside, the village people also come and sit and we all chat. They give inputs on how to play, for gilli thanda they also give a shot on their way to the work.

for gilli thanda, I always pitch in. my cousin squirm because she thinks girls should not play gilli. but am adamant and always play better than everyone. one of the villager once said, thirichi ponnu eppadi vilayadudhu paaru, u village boys not able to compete with her.

that became a big ego clash:) and we were all fighting.

Chithi brings lemon drink made from the lemons from their farms. fresh and refreshing. she takes a break around 11.30 where we need to sing Tamil songs for her. movie songs. have you seen the lyrics books those days. in black and white. we need to buy it. nice fun we had. she also forces us to eat muruku, mixture etc.

at 12.30 lunch is served inside the kitchen, on a banana leaf. sambar, rasam, vadaam, buttermilk and 2 veggies.

then its again our time, we play something or keep talking stories. that is the time I got some clay and started my sculpting journey. small Lakshmi sculpture I made. but I did not know how to make it stand, since I was not aware of the fact that we need to give support to it. sometimes we apply marudhani. few village girls all our age come and chat with us.

3 pm Chithi wakes up to the next set of work. the milkman comes to milk the cows and again the whole exercise of measuring, and packing in big can happens.

we get our coffee and snacks and again we go out and play. since its evening she will not send us out without combing our hair, plating it neatly, having flowers arranged in our plaits. the jasmines used to have such a beautiful fragrance. nowadays in Bangalore and Hosur, even if I almost insert the flower into the nose, I can’t sense any fragrance. (no corona :))

chitin friends or other villagers usually pay us a visit because we have come from the town.

they ask all questions and we are supposed to answer diplomatically. Chithi and cousins would have already trained us on how to speak to them.

around 6 we do the poojai.

7 pm, dinner starts it will be either dosai or rice again.

we all request Chithi to give Kavalam rice. she mixes rice and sambhar in a huge vessel. and each of us will get a Kavalam. and this is in mutram. with or without nila. so much food we eat.

and the food taste still lingers.

after that washing vessels, drying it. we are ready for sleep.

for sometime we sleep in the mutram on the mat. then around 11 she wakes us up to sleep inside. because too much pani sets in.

we would have laid the mattress earlier itself. carrying them each from the pile on the bench.

sleep and again at 6 next morning.

nadu, nadulla maane thene maadiri we go to the touring talkies to watch movies. walk around a mile and walk back late night. but the entire village will be walking so it will be fun.

1 rupee ticket was the chair ticket. others are bench and then floor. the floor one will have sand and you can see people lying down and watching. what luxury.

so once when we went late, the chairs were full. but since our people were one of the thalakattu, we had chairs brought in for all of us. I found it so privileged, because even in Trichy you can’t get this attention.

there are days when there is huge cooking will write about it in another post. too long this has already become.

so many experiences and I cherish all these. varumaa edellam.

I guess this has affected me so much that subconsciously I am trying to recreate in our farmhouse. such a challenge believe me.

to be continued……