Non-renewed travel plans, absence of the reality of 48 hours ! And i land at Pudukottai on a Saturday morning until Sunday night.
The initial plan was to visit a few scenic hamlets Thirumananjeri ( where you irritate God with your nuptial behavioral problems ! ), ThirukarukkaVoorh ( more complex problems - to arrive !!) - not sure where you go if you want the population and problems cut down ?
Anyways back to my loneliness on Saturday. My perimaa, mom and my cousin were cooped up together discussing the maami life. I was left alone with my deaf paati and a 4 year old kid - wow ! i choose the 4-year old, and we came up with a few interesting games which made Jagan laugh and he decided thats what life is all about., he wanted it repeated till i had to let him cry wanting more of the game. The monotony of the game had rushed all the blood right out of my brains and with the heat of Pudukottai at its peak (11 30 am) was just the perfect setting for some sleep, what an odd time to sleep was my last thought., but nevertheless nothing like hot boring afternoons. I could smell and hear lunch and i woke up like as if i just got back from a serious work-out, i was hungry too and the food was great.
Some more playing with Jagan, till he ensured all the innovative games seemed interesting only at the beginning, i found a saturation point for all of them - he never did. He's got a lot to unlearn really.
Then i go to my paati and we decided to play a game of 'pallanguzhi', Jagan who until now owned the red box of sea shells started wailing loud when paati and me schemed together (which obviously flopped) to take it away from him., my mom came to our rescue and indulged him in something else. We played and i lost, i think i bored my paati with absolute ignorance of the tactics involved in the game, i often found her calculating before starting her turn of shell dropping ! Some math there - no clue. And lo! i was all sleepy again, i cooked up a whole theory of why i was sleepy again...but not now. I enjoyed sleeping in the hall with no main door, it was a main window. The main door was simply an iron grill ! The whole world was sleeping...
Not sure what the pluck was all about the next morning, i decided to venture out. I was up at 5 30 and all set to leave the house at 6 15 am. I have never had permission issues so no time wasted and i was out of Machvadi on the Pudukottai main road. This is one hell of a confused town absolutely stuck in time and space between being a village and a city...ok town! I found it hard to find someone who might be of help - i wanted the map of Pudukottai. No Help. I decided to go to the main bus stand, spotted the bus stop and two women who didnt care a damn about when the bus would come...like all people they said 'ippo varum'. Well, the bus did arrive full strength (the buses were crowded all odd hours and time, since bus is the main (almost the only) means of transport out there - Awesome !)
At the bus stand - again a futile attempt ( a few sneers & frowns) at getting the Pudukottai map. The visual thought of the clean, well maintained city railway station at Trichy, set me mind sprinting in the direction - i was so sure and happy i would find map there. An hour later i was at Thiruchi, i was directed to the railway station (my speculation come true ! thats quite unusual). I reached there only to find myself looking towards the bus stand again, the man at the tourism department said i should find a map at the bus stand and not the station and that too on a sunday...was i crazy ?!
Finally, i call the internet service at Bangalore...Pradeep rattles off a few places that he finds on the net., instinctively i choose 'Chittannavaasal' - and a mocking Pradeep had to get me all flared up with adding that it was 10km from Pudukottai. I was fuming, some yelanih did me good - it was the sweetest and the biggest yelanih i have had and the most expensive too.
I took a bus to Annavaasal, and from there i was to take the 'town bus' (local bus) to 'chittanavaasal'. At Annavaasal there was no sign of another bus to sittanavaasal for nearly 20 minutes, an auto driver who at first tried to drive me down to the place gave up after twenty minutes and since he saw that i desperately wanted the ride ( i was being cautious about having to trust private transport), he appraoched me and offered a free ride and somehow the 20 minutes broke my resolve and i was already telling him all about where i was from and how lost i was ....blah blah, trsut comes naturally with some strangers...it was amazing how i spoke so much to him in spite of me screaming inside to stop and not trust him. Anyways, he dropped me off after about 2 kms, he added with nonchalance not to walk alone and take an officer with me and HE WAS GONE !! If only i knew what that meant.
There was this huge arch shaped 'Welcome to chittanavaasal' board supported on either side of the road - not very narrow, and good road. A few steps into chittanavaasal, i spotted so many birds - i missed my camera and was happy that i found a place devoid of people, but that lasted only a few minutes until a few os my basics kicked in and i started hoping for just one, only one (no more than that) person...though i did try my courage and walked (i think) half the distance, beyond which the road curved into solid black. My imagination drove me back to under the arch at the entrance and after a while of waiting at the bridge close by, here comes the man the machine (cycle)....i trot off towards him - i signal him to stop and after a lot of reluctance (he stopped at some distance) he stopped and asked me if i wanted to sit in the front...i was taken aback, and again my creepy imaginations subsided only when i actually saw that his back carrier was broken, i said no thanks and asked if he could walk with me instead...he agreed. I lied in answer to every question of his and his last question got me scooting in the opposite direction - he asked me if i was carrying a bomb in my bag (probably i should've just lied again) !! Freak ! What did i look like ?
I flagged a bus, and reached Pudukottai in an hour's time. I forgot all about the vagueo i met, and was super happy to find that jackfruits were being sold everywhere in Pudukottai. I bought two packs and reached home to my slightly worried mom.
Will visit Chittanavaasal again.
The initial plan was to visit a few scenic hamlets Thirumananjeri ( where you irritate God with your nuptial behavioral problems ! ), ThirukarukkaVoorh ( more complex problems - to arrive !!) - not sure where you go if you want the population and problems cut down ?
Anyways back to my loneliness on Saturday. My perimaa, mom and my cousin were cooped up together discussing the maami life. I was left alone with my deaf paati and a 4 year old kid - wow ! i choose the 4-year old, and we came up with a few interesting games which made Jagan laugh and he decided thats what life is all about., he wanted it repeated till i had to let him cry wanting more of the game. The monotony of the game had rushed all the blood right out of my brains and with the heat of Pudukottai at its peak (11 30 am) was just the perfect setting for some sleep, what an odd time to sleep was my last thought., but nevertheless nothing like hot boring afternoons. I could smell and hear lunch and i woke up like as if i just got back from a serious work-out, i was hungry too and the food was great.
Some more playing with Jagan, till he ensured all the innovative games seemed interesting only at the beginning, i found a saturation point for all of them - he never did. He's got a lot to unlearn really.
Then i go to my paati and we decided to play a game of 'pallanguzhi', Jagan who until now owned the red box of sea shells started wailing loud when paati and me schemed together (which obviously flopped) to take it away from him., my mom came to our rescue and indulged him in something else. We played and i lost, i think i bored my paati with absolute ignorance of the tactics involved in the game, i often found her calculating before starting her turn of shell dropping ! Some math there - no clue. And lo! i was all sleepy again, i cooked up a whole theory of why i was sleepy again...but not now. I enjoyed sleeping in the hall with no main door, it was a main window. The main door was simply an iron grill ! The whole world was sleeping...
Not sure what the pluck was all about the next morning, i decided to venture out. I was up at 5 30 and all set to leave the house at 6 15 am. I have never had permission issues so no time wasted and i was out of Machvadi on the Pudukottai main road. This is one hell of a confused town absolutely stuck in time and space between being a village and a city...ok town! I found it hard to find someone who might be of help - i wanted the map of Pudukottai. No Help. I decided to go to the main bus stand, spotted the bus stop and two women who didnt care a damn about when the bus would come...like all people they said 'ippo varum'. Well, the bus did arrive full strength (the buses were crowded all odd hours and time, since bus is the main (almost the only) means of transport out there - Awesome !)
At the bus stand - again a futile attempt ( a few sneers & frowns) at getting the Pudukottai map. The visual thought of the clean, well maintained city railway station at Trichy, set me mind sprinting in the direction - i was so sure and happy i would find map there. An hour later i was at Thiruchi, i was directed to the railway station (my speculation come true ! thats quite unusual). I reached there only to find myself looking towards the bus stand again, the man at the tourism department said i should find a map at the bus stand and not the station and that too on a sunday...was i crazy ?!
Finally, i call the internet service at Bangalore...Pradeep rattles off a few places that he finds on the net., instinctively i choose 'Chittannavaasal' - and a mocking Pradeep had to get me all flared up with adding that it was 10km from Pudukottai. I was fuming, some yelanih did me good - it was the sweetest and the biggest yelanih i have had and the most expensive too.
I took a bus to Annavaasal, and from there i was to take the 'town bus' (local bus) to 'chittanavaasal'. At Annavaasal there was no sign of another bus to sittanavaasal for nearly 20 minutes, an auto driver who at first tried to drive me down to the place gave up after twenty minutes and since he saw that i desperately wanted the ride ( i was being cautious about having to trust private transport), he appraoched me and offered a free ride and somehow the 20 minutes broke my resolve and i was already telling him all about where i was from and how lost i was ....blah blah, trsut comes naturally with some strangers...it was amazing how i spoke so much to him in spite of me screaming inside to stop and not trust him. Anyways, he dropped me off after about 2 kms, he added with nonchalance not to walk alone and take an officer with me and HE WAS GONE !! If only i knew what that meant.
There was this huge arch shaped 'Welcome to chittanavaasal' board supported on either side of the road - not very narrow, and good road. A few steps into chittanavaasal, i spotted so many birds - i missed my camera and was happy that i found a place devoid of people, but that lasted only a few minutes until a few os my basics kicked in and i started hoping for just one, only one (no more than that) person...though i did try my courage and walked (i think) half the distance, beyond which the road curved into solid black. My imagination drove me back to under the arch at the entrance and after a while of waiting at the bridge close by, here comes the man the machine (cycle)....i trot off towards him - i signal him to stop and after a lot of reluctance (he stopped at some distance) he stopped and asked me if i wanted to sit in the front...i was taken aback, and again my creepy imaginations subsided only when i actually saw that his back carrier was broken, i said no thanks and asked if he could walk with me instead...he agreed. I lied in answer to every question of his and his last question got me scooting in the opposite direction - he asked me if i was carrying a bomb in my bag (probably i should've just lied again) !! Freak ! What did i look like ?
I flagged a bus, and reached Pudukottai in an hour's time. I forgot all about the vagueo i met, and was super happy to find that jackfruits were being sold everywhere in Pudukottai. I bought two packs and reached home to my slightly worried mom.
Will visit Chittanavaasal again.
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