Once upon a time... ... (Part 1)

 Once upon a time in Pollachi.

   There was a private English tutor during our school days named ' Kulla gowder' who used to tell many attractive phrases ,one among those being, ' long long ago, so long ago... ...'.  The childhood days that were spent at Pollachi now feel as ' long long ago, so long ago... '. The period was in 1970s and 80s. About 40 years backwards from today. It is no wonder it feels as, ' long long ago, so long ago '.

                                                        

     When writing about Pollachi, it has to include Ambarampalayam, because my father's house was at Pollachi and mother's house was at Ambarampalayam and more days are spent at mother's house during school vacations, festivals, functions etc.  Anyhow let us see Pollachi first. In Pollachi, not only grandmother's house, but the other interesting places include father's brothers' and uncle's houses too.  Grandma' house was in Nethaji road, which is starting perpendicular at one end of the famous Raja mill road. In the Nethaji road was father's maternal uncle's small shop too. Shops were of too much attraction during growing up period. So, while walking to aththama's( grand mother's) house, on going to his shop on the way, we would get something to play with or eat. Sometimes we will tear a lucky draw paper on a calendar like hanging. And after spending some time there, we would go to grandma's house.

          As it was a joint family, it used to be exciting with many children, aunts , uncles and grand mother. My grandmother was good and strict and ran the family well. Aunts would do cooking, helping each other and engaging in chitchat. Children would run here and there in the long house, getting scolded. Once we- the children were all in the top terrace of the building and one vanaram ( monkey) of the children pushed a flower pot down, that fell in front of the building getting broken. We had a shop in the front part of the house, where my elder uncle would be. I remember fearing that he might scold and he might suspect me for the incident.And also boys would jump down on the asbestos rooftop of a workshop ( Azhagappa engineering ) adjacent to our house, our house being double storied. But, not only the children, - one of my second aunt said that one of my uncles jumped over there and went out of the house when a dispute erupted.

                                       

My father ( fifth from left) with his  three brothers out of five.     

       The playground of Municipal girls' school is just opposite the house, with only the road in between. And the ground had tall big trees so that evenings and nights would bring nice airflow from the trees to the house. I heard elders discussing this in the past and recently one of the aunts- Taj kalama, (standing first from left in the picture below) told regarding this,  ' we all use to remain there only no?' And she said that, ' It is still there like that'.  Here 'It' means the school ground,the trees and the house are there as such in the past.

My mother ( fourth from left) with her co- sisters

        Since there would be children of different ages, many different activities would happen which were interesting to witness and participate. Once my eldest periyappa's (father 's eldest brother) elder daughter  Noor akka applied eye kajal, powder to smaller girls . While sleeping we would sleep on mats spread on the floor in the middle room and while getting up, I would usually be the last one to get up, so that while opening the eyes, the room would be empty and nobody nearby, all the other children and their mats and bedsheets gone,   my mat and my covering sheet only accompanying me. Would rush to the kitchen and tooth brushing area. But, usually the other children would not be seen. 

       During those days, since coming from hill station, used to get up late. But, plains people would get up early. Going to sleep at night with cousin brothers and sisters happily and getting up alone with nobody in sight! I would immediately go in search of them, but usually could not find them. They are such a type of bunch, who would never stay at one place! ( Similarly in my mother's house in Ambaram Palayam my uncle used to wake me up, mocking me and making me angry. By that time all would have woken up just like all people in father's house in Pollachi.)

       During Ramadhan fasting time, once after breaking fast, all the children would carry plates and get tiffin ( like  iddlies and chutni ) and eat in the vast place adjacent to the kitchen. That place was covered with concrete and slightly tapering towards the backyard, where the water well was situated on the left hand side and right hand side was the outer door that opens at the back street. Truly the house is a long one extending from the Nethaji road at front to the next street at the back.

        So many good memories. But, one thing pricking in mind was the toilets. There were two or three bathrooms and toilets . In the toilets, a vessel would be kept underneath and some people would come and carry the metal vessel on their head! I saw a person walking like that and it was a disturbing sight for me, since I had not seen such a sight in Nilgiris. That period was in early seventies. Now the scenery has changed and I think there is no 'carrying on the head' system anymore.    

    I have many good memories with my father's eldest brother (Kamalththa)'s family. They stayed in different houses and we used to go to almost all those houses. My periamma ( aunty) was so loving and caring. Like many of the elders during that period, she used to mingle with my family with out any expectation back. She told my mother ' எவ்வளவு கஷ்டப்பட்டு சினிமா எடுக்கறாங்க தெரியுமா?' , meaning that cinemas are taken with great effort. She implied that we should watch them .

     We went to a tamil movie 'Annakkili'  (அன்னக்கிளி), in Pollachi with their family during my summer vacation in 1976.( I was about to go to seventh standard).  I felt emotional during the movie and cried a lot. After the movie was over, when we came out, felt shy that someone would find out that I cried. But, don't remember anyone finding out. I used to be with her younger daughter Umsalma, who is just one year elder to me and I enjoyed her company tremendously.  With her went to tailor's shop to alter the longskirts, asked her to keep my five rupees in her longskirt pocket, she giving me a big hairclip which I wore on my long unplaited hair were some events to quote.