Vairamangalam My Home Town

I decided to pen down my thoughts before it fades away from my memory like so many other touching and enlightening moments that happen to us.

The purpose was to pay a visit to our family deity.So i decided to take a day off and went for a total three day outing (if i may say).We(me and my dad) boarded a bus from Kalasipalyam (Bangalore) to Bhavani which is in Tamil Nadu.Clearing the traffic puzzle of bangalore took the drive nearly one and half hour before we reached the fag end of electronic city.

As usual i saw so many IT engineers a familiar site in Bangalore.Some time back my father wondered how quickly i identified Software engineers.I mentioned it was easy,if you happen to see a guy with a flab,receding hairline and if he wears all branded including his under ware(which of course) i cant see :) you have just met a software engineer.And ya i forgot to mention he would prefer(only) drinking purified mineral water.

We reached Hosur in about half an hour.Dad mentioned way back in 1974 when he had been here Hosur road used to be the only four lane road and drive on the road worth the money.
What an apathy now the feeling is visa -versa.

What amazed me was when we reached Hosur is that all the Sign Boards changed from Kannada to Tamil.The lingual divide which is the last thing that our country beacon's(I hope you understand my tone).

We reached a pit stop where we had our lunch and hit the road again.By 7:30 we had reached bhavani.My dad was so engrossed in the movie that was being played ,that i had to distract him to let the driver know where to stop.

We stopped by near a small kiosk.I wondered if we had got down at the right place.We crossed
the road and found few houses scatterred about 50 meters from each other a rarity in India.

If you want to give somebody a crash course in Hospitality i suggest take them to any village in India.I was amazed at the warmth with which i was received.

The next day we went to offer prayers at our family deities temple.Its about 20 kms from my cousins place.The prayers got over at 1 pm and we headed back home.I insisted to being taken to my fathers Birth Place viramangalam.
After offering prayers at one more temple ,we decided go to my dads home town.

Variamangalam is situated near bhavini Tamil Nadu.It has population of around 1000 people and main stay of the village is farming.Situated in between 5 small villages ,it is literally surrounded by paddy fields.

We reached my grand uncles house (supposedly my grandpa's father's house ) at around 7:30 pm.
It was dark and i could scantly see.But got a feeling of belonging to the place.
There was this serenity around which made it even more impregnable.

The driver stopped the vehicle near a relatively a new house.The house had tiled roof a common sight in villages.When we got down there were about 5 ladies clad with white Saree.

It was moment i can hardly forget.The ladies immediately recognised my father ,but they had
never seen me.Since it was dark they came close by to have a closer look at me.

My cousin decided to take me to the river that runs right behind the village.Meanwhile my father said he would call for muthu if i may say my father's "longoti" yaar.
When i came back to the house i saw there were close to 5 people inside all smiling with an enthusiasm to hear from me.

I immediately recognised muthu.He had squatted on the floor, lanky,toot less,with a dark complexion muthu clearly fitted my imagination.
Dad requested me to give away 5 rupees to all people who had come to see us as a token of remembrance.I refused since i realised that i had more things to learn than give to those elderly people who had seen life much more than me and had the years of rustic wisdom.

We started to leave is when i shook hands with muthu.Muthu was pleasantly taken aback since he was not quite used to the new india a land of equals.He unfortunately belonged to an era where cast ism had clearly made his vision blur.That's when i realised wasn't my vision also blurred.

I had clearly learnt my lesson and i long to go back again to learn many more lesson in my pursuit of happiness.