AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ADHYATMA RATNA KUMBAKONAM C N GURUSWAMI SARMA (1900-1968)
CHAPTER 6
GETTING USED TO LIFE AT MELUR HOUSE
Melur was a toddling big village then with a bazaar modest in trade. Every Sunday, there used to be a shandy and it was my particular privilege to accompany my uncle to the shandy about a mile from our house. A number of bullock bandies were unloaded there and the carts themselves afforded shade for the vendors.Paddy and ground nuts, tamarind and what not were sold. Sheep, fowl and eggs were in plenty. Maize and Ragi had a good demand. Margosa oil and ghee from the village parts arrived in mud pots and every household stocked the ghee after a lot of bargaining for the week till the next shandy day. Carts from various places like Thiruppathur, Sivaganga and other neighbouring villages purchased paddy and exchanged goods. Coloured sweet water, pencil mithais and round sweet balls were in plenty to please the palate of the village folk. Mostly women vied with men in vociferously selling the goods. Though black with stored up bright black hair at the back of the head and half dressed they were good looking with well defined features and well built bodies. With two pencil like gold "thalis" hung from black string, they bedecked themselves with "marikkozhundhu" (மரிக்கொழுந்து) mostly around the neck probably to offset the marigosa oil smell in which they did not succeed. Red bordered sarees were sold from one rupee to three rupees and dhoties a pair for a rupee. They ate the meal they brought from home and very contentedly marched back to their villages joyously with some money earned. The men folk tall and sturdy had with them bulls, They,with polished horns and stunning white backs stared at you with round glistening eyes. Though you were afraid to gaze at them back they were very good stock animals.though fierce to look at.
With jingling bells, they rushed back the now empty wagons to home and rest, their lord with a turban of red chequered cloth and a sandal pottu in the forehead, drove them with cheering words and songs, they having cooled themselves in the toddy shops all along the road.Any way they were a very happy and contented lot and very little misery was on their faces. The young belles exchanged shy glances with their chosen romeos but there was an art in the operation. It was neither too loud and nasty a love making or any covert and guilty attempt to draw one's invitation to other. (Ref 1) . The large influx emptied only through the.street in which the house in which I lived was located and nothing pleased me better than sit quiet on the pial and watch the brilliant cascade of men, women girls and cattle with jingling bells passing out in the slowly vanishing sunlight. The world was happy and I felt full in watching the unsullied happiness and the rich contentment. They never seemed to have any cares for the toils of the tomorrow. This was my weekly sensation.
At home, i was being taught the Tamil alphabets being too young to be put to school. there was none to play with and my uncle's sons were being born one after another.(Ref 2) . The company at home consisted of a taxing uncle who was dressed in all importance, he being a Government employee, a clerk in Taluk office.(Ref 3) He was unmarried in the prime of his youth and he was the only one who, in the family, had matriculated and held an appointment under the benign Government. He was also conscious of it and before his commanding look I quivered but never complained. The daily routine for me was to go to a place , two furlongs off, to fetch in the early morning, curd which was terribly watery with some solids floating in it in a lead vessel (Ref 4). Gathering the sour milk in the vessel and placing it on my head with locks of luxuriant hair I walked back home and during that walk small white beads settled on my black hair like pearls and the stout girls had their share of fun at the sight. they laughed, caught me in their arms , embraced me and followed me a few steps. they said I looked lovely. But, I couldn't understand anything where at parting they sighed and said "poor motherless child". Having not known, what all a mother might confer, I was led to believe that I have lost something very valuable though unable to gauge its true value.
After this, I was fed with cold rice along with my uncle by my chithi it being doled out by hand and eaten on hand. i was free to write something or other on a slate which i should show to my uncle when he returned to receive my daily quota of derision at the ill shaped calligraphy. I was given a deal wood box in the front room.the house having been built and completed. My possessions were in that box consisting of two coloured saya veshtis and banians and shirts were not in fashion then. In the evening on some days, i was given an oil bath by my chithi in the backyard the water being warmed by the hot sun all through the day. I was not interested in any games nor was there any one to teach me the intricacies of playing marbles and other games. Probably i was too weak to run and jump with the other boys. Fear also contributed to my keeping indoors. A sort of an undefined fear. I had no elephant to keep company nor any drama music here to lose myself into. My just elder sister Kunju used to sit with me upstairs and gaze at the stars but she had her own share of household work in which I also participated.. we had nothing to talk about.There was a change of surroundings and we were trying to adjust ourselves to it. the whole world seemed to be concerned.about our being "Thayilla Pillai"s. and we were vaguely trying to put on a long face for the sake of convenience thinking that as all had said something ought to have befallen us.
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Editor's note:
1. One should probably consider this beautiful explanation of the near promiscuous behaviour on the part of the ladies and men in the village shandy as a view the writer cultivated later and not necessarily as his observation during his stay in Melur.
At home, i was being taught the Tamil alphabets being too young to be put to school. there was none to play with and my uncle's sons were being born one after another.(Ref 2) . The company at home consisted of a taxing uncle who was dressed in all importance, he being a Government employee, a clerk in Taluk office.(Ref 3) He was unmarried in the prime of his youth and he was the only one who, in the family, had matriculated and held an appointment under the benign Government. He was also conscious of it and before his commanding look I quivered but never complained. The daily routine for me was to go to a place , two furlongs off, to fetch in the early morning, curd which was terribly watery with some solids floating in it in a lead vessel (Ref 4). Gathering the sour milk in the vessel and placing it on my head with locks of luxuriant hair I walked back home and during that walk small white beads settled on my black hair like pearls and the stout girls had their share of fun at the sight. they laughed, caught me in their arms , embraced me and followed me a few steps. they said I looked lovely. But, I couldn't understand anything where at parting they sighed and said "poor motherless child". Having not known, what all a mother might confer, I was led to believe that I have lost something very valuable though unable to gauge its true value.
After this, I was fed with cold rice along with my uncle by my chithi it being doled out by hand and eaten on hand. i was free to write something or other on a slate which i should show to my uncle when he returned to receive my daily quota of derision at the ill shaped calligraphy. I was given a deal wood box in the front room.the house having been built and completed. My possessions were in that box consisting of two coloured saya veshtis and banians and shirts were not in fashion then. In the evening on some days, i was given an oil bath by my chithi in the backyard the water being warmed by the hot sun all through the day. I was not interested in any games nor was there any one to teach me the intricacies of playing marbles and other games. Probably i was too weak to run and jump with the other boys. Fear also contributed to my keeping indoors. A sort of an undefined fear. I had no elephant to keep company nor any drama music here to lose myself into. My just elder sister Kunju used to sit with me upstairs and gaze at the stars but she had her own share of household work in which I also participated.. we had nothing to talk about.There was a change of surroundings and we were trying to adjust ourselves to it. the whole world seemed to be concerned.about our being "Thayilla Pillai"s. and we were vaguely trying to put on a long face for the sake of convenience thinking that as all had said something ought to have befallen us.
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Editor's note:
1. One should probably consider this beautiful explanation of the near promiscuous behaviour on the part of the ladies and men in the village shandy as a view the writer cultivated later and not necessarily as his observation during his stay in Melur.
2. One of them later used to manage the lands belonging to my grandfather in Melavalavu and send the money annually out of the yield from the lands . I think his name is Veeraraghavan.
3.My grandfather appeared to have had a definite dislike for clerks and especially the Government type. I wish to relate an incident which he narrated to me to support this view. When he was about sixteen, his brother-in-law who himself was a clerk suggested that he should train in typewriting and shorthand and then join the Government service as a clerk. On hearing his advice, he seemed to have exclaimed "I have not studied this hard to drive the quills on a piece of paper nor to take dictations from any one". His father over heard this and seemed to have remarked to his brother in law "Leave him alone. If it is true that my forefathers have done annadhanams, you need not worry. he will one day give dictation to others not take them". It became true. My grandfather gave dictations almost daily in his practice of law, .
4. This incident raises doubts about the dietary habits of the household. In the next chapter, we would witness a different picture in Melavalavu house which appeared to be having sumptuous quantity of milk and milk based products. It is surprising to see so much of difference in two houses presided over by the same patriarch.
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