A Trip Down My Native Village

This weekend I visited our native village called Nagainallur, which is situated near Thottiyam in Trichy district. This small village sports a festive look during Sri Rama Navami, one of the biggest events that happen in the village every year. This year Sri Rama Navami happened on Sunday.

To attend the event, myself, my parents, my aunt, and her boss went to Nammakkal(a popular town, which is famous for Anjaneya temple) by car.We stayed in Nammakkal and traveled to Nagainallur from there .

We started on Saturday morning by around 7 a.m from Chennai and reached Namakkal by 1 p.m. We stayed in a three star hotel called Hotel Golden Palace.We were awestruck to see a reasonably posh hotel in a small town, such as Nammakkal.

The flower arrangement

This flower arrangement was warm and welcoming.The flowers were fresh even on our arrival by 1.00 pm.

A warm painting

This painting on the top corner of a wall in the reception also caught my fancy.

The double-bed rooms were spacious. It had all facilities. You name them and it had all of them− air conditioner, television with cable connection, mini refrigerator, wardrobe, bathtub, shower and waiter-on call.The food and services were also good. The entire hotel, including the rooms was spic and span. In short, the hotel lived up to its name, Golden Palace.

(Note: Click the images to see the bigger versions of them.)

The full meal

Coming back to my trip, after the lunch, in the late afternoon, we headed to a village called Musiri to get the blessings of a Dhikshadar residing in that village.

The trip from Nammakal to Musiri was not very scenic. Most of the fields were dry and infertile. In addition, the sun was also scorching. Moreover, the Cauvery River running across these towns apparently had less or no water. My heart wretched to see a string of lorries waiting to ferry the sand from the river.

A lorry waiting to carry sands in the banks of the river Cauveri

There seem to be a brisk business of the sand, which poses grater risks to the ecological balance. The driver informed us that these sand businessmen are given a free hand by the policemen. Hope the concerned authorities take up this issue seriously and bring about some rigid measures against it.

Now back to my trip. We reached Musiri and located the Agraharam (a stretch of Brahmin houses), where the Dhikshadar was residing. We got his blessings and headed to Nagainallur.The people in Nagainallur were in a festive mood. The village hardly has 15-20 houses, out of which, people reside only in 5-6 houses permanently. Other houses will have its residents only during this Sri Rama Navami celebrations. People those who are native to the village and others from various parts of the country flock together during this event for 10-15 days. On our arrival to Nagainallur, many people from various places were already present.

A hall that is named after my late grand father

We participated in a low-key celebration and headed back to our room in Nammakal. My parents chose to stay back to participate in the night-long bhajans. Later, in the early morning, my parents came back to our hotel for a few hours of rest. Then, we started to Nagainallur to participate in the Sita Kalyanam (the marriage ceremony of Ram and Sita) that is organized as part of the Sri Rama Navami. It is believed that if those who are waiting to get married or those who want a child participate in the Sita Kalyanam and eat the marriage feast, marriage or child birth will happen for sure. There are many success stories of people those who have achieved what they wanted by participating in this event. The proof of pudding is in eating. Isn’t? The power of the god (Ram) residing in Nagainallur was evident by the crowd that participated in the marriage ceremony. There were hundreds of people from various parts of the country. The heads referred to the crowd

as “jana samudiram” which means ocean like crowd. There

The vigraham or distinctly styled statue of Lord Rama, Sita and Lakshman along with Hanuman

were also scores of bhajan troupes present.

The bhajans were enthralling. The entire Sita Kalyanam procedures were performed through bhajans. Another major attraction of the Sri Rama Navami celebrations is its food. The food is delicious and heavenly. It is said that King Nalan, who is famous for his exceptional culinary skills, had left his serving spoon in this village several centuries ago.So this serving spoon is believed to be the reason for the delicacy of the food .

But on the flip side, the hall had thatched roofs and was packed with people, people and only people. The weather was also very hot and there were only a few fans. So the humidity and stickiness was unimaginable. The only saving grace was the panakkam (a drink made of jaggery and lemon) that was available abundantly. It seems they prepared the drink by using 300 kgs of jaggery. We drank many cups of pannakkam and butter milk to beat the heat. Finally, the most awaited moment arrived. It was the thali-tying (mangal sutra or a thread tying) moment. It is believed that whatever we ask for during that moment, the god will grant us. It was the most defining moment. I was literally reduced to tears.

After Sita Kalyanam, the lunch begins. The lunch was served to people in batches. It is believed that Lord Ram will have his food in the first batch. So, after the food, the banana leaves in which the food was served for the first batch of people were not removed.

A typical village house

Men would perform “anga pradarshanam” (rolling on the ground) in these leaves. I personally feel this practice facilitates breaking one’s ego and surrendering to god. Otherwise, who would roll on the left-over leaves? I was moved to see several CEOs and heads to perform anga pradarshanam. At the end of the day, we are all equal before the god. Isn’t it? This anga pradarshanam marks the end of the Sri Rama Navami in Nagainallur. After this ceremony, we reached Nammakkal and packed our bags and headed towards Chennai. The memories of Nagainallur are etched in our minds.

(Note: Click the images to see the bigger versions of them.)