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October 16, 2007

A place to call Home.

There was sudden change of plans while we were in Madras(after Hd joined us) and we made a short trip to my home town again. Originally my parents were supposed to stay in Madras until we left for Zurich. But Hd has a weird sense of logic. What with all the pampering I got from my in-laws, he became very jealous and declared that he needs some in-laws love as well. Though my parents were in Madras too, it was nt enough. So we all went to Kmu and were there for 5 days. It was a win win situation for me so I readily nodded for the plan. As soon as we reached my parents house, Ashu declared "Ashus house has come"! Her play pals arrived within no time and I did nt see her after that until it was time to leave again.

I of course took Hd to the Darasuram Temple and that made it my third visit in one month. That's a first for me. Then one day we went to our village. Where my paternal grandpa was born, my dad lived until college and I almost lived and visited until I was 8 years old. Since its hardly an hour from my hometown, I used to go there to stay with my grand parents every weekend, school holidays and such. Its a very,very small village with hardly a dozen houses in our street and we had acres of agricultural land which my grandpa managed with the help of my dad and my uncle. I cant separate my grandpa from the village and I love them both equally. The childhood memories I have made in this village is precious. My sis and I have had fabulous times here. The leisurely baths in the motor sheds, eating raw mangoes and raw mango leaves straight from the trees daring the angry red ants, playing catch under the hot sun with friends and cousins, running helter-skelter at the sight of a water snake, splashing in the temple pond, sitting on top of the Vaikol Por(hay stack) and eating Gems after sorting them by colors, coming home with ant bites and getting a good scolding form Grandma, helping Grandpa count coins and stacking them and rolling then in newspapers, the countless number of dosas that go in listening to old tales, the pampering from the farm help who showed us the sights and allowed us to enter the forbidden dark forest, the imaginary expedition we had in the dark parts of the mango groves, the 7 pm Dheebaaradhanai at the Perumal Temple,.... Oh... I could just go on and on and on... The kittens, the dogs, the kingfisher bird which laid eggs in a hole in our wall,... I can never forget these things until my last breath.

Today our house is dilapidated, it is nt ours anymore, we have sold all our lands, all our neighbors are gone, there are hardly a few familiar faces, the Ilandhai tree is no more, the motor shed is gone.. but still going there with Ashu was an experience on its own. It was Hds first trip there as well and I could nt stop talking. I was going on and on about my childhood to him. How much ever long we are married and how ever long we talk about our childhood with each other, theres always more stuff to tell, is nt there? At least from my side, there always will be. Thanks to my dear village and my beloved city bred Hubby who has never hidden behind the barn door at the ripe old age of 7 and peeked through a hole to see a cow giving birth to a calf! Aww... those days...

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi , 1st time to comment ! ..just curious as to what is the village name ..as my paternal grandparents were from KMU , so been there a lot ! & my maternal grandparents are from a village 30 min from KMU ..
i'm from Bombay (now in US) ..so just used to visit Kmu & my villages every summer holidays ..

Nice blog, BTW :)

By Deepa and Supriya said...

well ...we are only glad that we get to hear some of those stories as well..keep them coming boo!

Unknown said...

That was such a lovely post Boo, I really missed the pleasures of growing up in a village or being remotely aquainted with a village, and this made it come alive for me...

IBH said...

Arrrgh! ur post made me cry and miss my small hometown called chinnamannur and I took the Mr and Kaju for the first time this year....i was behaving child like and going crazy explaining each and every road bends and the ilandai vadai shop that i used to buy then mittai and ilandai vadai for 25 paise...

:( missing my place a lot more now...

Sasha said...

gone are the days when u could buy something for 25ps... Our family visited the village during the kovil thiruvizha and it was fun....

Anonymous said...

oh oh never had the pleasure of seeing all this myself but this post made me nostalgic for the simple reason that my mum used to talk abt doing all this and more...
very very well written :)

Anitha(Nikki's mom) said...

nice post Boo. Made me nostalgic about summer vacations back in our village.

mnamma said...

Nice post Boo! I was city bred too and the few visits to our native village (both on the father's and mother's side) will always remain etched in my mind.

Savani said...

nice post. childhood memories are so precious..in 30 years, your kids will write about the time when... you are making memories for your kids too.

Shobana said...

I went to my maternal grandpa's village the last time when I was 6yrs and I still cherish those wonderful memories. Everyone in the village was a relative and it was like being in heaven...they treated us. just as their kids and it was so much fun. But we never went there ever again and for that I really am sorry. I guess, it must have been an amazing visit for you to go back to your roots. Treasure those memories for all of us who can never go back.

Shobana
http://mybabynaren.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Lovely post Boo! Flashed back to those summer vacation visits to my grandfathers village.. splashing in the pond.. eating mangoes from the trees..

Anonymous said...

Hmm.. Good old days!!

B o o said...

Thanks Priya. Mail me at boobabytalk@gmail.com Lets find out if we know each other! ;)

Orchie - Thanks. I badly want to write all my village memories and treasure them as thats something Ashu will sourly miss out on!

Kiran - Thanks. Im glad you found it interesting.

ibh - Since I posted this a long time after the trip, Im missing my place already! :(

Roche - Gone are the days when we could have so much fun free of cost!

Random Vignettes - Thank you. *And I feel OLD* ;)

B o o said...

Anitha - summer vacation is itself a nostalgic word, is it not? :)

Mnamma - May be I ll write a post on my maternal village too!

Dotmom - Wow! Thats so nice and scary! ;)

Shobana - Theres something so genuine about the villagers. The whole village gathered around us when we went and to think I dont even know who lives in the flat next door? :(

DDmom - Thanks dear. Long live our memories!

YY - Indeed!

Just Like That said...

Aww.. that was a nostalgic post, Boo. and your village comes alive in your words.Lovely days gone by...

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