It was a cool summer morning, Mala was playing in her garden when she heard the door open, she ran to see who it was, It was her father who had been out to meet his friends.Mala ran inside and brought some water to drink which is customary in many parts of India.Her father told her mother and Mala that Natarajan mama had given an invitation for them to visit his village for their yearly thiruvizha (village festival).
Nataraj mama was an old friend of Mala’s family and he had a shop in the temple street near akilandeswari temple. It started off with mala’s dad visiting the shop with his friends and that later developed into a family relationship. His native place is near manachanallur ,it has been a custom of him to invite his friends for their festival in his village.
It is a 10 day festival.
First day is the tying of the kappu the villagers would take part in and after which they will not step out of their village.
On the 8th day manjal thiruvizha where all the people in the village will play with turmeric water with the village karuppanna swamy on the horse. Goes from west to east side of the village which is where his sister pechi amman resides.iThe horse vahanam procession goes around the village and every member of the village will have to take part in the manja thiruvizha. They also offer gifts, mavilakku fruits, their yearly produce as gifts for his sister whom he visits every year and takes her on his horse for a nagar ula.
The legend behind it is that, karuppana swamy is the guardian of the village and he guards the village during the night. Every day his sister pechi amman would ask him to let her go for the nagar valam. His brother refuses citing her age. Angered by his denial she leaves his house and goes to the eastern side of the village and does penance towards Lord Shiva who bestoms her valor and courage to guard the village. So this is enacted during the 10 days of the festival.
On the 9 th day, the whole village gets ready for pechi amman nagar kaval wherein they prepare kanji for her and leave it outside the home for her to have if need be with a sombu of water.
On the 10th day is temple pooja in the morning with the village crowd cooking and pongal is offered by the ladies of the village to peichi amman , with mixed vegetable rice of all sorts, sweets and also made and offered to the village deities The cooked food is then distributed to all the guests and little children are given gifts and elders are given new vastram and sent off with thamboolam.
For the past 5 years it has become a practice and Mala also loves going there as she has her friend Vijayalakshmi also there.
The following weekend they visited the village near manachanallur. It was a pretty good big size village with over 200 families or more, the village roads were narrow with houses on both sides. The central bus stop had a few tea shops and a stationary shop. The number of buses coming to the village is less so the crowd near the bus stop was also less. As mala stepped down from the bus with her parents. Nataraj mama’s younger brother, shivakumar uncle greeted them with a smile, he was a young man with neatly oiled and combed hair, dark in complexion and his white teeth shone brightly through his dark face. He was very charming and very loving, he liked mala very much and would always take her in his luna moped to their fields and back. He looked at Mala and smiled
“How are you mala?” he whispered, coming close to her.
Mala nodded with a smile.
Mala is always very shy at first talking to people and then she warms up to them as the day goes by. Shiva knew this so he went and whispered with a twinkle in his eye. He took the suitcases from her parents and chatting to her father walked on. Their house was very close to the bus stop, the muddy roads, the village soil aroma is very unique and it differs from village to village. The green fields on either side with jowar plants trying to touch the sky was a beauty to watch. The little sparrow tried to peck the corns as the wind brazed through the fields. The farmer far off was singing the village song to push the bulls to draw water from the wells. These songs are very pitch perfect and bring joy not only to the listeners but energizes the bulls to work even harder. Turning the corner they reached natarajan uncle’s home. It is a beautiful house with a huge yard in front , workers from their rice mill were working there, and they moved away as they saw mala’s family walk in and many of them knew her parents and mala, as they greeted them with smiling faces. The house had a huge double decked thinnai and passing it was a huge teak wood door. Nataraj mama’s mother and father came out to greet them as they were also very excited to see their guests. The servants ushered them to their room, Mala accompanied her parents into the room which was medium sized with a nice teak wood cot and a nice teak wood table in the corner of the room. Mala’s mother took a basket of fruits which she had brought along and moved into the main hall area, Mala walked with her and watched her mother talk to the ladies of the house and gave the fruits which she had brought along.
Mala slowly escaped from there and sat in the thinnai …
As she was seated Vijayalakshmi came up to Mala and the two of them exchanged stories which took place in the past year and decided to take a stroll to viji’s father’s garden which had different types of fruits including mangoes and guavas. Each day passed with both of them visiting their mango grove in the morning and watching the activities organized by the elders and visiting viji’s cousins in the village.
On the 9th day unexpectedly something happened which helped Mala understand many things; it was a life lesson which she learnt and followed it for the rest of her life.
It was 9o’clock , everyone in the village kept kanji for pechiamman in their courtyard which they had washed , decorated with kolam and in the center a new vessel usually made of brass with freshly prepared kanji and neem leaves tied around it and a sombu of water next to it. The belief is peichi when she comes on rounds might be hungry and thirsty, so she might come and drink water or kanji and it also means if she had tasted the kanji , good things will happen to the family and that she is happy with her people. When she comes on rounds people should not see her therefore the children or put to bed very early. Everyone in the house went to bed and it was around 1 O'clock when suddenly Mala heard the sound of anklets, she slowly got up and went to the window to have a look, just then a small girl dressed in yellow and with jasmine flowers on her plaited hair and beautiful shining thick anklets was coming towards the house, Mala could not see her face clearly just then the girl lifted her lamp and looked around keenly.
Mala froze for when the light hit the girl’s face , the girl was no other than Bala, she quickly went out through the back door and made sure it was her, bala turned towards her but she had a straight face no recognition of Mala looked at her straight into her and then turned her gaze away and walked away.
Mala was stunned and shaken. She ran inside and started sobbing, confused about what just happened.
Why is Bala doing this?
Why did she turn away in spite of seeing her?
Why did she behave in a strange way?
With all these questions running in her head Mala fell asleep.
The next day she got up, dressed and she wanted to know why Bala behaved the way she did, so quickly she asked viji to accompany her to the temple. Viji came back after a couple of minutes and both of them went to the temple. The temple was empty, the poojari was cleaning the temple premises and all was quiet. Mala went and sat on a stone. Viji was silent and then she told Mala that she will go and bring some mangoes. As viji left Mala, mala saw Bala coming out of the temple, she looked at Mala and smiled, mala was in no mood to smile, bala came close to her and asked
“ What happened? I wanted to come with you but i couldn’t “ saying she sat next to Mala holding her hand she looked into mala’s eyes. Her eyes were full of love and mala saw a transformation in those eyes, there was no slight tinge of yesterday’s happenings.
Mala could not hold back her tears she said “ yesterday i saw you during the nagarvalam, but you did not see me even though I was there, I thought you didn’t know me at all”
Bala took Mala’s face in her hands and said “ see i was doing my duty, in future you will also have to do your worldly duties, i cannot get angry when you pretend not knowing me, so let us understand each other, we have our own commitments, our work, our responsibilities and most of all our space. You should not ask me questions, you should not become inquisitive, you should allow our relationship to grow organically, and let us make sure we understand our space and roles. I am with you always, i really mean it, so no emotional outpour ok, saying she wiped Mala’s tears and smiled.
Mala began to understand that Bala is not a person; Bala has different roles, she is for everyone, she should never expect anything from her, but she understood one thing right. “Bala Loves Her”.
Mala smiled at the thought, Bala got up and said ok, you go home will meet you later,saying she turned away from Mala and walked back into the temple.
Arputham thoodarum…
Very Beautiful Narration,most touching line when Bala tells Mala " I am always with you"and more beautiful is when Mala understands that "Bala Loves Her".... Waiting for more leelais...