More Puthucode Memories

There was far more excitement this time as I was going to meet many of my cousins whom I hadn’t met in a long time and also because I was going to look at everything from a different perspective; I was going to collect material for my blog.

As soon as the train leaves Coimbatore Junction, I get myself glued to the window savoring each picture postcard scenario as it unfolds. I feel as if I have put all those flowers there and I know all the people living in the hutments lining the railway line. Each time I pass, I can see some new bungalows standing in the middle of nowhere, with 2 or more cars and I start thinking about the people living there and where were they all these days and before I knew it, we would be at Palghat Junction. And I love the bus ride from Palghat to Puthucode, where I can once again see all the familiar houses and landmarks and trees and flowers and streams. I see the school children getting into the bus and getting out. Where I used to see girls and boys barefooted but definitely with an umbrella, I can now see all of them wearing shoes or slippers. Boys in those days had half trousers, or knickers as they were called, or mundus (dhotis) and today, they are all dressed in full pants. Girls with open hair, wet after the morning bath, with an umbrella in one hand and their lunch boxes and books in the other hand used to be in long skirts and blouses and older girls in half sarees. Now there is a uniform dress code, in smaller places in India, the Salwar Kameez or Dress as they call it.

Almost in no time, the bus has taken the turn near the mosque and we are at the thottupalam (bridge). These days we have autorickshaws to take us from this point to our house, which is hardly 500mts. I prefer to walk, so that I can meet people on the road and exchange pleasantries.

Our house was already overflowing with guests who had already arrived, all extended family members and eagerly awaiting the ones who were to arrive later in the day.

I reached one day prior to the commencement of the functions. By evening all the guests had arrived, well most of them. Others were coming the next day and the day after.

So here we were, the cousins, our Echiyammas’s elder granddaughters coming together after a very looooong time. The younger ones were not there yet.