Tamil Nadu...way of living of people

India is known for its diversities. Tamil Nadu, being an integral part of this great country has its own story to tell. The way people live, talk, eat or pray are completely different from anywhere else that I have seen in this country (and I HAVE been around quite a lot).

Live: Family ties are very strong like the other parts of India. I have seen people showing surprise when told that their are countries where all relatives are known as uncles and aunts or grandma and grandad or by name without consideration of the fact that they belong to the mothers side or the dad's side...whether they are elder to the parents or yourself or not...or any other consideration. Rangoli (beautiful patterns made using colorfull powders at the doors of houses) is very common and usually the ladies of the house make this in front of their doors on a daily basis as a symbol of purity. Saris are the common garment for women and men wear dhotis. While bicycling, guys have a very strange way of pulling their dhotis above their ankles to make things more comfortable for themselves (though I really found it made some foreigners pretty uncomfortable). Common mode of travel: TVS 50 (pic on the side) ...their number exceeded the common bicycles in most places...no wonder TVS is such a profitable company.

Talk: Tamil.....the language is very easy to learn. I started understanding quite a bit of it over the 2 months of time that I was in the state. Tamilians have a very musical way of extending the last sound of each word to make things seem very rhyming (rhyming also because these extension usually leads to a lot of 'a's' e.g. appadiyaaaaaa...... meaning "is it?")

Eat: When I was thinking about this column, I knew I had forgotten to take the pics of something. And it was the MEAL that is eaten for lunch on a banana leaf using your fingers. Awesome stuff though you just might get a bit averse to eating rice after staying in Tamil Nadu for some time.

Pray: Just like the rest of the country, people are great worshippers of God. I was fortunate to be in Thiruannamalayar during the festival of Karthikeya Deepam. I will be describing it in detail in a later post. Every village will have an Ayanar Temple (shown alongside) as a guardian for the village against any ill. A big phenomenon is the time of Sabarimala during the months of Nov to Jan when males go on a 41 day fast which is really strict in terms of clothing, absolutely no footwear (even on roads), no shaving, eating once in the day and that too no rice (it is very bad for Tamils...believe me), no intimacies with the opposite sex, and so many other things that it is difficult to count. They wear black cloth during this time. The fast ends with a visit to Sabarimala temple in Kerala. This visit also happens on foot and is looked forward to by lot of people with eagerness. I had one guy working with me during my stay who was actually undergoing this fast. I actually sometimes felt for him for the kind of hardship that he was going through.

Words are not enough to describe the beauty of this state which has been hidden from everyone for sooo long. I hope that people more experienced than me in the way words are used to express thought will find this place worth describing.....they might be able to do better justice to all that hapenned.

I will start off with Yerkaud next post.

Ciao,

Regards,

Nishant