NOSTALGIC FORTIES

The snaps of the temple and the pond brought back memories of pre-Independence TIRUTHURAIPOONDI town. What a rustic, religious and cultural town it was. We lived in Sannadhi street ( occupied by vakils and advocates) at the dead end of which was the century old temple, surrounded by North, South and East streets. North street located the  Post office and   General Hospital behind it. Facing the mammoth temple was the Pond where all of us used to go for our daily bath. The pond was always crowded with boys swimming boisterously for hours together to the annoyance of elders. Some boys used to climb the big banyan tree and jump into the pond, terrorizing the bathers. There were many lotus/alli flowers in the pond and we were warned not to go near them, as our legs might get entangled in their stems. A few boys got drowned that way. On the south-side of the Pond was Mayttu street, at the end of which was an inlet to let flood waters of MULLIYARU to fill the tank for the annual requirements of the town. There was a small one-way bridge to cross the river for the students to go to the BOARD HIGH SCHOOL, established in 1936. The river used to be in spate during monsoon and all the boys were found diving from the bridge and swimming in the river. During the summer, the dry sands of MULLIYARU was our favorite play ground provided by nature.
The temple was always crowded with devotees every day from morning to midnight with all its regular rituals. Residents of Sannadhi street, used to line up in the middle of the street to see the artha zhamam AARTHY, before going to sleep in the night. There was a big bull known as “Kovil madu” belonging to the temple, roaming around the streets menacingly.  CHITTIRAI   FESTIVAL   was the greatest attraction for all of us as the entire street used to be decorated with pandals and thoranams. Cultural events were performed every day in a stage opposite 1000 pillars mandapam in front of the gopuram, when the greatest stalwarts of music, viz., KB Sundarambal, DK Pattammal, MSSubbulakshmi, ML Vasanthakumai, Madurai Mani Iyer, Madurai Somu, GNBalasubramanian,Ariyakkudi, Semmangudi, Alathoor Bros,Palghat Mani Iyer, Lalgudi, Rajaratnam Pillai(Nadaswaram) AKC Natarajan(Clarinet) and many more found pride in taking part and delighted the audience until well past midnight, including the TKS Bros who performed three dramas.

. There was a PERUMAL temple near Mulliyaru and also in front of the pond where during Panguni months Bhajan groups used to start and go around the streets singing devout songs. The leader will be dressed as Saint Thyagaraja and ladies from every house will come out, circle around him and offer some rice and dal in his bag. We used to join the group to terminate in the temple where we were offered hot “Pongal” as prasad.

The road from Railway station to Board High School was the main area which covered the town of that period. There was a Tent Talkies known as MURUGAN THEATRE (NEAR railway station) where we saw KANNAKI in which PU Chinnappa and Kannambal exited the audience. Haridoss by MKT Bagavathar ran for months together. Brahannayaki Theatre, a concreate building came up before our Independence, where we saw AVM’s “WE TWO” acted by TR Mahalingam. Baby Kamala enthralled us with her dance on Barathiar’s patriotic songs sung by DK Pattammal. Majority of the audience sat on the floor during the show. Two rows of benches were there for the rich and a few chairs for the VIPs. When the Gods were shown in the film, people used to pay respects by prostrating in the floor of the theatre.

The co-operative Building was the biggest building in the town apart from our School. The words “ALL FOR EACH – EACH FOR ALL” enshrined in the building is still vivid in my memory. There was a stagnant “THEAR” (தேர்) in front of the building, for carrying the Gods around the streets during festivals. There were few hotels around the High Court, where we used to eat two idlies with chatney and sambar for QUARTER ANNA, ( equal to one-and-half paise) which was quite sumptuous. There was a municipal park and pond between the High Court and Bustand, where we used to go in the evenings to hear ALL INDIA RADIO. Only very few owned Radios in those days and HMV Gramaphone records were popular.

We resided in Mayttu street for some time and took pride in being the neighbors of the house where the legendary late SS Vasan (Gemini studios & Ananda Vikatan) once lived.