Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Districts drive-thru Part II

Districts drive-thru Part II
Trichy-Thanjavur-Kumbakonam
Green fields, snaky Cauvery and centuries-old canals—these are the things you saw, not in Kalki or Sujatha’s books, but for real, when you drove from Trichy to Thnajavur . But in 2010, the pawn broker shops on the Thanjavur highway and the ‘water service’ signages tell a stark truth.
In Trichy you see visible signs of education—hurray to the hoary tradition of St Joseph’s and many other institutions—with boys and girls rushing to classes with grey sling bags and back packs stating their purpose, right till NIT, (REC in the past), the point of Trichy-Thanjavur highway and beyond. Like elsewhere in Tamil Nadu, the NIT flyover under construction tells you that it hopes for industrial/commercial improvement..but you cannot miss the numerous universities –like PRIST—dotting the landscape even as a huge amount of flyover work is underway .
It is Thanjavur route which brings a lump to your throat. Maybe the Mukkombu—Karur route would have made me happy.. and Lalapet, the tiny, green village which makes you want to retire and shift there with your books and modem. Banana fields, sugarcane and tapioca farms would have greeted me. But I chose the NH 67. To Thanjavur.
Were the pawn broker shops always so prominent? My memory says no. And although the brown fields are there, with just a few cows grazing, huge sign boards saying ‘plots for sale’ jerk you out of your nostalgia. So, they have come here too.
There are pockets of water, and a few green fields where sugarcanes are in their puberty. As I listen to the ‘Ballelaka’ song on the stereo, I see only one field where a handful of women are involved in ‘nathu nadudal’. Very few of the villagers are loitering about, and I did not have to break for a single kid or dog dashing across the street. Except some 25 km from Thanjavur, I see an excited group of villagers crowding over a small bridge. My journalist’s instincts kick in. “Either they have sighted a crocodile,(common along the Cauvery, or its a cinema shooting". Bingo. It is a movie crew and Prabhu is a couple of kilometres away, shooting in the fields—the only field with ankle length water that I had seen since early morning. I remind myself I am on holiday, and handcuff myself from sms-ing a story list to office.
With the Brahadeeswarar temple peeping through the few coconut fronds, I move on. And watch with a heavy heart as women sell cucumbers and dosakai on the streets.. surely, not the native produce that Thanjavur is famous for. Half a dozen automatic harvesters stand grouped together here and there.. eying each other like potential interviewees, muttering, ‘too many of us, too few jobs’. I overtake an occasional tractor and come upon women waving a plastic packet on the highway as vehicles rush past. They are selling strung jasmines, for peanuts... somewhere at the fag end of Kumbaskonam-- didnt know jasmine grew there..
Kumbakonam now... and the road side shops are filled with bottled water—of local make—while every few kms water service signages pop up. Nungu, the palm fruit is seen in plenty and the discarded shells look like skulls. And yes, the sign of environmental degradation is there on the road—mounds of plastic packets and discarded plastic bottles. A few banana plants stand with their dried fronds hanging down, as if in shame. And I pondered upon how rulers like Karikalan dammed the waters of the many tributaries of the Cauvery and ensured the area remained a green bowl, even on its outer fringes.
I move towards Kumbakonam, hometown of Ramanujam the great mathematical genius, and glass facade shops and hoarding of jewelery shops are the things that hit you. And for some reason, actor Prabhu—not Radhika or a slinky model—is endorsing jewels. Well, well. I down a Kumbakonam degree coffee, assure myself that Trichy makes the best coffee in the state, and head towards Pondy via Neyveli.

Tomorrow: Neyveli-Pondy- ECR-home

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