Quicklinks:
|
Great Writing - Home > Extended > Four For Fun Chapter Three_Ponmudi
| READING ROOM | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| COMMUNITY | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
| ABOUT GREAT WRITING | ||
|---|---|---|
|
| WORK AWAITING REVIEW |
|---|
|
| GW IS... |
|---|
|
Great Writing creative writing community is designed to prompt ideas
and provide inspiration and motivation within aspiring and amateur
authors. Whatever your topic; from love poetry to Doctor Who or Harry
Potter fan fiction, Great Writing's online writing group is where you
can make new friends and improve your creative writing. |
| WHO'S ONLINE |
|---|
| We have 1489 guests online and 19 members online |
Extended Work
| print friendly version | |
| Four For Fun Chapter Three_Ponmudi | |
| By remoh | ||
| 02 August 2007 | ||
|
Four Friends.One Trip.Seven Days Chapter 3 PONMUDI The festival in Ponmudi has been as old as the village itself. The festival was conducted by the community members who maintaned the temple. It was a festival which lasted for three days. Elephants were decorated with special ornaments and they were brought to the temple. Their purpose was to honour the deity of the Goddess of that temple, Lakshmi. Lakshmi , according to Hindu mythology was the Goddess of wealth, wife to Lord Vishnu, The controller of human life. Lakshmi's idol would wear gold jewels and the believers would come to grace their eyes with vision of Holiness. This was the main event which took place in the last day of festival. Lots of social and cultural activities were also organised. In the light of globalisation these were the last attempts by the natives to preserve their cultural beliefs...... ************************** "So are you going to the engagement?" "No" The question was asked by PS and answered abruptly by Alex. Suhail was listening to music in the backseat in Alex's iPod and Sandeep was having a nap. PS sat next to Alex who was driving the car. They were entering Ponmudi. The air was changing. The little rusty car was leaving the town behind. It was April, the hottest month in Kerala. But the climate of Ponmudi was neither hot nor cold. It was perfect. Ponmudi was blessed with the river Saraswathi. The soil was fertile and agriculture was still one of the major occupations unlike other districts. Somehow this small village still stood for their old customs and beliefs. Fields began to emerge on either side of the roads. Alex:"Would you look at that?" PS:"Man look at the greenery. It's like a painting drawn from heaven. I never knew places like this still existed" Alex:"We do get to see some in Malayalam movies" PS:"Yeah, man...but this is real...This is the way our state should look like....It should accept new things for sure....But not by changing the nature....It's a pity that one day these will also vanish..Some factory will be here ....It's the greed for wealth that has...." Suhail:"Dude" PS:"Im sorry ...I know ...Not cool...I got carried away.." Alex:"Hey dont listen to Suhail.....hey, Susu just shut up and listen to the music ok....I feeel you man...Go on PS...it's cool ...honestly I would love to hear more about it...." PS:"No man..... I spent my life reading, studying, thinking about nature...Joining nature club...developing new plans to preserve nature.... I was a nerd...Now I just want to have fun..Just like you guys...So I'm not going to talk about these things for a while....." Alex:"....Ok" PS:"Hey Sanju is still sleeping ...let me drive for a while" Sanjay:"Over my dead body" PS:"Crap!!!" Alex:"Hey Sanju we have reached Ponmudi..." Sanjay:"Yeah I know" PS:"So you were up all the time..." Sanjay:"No I woke up when you were giving the 'nature' talk..." PS:"Come on Sanju ..you promised that I can drive" Sanjay:"Look It's fields on both sides of the road..it's dangerous...I will tell you what...when we reach there I will let you drive ...there are places with zero traffic in Ponmudi" Alex:"Hey Sanjay, Ponmudi is beautiful man...." Sanjay:"You haven't seen anything yet my brother...Welcome to my paradise" ****************************** Twenty minutes later they reached their destination. 'Aanandham' was an ancestral home and it had a history of it's own. In the early 1900's the residents of the house were landlords who owned half of Ponmudi. But in the 1950's due to the advent of Communism in Kerala laws were written to help the poor. The workers who worked as slaves under the landlords in fields had to be given a part of the land. The idea was to create social equality. This affected the rich gravely. They had less land and most of them didn't knew any work apart from giving orders to the workers... Their social position was changed completely. "Aanandham" was affected too. But one man stood up for his family and he decided to become a farmer to support his family. He learned all the aspects of agriculture and started to save his family. His younger sisters were married to rich families. Eventhough he quit his studies at a young age, he supported his brothers to have an education. He also had seven children and now all of them enjoyed esteemed positions in society. He was Sudhakaran Nair, the grandfather of Sanjay, popularly known as Nair Ettan ( synonym for elder brother) to all in Ponmudi. Even little kids who could be his greatgrand children called him the same and he enjoyed the love and affection given to him. The Panchayat which ran the village gave respect to the man and asked his opinion on many issues. He never entered politics but he silently supported Communism. This might strike as an irony to many.... but even if most of the lands were taken from 'Aanandham' , Nair believed in social equality. The four got out of the car. Sanjay:"This is my 'Aanandham'" PS:"Man,......It's so big............" Sanjay:"And it is really old...They say Maharaja gave this house as a present to my great great grandfather" PS:"Is it true" Sanjay:"My grand pa told me..I dont believe half the stuff he tells me" "Little help over here" Alex and Suhail were unloading the bags. "Hello kids" "Hello Papa....Guys This is my grandpa Prabhakaran Nair...And Papa this is Suhail, Alex and PS" The other three were a little numb for a moment. Sanjay had told them that his grandfather was around eighty years old. But the man who stood infront of them was a six foot tall; really healthy person. He was well built and his face had that calm yet strong expression that made the three comfortable but also it made them a little scared. "Hi Sir" Suhail was the one to break the awkward moment Nair:"Please call me Nair uncle" PS:"Hello uncle" Nair:"PS is short for....??" PS:"Prabhakar Sajeev.." Nair:"Then why do you call him PS.....you can call him Prabha" At this the three erupted into laughter. PS couldn't also help smiling. Nair:"Oh somebody already calls you that....." PS:"Yes uncle..." Nair:"Ok come on in....Chandran......"He called for some one. A lean man with a bald head and a face covering beard came running. Nair:"These are all Sanju's friends, get their bags and put it in Divakar's room... " Chandran:"Ok Nair ettaa" Suhail:"No No we can take it..." Nair:"No need....it will offend him if you do his job" :"So Suhail you are a Muslim right?" Suhail:"Yes sir" Nair:"Isn't it time for your evening prayer, 'Azar'?" Suhail looked at his watch and answered:"Yes Sir.." Nair:"I will make the arrangements for that...You dont have to alter your rituals just because you are in our house, ok? " Suhail:"Thank you sir" Nair:"You cant help calling me Sir can you ?" Suhail:"Oh I'm sorry sir..." Nair:"Hahaha" his voice echoed in the house. "you are answering as if you are in a military scenario" :"And Alex you also need a praying room right?" Alex:"No need I have this picture of Jesus in my wallet...That will do..." Nair:"Hahaha,........& Prabha can attend the evening prayer with us in our prayer room....any objections..?" PS:"No uncle....I...... pray every day..." Alex:"I thought you didn't believe in God?" PS:"What?....No that's not true..." Nair:"An atheist eh?? hey it's ok if you are one...You dont have to lie" PS:"No....No....I once expressed my doubts about existence of God..you know religion says one thing, science says the other.." Suhail:"Dude" Nair:"Forget religion and science for a while at the end of the day it's what you believe that matters.." PS:"I do believe" Nair:"Ok then...So.... you had a long trip...go and have a bath .....get fresh....." Sanjay:"Can we go to the river to have bath?" Nair:"It's already 5 o' clock in the evening.....You can do it tomorrow morning.....Sanju show your friends the room..." Sanjay:"Where is Sujatha aunty?..." Nair:"She has gone with Meera to the temple...Somu was somewhere around here..." Sanjay:"Ok then guys lets go to the room" It was a large room with more than enough space for the four of them. Sanjay:"So what do you think about my grandpa?" Alex:"He is something" PS:"Cool man...hard to believe he is eighty" Suhail:"Am I the only one who is scared of him....Was he in army?" Sanjay:"No.." Suhail:"He should have been....He has such commanding power..." Alex:"Hey he called you Prabha..haha" "I told you IT'S A SIGN OF AFFECTION.." The sun was getting ready to set when PS was screaming... to be continued Next:Dreams and Nightmares
Only registered users can rate and write comments. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
||
Next item
|
|---|