My native Kunnam and the great Kunchithapadam iyar
In our days most of city dwellers visit their native villages for vacation. Most of city people have hailed from villages and they have migrated to different parts of the country for economic reason. Big houses, farm lands, Temples, tanks, water pump sets, and mangroves are the attractions. There were lots of downsides too.
We, some of my brothers and some of my cousins, were lucky enough to visit one such place, to go on vacation every year till class X, (my father’s native place) Kunnam, a small village near Sirkali. It was affordable tour and whatever the city children had to spend, came our way for free of cost. i.e swimming (big temple tank – my cousin Sridhar taught me swimming , Gardening - we used to compete among cousins to water the plant and plucking the flowers, take rest in a resort. (house itself is very big – we could take rest and play the whole day). We play cricket, hide and seek, cards, Kavai and kitty pul (game played with sticks) seven stones etc and it was all fun.
Even, reaching the village itself was fun travelling by ‘Day express’ ( it used to be called Cholan express) up to Sirkali, and from there, we had to go by a horse cart for about 8 km. I have seen and enjoyed the horse’s ability to run backward as well, (as if, to convey I too have a reverse gear) with the same speed.
It was such a good experience that any material/comfort like good food, tender coconut, fruits were available in plenty and timely coffee, good bath, early bed, listening to stories or radio & early rise were daily routine but what is scarce was the paper money or coins. Our grandparents had hardly any money with them. But they were very happy indeed.
They did seek happiness without money. In contrast to the present condition, they always experienced happiness directly, not thru money.
There were so many green memories that flash as a colorful breeze in the mind but there are two things which is always in the top of my mind. One is an activity and other is about a great person.
The Activity:
The activity was going to post office every single day with the expectation of receiving a letter. One person from every house would be there for about 45 minutes in the post office to receive the letter directly, as soon as the mail arrived, thus making the postman’s job easier .People who did not have any possibility of receiving letter also would be there in time. Some people would receive letters and the rest would go back home only to come back with same expectation the next day.
What is fascinating with this routine was, no one would feel disappointed or dejected. Generally, when you have expectation, most of the time, you end up feel disappointed.
The process, as such, (with expectation, joy, receiving or not receiving letters) was continuous and daily routine and the enthusiasm never diminished.
Those 45 minutes, people enjoyed together and used to crack jokes and pulled each other’s leg by making sarcastic comments. The time would go, irrespective of age difference among the crowd, as if everyone was at the college campus. This routine made them feel young.
The Person:
There used to be one great person called Kunchidapadam Iyer and he was quadriplegic. (is paralysis caused by illness or injury to a human that results in the partial or total loss of use all of their limbs).
He used to be in a sitting posture with the minimum cloths covering the abdomen area. At any part of time, there would be at least 2 or 3 youngsters, who were on vacation or unemployed, then. The youngsters of couple of generations spent their time with him either talking or did some work by following his instructions and in the process learnt so many things. To put generation in to perspective, my father when he was young learnt many things from him and I have learnt as well.
One can wonder, a person who did not have any touch sense or feel below the neck, what could he teach or instruct. Any one on earth would get amazed with his knowledge in areas spreading cooking, simple machine, pluming, investigating, literature (Tamil, Sanskrit & English), lateral thinking and what not.
When a person knock his door, he would ask who and upon hearing the answer he would move his hand to pull a rope near to him and the door which is 30 feats away would open. It is all simple machine technique (like the one used in Tamil movie aboorva sahotharargal in which kamal would place a ball in one place and in couple minutes one arrow would pierce thru Delhi Ganesh’s body.).While the visitors go out, he would request them to close the door and go. After they leave, he would pull another rope and the wooden latch would close the door.
My father told me that he learnt various techniques in cooking, book binding and art of packing from him.
Once, I wanted to put a exact hole in iron sheet (old Biscuit tin sheet ) to make washer kind of a thing . He asked me to put a cycle iron ball in the place where I want to put a hole and he asked me place a nut below it .He asked me to hit exactly on the iron ball with the hammer once. To my surprise, it was just like hole made by a punching machine.
What is more astounding is the way he was instructing in a most accurate flow with an adequate timing. For every work, only through his mouth he has to make the other person do whatever thing he wanted to do. Most of the time, he may not be able to see the doer’s face, as he could not turn or change his position himself. So, he has to give the flow of instruction absolutely spot on, all the time.
Once, one of my uncles was pumping the water thru hand pump for him. He had asked him to throw 3 to 4 buckets of water. My uncle, puzzled by his instruction asked him for what. He said because of his handicap there is a possibility that someone could have poured poison in the pipe. So he is not only intelligent but extremely cautious too.
Every person in the village went to his house again and again to spend time with him, thus negating the economic theory “Diminishing Marginal Utility”.
Lets us analyze the challenge in two angles. One, from his, he had to have the best of patience to instruct. He had to test the doer’s understanding and test the level of progress, time to time. Above all, he had to keep his enthusiasm and interest at its peak to do different activities with different people.
The other being the doer wanted to kill the time hence he had gone to his house. Unless, the activity, instruction, purpose, result interest him, he would not go again and he would not let his brother or his family member go to him.
The Great man with voracious knowledge took sanyas and died at the same village. His Samadhi is beside my great grandfather’s Samadhi.
