Kolkatta
– ke rasagullava ???
Mumbai
– ke vadapaava ???
Tirunelveli
– ke halwava ???
are examples of tautological
rhetoric for emphasizing that the action is foolhardy or pointless!
In English, a similar expression
would go something like ‘Are you trying to sell Coal to Newcastle!’
But that was more or less the case
when we stepped onto the land of halwa!
It was raining hard (on Friday, 11 December) and
the streets were glistening in the early 'dawn'ing lights that
gleamed through the rain-water-stagnated streets leading up to the Tirunelveli Railway
Station.
The moment we alighted at around
3.40 in the morning, Dr. Ramachandra Pillai & I were on the lookout for a good tea shop
in the vicinity.
a daring cross-over of sorts...
‘Special tea potrava Ve?’
Aama Anney! we chorused back with a mischief
twinkling in our eyes, satisfied that our Tirunelveli slang succeeded amazingly
even in our very first encounter with the dialect! and how!
‘InthaHa
ney’! came forth a pleasing voice, that gently stuck
out an elaichi-flavoured tea in comparatively
bigger tea-glasses, (like the ones you get opp American College in Goripalayam,
Madurai, or like the ones you get in Malligai Tea Stall, Madurai!). ‘These tea-glasses are geo-specific!’ or
so, I had once thought, since in Chennai you don’t get such big tea glasses. If
you get half that cuppa tea here in Chennai for that price, you should be grateful
enough to go on a long pilgrimage thanking Heavens all the way!
After a comparatively longer time
over a bigger cuppa tea, we walked
down towards the Station Road, to our lodgings, when we were surprised to hear incessant
‘crowd-boo’ kinda sounds on either sides of the streets!
It was the halwah wallahs (surprisingly
it’s anagrammatic too!) standing on all four corners of their shops cooing out
as far as their lungs could permit them, for a pronounced ventriloquial effect
on the ‘as innocent as a dove’ customers, who were literally in the horns of a
(bullish!) dilemma on listening to these sales experts sell themselves well!
A traveller-customer is sure bound to be
perplexed and 'utterly-butterly' confused on seeing such a plethora of shops that
have the same names, (Santhi Sweets!) in old-age fonts and traditional colours
[some have even taken a wonderful extra step ahead, boasting with all sincerity
that they are here in this place stirring, mixing, blending and vending since
the time of Tipu Sultan!]
We both decided to become halwa tasters for a change! We
approached a shop which had a deliberately
done-up old-age charm to it, and asked for a 100 gm piece to have it ‘then
and there’!
When the seller gave it to us, quite
fast and careless, [as he had his own share of victims nay customers waiting
all along!] we were careful to the core in handling it, for TWO reasons: first,
we had to make sure that the ‘oil well’ which had a committed contract with the
halwa didn’t spill over and embarrass
our morning! Secondly we badly needed a kinda selfie-click of the halwa on our
hands, as evidence of enjoying halwa in halwa
land!!!
We couldn’t believe our eyes when we
saw the halwa in our hands shining in a tad lightish-green colour! Because even
as children, we were taught (or we had caught it!) that, tirunelveli halwa was
a kinda brown in colour, a golden brown that sends your taste buds to a
frenzy tickling all the way!
But here, it was as green as the
‘month-long-moss-filled’ puddles in flood-ravaged Chennai!
After having the hundred grams of
‘halwa’ and having lost our morning calm as a result after our impulsive tryst
with these experimental jaggery jellys
(euphemistically called halwas), we went to our lodging at Aryas, a walkable
distance from the Railway Station!
It was, as I had said earlier,
raining hard, when we stepped into Aryas, our lodging premises for the day!
By 8 o clock, amidst the
intermittent showers, and in spite of the inclement weather, we were hoping
against all odds that ‘Schools & Colleges shouldn’t be declared holiday’
today, at least in Tirunelveli because our travel all night should not go in
vain!
We got a Aryas-arranged Cab for
Rs.1600 from Tirunelveli to Thisayanvillai, where we were supposed to meet up
with the final year students of V. V College of Engineering & Technology,
Thisayanvillai, for a program with them. Once in the car, we
struck up a conversation with our driver, who was as garrulous as many Chennai OLA
drivers normally are!! When we asked him about these innumerable halwa shops
that’ve mushroomed in recent years, and the hullaballo that has ‘dilemma’ed the
traveller’s choices, he nodded sympathetically with us, and added that, it was
indeed the saddest of truths that many halwa shops have indeed sprouted up in
the recent past just for the sake of raking in the moolah, but not many have
the ‘seasoned hand’ to make it the way it used to be! He suggested that we
visit one particular shop in another corner of the Railway Station Road, to get
original halwa! And we thanked him later on because this was the halwa we were longing for, all
the way!
Now, our journey of 60 kms from
Tirunelveli to Thisayanvillai was marked by numerous flood streams that had
battered the roads on all sides, with pot-holes and puddles that were our
invisible travel companions all the way!!! On at least two major bridges, the waters
were wildly rushing over the bridges with such force and intensity, that even
lorry drivers stopped their vehicles a full and safe 10 feet before the waters,
and waited to assess the situation for themselves before they could press
further on!
Our driver was a Tirunelveli ‘Singham’
by all means! He just overtook the lorry, and a couple of other SUVs even as
they were pondering over their ‘next step’, and skillfully made his way across!
The next bridge was an equally
taunting ordeal, as this time policemen were planted on bridges to escort
vehicles and people from one side to the other to safety! We both had just one word
of caution for our driver!
‘Don’t ever take your right foot off
the accelerator!’
He said, ‘okay anney’ and dashed
through the waters, with the cops in tow - cursing him for splashing some of
the gushing flood-waters on their uniforms! He gave an apologetic ‘sorry ney’
and heaved a sigh of ‘Red-Sea crossed’ relief!
Somehow we managed to reach the town
in time for our Programme!
Well, I would be failing in my duty
if I forget to give my observations and grateful note of thanks to a few
wonderful people:
 |
| V.V C of Engg & Tech, Thisayanvillai |
Prof. Prakash, English Faculty in
V.V College of Engineering & Technology, Thisayanvillai (and an alumni of St.John’s, Palayamcottai) was our host, and Mr. Faizal
was our coordinator for the Program. Ms. Kamini was our ever-ready help in time
of need! All the three good hearts made our stay memorable in Thisayanvillai and
in our day-long interventions and interactions with the students here, we could
find the truth in Thomas Gray’s wonderful words, ‘many a flower is born to [live]
unseen – here! Such wonderful talent and dynamism of the students enthralled us
all the way!
 |
| A Language Lab in V.V College of Engg &Tech |
The students were not only courteous
and well-mannered but also self-disciplined and self-motivated, in this beautiful,
sylvan, sprawling campus that must be hundreds of acres! There are as many as
four language labs here and the fabulous and intricate designs of each of them with
elegantly shaped interiors, centrally air-conditioned, with granulated glass-cabins
should really be a delight to any Language Lab-administrator!
Now, even as I am typing out this
post, I am getting news from my Tirunelveli friends that, holidays have been
declared in and around the city in three adjoining districts because of prediction
of heavy rains in those places. Even now, the waters are all over the city and
in the villages, and the whole area represents one huge island, at some places!
Let’s pray that God Almighty has
mercy on our ever-hospitable Tirunelveli-ians and may there be no destruction
to people or their property! Shalom! Shalom! Shalom!
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