Thavil
During one of my umpteen return trips from down south, I had the company of a Thavil vidhwan once.
I boarded the TNSTC bus at trichy. And he was seated next to me in the last seat. A trip in the TNSTC bus from Trichy to Chennai on a Sunday evening is, to borrow the famous FORREST GUMP line, is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get as a co-passenger. It can be a drunkard, a vattam, maavattam politician, small trader, etc. that time it was a Thavil vidhwan. For that matter it is no less unpredictable in the supposedly elite AC Volvo buses. I have listened to hot and horny stuff from well attired gentlemen seated next to me thanks to that nasty device called cell phone. More on that later.
Coming back to that thavil vidhwan, the conversation started when the supposed point to point bus took special pains to go to perambalur terminus, and then to ulundurpet terminus. I became very interested in him when he mentioned he was a Thavil vidhwan. This gentleman commutes regularly between thanjavur and chennai. He lives in Medavakkam because his wife is working here but performs only in thanjavur district. He feels it is only in that region people genuinely respect Thavil and Nadhaswaram.
As a co- passenger he shared the importance of UDHAYA near vikravandi ( that is a galeej hotel where all the government buses mandatorily stop by and all the male passengers mandatorily pee on the road side in the dark ).
He gave me company right upto Medavakkam at around midnight.
Why do I remember all this now?
This nice article on Thavil prompted my thoughts to wander.
Via jeyamohan
December 3rd, 2011 at 2:45 am
Our lives are also like a journey! We are thrilled by the ride, it takes us through. My first introduction of classical music came through my grand-father who worked as a drill master in Saatur. He had a fine taste in Carnatic songs and instruments. Whenever i commute from Madurai to Saatur, i have these golden memories of listening to Shri Ghantasala along with him.
When he expired i was shattered. I saw that life was nothing and finally everything is reduced to ashes. So i am here, after leaving Chennai for good with thatha’s death. Madurai is a wonderful place, i have never received a bad news here. Maybe it is sentimental or it could be the truth but the fact remains that it is a calm and peaceful city to live. Much of the civilization has not entered here. There are no Pizza outlets or McDonald fast food joints. Mountain breeze and Coffee aroma fills the streets.
I want to be here forever
December 4th, 2011 at 11:08 am
Surya,
Good to know you are based out of Madurai - my native
Cities are about people and relationships. I agree that chennai is an immensely messy and chaotic pale to live but yet my favorite city so far because of the people I know here and the relationships and memory.
Coimbatore is a neat city by comparison - i lived there for 25 years,but I struggled there during my adolescent and adult life. So I kind of do not want to live there.
Madurai, despite my ton of relatives there I could never relate to. relatives need not mandotorily make great relationships , you know
Regarding ‘civilzation’ - i avoid them even in chennai. Right now, I am a my life revolves around , home, play with daughter, paying my bills, working for salary, help those in need of funds for education, etc.
For sure things will change too, but I want to savor while it lasts.
December 4th, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Prabu Sir,
Thank you.
I completed my college education in Chennai. I studied in Sathyabama deemed university. I struggled a lot with my adolescent life in chennai. There were many love-failures and break-ups in my life apart from the difficulty of doing an computer engineering course. That was the time, i learn t to use the Yahoo and Gmail. Chats landed me in relationship disasters.
I just want to remind today’s parents how internet could become a lethal tool for their children if their internet sessions are not monitored. Young ones could confuse affection to love and may follow a different trajectory that deviates from their studies. It happened in my case during college days with emotions and feelings flooding, resulting in arrears semester after semester.
But in the third year i was able to handle my feelings and cleared all of them. I will contribute for education when i earn enough to help others. Emotional guidance is needed for today’s youngsters