When I first got invited to a wedding in this place Kodumudi, I would always pronounce it wrong and have my roommates laugh at me.I have heard a lot of their stories about the cows and the hens and the fields in these places and was quite excited about getting there.Our journey started in Bangalore at 10:30 in the night when we boarded the train to Erode. Along with us traveled a rat in the compartment a regular traveler on board the train - the TTR told us. We reached Erode in the wee hours of the morning, around 3:30.Walked to the bus stop to take a bus to Pasur, which was supposed to come at 4 to the bus stop and did in fact arrive sharp at 4. After another half an hour's travel in complete darkness, we reached our destination.
After a short drive to my friend's house and a nice long sleep, I set out to explore the place. I was delighted by the cow and its calf and the hen in their yard. After a short round of these places, I got to take a look at their corn and turmeric fields. My next activity was to take a bath.I went into a bathroom to find a sort of tub built into the wall and hot water in it.I looked around trying to find out if there was a geyser fitted somewhere. Later i learned that there was a fire lit behind and outside the bathroom that was heating the water in the tub!
After this we set out to Erode again to buy a gift for the wedding. It was a short distance to the bus stop, but then, we somehow managed to miss the bus. The next one was due to arrive after an hour. On our way to the bus stop and and back, people working in the fields and walking on the road would stop us to ask my friend how she was doing and to enquire about the new girl(me) and whether I spoke Tamil ;). By the time we reached the house, I knew what half the people in the village were doing! It so happened that by the time we reached home we had to start back immediately to catch the next bus to Erode. Now we come to the most exhausting part of the whole trip.
After meeting and being introduced to a few more friends and relatives in the bus and sleeping through the rest of the journey, we reached Erode.After shopping there a bit, we were totally exhausted by the heat and just waiting to come back home. Unfortunately, we had to take a bus back. Notably, I hadn't seen a single auto around till then! :(. Thanks to my friend's sis wh0 quickly found a bus that would take us home, we took a bus back home. This time, the bus dropped us off on the other end of the village. So, we got to meet some more people, milkman included, listen to some more stories :P
On reaching home, I just pulled out a cot into their yard and happily fell asleep there, It was lovely, the night and the breeze and the stars. Makes you wish you could just lie like that for an eternity! Oh, and I forgot, in the midst of this, I got a lot of advice on why to tie my hair ;).
Next day morning, we rushed to the wedding, just on time to catch the marriage. We sat through the usual ceremonies and ate to our stomach's full....Little did I know that on our ride back we would be accosted by a few more people and would have to eat something at all their places.. :( My friend seemed to have relatives in all the villages that we passed on the way back home.:)
Notable incidents here after is that we had a good laugh at her dad chasing the calf and then hens around their yard :P.. We had one of those for lunch :-o. And I found out they cook with gobar gas, and don't have too many shops around because, the village by itself is very self sufficient. They grow most of their vegetables and foul also. There was a factory nearby that exported eggs to other countries...And to top it all, I felt it was a rather carefree life.. So much self sufficient, so much of reuse, there was no scope for wasting, every little by-product was put to use. So clever and well-planned and thats how every house in that village functioned!!! More than all this, people were so friendly and eager to put you at ease among them,so hospitable(not something you find often in the cities). Born and brought up in a city, it was a very different and an overall very enjoyable trip to Pasur and Kodumudi!
Rest of the trip back was quite uneventful! Something worth mentioning as I close is that my friend is the second engineer from her village and the first ever girl engineer from her place.. I think thats quite something, but then again that doesn't mean that no one else there is educated. I met a few married women who were PHD holders in the same place...Who says there is less value for education in these places????
P.S: The picture on top was a tough to get pic, but I thought it was cute- The calf sleeping.
Below is the picture of the bunch of us who went for the wedding! :)
