When I visited Malaiyur first, I realized that it's not a village as I see in other districts, especially not like one in my native place, Kanyakumari.
Malaiyur is a village near Natham in Dindigul district. The village is situated at around 800m above the sea level. The only way to reach this village is to trek for around one and half hours from the nearest bus stand Ellaparai. Around 1000 people lives there and the only occupation here is agriculture.
From Madurai we took a bus to Natham, which is around 40 km from Madurai. After reaching Natham, we waited for some 20 mins to get another bus to Ellaparai. We got Alanganallur bus, which goes via Ellaparai,15 km from Natham. It was half an hour journey in between hill ranges, Sirumalai hill range at the right and Perumalai hill range at the left.. we got down at Ellaparai. There was a small, old bus shelter and a board explaining about the forest development scheme by forest department funded by a Japanese bank.
There was no sign or indication that a village was there up at 4 km from here. Near the bus shelter I saw some of the villagers bundling and packing raw groundnuts that were grown in their field, and couple of horses which transported them. The villagers were busy in tying the sacks of groundnut and loading them in the load autos.
We (me & Sathiesh) started our trek by 5.30 pm. We saw many group of villagers coming down, and each and every group crossing us asked who we are, and why we came there. Our costume and our backpack clearly said to them that we were alien. Many were carrying loads of black currant fruits in their head to sell in the nearby market.
Sathiesh had arranged a meeting with some of the farmers in the village through Ponnalagan, an educated and influential person in Malaiyur. The meeting was mainly to make the farmers aware of benefits of using organic fertilizers.
On our half way through the trek, it started to rain. We have no way other than to walk in the rain. It started getting dark as we trekked up. I could see the sun getting down under the Sirumalai hill range that stretches opposite to the hill range in which we were trekking. Each and every second the sky got lit up by various shades from orange, red and blue.
The local people can reach the village in one hour from the foot hill. But it took more than one and half hour for us to reach the entry point of the village. Before the actual settlement I saw flat agriculture lands, and shelters for cows and horses. There was a lake and from that point we shouldn’t wear our slippers or shoes. It is a local custom they are following for a long time. Near to that there was a big well which provides drinking water for the most part of the village.
We washed our foot and hands in the well water, carried our slippers in hand and entered into the village. The time was around 7 pm and it was completely dark. A cement path leads us to the settlement. There was a large pole with flash lights illuminated the area. There were two petty shops which sell candies, biscuits, oil, shampoo, soaps and other small items. There was a Television on the left side (I think thats what Panchayath Television is) in which a program in Doordharshan channel was going on, and obviously no one was there to watch that. There was a banyan tree near to that with a cement sit out, in which some people were sitting and chatting.
There were three rows of houses which were illuminated mostly by incandescent light and only a few houses have fluorescent lamps. Rarely some houses have partitions and rooms in their houses. In between the houses there are spaces for cattle, cows and hens. Each family owns at least a cow, as it is necessary for their agricultural work.
We walked through a small passage between two rows of houses and reached Ponnalagan’s house. He took us to a small hut, where I saw some 6 kids studying. I was surprised to see the kids studying even in a Sunday evening.
There is no school in the village and all the kids have to trek down and to move to Natham for school. So each and every kid has to spend around 5 hours to reach school and come back to home. After that some local educated guys conduct night class to the kids.
We planned to finish our dinner before the discussion. I expected some millets or porridge, which they usually have for dinner, but because of our arrival they cooked rice and sambhar. It was a very simple food but one of the tastiest food I had.
We waited sometime in that room, for some farmers to come. As it was drizzling, they came slowly one by one. Sathiesh introduced him and started to speak about the benefits of organic fertilizers and what help we can do in sourcing the organic fertilizers and in marketing the organic products.
The discussion went on well, and many farmers asked questions regarding this. After the meeting we started to talk to a localite, Thavamani.
He had a very different problem. Though he is economically well, he was not able to marry. One more information. None of the gents in Malaiyur drink. Thavamani too. The great problem is the height factor of the village.
So no one in the nearby village is ready give their daughter to a man from Malaiyur. The same problems are also being faced by the Malaiyur girls. I said that we are sick by the city life and longing for life as yours. He replied, “you are a tourist and you stay only for a day, you enjoy and you will go. But it is very difficult to live our life”.
Yes, really it is very difficult to live their life.
There are no toilets in their village. There is no transportation facility. No hospitals, No schools. They have to grow their own food. No computers, no internet.
Also they don’t have traffic and they don’t have queue for getting food.
All they have is good air to inhale, good food to eat, good relatives and simple & good life style.
We like to live like them & they like to live like us.
