Monday, March 25, 2013

Cycle yagnam - some black and white memories

 
A typical wedding photo
The gleaming smile conveyed a thousand word message. Like a black and white wedding photo of our parents, this thousand watts smile will hang on the wall of my mind for a long time. Santosh Sharma is leaving for his home. At last, after a wait for eighteen long months on Das Island, he got the chance to meet his own people back home. Now, his family will be celebrating Holi in all its great spirit with Santhosh himself drenched in a riot of colours.


I have never seen such a happy man in the recent past. Promise, I do not remember to have smiled like Santosh in my life! He is the cleaning boy in our office and he may be earning several times less than I do. Still, I could not stop asking myself, why could I never wear such a conquering smile! That is life. Happiness sometimes comes other ways too, not only through money! My perceptions at times go miserably wrong
 
The green buttons prefixed to so many familiar names popped up every now and then. Some of them stayed just for a few minutes. Some stayed for a long time. Many of them posted something or the other on the page. Many names were so tempting. I almost typed a hello to lure them to a conversation, but desisted. I know, they come to Face Book to relax.  To see the world through it. Stealing a few precious moments from their hectic schedules, they unwind themselves here. I have no much work. I am a paid prisoner, waiting to somehow complete the term and fly off. Nothing much to think about. I am free to eavesdrop the activities of the successful men and women visiting this social media. I see the marvelous photographs my good friends post from the scenic, awe inspiring spots around the world. There, they stand along with their happy, blessed nuclear families. They are fanned out all over the globe. They wrote many a success story in their lives. With my jaw dropped, I watch them steal the lime light wherever they are. I salute that spirit. I have no intention to intrude into their private moments on the social media.
 
Besides the Face Book and the television, I have another companion on this island- devaragam.com. After a long gap, today I remembered a song. "Akasaroopini anna poorneswari...."the song sung by Yesudas. This song has a mesmerising power to blow me over to the past. I remember to have typed these words in the "find" window of the portal and pressed the "play" tab. Next moment, I found myself at the premises of our village temple, yet again. It was not exactly at the temple premises but the open land just opposite the temple. This is the place we still call the heart of our village Olavaipe. The most happening spot of our village has a Ration shop located on one corner close to the road. Almost everyone in the village visits this ration shop. I too, for my grandma, bought wheat and sugar from the ration shop many times. No doubt, this shop, like anywhere else in our country, was a source of corruption that time too as it is now.


The open land had seen many political meetings by the two prominant parties Congress and the communists. Besides politics, this place was the stage for the exciting "cycle yagnams". Once in a year, a family along with a few assistants visited our village. Such small group of men and women were the propogators of the idea of circus at the door steps. Villagers hardly got chance to travel to big cities to watch high profile theme parks and circus shows. Those days, everybody turned up to see their performce because we were yet to see the television sets. Other than the All India Radio, there were nothing much to keep the people indoors.
 
The small time amateurish 'circus' team survived mostly on the sympathy they created with the presentation of their modest life. Their poor back ground and the struggle to earn a living evoked a sense of pity in the equally poor people of the village. There will be full attendance of the villagers by the show begins in the evening. Everyday, one difficult number and some cinematic dances and other tricks were the pattern of the show. We heard the famous Tamil song "yarukkaga, ithu yarukkaga..." first time through this circus company. The man who played the charecter along with the song did his job so aptly. They played another soul stirring song "ellam tharum daivam neeyappa..." before their performances. This devotional song, played before a presumably risky number made the onlookers wear tears.That was the secret of their success
 
A number of tube lights tied at regular intervals and then the surroundings were lit with fire. Then a man on a bicycle, comes riding so fast and breaks these tube lights with his chest. The audience looks at it with bated breath. The highlight of the show was always the song before he performs the number. "Akasa roopini anna poorneswari..." that was a heart rending song, given the ambience the performers creat. Everyone stands with a prayer in their lips. By the time, the song ends, many could be seen with their eyes moist. The cycle yagnam team wins everyone's heart. At the end of the show, the team would have enchased handsomely the hearts they won.
 
The next day evening, it was another 'heart stopping' number. One man stands upside down, with his head buried in sand. As usual, the prayer song is played. The theatrics followed and by the time his head is buried in the earth, the onlookers were thrown into a tizzy. As the seconds ticks, the heartbeat of the audience increases. They no longer permit the man to suffer like this. Heeding the public demand, he would be removing his head from the ditch to the cheers if the excited villagers. The performers needed just not the cheers but notes. The innocent villages never let them down. Most of the days, the villagers visited home after home, collected one or two rupee notes, stitched them like a garland and presented to the performers at the end of every stunt number.
 
The celebration lasts for a week. The sleepy village gets a new lease of life, at least for a week. Still, the children had a fear in the bottom of their hearts. We heard a number of stories about children being kidnapped by nomads. We heard that these people take away children, disfigure them and make them beg. With chillness down the spine, we all kept these stories in mind as long as the cycle yagnam team stayed in our village. One day they packed up their belongings and moved away from the village.


The saddened villagers bade adieu to the team only with a hope that they come back after a few months. They did come for two or three times again. But as the time passed, these amateurish acrobatic shows lost their sheen and badly beaten by the sops on the mini-screen lately. But, for the generation that saw those bare footed walks on the heap of glass splinters, breaking tube lights with the chest and the burying of a person alive with fire over the ditch have everything registered in their memories. Let the black and white pictures of the newly married parents and the exhilarating pictures of a village cycle yagnam among many other sweet memories hang on for ever in our minds. These are simple pleasures worth carrying, along with a bunch of "kani konna" flowers wherever we are.
 

5 comments:

  1. This one brought back similar memories to me too.
    Yes, I was also a witness to this 'fanfare' here in Andamans years ago during my childhood. They used to come to these islands also.

    I see that you did not mention about the non-stop cycling by one of the charmers which went on for all those days they stayed. I used to wonder about the stamina of the cyclist. Many stories were rife about their para-human capability among we children.

    I am also a proud owner of some of similar beautiful black and white photographs.

    Your post did hit a nostalgic chord in me.

    Bhai.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great memories which spread the fragrance of nostalgia !!
    hope the team will get a rebirth in a near future to entertain us ...!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Do you have any contact of them. We are planning one such yajnam along with MANAVEEYAM cultural fest March 20 tho 26

    ReplyDelete
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