Sundarapandyam Akathapatti...

My husband used to tell me about his visit to Sundarapandyam Akathapatti ,a village near Madurai,when he was a little kid.
Every time he talks about some of the characters there,like Chokkayi Aachi,Venthayi Achi,Chola vanthayi Aachi,they appear in front of me like I am seeing them for real . It makes me laugh every time he talks about that visit. These ladies used to wear huge heavy ear rings that reached up to their shoulder and wear no blouses and had sagging breasts. For a little kid going from a city in Kerala,this picture might have looked very interesting.
He said,the school Headmaster would take him to school and ask him to sing songs in English standing on top of a bench. The school was a long shed and classes were separated with bamboo partitions ,and everybody could hear him singing. Someone as small as him could talk/sing in English was a surprise to them and they made him feel like a King,or at least a Prince.
According to him, the people in Sundarapandyam Akathapatti ,used to get the most purified water in the whole world for their personal hygienic purposes. The water came from the nearby dying factories mixed with bleach. He was saying people there might have had bleached white bottoms after using this water for years!
The theater there was also a shed made with thatched roof. When the relatives family went for movies,they would be provided with a bench, to honor them. My husband would get down and move to the front row and sit on the sandy floor along with all others,which he found was even more fun.
When i hear these stories I see them as in a movie..i hope such places does exist even now and visit one of them some day.