Nurugukal....contd...

        Let me continue with the Andi oottu. The old Andi would rise up when his trance is over. After giving prasadam to every one he would go to the cattle shed to bless the cattle.

The first part of the event would be over as mother gave him a few measures of rice, pappadams etc. and father a cash gift. Then it is time for dinner. Mother used to serve kalan,olan, aviyal,mizhukkuperatti, kadumanga, pappadams.upperi with farm fresh hand pounded rice and to top up payasam and sweets. After dinner we used to assemble at the poomugam to watch the puppet performance of the old Andi. He was a good puppeteer. In his pokkanam [cloth bundle] there used to be two to three puppets of Kathakali veshams { patcha, kathi and female vesham]. Our father was a connoisseur of kathakali. He used to hum or whistle kathakali padams while taking an evening walk in our court yard.

                The old Andi would slowly take out the puppets one by one from his bundle. Holding one in his right hand he would gradually show its face while giving an introduction and reciting a couplet of  kathakali padam melodiously. It would be repeated by his son and daughter-in-law in turn. I still vividly remember the picture of the daughter-in law. She wore a check sari of bright colour with the frills dangling on her firm posterior in a typical Tamil way. She was black in colour. Her eyes were large and dazzling . Always there would be a kunkuma pottu on her fore head and kunkumam smear between the hair partition. A bunch of jasmine or kanakambaram mala tucked in her plait added her grace. Her movements were elegant. She would sit behind the old Andi and swayed left to right in rhythm tapping the tiny elathalam between her slender fingers. Andi would perform one or two scenes from kathakali. The facial and hand movements of the puppets controlled by his fingers would give the effect of watching a live performance. Some times father would request to show one of his favourite scenes which the Andi would readily oblige.

After the show every one  would retire for the day nurturing sweet memories of the veshams. Before we wake up the Andi family might have left for the next destination. I do not know that whether their tribe exists now to provide the rare experience !!. Let us hope that some day in future another such curtain will raise !!.