In the Land of Idli and Dosa

Sometimes in life, you break your daily routines and come across entirely different world. You realize, how futile was worrying about those small things and there are many wonderful things to deal with rather than those overtime sheets, job orders and contract labours.

If anybody would have told me, I will ever go to a small village in Tamilnadu known as Nallur; I would have referred him to a psychiatrist. But, I came here and even played cricket with those coconut trees acting as spectator.

As a part of experiential leadership development program, we visit a small village (Nallur) and try to create followers by creating a positive impact on the lives of those villagers.

Sharing herewith, few funny moments which we accidently came across in this small journey,

A rollercoaster ride

Under the scorching sun, all the Nallur karmyogis were waiting along the scenic East coast road as official transport was not available. We waited for almost fifteen minutes and meanwhile witnessed the infamous feature of East Coast Road i.e. rash driving.

As the clock was ticking, we started feeling desperate. That’s when; we saw a typical autorikshaw in Chennai (one with yellow colour) came towards us. That auto driver was wearing aviator goggles and after a hard bargain he agreed to come to Nallur (The attitude he was carrying, he appeared like Rajnikant to me, say mini Rajni).

This was the first time, I was sitting in that yellow coloured auto rickshaw, which I used to see in the Chennai super kings advertisement and that auto driver (mini Rajni) made sure that this ride becomes memorable.

As the autorikshaw was moving on a shortcut route to Nallur (May be, invented by mini Rajni) which was full of potholes rather it can be said that route was in between the potholes. Due to vibrations, my head started hitting against the roof and it started creating sound (It has nothing to do with the fact that a empty box creates lots of noise).As I was sitting in the corner, I had to hold that bar in autorikshaw firmly to ensure that I will not fall out.

By the time, we reached the Nallur all the stuff inside the stomach was stirred and perhaps got digested (This ride can be taken as a substitute to Hajmola).These are the times which remind us that several part of your body do exist and you come across different uses of that soft pillow.

It was a rollercoaster ride thanks to that shortcut route which was full of potholes, those speed breakers on main route and off course the mini Rajni (Yenna rascala).

A Mango or two

As education scenario is not too good, we decided to spread educational awareness and targeting teenagers with computer and English literacy.

It was the time for “Mission Execution”, time to turn the action plan on paper into reality and we were searching for children in every possible place in Nallur. After 10 minutes of unsuccessful search, I started feeling low.

At this difficult time, one of the sharp brains amongst us came with the idea of playing Tamil song in a loud noise with laptop and sound box we were carrying. It was a risky move as we were not aware about possible reaction of the villagers. But as students of premium management institute, we were aware of the importance of risk and decided to give it a shot.

And guess what, the song “Apadi Pode” hit the target with a bang, out of nowhere several children gathered at the venue. And after watching the laptop; they almost jumped at it with the curiosity that only a child can display.

After the introduction to the laptop, we made those children dance on the educational English rhymes which are used in nursery schools, such as ‘Listen to the music and clap your hands’ (I was listening to them first time).

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After that, we played a game called as ‘Dog and bone’ as a team building exercise.   As we started the game, all the villagers gathered around and enjoyed the game by cheering for those children’s.

In that electrified atmosphere, one of the village girl participants in that game ended up almost beating the boy from rival team on several occasions, showing a glimpse of aggression in today’s ‘abla nari’ (The definition of domestic violence has to be modified now, considering all the sufferings that a man goes through in a family).

After those games, we were gifted two mangoes by one of the villager as a token of love.

Don’t know if Love is blind, but sometimes it tastes awesome.Hmmm.....Yummy.

Nallur premier league

After being familiar with teenager in village, we needed to create a bond with youngsters which will help us to do something on large scale.

We came with a unique solution which and gels even strangers with the words“Bhai, score kya hai?” and keeps patriotism alive even in today’s practical world (BCCI says as it is private organization it should not come under RTI but then we will watch the match if it’s ‘team BCCI’ is playing and not ‘team India’).In India,cricket craziness in India that a kid learns how to hold bat before learning how to do potty.

It was a fine Sunday morning and clouds in the sky were intimating about possibility of rain. We reached those small houses in Nallur houses (You can have haircut standing below the ceiling fan inside these houses) with bat and ball and we were shocked to see leather ball, pads, and testicular guard .There is a interesting statistics, In cricket first testicular guard was used in 1874 and helmet in 1974.(It took man 100 years to realize that brain is also important).

We went to the ground which was full of grass and buffalo dung. No matter how hard you dive, you will not get hurt except that your cloths will get to know the taste of dung (May be it is the secret behind good fielding of Chennai Super kings).At a distance, coconut trees were standing tall as if they are the spectators.

Teams were formed by mixing villagers and Nallur karmyogis and the teams were named as Nallur Kings and Nallur Tigers (An attempt to increase the number of extinguishing species).Nallur Kings won the toss and batting first they scored 47 runs in 10 over’s with that slow outfield (thanks to grass and dung).

Nallur Tigers came to bat; one of the villagers from Nallur King was looking and bowling like Malinga. Due to pace and accuracy in his bowling, Nallur Tigers were struggling with very low run rate. That’s when another yogi from Nallur kings came to bowl and he took the responsibility to make match competitive. With all the generosity, he gifted 19 runs in a single over and now only 7 runs were needed in 4 overs.

But then the Nallur Tigers exhibited the typical Indian generosity of showing all the respect to opponent (even on battle field) as they lost 3 wickets within the span of 8 balls.

While our captain was bowling at other side, I came to bat and 2 runs were needed in three overs. As that Malinga geared up to bowl, a thought came to my mind that no matter whatever may be the result, I will ensure that all my spare parts remain safe in the place. Soon that ball directed at my toes came like a bullet, I took my toes away(Bat was wise enough not to came in between).I left the ground with everything in place, except those stumps which were several feet’s away from their original place.

Then came the tensest moment of the match, as a small kid came to bat and it was last wicket. All the eyes were set on the small kid who was holding the bat as, long as his height. As that Malinga bowled, that kid hit the ball with all the courage and ran for a single.

Our captain came to bat, just one run was needed and sixteen balls were remaining. Malinga bowled the ball; captain hit the ball with all his power (as if he was cutting a coconut), all the eyes were set on the ball which was in air. One of the yogis, who were standing on boundary, dived to his left and took a spectacular catch and he was well inside the boundary (So no Lagaan type climax).

The first match in Nallur premier league ended as a draw as we purposely ignored the possibility of super over (Who will face that Mallinga again).

Ganpati Bappa Morya on the land of Idli and Dosa

While we were discussing the issue about reopening of library in the village with village head; he gave us a pleasant surprise by inviting us to the program of Ganesh idol immersion. This further enhanced my belief in ‘Universal Ganesha’ as I didn’t expect this kind of program here. While we participated in this immersion program, I curiously saw what is ‘Prasad’ for Ganesha and guess what it was, a Idli.I enquired about this unusual ‘Prasad’ with villager and got reply that “We like Idli and as God is inside all of us, he will love it too” (By this logic God would have to love many things, he would not like to. Rather I will say, if your feelings are honest, he can adjust with anything).Then we waved good bye to Ganesha by shouting the slogans of “Ganpati Bappa Morya” (off course in Tamil).

If you try to explore new avenues, life bounces back with pleasant surprises. I think this is what makes, life the most adorable thing in this mortal world.

Cheers,

Mahesh Godse.