Read about small boys of the village going around the agraharam on Avaniavittam day asking for small coins and komanam.. the piece of white used to be tied to the loins.
I too was such an urchin decades ago
I have a poignant tragic memory about this Avaniavittam komanam thendal..the memory is more than fifty five years old.
After going the round in the entire Agraharam my collection in half anna and one anna coins would have been about a rupee and a half.
To avoid pilferage of my precious treasury by sisters and cousins I had hidden myself behind a wooden door in the nezhi ( the dingy covered first room of an Agraharam house) of the next house.
A paatti (a very old granny) there discovered me and when I confessed about the possibility of my grand collection of money being stolen she asked me to hand over the coins to her for safe keeping.
The innocent me obeyed her instantly.
But after a couple of hours when I went to that mottai paatti to retrieve back my treasure she refused having taken the money from me and even said with a straight face that she had not seen me during the past few days.
I tried to rope in the help of all around but like water poured on hot iron my money had evaporated never to come back.
Had I shared the cash with my sisters or cousins all would have been happy.
One and half rupees could do wonders fifty five years ago.
That paatti is gone decades ago and lakhs or even crores of rupees have passed through my hands later..especially as I was a taxman often engaged in confiscating black money..but the memory of those few coins collected through virtual begging at every doorstep of all the Agraharam houses brings tears of loss and smile of amusement together in my mind.
Those were the days...
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