ஆடிப்பதினெட்டு – ஆடிப்பெருக்கு

Today is aadippadhinettu [18th day of the Tamil month of Aadi]. This is the second most important day in the lives of the Kaveri delta people, after the harvest festival of Pongal.
The relevance of this date and its impact on the society has been waning for the past 3-4 decades, from when the dominance of agriculture on the economy started declining.

Aadi padhinettu, is traditionally the day when sowing begins for the annual crop of paddy. It is when the monsoon on the western ghats have peaked, and in the “pre-karnataka” times, it was when Kaveri was in full spate.

Hopes, dreams, et al gets converted into prayers, on this day. Mother Kaveri is the deciding parameter in whatever decision is taken later in the year, be it buying a cow, or getting a bigger piece of land, making some jewellery, sending children to school, getting daughters married, and what not! If she fails, or if she overflows, it is end of story for us.

I remember, early in 90s we flock to Chinthamani Padithurai or Amma Mandapam, and some of us adorn Her with manjal, kumkumam, new bangles and flowers. It would be a great sight to stand over the Kaveri paalam, and look down on the west. She would look like a huge golden saree[thanks to the setting sun] with red double side border[thanks to vermilion from CP and AM]!! The newly wedded of that year, preserve their marriage garlands and offer it to Kaveri to keep it in safe custody and bless them with success prosperity and peace throughout their lives.

Kalandha saadham is the neivedhyam for her that day. Akkaravadisal, Puliyanjadham, thengaisadham, elumichambazha saadham, with karuvadam, poricha appalam, more molagai, all in Her name.

Baloon, peepee, kalar kannadi, pori kadalai, all are default in the shopping basket!! By abt 6.25 all of us go on the kaveri paalam and turn eastwards facing the railway line. Brave youths board the 6.30pm office train at TiruchyTown Station and climb to the roofs of the compartments and as the train passes over the river, they keep diving one by one from that height, and the one with a clean dive will get a huge round of applause from us. ;)

What great days they were!!

The last Adi18 I was at home was in 2001. I cannot forget that day, it fell on Aadi Vellikizhamai, I went to Tiruvanaikovil to have Akilandeshwari darshan. While returning, on the bridge, what I had was the most painful sight.

The mother, after feeding her children for thousands of years, got all her milk dried up. I parked my vehicle, got out on to the bridge, cried aloud. [I don’t know how and why I did that, I hadn’t done for a long long time then].
Was it because
she lay bare, like a desert, without a drop of water or
she lay bare watching her children cry around her or
she lay bare hoping to show some water to those who were digging deep to see some water to offer the manjal, kumkumam. [All those less hopefuls just strewed then on the sand] or
I am going away from here in a couple of weeks, to go out and look for greener pastures or
the thought that I am abandoning my mother when she is no more productive?

This year, after a long time, we have had a nice monsoon, but still there seems to be no water from Mettur on Aadi perukku. Though late, let us pray for the water to reach in time for the crop raising this season. Hoping for better rains thorugh the years to follow, and the Mother to get back to form and feed her children like usual.

Flash news: Updated on Aadi 18, 2005, 16:45 GMT
Report from Trichy says, there has been water flowing through Kaveri, after a gap of abt 5 years. The chaps who used to jump from trains have got old now, and the young chaps dont know how to do it, so that part was missing. But they were jumping from the bridge on to the river. And more importantly, there has been a huuuuge crowd visiting the river today, and trafic remained blocked for hours around the area. People flocked in thousands of cars[yes, the automobile cars, not the carts], this being the first real aadi 18 since the neo-economy-driven-propsperity hit Trichy.
சுடச்சுட மாலைமலர் ரிபோர்ட்