Sparrows & Immigrants

This summer had a blissful morning stroll through the well laid streets and lanes, lined up with small individual houses at Thirunagar, a quiet suburb in temple town Madurai. In spite of a very short stay, the serene environment brought within me a serene feeling. Is it only me who feels a charm in these streets? Is it because I grew up here, place that was my home and world, shaping me up until my twenties? No, it is not just that, I pause to observe the chirping sparrows & hopping squirrels. It chimes within me that I wish to have these in Bangalore, my current abode, to be able to wake up to sparrows and to walk through lanes lined up with houses unlike walking around towering buildings.

Thirunagar is a well-planned residential area, with wide two laned main streets divided by streetlights at centre. Streets are connected with perpendicular and parallel lanes, ensuring that there is more than one route to reach destination – no chance of any bottle necks. Streets are covered with lined neem trees, home to all the local bird species of mynahs, sparrows, crows and parrots, evenings filled with their cacophony celebrating their return to homes, still unchanged throughout these years. 

Center of Thirunagar is a wide open oval shaped aringar anna poonga (park) with open playground, and a semi-circular area earmarked as the poonga/park with flowering shrubs, see-saws, swings and stone benches.

Poonga has paved walking/jogging track around it, from where one can get the glimpse of Thirupuramkundram hillock, before walking into the siddi vinayagar temple tangent to poonga. Siddi vinayagar temple is different, except for the deity I miss the warmth & connect, the cosiness I have been used to as a child.

Thirunagar too has transformed, it has expanded much beyond the core just like any other place, but the core still remains intact, well mostly. Echoed by Thangarasu annan still running his grocery shop quipped “it is not the same, all educated classes have migrated, the community has changed a lot”. Very true as I can spot a lot of simple farming-based families and UAE settled folks more in the streets. Main streets have many shops, some of them to our advantage with nice small eat-outs pipping hot idiyappams, soft puttus, crispy vadas, bolis and sprouts amidst others. During our recent trips we discovered some nice gems, like the aunty who runs a healthy eat-out shop iyarkai thuligal (Nature Drops) with fresh healthy goose berry juice (my daughter’s fav), vegetable drinks and tasty millet tiffins. After all, Thirunagar is part of Madurai famous for street food.

It is a huge contrast to Bangalore shopping experience, almost every shop owner recognizes you, enquires on wellbeing right from tea kadai (shop) Ravi annan to vegetable shop Pitchaiamma annan. At Thirunagar life still follows the sun, as dusk settles to night, life slows down unlike in Bangalore. Wish to have evenings with family just like how appa used to return from work enjoying sunset enroute. I was surprised to see every eat-out closed on Sunday, it was Sunday for them too – just the opposite of Bangalore wherein Sundays were business days with crowded malls and shopping areas.

It is heartening to see hockey still being continued in the park, kids cycling up with their hockey sticks for practice sessions. It was inspiring to see many people walking/jogging around the park, the Thirunagar I grew up in was not so health conscious, some positive changes. Fresh greens and tender vegetables fresh from farm spread around the park were so inviting, made me wonder what else do you want in life?

I planned all my visits to bank, park, to municipality office by foot and proceeded to do so. But I am easily drained wondering is it me or the sun that is draining me – the distances are just around 1 KM, nothing compared to my jogs in Bangalore. As I walk-by streets, I observe that every street has few houses locked-up, some with basic care by care takers others unkept, with weeds/grass overgrown in their gardens. Probably their migrated owners are not yet ready to part with, Thirunagar might be dearer to them as well. So why do we migrate away from Thirunagar, in spite of its charm? Is it the weather with soaring temperatures, salt content in water (impacts everything from maintenance to cooking) or the unbeatable mosquitoes? I realize that cooking is not so fun as in Bangalore, you are all sweaty in front of the stove just within 30 minutes, leaving me with an undue pressure to wrap up cooking fast. Debating myself I chart details of my upcoming Madurai trip with my Bangalore bred teen daughter. I wish she too enjoys this charm, this environment to stay grounded, close to nature, to just wile away time, to just be an observer, to create her garden in real soil.

As a kid she has enjoyed Thirunagar trips with her cousins, thrilled to buy her treats herself at shops (unthinkable in Bangalore for her age then), playing with neem branches, drawing rangoli in vasal (porch), devouring crispy vadas and healthy soups. But this time with no kids of her age it will require some convincing. Her apartment friends, pool, and Disney plus are more attractive, leaving Thirunagar with less chances. I worry, will she ever have time and appreciate this charm, will she connect with it? Brooding I stop by at iyarkai thuligal, millet tiffin center, aunty introduced her her granddaughter met Dikshika. Dikshika has shifted to Thirunagar from Bangalore as her dad is overseas for work. I engaged in conversation with the cheerful Dikshika, with usual questions and on if she misses Bangalore expecting a yes. Her spontaneous response was “no, I like it here as I can walk to shops, and I love crows that are more here”. Wow !! I high fived with her, here comes the next gen who is able to resonate with Thirunagar 😊.