At Narnommalporom Village In (T)irunelveli District : Jai's Jottings

At Narnommalporom Village In (T)irunelveli District

Gayatri and Varun had booked their flight tickets to Tuticorin which was the nearest city to Tirunelveli with an airport. From there they planned to go by car to Narnommalporom village. They boarded the flight at Shimla airport and relaxed in their seats. They had booked business class as the constant travel over the past 4 or 5 days had really taken a toll on both.

They sat on adjacent seats in the flight and Varun said, ‘I forgot to mention this, but now that I think back, there was a minor incident that occurred at Narnommalporom when we were shooting there. It was something quite unimportant and I had completely forgotten all about it. There is a river in the village. We found an ideal spot where the heroine was supposed to jump off the deep end of the river and the hero was supposed to jump in after her and save her life. I was the hero’s body double and was meant to do all the rescue work. Since Anandi was an expert swimmer and diver, we decided to shoot the scene at a genuinely deep end of the river and not use a body double for her. The director felt it would make the shot more authentic. As required, Anandi dived into the deep end, and I jumped in after her. But for some reason I could not find her in the waters for nearly three or four minutes. I found her only after some time and she looked slightly confused. I asked her the reason and she said it was nothing at all and was not worth thinking about.’

‘Was it anything to do with monkeys?’

‘I asked her what had made her uneasy, but she was confused, and she told me to forget all about it. Well, we managed to shoot the scene in one take, and only now I got reminded of that incident. And I don’t think it had anything to do with monkeys.’

Gayatri and Varun fell silent after that. It took them nearly two hours to reach Tuticorin airport. From there they hired a cab to take them to Narnommalporom. The driver of the cab was a rather talkative chap. He asked them, ‘What brings you here?’

Varun said smiling, ‘We are historians working on a project on the old villages of Tamil Nadu. We have been visiting various places. Narnommalporom is also on our list. We are particularly interested in the history of this village.’

The driver said, ‘Then it is best you meet Udayashree patti the woman who knows everything about Narnommalporom. She is the oldest inhabitant of the village. She must be nearly a hundred years old. She knows everything about this place that is worth knowing.’

Varun said, ‘We will surely meet her. Let us see what Udayashree patti has to say about this village.’

The driver grinned and said, ‘To city people like you it sounds like nonsense, but several things happen in the rural heartlands of the country that are unbelievable. Lot of things have happened here sir. This village has a rich history. Even its name was different once upon a time. It was called Aravankolom…’

To Be Continued…

This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023