Veppalodai and Kalurni are two adjoining villages a little outside the 'Big' town of Thoothukudi. For the people who lived in Veppalodai or Kalurni, Thoothukudi was and still is a big town, a place where you could buy all that you required to run a household; you could even get ice cream and chocolate there.
My great grandfather who lived in Colombo many many years ago decided to come to India because he wanted to avoid the big fight that was going to take place between the Sinhalese and the Tamils a few years later. Out of all the places he could have gone to in India, he decided to settle down in Thoothukudi and start a modest business there. He bought land in Veppalodai and developed that land into salt pans. The salt produced would then be taken to Sri Lanka on boats and be sold there. For many years later this was the practice till the next generation came into power; salt was then sold to places in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The people of Veppalodai and Kalurni were mostly of christian religion and wanted a church to be built. One of the strongest reasons why they built the church was to protect the saltpans from the ocean. There might have been a strong fear of a Tsunami that could destroy the village and the salt pans. Ever since the church was built, the people of Veppalodai and Kalurni celebrate the 'Kalurni Feast' every year in October. The church has gained so much popularity over the years, that now people from many other villages come to pray in the 'Kalurni' church during the feast time. The people believe that the church even protected them from the recent Tsunami that happened in 2005. Considering that most of the east coast of India was demolished people believed that the 'Kalurni' church protected them.
Pretty much everything revolved around Veppalodai for my family. It was where we entertained guests, where food was plenty and where we could have all the fun in the world. As children we would walk on tall heaps of salt and feel like we were walking on snow capped mountains because of the white colur of salt. When the sun would get a little less harsh my father would take us to the beach and allow us to swim right into the ocean; atleast 100 metres into the sea. This was also where we used to be educated on the various sea creatures; from poisonous sting rays to harmless hermit crabs; from sharp barnacles to blunt star shells; from coral reefs to sea sponges. Sometimes, when we found a sea sponge we would all lie around it and observe miniature crabs, lobsters and prawns trying to find a safe place in the sponge to hide in.
The Kalurni feast, was a time when the whole family would get together in Veppalodai. It was also a time when the favourite dishes of the local people were prepared. It was a time when goats were sarificed and mutton biryani was made in every home in Veppalodai. The food that was cooked for us would include, 'kodal curry', 'rethum sundal', 'pastal curry', 'virunthu chor', etc...I'm not going to explain what each of these dishes entail. For those of you who understand tamil, you might have an idea of what all these words mean. After mass and a heavy meal we would all sleep in the afternoon and then go for a sea bath in the evening. After our sea bath, a lorry carrying fresh water would come to the beach and my cousins and I would have a joint bath, called the community water fall bath. We would all get into our father's 'lungis' after the bath because of the lack of clean clothes we would have carried with us; Somehow, we would all manage to wet all our clean clothes in the sea. Our mother's would tie the lungi for us around our neck and we would all feel like shepherds. After a last game of hide and seek, when the last drop of energy was drained out of every one us we would go home and fall asleep on matresses that were laid out in a row in the long corridor of the Veppalodai house.
My great grandfather who lived in Colombo many many years ago decided to come to India because he wanted to avoid the big fight that was going to take place between the Sinhalese and the Tamils a few years later. Out of all the places he could have gone to in India, he decided to settle down in Thoothukudi and start a modest business there. He bought land in Veppalodai and developed that land into salt pans. The salt produced would then be taken to Sri Lanka on boats and be sold there. For many years later this was the practice till the next generation came into power; salt was then sold to places in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The people of Veppalodai and Kalurni were mostly of christian religion and wanted a church to be built. One of the strongest reasons why they built the church was to protect the saltpans from the ocean. There might have been a strong fear of a Tsunami that could destroy the village and the salt pans. Ever since the church was built, the people of Veppalodai and Kalurni celebrate the 'Kalurni Feast' every year in October. The church has gained so much popularity over the years, that now people from many other villages come to pray in the 'Kalurni' church during the feast time. The people believe that the church even protected them from the recent Tsunami that happened in 2005. Considering that most of the east coast of India was demolished people believed that the 'Kalurni' church protected them.
Pretty much everything revolved around Veppalodai for my family. It was where we entertained guests, where food was plenty and where we could have all the fun in the world. As children we would walk on tall heaps of salt and feel like we were walking on snow capped mountains because of the white colur of salt. When the sun would get a little less harsh my father would take us to the beach and allow us to swim right into the ocean; atleast 100 metres into the sea. This was also where we used to be educated on the various sea creatures; from poisonous sting rays to harmless hermit crabs; from sharp barnacles to blunt star shells; from coral reefs to sea sponges. Sometimes, when we found a sea sponge we would all lie around it and observe miniature crabs, lobsters and prawns trying to find a safe place in the sponge to hide in.
The Kalurni feast, was a time when the whole family would get together in Veppalodai. It was also a time when the favourite dishes of the local people were prepared. It was a time when goats were sarificed and mutton biryani was made in every home in Veppalodai. The food that was cooked for us would include, 'kodal curry', 'rethum sundal', 'pastal curry', 'virunthu chor', etc...I'm not going to explain what each of these dishes entail. For those of you who understand tamil, you might have an idea of what all these words mean. After mass and a heavy meal we would all sleep in the afternoon and then go for a sea bath in the evening. After our sea bath, a lorry carrying fresh water would come to the beach and my cousins and I would have a joint bath, called the community water fall bath. We would all get into our father's 'lungis' after the bath because of the lack of clean clothes we would have carried with us; Somehow, we would all manage to wet all our clean clothes in the sea. Our mother's would tie the lungi for us around our neck and we would all feel like shepherds. After a last game of hide and seek, when the last drop of energy was drained out of every one us we would go home and fall asleep on matresses that were laid out in a row in the long corridor of the Veppalodai house.
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