Sammelan
Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu The vast vistas of green fields and puddles of water slightly begin to come to life with lights of the day break, as the cock raises the alarm for the sun rise. The stray kids in their torn shorts and some with shirts, while some without them, come on the streets and the lanes. With a stick in their hands, and a tire to roll, these kids, completely oblivious of the early morning schools and education are busy playing and making merry. The “lady of the house” comes out, splashes water on the ground and around the verandah and then she mops it all up. She then sits down comfortably in her “madisaru”, a traditional Tamil Iyer way of wearing a saree, and starts putting the “kolam”. Down the lane, the sounds of M. S. Subbalaskhmi’s “Suprabatham” fill the atmosphere and just add the feeling of a serene morning to the whole proceedings. These sounds emerge from the house of the most-respected Brahmin leader of the village. His Name is Seshadri Iyer