Lost and Found

This is not the first time they are coming to Madurai. Most of their relatives are here. So, they keep coming here every now and then. Most times, Muthu’s dad comes alone for family events like weddings, births and deaths. Sometimes, his mom also joins his dad if it is in a closer relative’s house. Once in a year or so, all of them come together if it is in a very close relative’s house.

Last time, they came here six months back for Alagar uncle’s wedding. Muthu was not even two years old at that time. He wouldn’t remember anything from that visit. For his parents, this visit is different from the regular visits to the city as everything looks different during this time. When they come here other times, the buses come till the ‘Periyar Bus Station’, which is in the heart of the city. Is it really the heart of the city? Can’t say. Like all Indian cities, Madurai has many hearts too. Anything other than the outskirts is the heart.

During this time, the buses are stopped 5 kilometers before the city limits. So, Muthu and his parents got down there and had to walk all the way till Simmakkal, which is another heart of the city on the bank of river Vaigai, where Alagar uncle and most of their relatives live.

The walk is not that difficult because the entire stretch is full of makeshift shops and a lot of activities. There is a huge circus tent. They have written ‘Bombay Circus’ in both Tamil and English. Muthu couldn’t read either of them. Neither does his dad or mom. There are exhibitions, giant wheels and a lot of attractive sights on the way.

Muthu is thrilled seeing all of them. As far as his memory goes, this is the first time he is seeing all these in his life. He has seen this twice in the past. But he won’t know because he is just three years old now. Sometimes, he is walking on his own holding his dad’s hands and other times his dad carries him on his shoulders. Every kid has something or the other toy in their hand. So, Muthu also wants something now. He cries showing a flute in another boy’s hand. His dad immediately buys him one. He doesn’t do that all the time. He is in a good mood today. Muthu stopped crying and started walking on his own from this point. Just that he is not able to walk as fast as his parents do. So, they have to walk slower for him.

Every ‘Chithirai Festival’, Muthu’s family would be in Alagar uncle’s house without fail. The ‘Chithirai Festival’ in Madurai is not just Madurai’s festival. It’s the entire southern Tamil Nadu’s festival. ‘Chithirai’ is the first month in the Tamil calendar. The festival is celebrated during the entire month of ‘Chithirai’. The peak of the celebrations is the wedding of Lord Meenakshi with Lord Shiva and Lord Alagar’s (Vishnu) travel to Madurai for the wedding.

When Lord Alagar’s chariot enters the city limits, thousands of people gather around it and they follow him until he reaches the bank of river Vaigai to hear that the wedding already took place even before he reached, and he heads back to his place in anger for not waiting for him. Stopping by in multiple places on the way and reaching the wedding venue late is actually his mistake. But as the brother of the bride, he expected everyone to have waited for his arrival. He gets angry because nobody cared. This is an enactment that happens every year. This is the scene that the entire South Tamil Nadu gathers in Madurai to witness every year. Muthu and his family are one of the many thousand families that have come to watch it this year like many years in the past.

When they reach Alagar uncle’s house, everyone is ready in their new clothes to go and receive Lord Alagar. As soon as they see Muthu and his parents, some of them are excited and happy while others are impatient to leave as soon as they can.

“Come, come. How long? It’s almost time. Hurry. Let’s go fast. It will take another half an hour in this crowd,” hurries Alagar uncle.

“Hey ladies, take care of all girl children. Gents, you guys should take care of all boy children,” instructs Alagar uncle’s dad Perumal thatha.

“So, uncle, you will take care of you son?” asks Alagar uncle’s new wife Munima aunty.

“Hahaha,” everyone laughs for the joke.

The tension in the crowd eases. Still people who are walking fast on the front turn back every now and then and hurry the laggards to walk faster. “Quick, quick. Don’t walk like a swan.”

15 minutes into the long walk, Muthu’s dad starts shouting, “Hey, Muthu! Where are you? Muthu! Muthu! Muthu!”

No answer.

People in the group get tensed and they also go in all directions looking for Muthu.

“Muthu! Muthu! Muthu!” they shout this name many thousand times. Still no use. No answer.

Every ‘Chithirai Festival’, a number of kids are lost in crowd and most of them are found generally. The police keep announcing about missing children with identifications on the mic. People who find such kids bring them to the police station and hand them over to the police. The police then announce about the found children with their names and/or identifications on the mic. The parents would come and collect their lost kids. They announce about kids lost and found throughout the city in all police stations. So mostly no kid is lost forever. There have been stories of rich people not having children adopting such lost kids. But that’s not that common.

Muthu’s dad goes to the nearby police station and complains, “Sir, I lost my three-year-old son. His name is Muthu. Please help me find him, sir.” He cries like a baby begging them with folded hands.

The police officer shouts at him, “Aren’t you responsible enough? Where did you lose him? What color clothes was he wearing? Would he able to tell his name? Would he be able to tell your name? Where are you from?”

“I doubt, sir. He started speaking very late. Even now he struggles to say his name. Will I get him, sir? Please sir. Help me, sir. I am a poor man. I don’t know how to find him, sir.” His tears wouldn’t stop.

Muthu’s parents stay there in Alagar uncle’s house for many days and search in every nook and corner of the city. No use. They come back to their village empty handed. The family that went as a three-member family comes back as a two-member family after the festivals!

Muthu’s mom cries, cries, and cries for days, months and years after that. She never hears about Muthu after that.

*

30 years later…

Muthu’s native place Boothalapuram is 4 hours away from Madurai. 95 kilometers used to take 4 hours by bus those days. It is 13 kilometers away from Nagalapuram, a lively small town in the region.

Mookkan’s entire clan reaches Nagalapuram tonight. When they find a town like Nagalapuram, they stay there for few months and feed their families by making use of the resources they are able to access during those few months. When they get bored, they leave the place and find another Nagalapuram.

Mookkan has two wives and 12 kids. He is the head of the clan now. His dad died few years back when they were roaming around near Chennai. After that he took over the reins. He was named ‘Chappai Mookkan’, which means ‘flat nose guy’. That got shortened as ‘Mookkan’ later.

Unlike the immobile people, his ‘kuravar’ tribe doesn’t have too much trouble naming their kids. They just go by some of the features of the baby. If the baby is a boy and light skinned, they name him ‘Vellaiyan’, which means ‘white guy’. If it is a girl, ‘Vellachi’, which means ‘white girl’. Likewise, if the baby is short, ‘Kattaiyan’ or ‘Kattachi’ (short guy or short girl). If the baby keeps crying, ‘Aluvaan’ or ‘Aluvayi’ (cry boy or cry girl). There are even names like bus, bullock cart, flood, etc. It all depends on what happened when the baby was born or whatever verb or noun comes to the head of the clan’s mind at that point in time.

In the last 40-50 years, Mookkan has gone to almost all parts of Tamil Nadu. Actually, he is not even 35 yet. But he feels like 50 because he looks like 50 and nobody in his clan has any sense of time. He felt something different about Nagalapuram. He has seen this place in a different form. Yes, he has seen every city, town and village in 100,000 square kilo meters area in Tamil Nadu and the neighboring states. But this place is different. He remembers something from this place. Very vaguely.

Yes, it is Muthu’s Nagalapuram. Yes, Mookkan is Muthu.

He started behaving strangely of late. The men and women in his clan started noticing that. The road that went eastwards from Nagalapuram looked familiar. He walked for 2-3 hours on the east. As he walked more and more east, he found it more and more familiar. Finally, he reached Boothalapuram. Something ran in his body. He rewound everything back by 40-50 years (30 years only actually). He connected the dots. Very vaguely.

‘Why did I not think about this all these years? What brought me here now? Have I found my real parents then?’

‘It is the same lake, same banyan tree, same village… Everything looks much smaller than it was 40-50 years ago. Yes, it is a straight road from this temple. Yes, that is my house. Yes, that is my mom.’

‘Amma! I found you. I found me.’

He goes near the house and asks his mom, “Amma! I am feeling very thirsty. Can you give me some water please?”

She goes in and gets him some water. He looks around and tries to dig out some memories in the meanwhile. There are a lot of them coming out from deep within, but nothing clear.

He wanted to tell her she found her son after 40-50 years. He wanted to know where his dad was. He wanted to know about his relatives in the city, especially Alagar uncle, but doesn’t remember his name.

 “Amma! Where is Ayya?”

“What do you want? Why are you asking about him?”

“I know him very well ma. Where is he?”

“Are you mad? He died many years ago.”

He doesn’t want to continue this conversation. He just says, “Okay ma. Sorry. Bye!” and leaves the place immediately.

He comes back to Nagalapuram that night. Everyone in his clan is waiting for him in their tents that they set up on the shores of the Vannikulam lake. It’s a dark new moon night. It is around 9pm. He narrates to his clan the entire story of getting lost, getting adopted by the clan and finding his real mom after 40-50 years. Nobody believes him. But there is one person who believes it. She is a living witness. She doesn’t say a word. He knows that she knows everything. She knows that he has finally found it. They never thought this would happen one day. It has happened now. What next?

Next morning, he wakes up earlier than usual.

“Hey, everyone! We are going to shift our base to a nearby village today. The village that I was talking about last night. We will come back to this place again. But let’s go to my place today.”

“What? Your place, eh? None of us have any place of our own. Wherever we are that day, that’s our place. Today we are here. So, this is our place. Why do you talk like the immobile people suddenly? Something is going wrong with you of late!” says his first wife.

“Come with me and see my mom today. Then talk.”

Some of them look at his mom. She looks as though she has all the answers, but she is not in a mood to talk about anything.

Mid-day, the entire clan reaches Boothalapuram village. They set up their tents near the village lake first. Then he takes the entire clan to his house to meet his mom – real mom – no, first mom.

Muthu’s mom sees him coming towards her house with his entire clan. She just ignores him and goes inside. She still feels something strange inside and looks at the entrance gate. The entire clan is standing there as she elusively expected. She feels something fishy and starts shivering. She calls someone from inside. “Hey, Muthu! Come here.”

‘What? Muthu, ah? I have heard this name. Yes, that’s my name. I used to be called by the same name. How come there is another Muthu now!’

“Amma! We are feeling very thirsty. Can we get some water?”

“No, no. No water here. Go, go.”

“Amma! How many kids do you have?”

Muthu, the new Muthu, shows up now.

“Hey, man! What’s your problem? Every time you come here, you seem to be interested in something that is not related to your business,” the lady shoots back angrily.

“Amma! Tell me. There is a reason why I ask you this question. Please tell me.”

This minute, the lady’s face pales. “What reason? Only one son. Muthu!”

“You had another Muthu?”

This shocks the other Muthu as well.

“Ammaaa!” he cried aloud, “I am that Muthu ma!”

“What? Ayyo! Yes, he looks like my son. Same nose.” Oh, no, this lady is going to faint now. “Hey, Muthu! I am going to faint now. He came back. Oh, my God. I don’t believe this. He is your elder brother, my son. He is the one. He is the one. Ask him where he was all these years. How did he find now?” She just sits there keeping both her hands on her head. She cries uncontrollably for hours together. She picks up from the ‘Chithirai Festival’ episode 30 years back and continues weeping in the same rhythm.

Now Mookkan also cries endlessly.

It infects Mookkan’s mom next. “Amma! This is your son. Take him back. I don’t want him. He is the head of our clan. I will keep his wives and kids with me. I will make his eldest son the head of my clan. You take this fellow. He doesn’t belong to us.”

Now the other Muthu is absolutely puzzled. “Amma! These guys eat everything. How do we integrate him into our family? OK. We can accept him. How about his wives and kids? Will they leave him? If your son is important for you, what about his sons and daughters for him? What do we do with them? I am going mad right now.”

While all this drama is unfolding, the villagers gather in front of the house slowly. They understand what is going on based on the comments made by the senior people who know what happened 30 years back.

No one is able to take control of the situation. There is only crying faces and puzzled faces. No one has a solution to the riddle. A mom has found her lost son after 30 years. Shouldn’t be a moment of joy? No, it clearly isn’t.

Muthu alias Mookkan stands up and delivers his verdict: “See, I found my lost mom after 40-50 years. But this lady is my real mom. She is the one who took care of me all these years. Her husband was my dad. He is no more. So is my first dad. Maybe I was born here. But I was raised as a ‘kuravan’. I would like to remain one and die as one. All I would request my first mom and my brother is this. I will just come here once in a year. I will spend a whole day with you guys. You needn’t even allow me inside your house. I will just stay here. You treat me with your food. I would like to bring my entire clan. If you have a problem with that, I can come alone. I will come on ‘Chithirai Festival’ day every year and go back the next day. I will do this until this poor lady is alive. Maybe for next 10 years. If I am 50, she must be 70. How long would she live?”

“Hey, idiot. You are not 50. You are just 35. I am 58,” she corrects him immediately.

“Oh, okay. Then another 20-30 years!” he smiles.

Muthu’s brother Muthu is not out of the shock yet.