Nagalapuram - The Town of the Talk

The king asked his chief minister Iyer, “Mr. Iyer, Do you have any details around why the Pandyas shifted their capital from Korkai to Madurai? Why did they move from Madurai to Tenkasi again? Would you be able to do some research tonight and come back to me with the details tomorrow?”

“Sure, Your Majesty! I did hear about the confusion that is bothering you these days. It’s a good idea indeed. We don’t need to do everything in one shot. We can have two capitals for now,” suggested the chief minister.

“Wow! You got to know about that as well? What sharp ears you have!”

The chief minister smiled.

***

The palace in the town has given a feeling to the people of the town that they have an illustrious history. As Nagalapuram was on the northern border of the country, the Ettayapuram King built a palace here as well. He wanted to have dual capitals initially. That’s why he built a palace here. He built a tunnel connecting the two towns as well. Someone played a spoilsport. The town that would have been one of the two capitals remained the border check-post forever. The tunnel is closed as well.

When Tirunelveli district was bifurcated into two districts in 1986, the southern part was called Tirunelveli district and the northern one Thoothukudi district. The people of Nagalapuram would have loved to call it Nagalapuram district. They strongly believe that their town has that heritage, and it deserves that attention. However, they didn’t even have a bus station at that point in time so that was their priority then. And that remains their priority to date. The next thing they are unhappy about is, their town could have been at least a Taluk capital (Taluk is an administrative subdivision within a district). Even that pride was taken away by its southern neighbor Vilathikulam. At least a union/block capital (Union/block is a sub-division within a Taluk)? Even that was taken away by its northern neighbor Pudur. There are many Pudurs in Tamil Nadu. So, each Pudur is prefixed with something, mostly a neighboring town’s name. This Pudur used to be called ‘Nagalapuram Pudur’. Suddenly they had some problem with it. They started introducing it as ‘Vilathikulam Pudur’. That’s how Nagalapuram lost everything it deserved.

There is only one thing they can do to save themselves from all these humiliations. They have to claim all their lost reputation. For that, everyone from the town should get educated well and occupy powerful seats in the government and the private sector. The town has to do everything necessary for that. When they say ‘the town’, it is not just Nagalapuram. It includes the surrounding pattis (villages) like Pallivasalpatti, Goundanpatti, Pudupatti, etc. When they say ‘the people of the town’, it is not just those who live in the town right now. It includes all the people that lived in the town in the last 400 years and their descendants, even those who left the town. A Nagalapuram man or woman is not like those from other places. As they say, you can take them out of Nagalapuram, but you can’t take Nagalapuram out of them. Wherever they are, their mind should be here, whether they have left their family here or otherwise.

Unfortunately, that love for the town has died down in the last twenty-thirty years. That’s why they are unable to claim the lost reputation now. The monthly ‘town’-hall meetings were replaced with the street meetings, which had participation from only the relevant street people, meaning only people from a particular caste. Yes, like in all other towns in India, they also had a separate street for each caste. At some point in time, they realized, divided, they will never be able to rise again. Now the ‘town’-hall meetings are back. The love for the town is back as well. Have you met people who tattoo their town name on their chest anywhere else on the plant? You can meet them here.

A lot of big resolutions were passed in the first meeting itself. A library, a police station and a college were the top three resolutions. Each one was assigned to a taskforce. Each task-force had people from all walks of lives. They included someone from public services, a politician, a businessman, and so on. Many people volunteered to donate their lands and to collect money from ‘their’ people living all over the country. Needless to say, it included people from the surrounding villages as well. They all identify themselves as people of Nagalapuram. So, no surprise! Everything moved per the plan and all three of them got done in time.

The library taskforce was headed by a businessman by name Aandi. The library was started in a rented place first. Aandi had his son Cheliyan donate his favorite books to the library on the day of inauguration in front of the entire town. Seeing that, people ran to their homes then and there and brought all their old books and donated them to the town library.

An old man from Sankaralingapuram, not very pleased with what Aandi did, said, “I never thought this was possible. This Aandi could have indicated that we could also donate old books. I would have brought a truckload from my village. Anyway, I will do that tomorrow.”

Next few days, the library received loads of books from students and their parents. Kalidasan, who goes by a different name – pen name outside the town, became a writer, publisher and owns a bookstore as well in Chennai. He sent a truckload of books to the library.

“Who is this new fellow? Like a mushroom from yesterday’s rain!”

Some rich people didn’t like his sudden popularity and donated more truckloads of books to beat his record. Now the rented place was not enough to house all the books.

The entire town met the MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly). They gave a petition requesting for the police station and college. He took them all to the minister, who is in charge of the district. The minister got an appointment with the chief minister for three people from the town. After a lot of infighting, they decided to send Aandi from the town, a journalist from Pallivasalpatti, and a retired police officer from Pudupatti. Now both the police station and college are functional in temporary buildings.

Now the town is waiting for the right time to raise its voice to shift the union/block capital from Pudur to here, then the Taluk capital in the medium term and then district capital in the long term. That’s the plan. They wouldn’t be content even if it is made the state capital or the national capital. They are that greedy when it comes to their town’s pride.

***

Cheliyan did his BE (Bachelor of Engineering) in Computer Science and then did his MBA in Information Technology. He is the first-generation graduate in his family.

Aandi’s words of wisdom still ring in his head: “We can’t claim our town’s rightful place only by planting our people in politics, administration and in traditional businesses. We need to have someone big – really big – in the private sector. Someone like Tata or Birla. They are the ones who can change maps. They can attract industries to whichever place they like. They can dictate terms to governments. We need someone like that from our town.” He turned to Cheliyan and asked, “Can you be that tycoon one day?”

Cheliyan just smiled and said, “Why not?”

Here he is. He went to Bangalore just after his MBA, joined a small company, became the CEO’s pet within a short period of time, went abroad, became big, came back to India and founded his own company in Chennai. He used his global contacts to grow very quickly. His company became one of the top 5 technology companies in India.

He once made a charged statement in the press: “I regret my decision to start this company in Chennai. I could have easily chosen Bangalore. That is the city that gave me everything. I have most of my well-wishers out there. I still chose Chennai because it’s so difficult for me to not love Chennai. I feel at home here. It’s because of my love for this land, I did what I did. But I am finding it increasingly difficult to run my business here. It’s become too corrupt to do any business here. For everything, they want money. We are considering moving the headquarters to Bangalore soon.”

Next morning, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu met him in his Adyar residence, and they both released a joint statement.

“The government of Tamil Nadu will have a special committee headed by the minister of Information Technology to work with Mr. Cheliyan in the next few weeks to address all his concerns. We wouldn’t like to lose even an inch of what is our own to another state.”

With Cheliyan’s growth, his hometown Nagalapuram was becoming richer by the day as well. The young boys and girls of the town have someone to look up to – to have bigger dreams.

In another press conference recently, he said, “Managing costs is becoming increasingly difficult. Other countries are quickly catching up. Soon, countries like the Philippines and Poland would be able to supply better human resources for lesser cost. It’s time we came out with innovative solutions to keep our costs low and stay relevant in this business. TCS and Wipro have opened their development centers in Kochi, Infosys has one in Mysore, Cognizant in Coimbatore. That’s the way to go. Expanding in tier 2 cities is the answer to all our cost questions.”

His dad keeps reminding him, “Cheliya! Today, you are in a position that we all wanted to see you in. You can change the maps of any city or town. You have to keep your promise to me and our town. I saw your press conference today. Why don’t you make our town your tier 2 destination?”

People back in Nagalapuram started talking about it too.

The next day, newspapers started speculating about this.

“Is Nagalapuram, the remote small town in the down south, becoming a tech hub?”

“Is this Cheliyan’s dream come true for his hometown?”

“Who is deciding the location of the tier 2 development center in this public limited company? Is it his business colleagues or family members?”

It quickly developed into a near reality. The press and people started talking about different things the town will start seeing in the next few months, the new reality it has to get used to, a huge checklist that needs to be checked fully before realizing the dream of becoming a tech hub, and so on. The real estate investments poured in. The roads quickly became better. The minister in charge of the district kept visiting the place often.

Cheliyan travels all around the world all through the year. But the third week of January, when Tamil Nadu celebrates Pongal, he is in his hometown. He has managed to do this all his life except for one year due to a really unavoidable situation. This Pongal week, he is there. He is not reachable to his colleagues and clients during this one week. He read a lot about what was going on back in his hometown all this while. Witnessing it first-hand felt different.

The dusty street that he grew up on has changed completely with the new cement roads. He grew up playing Kabaddi and Cricket in that street, which is ruled out now. It’s totally a different street now. It looks like a European street. He used to think in his childhood if his town would ever become a posh town like the ones that he reads about in English novels. That has become a reality now.

‘This is what I dreamt all my life. It’s a reality now. But, do I like this change? Hasn’t my street lost its charm with all these changes?”

Like everyone else he woke up earlier than usual on Pongal day. He took a shower, wore his traditional dhoti and came out to see the kolams (decorative art drawn on the ground) drawn in front of each house. It’s a treat to watch. This year, he could see a lot of media people with cameras in his street. It’s not that he is shy of the media or camera. But somehow, he is not able to enjoy this attention. This is his street. He grew up here. Nobody cared what he did here all this while. Suddenly not just him, his entire town was getting this unwanted attention. He just walked a few blocks with his brother and got back home. The kolams looked different on the cement floors than the muddy ground. They looked better. But something was missing.

On ‘Kaanum Pongal’ day, two days after Pongal, he goes to all his relatives’ and friends’ house to meet them and catch up on things that he missed in the last one year. This time, he went to Kali’s house first. Kali’s uncle welcomed him with his typical big smile.

“Thanks to the hype created by you. The real estate price has suddenly gone up like crazy here. Next Pongal, most people in this street would have moved out of this street. They are getting chased out. Not literally. They are being offered irresistible prices to their houses and lands, so nobody wants to miss this opportunity. People want to make hay while the sun shines. You are the sun! But I am not going to sell. This is the house we have been living in for many generations,” he sounded a bit frustrated too.

When he walked out of Kali’s house too, there were media people with their cameras. He just ignored them all – it’s not very difficult for him to ignore them like that – got into the car and got back home.

“Dad! Isn’t this what we all wanted all these years? But I have started wondering if our town really needs this growth. I am even thinking if this is what real growth is.”

***

It’s that much-awaited press conference. Cheliyan’s press conferences are always fun to watch. When he speaks everyone listens – both inside the company and outside. It’s a public limited company, but it’s still run like a private limited one. When one person has more than 70% stakes how else would it be run! He came in an unusual attire this time. He was wearing a white and white dhoti and shirt with a white towel around his shoulders.

“Wow! Here is a CEO of one of the top 5 technology companies in India, dressed like a Tamil politician… That makes it very easy for us to guess what he is going to announce today. Let’s go back to our correspondent in Nagalapuram, capturing the mood of the small town where this hero was born and grew up – the town that is being talked about a lot in the last few months. Yes, let’s hear the talk of the town from the horses’ mouth…” yelled a press lady straight into the camera.

“Yes. We are very happy and proud of him. He is our pride. He is going to put our town on the world technology map today. We are all eagerly waiting for the announcement,” a middle-aged man enjoyed his bite to the national television.

Attention quickly shifted to the Chennai press conference:

“We have been operating out of just one city in Tamil Nadu. As a growing organization with a promising future, we need to think beyond Chennai. So, here you go. I am thrilled to announce the second development center that is going to be operational in 2 years from now. We are going to add another dot to the world technology map. Do you know where it is going to be? Yes, you are close. The second development center of this futuristic technology giant is going to be in the erstwhile capital of the Pandya kingdom. Yes, it’s the historical Madurai. If everything goes fine, it could become our headquarters as well, sometime in future.” 

***