A Gloomy Encounter in July - Paperback

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by Vembadian(pen Name) Vembadi Pitchairaju (Author)

Kamban and Manavalan are friends in the hostel studying for a degree course at the college. He came and wanted to see Manavalan's village. He accompanied him in one of his biscuits, and they boarded the run for the express train from Chennai Egmore Railway station. The following day, they reached Trichy.
"Oh, have we reached Trichy?" wondered Kamban, hurriedly packing his suitcase. Both took their suitcases and got off the coach. Slowly, they walked onto the platform and reached the exit gate. They came out after the Ticket collector collected their tickets. They slowly left Tiruchirappalli railway station and reached the bus stop. From there, they got the city bus to the Central Bus Terminus. The bus reached the terminus within a few minutes, and both got off. Both had tasty ginger tea in a neatly maintained tea stall on the platform. Then, they moved towards the Salem bus corridor to go to Manavalan's village.
Both heard one conductor shout, "Musiri, Thottiyam, Namakkal, Salem; Musiri, Thottiyam, Namakkal, Salem."
Upon hearing that, Manavalan pointed to the Salem bus, "Kamba, we will get onto that bus."
Slowly, both moved towards that bus and boarded. They put their suitcases in the luggage loft and sat comfortably in the three-seater seat. Both talked about the spacious bus terminus. Kamban appreciated the cleanliness and said, "Long live Swachh Bharath."

"Oh, my God! How big it is! The trees and plants on both sides of the road and the canopy formed by the trees are marvellous. After seeing the greenery of magnificent beauty, even an ordinary educated person travelling this way will become a poet and start authoring poems about the river Cauvery, surrounded by trees and plants with colourful flowers. Manavala, the road I must travel to my village, is full of red soil lands. You could not see greenery at all. Up to the eyesight could reach, and you could see red soil lands only, dry lands without water with hundreds of feet deep wells. I like this place very much. Can we get down to spending some time? By sitting here, we could watch the beautiful flow of Cauvery water."

After crossing the North Palaru canal, both walked ahead and reached Kulirsolai village. Besides the village, the canal flows from west to east, surrounding the entire south and east sides of the village.
Both happily entered the village. Stopped for a while near the school playground.
"This is Lord Muruga's temple. The nearby building is the primary school. That is the house of the late Congress MLA, Mr. Ramalingam," Manavalan said to Kamban.
"Okay"
Suddenly, a figure dashed past them, shouting at the top of his lungs, 'Dum, dum, today my marriage, today my marriage, today my marriage, today my marriage, today my marriage, today my marriage, today my marriage, today my marriage, today my marriage, today my marri'. The unexpected outburst caught Kamban off guard, leaving him in awe!
The person wore torn-out dirty pants and a shirt, shouting at a high pitch," Friend Guru, please arrange mango leaves' strings (thoranam). Keep banana plants with an enormous-sized unripe banana bunch with trees on both sides of the entrance of the pandal. ................."
"He looks like Valayapathy," exclaimed Kamban, with jaw dropped!
Both stopped for a while. Manavalan suddenly became sad, and his eyes moistened.
"Kamba, do you know him early?" asked Manavalan, with tears rolling in his eyes.

"Yes, I know him very well," he said gloomily. "He studied MA in Tamil literature in his second year when I joined my first-year degree course. He is an outstanding poet. We all called him the 'King of poetry'.I remember that he had read excellent poems. Unforgettable! Manavala, what happened to him? Why are tears in your eyes?"

Read and discover what happened to the 'king of poetry' and why. ?