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Stranger than fiction

IN WHITE The village that avoids other colours

Wherever you look, people are dressed in white. You may think the people of Ezhandaikulam (a village near Srivilliputtur) have a strange sartorial taste. But there’s a story behind that. And, an old woman gives the details.

Three hundred years ago, Bhommi’s husband was falsely implicated in a theft case. Unable to bear the humiliation, he committed suicide. With his innocence proved after his death, Bhommi, in a white sari, ordered everyone to wear white as atonement, and added that anyone who did not would face great misery. After this terrible pronouncement, she immolated herself. To this day, a majority of the villagers take the legend seriously.

This anthropological quirkiness was unearthed by Rajanarayanan, the on-field reporter for the Thursday edition of ‘Nadanthathu Enna’, a Monday-to-Thursday programme on Vijay TV that presents shocking, but true stories.

‘Nadanthathu Enna’ is presented by Gopinath from the studio. On Thursdays alone, he is joined by Rajanarayanan, talking to people with unusual stories. He refrains from passing judgments, and stops with interviewing people.

As he hails from Kaladakurichi in Tirunelveli, most of the stories come from that district and its surrounding areas. Rajanarayanan has also written two novels, both of which are related to Tirunelveli. While ‘Lingam’ discusses the lives of dons from the district, ‘Krishanveni’ is about a girl from Papanasam who died an untimely death and the strange events that followed it.

Rajanarayanan sometimes gets involved in the lives of the people whose stories he tells. A resident of Mukudal, Sangli Murugan’s hands and legs had been chained for 27 years. The reason: he was a kleptomaniac, driven to stealing small objects. Prakash, the District Collector ensured the youngster was freed, after Rajanarayanan brought this cruelty to his notice.

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