Part 2 - Chapter 1
The story of Singarakannan is totally contrary to what one expects from a fisherman's son.
Born to a fisherman and his second wife (whom he had married after the death of the first), Singarakannan grew up entirely on the banks of river Amudhu in a small village called Chirpakalanji. The village previously called Meenthurai had acquired its new name recently because of the wonderfully skilled sculptors who started migrating from various parts of the kingdom and settling in the village. There were two main reasons why sculptors did that. The officially communicated reason was that there were huge rocks on the banks which can be used to carve beautiful statues. But as every migration in history , there was a hidden reason also. In this case though, it was a open secret. Everyone in Chirpakanji knew that their oorarasar swaminathar was an art fanatic and wanted to build a huge museum on the river bank in memory of his wife that would contain ten thousand and one statues of his beloved lady love who had died recently in a terrible earthquake that had shook the village. So the open secret was that the sculptors who did not make a great living , found this as an excellent opportunity to convince the oorarasar to begin the project as soon as possible so that they can get to work. Though so many sculptors had moved into the village, Swaminathar was not convinced if he had found the best talent to get his work done. Moreover another important problem that was running on the back of his mind was that , making such an announcement to build a museum might put himself under pressure from the king Eezhendiran because of the amount of money that will be spent on this. King Eezhendiran who ruled from this side of Amudhu had absolutely no interest in Arts . His aim was to conquer Pavazhanadu someday or the other and become 'the' ruler. So he hated the idea when someone announced that a oorarasar had spent money on developing art in the kingdom. Now if Oorarasar Swaminathar made such a decision and announced it, he knew he would get into unnecessary trouble from the king. But all said, Swaminathar still wanted in the deepest of this thoughts that the ten thousand and one statues to be carved some day or other other and so kept postponing the idea by saying to his Mandiri's and Dhalapathi's that the quality of Sculptors were not good enough. This postponement had been taking place for more than ten years now right since the day his wife died . So all the sculptors who had eagerly moved into the village started becoming jobless and got irritated at the same time. As any community of people who were jobless, irritated and also large in number, they started turning their interest into other useless activities like picking up fights with the fishermen who lived in a few villages in and around Chirpakalanji.
These small petty fights rose gradually into hatred and eventually into hand fights and even further into local mass fights before the oorarasar himself had to involve to settle things down. When asked what the problem was and why such a fight had picked up in the first place and what was the claims of the sculptors, some ingenious sculptor who assumed the position of the leaded came up with the wonderful claim of changing the name of the village from Meenthurai to Chirapakalanji. It was surprising even for the sculptors as to how such a claim had come from thin air. But isn't this a strange trait that one can notice in all human beings. Why only human beings? Even the trait is visible in a lot of animals. The very fact that somebody is fighting for you makes it reasonable to accept any claim made on behalf of you. The logical implications are not cared for. The reality is thrown to the dogs. The only emotion that takes over is pride and hence you start feeling that the claim itself originated in your own head and slowly start thinking that it is rightful to fight for your claim and if the situation calls for it, even die. Thus the sculptors who started with petty fights with the fishermen now had a bold reason to fight for. They all in unison felt that Meenthurai rightfully belonged to them and hence should be renamed as Chirpakalanji. This made the fishermen even more angry and their anger blew out of proportions when the oorarasar accepted to the name change request. No one could understand why such a change was even required in the first place. But the head of the fishermen community who happened to be Singarakannan's father maintained a cool head and convinced the fishermen that this was not worth fighting for. Most fishermen protested initially, but later after hours of talks with the head accepted that there was not much in a name and they will find their own ways to prove better than the sculptors in the development of the village and the kingdom as a whole. This even surprised the sculptors as they were expecting a bigger fight with the fishermen . They thought the constant fights with the fishermen was an opportunity to make the Oorarasar Swaminathanaar look up and find that they were jobless and eventually make him revive the ten thousand and one statue idea of his.
A decade had passed since the migration and the sculptors were still jobless. To great surprise, some of them had even turned fishermen. There was no talks of the big grand museum anymore. The number ten thousand and one itself had become a joking point of the common man. For instance, a young boy who played on the river banks with his friends would steal his friend's kite. When his friend demanded him to give it back, he would look up far far beyond and say ' it is in the ten thousand and one museum'. And that in their language meant, it is gone!
Singarakannan, the son of the head of fishermen community Giridharan was whom we started this story with but in course of time had to digress to set up the surroundings . A naughty boy by nature, Singrakannan grew up on the banks of Amudhu. He started accompanying his father to the fishing at the age of seven and the very first day he went sailing towards the center of the deep and boundarayless Amudhu, he become obsessed with the blue. It was his first experience to witness what the word huge and boundaryless really meant. The scene that he saw that night when he lied down on the wood of the boat and looked above was simply amazing. The blemishless skies spread all over gave a feel of a huge dark black blanket ready to fall over the world anytime. 'Aah... what a powerful fall that would be ... oh god , please don't make the skies fall down' prayed young singarakannan. And even more head spinning was when he looked to his left and right. Amudhu was as silent as it could get. As far as he could see, it was only water. His father had once said 'Singara, this is not water that we go into everyday. It is gold as far as we fishermen are concerned'. Though Young Singara did not understand how this could be related to gold, he developed a desire to go into the middle of Amudhu as soon as possible. And now he was there. Right at the point. The exact center of Amudhu. Or so it seemed. How can you pin point the center of a boundary less experience? Singarakannan was not only excited. That day brought a god like picture into his mind. He had heard his mother say that the incomprehensible is the god and from the vast expanses of the sky and water and the meeting place of both at the horizon that he was viewing, he was pretty sure that all this bigness and beauty combined should have something to do with god. Something.
Years passed and Singara turned into a strong young man. He wall tall and was handsome. He understood the nuances and tricks of fishing and whenever he went into Amudhu, the fishermen community was certain that he would come back with a price catch – gold. Though he was the best at what he was doing, though he enjoyed every moment of being in Amudhu looking for huge fishes, there was something these days that was affecting him internally. 'Is it the fights between the fishermen and the sculptors?' he would ask himself. ' May be.. but why should that bother me so much. Why am i not getting peace of mind? What is this mental block that stops me from doing anything useful. And more importantly, why is it that i start losing interest even in Amudhu these days? It is absolutely true that i love being in Amudhu. But still, it is not the same these days as it was even an year back. What could be the reason? Or should i ask myself 'who could be the reason?' '
Well , when a young man starts asking himself such questions, there could be only one answer to it. In the case of Singara, the object of the answer had presented itself a in front of him a few days back – Maithreyey, the most beautiful princess Eezham had ever witnessed!
