Two sons return to their dead father's village to keep alive memories, and are the only ones living in the crumbling hamlet, discovers A Ganesh Nadar.
Sekkarakkudi panchayat in the Thoothukudi district of southern Tamil Nadu takes in the villages of north, south and central Sekkarakkudi. And beyond these three hamlets is Meenakshipuram.
The road weaves slowly as it loses texture and soon collapses to a muddy trail. At the end of the trail you see abandoned homes that are slowly collapsing thanks to the relentless Sun and termites who are having a field day.
None of the houses is inhabited except one, which has two brothers.
"We had left this village years ago," says Ravi, 48, the elder brother. "My stubborn father lived here all alone for decades after our mother passed away. He used to cook his own meals and sometimes visit us in Thoothukudi. Last month he passed away so we decided to keep his dream alive and have moved back to the village."
The two brothers have moved back with 22 heads of cattle. A pair of cows to give them milk and 20 bulls for rekla, or bull racing, in Tamil Nadu. It is usually a part of the village temple festival.
Rekla bulls are highly prized and one that wins races can sell for anything between Rs 200,000 and Rs 500,000. Bulls otherwise sell for around Rs 50,000.
There is no water in the village and so the bulls walk five km every day to the nearby Sekkarakkudi village to drink water and graze.
"My family is still in Thoothukudi, they didn't want to come back with me," says Ravi.
Ganapathy, 40, the younger brother, says he had studied up to the 10th standard while the elder one had studied up to the 7th standard. Ganapathy worked as a driver in Thoothukudi and his family still lives there.
Surprisingly there is a water tank with a capacity of 50,000 litres -- unsurprisingly there was no water in it. Water is pumped here from a well in a village five km away.
The writing on the tank was not legible. We could not make out when the tank was built. "The year 2000, I think, not sure," says Ravi.
Their father Kandasamy Naicker, 73, passed away last month. He had been living here all alone while the rest of the villagers left one by one. Lack of water, undependable rains and the sweltering heat had driven the villagers away.
The villagers could not sell their land as there was no one to buy it. A few lucky ones sold out to wind farm companies, literally making a windfall in the process.
The rekla bulls are tied up in the sun. "Tying them in the shade makes them lazy," explains Ganapathy as he gets ready to walk them to drink water and graze. "We will be back before sunset," he says as he sets off.
"I will cook the meals and wait for him," says his elder brother. There is no television or radio in the house. Ravi owns a simple mobile phone, not a smart phone. "My children have smartphones," he says.
Termites are taking over and there is no vegetation as the heat and lack of water discourages plants except the very stubborn ones.
"Sometimes water comes in the tank but the last two days there has been no water and so I will have to get drinking water for myself and my cows from five km away," says Ravi.
A scattering of giant fans that generate electricity from the wind dot the landscape in place of trees.
They turn slowly but relentlessly, unaffected by the harsh climate, and supply electricity to villages far away who are unaware of the plight of the place where they stand.
Though there is no water in the village, there is electricity. "I pay my bills and so there is power, even if it is in only one house. The wires were put up when the village was full of people, with children playing in the mud," Ravi says with a smile.;
"There is a Perumal and Amman temple here which has its own priests. Villagers from this village and neighbouring villages come here to pray on Tuesdays and Fridays," he says. As it is a Friday there are a couple of cars outside the temple.
