Ananthakrishnapuram
By: Sushma Kodati
Tags: Tamil Nadu, Work From Home, Life Experiments, Musings, Village Life

To make most of our work from home situation, me and my husband thought about things that we could possibly do due to work from home which we otherwise couldn’t when working from office. And first of such experiments on ourselves was to stay in my husband’s ancestral village AKP. And boy Am I glad that we did it.

As you get off the highway few kilometers before Thirunelveli and travel along the banks of river Tamarabharani, the dusty roads roll off to give way to a quaint little village called Ananthakrishnapuram. The pinnacle of it’s beauty is the Lakshmi Narayana Perumal temple that stands at the crest of the street. We decided to stay at my husband’s ancestral home there for few weeks.

The first thing that struck me about this village was it’s breeze. There is always this beautiful breeze in the village. The breeze, along with it seemed to bring the sounds of birds chirping. I loved spending time with this breeze, these sounds and my husband every morning drinking tea sitting on the thinnai as the sun was rising in the sky. It was an energizing start for our days that we spent there.

Though I had no idea or expectation on how my husband’s ancestral house would be earlier, the house was perfect, just apt for the setting and I couldn’t or wouldn’t imagine it to be any other way than the way it is. The house had enough facilities to live comfortably but not too much to make you feel sluggish. It had everything I would want in a house, it was spacious, it had abundant light and it had good natural ventillation. “The less I need, the better I feel” is the realisation I had for every moment I spent in this house. Living kind of a minimalistic life turns out to be less stressful — less wasteful. It made my every waking moment a consicous one.

I immediately fell in love with temple that stands at the start of the street, the temple where my husband’s ancestors served and still continue to serve. Standing before the diety, a little closer between the therai and the first pillar, I could feel the energy seeping into my body and unsettling me. Owing to covid travel restriction, it has been too long since I felt that way. No matter how much time I spent at the temple, it was almost never enough. I was surprised at how fast I was able to learn new things at AKP. Though this can be due to multiple factors like stress free, distraction free environment, I would like to indulge myself into attributing this to the vibes of the temple.

As though this wasn’t enough, this place was at a drivable distance from various amazing places — both touristy and spiritual. I felt like I was transformed into an alternate reality, a Tamil Nadu I didn’t know existed. The scenaries, wide spaces of land with plantations, lakes, windmills and the blue hills will forever be etched in my mind. Thanks to my dad, he nurtured in me the love for temples. The historic ones that I have visited so far were seldom crowded, fast paced hence not letting me fully enjoy — to soak in the place and it’s vibes. But temples in and around this place were far less crowded, slow placed and majestic with deep significance. I am grateful to have had this experience.

Everything about AKP screams purity. The air, the water, the setting of the place, the ambiance. I kept taking deep breaths as my trip here was coming to an end in a desperate attempt to fill myself with this purity to last in me until my next visit. AKP would easily be one of the best wedding gifts I have receieved so far.

Thanks to my family, I have had the luck to travel a bit since my childhood and have been to multiple cities from Chennai to LA, multiple villages from AP to HP but I haven’t seen a place like AKP yet. Major contribution to this emotion might be due to the timeframe when AKP actually entered into my life, neverthless this place has snatched a part of my heart and I couldn’t be any happier.