A view from the terrace of my ancestral home!
Temple of Lord Krishna built by my great grand father!!!Yeah! Koonthankulam is my ancestral home! It is a beautiful village full of greens situated in the district of Tirunelveli!
I have lot of sweet memories about Koonthankulam! when we were kids we used to spend our summer vacations there! We used to have lot of fun playing around as we are 9 cousin sisters and brothers! From morning till evening only fun and also some friendly fights! :P I really miss that good old days!
Koonthankulam is also a bird sanctuary and lot of foreigners and people all around from India visit this place! Farming is the main occupation held out there! The people there lead a very simple life and very down to earth!!
Birds in a lake in Koonthankulam!
Speaking about my ancestrol home it was built some 150 years back and looks like a palace! My mom has six sisters and a brother and all their marriages were held in the home itself as it has a huge hall similar to a marriage hall! There is a temple of lord Krishna which was built by my great grand father and still maintained by my uncle and aunts!The picts below is the hall of my ancestral home where all my aunts and uncle's marriages were held and where we all cousin brothers and sisters spent our vacations playing shuttle and lot more during our vacations!!
Flowers decorated in a brass pot by my aunt who stays there!! Subbulakshmi is her name and she is very talented.. infact all 6 sisters are very very talented and artistik!!
Beautiful rangoli made by my aunt with rice powder!!!Now many of the Tamil movies are shot in my ancestral home and the house has become very popular because of the movies shot there! People who come to see the birds also visit the house to saying that they wanted to see the house where the movie was shot!
A really scary narrow stair case at our ancestral home!!
I'm really proud to be one of the grand daughter of that house and love all my aunts uncle and my 3 cousin sisters Vidhya, Sridevi, Anushiya and my cousin brothers Ramesh anna, Rajesh, Mahesh, Arvind and also my brother Suresh! We all are married now and well settled and all have kids but still make it a point to meet once a year in summer vacations at my ancestral home! :) To know more about Koonthakulam visit here
Nice pics! You have such a huge and marvelous ancestral house. I think your village is lovely too, especially with the birds. Do people still swim in the lake nowadays?
ReplyDeleteNo my friend! people dont swim in the lake now.. coz there are trees in the middle of lake where the birds stay and the water has become dirty! The villagers love the birds that they treat them like their kids :)
ReplyDeleteDear Sudha ,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for stopping by and reading the article on Cheth ( yes indeed, he is Blessed by God , and multi-talented ! I wish him heart felt continued success within his life ). You know Sudha , I am so amazed by these photos of your ancestral home , the region itself looks identical to where I live now ( I live on a small island in Greece , and our family home is over 270 yrs old but it is small, as Greek architecture is not as elegant and as intricate as Indian architecture - which I believe is the greatest in the world ! ) , but your home itself is magnificent! and you are so fortunate to have a temple of Lord KRSNA there , ( I have been studying KRSNA consciousness now for over 30 yrs ) and I guess one can say I am very much a Buddhist within my spirituality . My greatest wish is to someday be able to visit India and Lord KRSNA's temple & to bathe in the rivers of belief :) and see all of the beautiful architecture of India . I wish you and your family continual happiness , joy , health & prosperity & may all of your dreams become realities manifested by the blessed hand of our Lord KRSNA Himself :)
Again, I thank you .
Dear Sudha,
ReplyDeleteThe blog is so marvelous.More, I have visited Koonthnkulam several times and aquainted with Mr. Palpandian, the father of the birds at Koonthenkulam.Along with him once I visited your ancestral home some 5 years back, where I met an old man, who talked a lot about Koonthankukam and its history. But I forgot his name to say now.
Iam a native of Trivandrum, Kerala, a wildlife photographer and member of WWF (world wild life fund) too.I have a number of photographs taken from this birds sanctury. It is a fact that Koonthankulam is the abode of more varient migrated birds than Kerala. Iam thankful to the villagers of Koonthankulam for providing piece & protection to this calm creaturs and thank u also for creating such a blog for the people to know more about the sanctury.
Kindest regards
Mohan Kumar
tvmmohanan@yahoo.com
dear sudha,
ReplyDeleteThis is really amazing. in my state(Kerala) hundreds of such beautiful buildings are being destroyed every day. Some survive because of film shooting.
I am a nature lover residing in Thiruvananthapuram. I wold like to visit Koonthankulam shortly.
My best wishes to you and your whole family.
Binodkamalasanan@gmail.com
nice house.. i have seen similar houses in many tamil movies..
ReplyDeleteHey those were some great pictures! I've been reading your blog very recently, and I just love the whole articles over it. This is Sanjana from Viola Jewels, and I just have few idea's I'd love to share with you! I'd really appreciate if you could get back to me on violajewelsindia@gmail.com as I can't find a way to mail you!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hear from you,
Best Regards - Viola Jewels.
Its looks similar to chettinad architecture.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for comments! :) @quakeboy Lot of movies are shot in my ancestral home too. :)
ReplyDeleteYou have a great blog. It is indeed fantastic to bring the old memories of my mother's home town where I used to go almost every summer when I was a kid. I have vague but pleasant memories. The old houses are all gone - mainly due to family settling down in cities and not living there. I wish one day I could go back there and see some old faces. For now, it is sad that life while beautiful, can pull these abrupt stops.
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to bring a 2 decade old memory back with some great pics and writeup
-Shankar
Dear Sudha,
ReplyDeleteIs there any tea estate near Nagercoil? This is a new piece of information.
Binodkamalasanan@gmail.com
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteYes! There are many tea estates near Nagercoil :)
Dear Sudha,
ReplyDeleteMy name is sudha and I too happen to be a native of Nagercoil..I love my hometown..and am so glad to see the pics and descriptions u hav posted.I ma yet to read all your posts.I have posted many pics of nagercoil in my geni family tree and orkut.And all my friends admire them.
U really are lucky to be born in such a great mansion..glad to see that its kept intact.
Hi... I m so glad to see your blog.. Really so proud about this.. I ve just seen your blog. I know about koonthakulam well and guess who I m. I can give one clue to you. I too be proud in the list of your cousins, and the grand son of Thiru R.Subbarayalu Reddiyar.
ReplyDelete@anonymous,
ReplyDeleteIf my guess is right u r arvind :P am i right :D
Hi Sudha,
ReplyDeleteI am from Moolaikaraipatti near to your home. I appreciate keeping the pictures in your blog. Actually the lake is declared as a Bird Sanctuary by Forest Department and maintained by them. It is very interesting to watch the birds during the winter season.
Hi.... Am so happy to see tis blog...... Even ma native is koonthankulam ly....... but i'm nt sure wether i knw u..... b'cos i'll visit koonthankulam ly for panguni uthiram...... Anyway, am glad to see tis blog and thanks tooo......
ReplyDeleteBy Vishnu
HI,
ReplyDeleteI m anushya from Coimbatore. how are you. I m really happy on seeing your website only by today by the notification of Aravinth. Why you have not told me earlier that you have a blogspot like this. Any how I m so glad to see you atleast in the photo where you have uploaded here. As you told that we are meeting in koonthakulam that too in our ancestors home in a year . . when are you going to come . . I will also make my self available there . . ok . . . take care . . byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
@Anu
ReplyDeleteLast year we were unable to meet coz of our shifting to madras and all :) I was unable to attend kovil kumbaabishekam too for that same reason. Hopefully will meet in this vacation but not sure coz Arjun will be 12th nxt year. i'll call u soon. :)
Looks awesome ....
ReplyDeleteHai i am also from the same village i am really happy that you posted some of the cute pics of the village and your home...........my home is near ur home only..............i am the grandson of Gurunathan and son of kannan.......... hope u will know them............take care
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pics
Santhan
@Cholena Thanx!
ReplyDelete@Santhan Glad you liked the pictures...Except for very few ppl in the village i have no idea about any of them..I'm damn sure my parents would know about them. Will ask them.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Sudha.
may i know which sudha u r??
ReplyDeleter u in koonthankulam??
Dear Sudha
ReplyDeleteGreat to see such a nice place. Are you still in Koonthankulam. I am tracing certain historical facts which have some connections to your lovely home town. Would you mind helping me. Thank, and thanks for publishing such a nice article. Udesh
Hi Sudha,
ReplyDeleteI m also frm Koonthankulam. I m doing 5nal yr Engineering at Tirunelveli. These pic's r so good 2 c.. U did a good job. Thanq 4 ur work.. nd I xpect mre & mre pic frm dis site..
I proud 2 say "Dis s my Village"!!! Thanq 4 givng a goldn oppertunity 2 say it. Thanq, thanq so muchhhh....