Porridge offering to propitiate rain gods in Thoothukudi

As part of the worship, a section of residents collected cooked rice from every house in the village and prepared a porridge. They then offered prayers and consumed the porridge along with pickle to show that the farmers are struggling for food.

Varadharajan, State Vice President, MDMK (Farmers Wing), said that usually rain would start in the middle of October and farmers would start cultivating after the first rain. Three small rains are required for the dry land crops. 

However, this year there was rainfall in middle of July and during the first week of August. 

The meteorological department had forecast good rain this year and this had prompted the farmers to go in for cultivation very early. They carried out cultivation in 2.7 lakh hectares in Ettayapuram, Vilathikulam and Kovilpatti taluk. Unfortunately, there was no rain after that. 

The seeds had sprouted and if there is no rain in the next one week, they would wilt. Farmers are already out of resources to supply water through private tankers and their only hope is rain. As they have been offering prayers to the Goddess whenever rain failed, they have done it this year too. 

“We hope the gods would favour us,” said Varadharajan. Ayyanvadamalapuram village is one of the driest villages in Thoothukudi district where dry land farming is practised.

For the past two years, monsoon had failed, forcing farmers to abandon cultivation of crops. However, this year rain in mid-July and August had given some hopes for the farmers who went ahead with the sowing of black gram, green gram, maize and corn.