Zone: Idiyan Chira

Going to Peringadu (or Thirunellore) was almost a routine thing that I did during my childhood. Many of our close relatives stayed there.

Peringadu is the neighboring village to the north and lies along the Canolly Canal. The mud road (which it used to be) touches the Canal while it approached our northern border.

All the time I walked by foot, as everyone else did. The exception was a rare bicycle rider but very few owned a bicycle in that age.

The Thanneer Kayal, lying east of Padoor, is extended to Thirunellore. A deep trench that carried the excess rain water from the Kayal to the Canolly Canal was separating Padoor from Thirunellore.

The Idiyan Chira (literally the sunken weir or water trap) connects the two villages across this trench. Basically the Chira was constructed to trap the sweet water in the trench so this could be utilized for the Kayal agriculture. It also keeps the saline waters of the Canal from getting entry to the trench and thereby sully the paddy fields’ fertility.

Only during the monsoon months the Chira’s barriers (made of wooden planks) are kept open, so as to regulate the water level at the trench and the Kayal.

The narrow wooden beams - used to hold together the planks - at the top made up for a walking bridge. It was more like taking a little walk on a trapeze; but that was the fun thing to do if you were a kid. In the space between arrays of planks and beams, they used to fill with mud; which never remained a level mass. That is why perhaps people started calling it the Idiyan Chira (sunken water trap).

The Idiyan Chira is now replaced by a modern bridge complete with a fully aligned road; so both the villages are now connected by an automobile route.