# Going Native By [Ram](https://paragraph.com/@ram008) · 2025-07-12 --- Visit to our native place is always an experience to be cherished. Each time I am there, I feel the presence of my ancestors and prior generations. There is some divine connection that stirs the soul, refreshes it and reconnects you to the roots. It is a sobering experience that makes you reflect on your accomplishments, the contributions of prior generations to provide you the platform to shine, the sacrifices made along the way and the tradeoffs considered to get you where you are. It all comes together during such a visit. What makes the experience transcend your own reality is the connection with nature, whatever it might be in the native place. It could be a mountain, a river or a desert. It is part of your being. In my case, there is a mountain, the Western Ghats, a waterfall from the top of those ghats that flows as Courtrallam falls or Agastyar falls and a river, The Tamarabarani and its tributaries, including the Rama Nadi and the scent of rain hitting the village soil which makes the script come alive in 3D. Above it all, there is grace of your Kuladeivam On our recent visit to Tirunelveli, we got to experience all of the above elements. This time the visit was with two grown kids that we could tell the stories to, could impart the devotion to, and imbibe some of the love of the land to. Whether it is the monkeys that showed affection or the local people that shared their wisdom or stories so generously, there is a part of it you hope sticks with the future generations. This is why we keep coming and connecting with our past to pave the way and bless us in our future journey. Our elder kid is headed to college, so the occassion provided a perfect junction to take stock of the life that has been before taking on the life to be. He will be headed away from home to pursue his academic calling, will have to step up as an individual to make decisions that will shape his future. Such a shift requires the blessings and the platform laid down by our ancestors, their boons and sins that carry forward to the generations ahead. We sought the blessings of the water by drenching ourselves in the Agastyar falls and Eintharuvi in Courtrallam. We sought the blessings of the lord, whether in Alwarkurichi, Atazhanallur or Tiruchendur. We sought the blessings of the soil by indulging in local fruits, be it the Nongu or the Lychee that grows seasonally and above all, we sought the blessings of the elements to come together to carry the child forward in a distant land. Tirunelveli had everything to offer and notably the travel to and from it was made so comfortable by the Vande Bharat and superfast express trains that cut travel time to less than half of what it used to take back in the 2000s. We arrived refreshed and ready to soak it all in, literally, at the Agastyar falls. It was such a rejuvinating experience with the private version of the more commercial Courtrallam where we bathed in the waterfalls with random strangers, singing Tamil classics from movies in the 90s. A complete freak event if this were in the West near Angel Falls or Niagara falls. Yet, it was a letting go event in the depth of Tamilnadu. This was preceeded by a glass of Nongu Juice, which took some serious skill in peeling the fruit and juicing it. Maybe that’s what let us loose. Darshans at the Kula deivam are a very formal affair that takes a lot of planning and reverence. The rituals are usually very elaborate and since we don’t come quite often, they tend to be even more amplified. However, it was a mixed bag this time, at one of our kuladeivam temples, it was plain punctuated and seemed very commercial and at the other, it was elaborate but marred by poor people asking for alms or food. The spiritual feel was lower than a decade and much much lower than 2 or 3 decades ago. The upkeep of the temples and the assistance to the priests deterriorated but the sanctum was glorious as always. Made us wonder how this can be remedied and restored to old glory experienced by our ancestors and whether bhakti in subsequent generations will persist to allow the temples to exist and thrive. After the darshans, we ended the day with a sumptous Tirunelveli dinner before heading to our modern hotel in the outskirts of town before commencing the next set of activities. What a start to the journey that had a bit of everything. Perhaps no better picture summarized it than a family of monkeys near Agastyar falls where the mom was feeding a newborn baby and the dad kept watch, removed bugs from the mom’s head and affectionately stroked the baby. This is what the native place does to you, it watches over you whereever you are, it strokes you affectionately and nurtures you like the mother does to her baby. Hope our kids have taken something from the Native place to come back and bring their kids to tell these stories. Hopefully this Mirror is a place for them to come back to, to get a recap of why the native place matters! --- *Originally published on [Ram](https://paragraph.com/@ram008/going-native)*