Karaikudi - Land of the Chettiars!
Aloha :) After a while I am back and trust me "My Dear Travel Diary", you were missed!! My last weekend was spent in a tiny but significant village Kanadukathan (I cant pronounce this still :P). Before we get started with the village details, we need to know some history about the Legendary Chettiars. The Chettiars or the Nagarathars are people from the Tamil community. They are classic examples of the entrepreneurial spirit of the south. They started maritime trading as early as the 8th century. For trade purposes they traveled across countries and hence also became seafarers. I have heard a rather interesting story which said that the Chettiars knew the sea so well that they could simply bounce off a log from some other country into the sea and the log would for sure get washed down in India. Now that's one story!! For trade all the men went to multiple countries and the women stayed back taking care of the household. When the men came back from one such voyage, t