Siva The Farmer

Poonakari is a famous village where the LTTE established its heroism in the 1993 Eelam War. The aborigines say that the village got its name from the flowers that went from the garden near Poonakari Lake to the palace of Allirani, who once ruled from the tip of the horse.

History has it that Mahinda, the son of Emperor Ashoka, and his daughter Sangamithra came down with the papal tree branch and the Gajabahu king from Kerala kingdom with the Kannaki statue at the port of Jambukola in the north of the Jaffna peninsula and sailed south through Poonakari. Now it is easy to go to Jaffna from Poonakari via Sangupitty Bridge.

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Most of the people of Poonakari are farmers and fishermen. The village is rich in lush green paddy fields that produce high quality rice like Mottakkaruppan and Muthu Samba. There was an association for farmers. Sathasivam, popularly known as Siva, the leader of the association, was a farmer. Siva had ten acres of land in Poonakari. Who grew up with his hard work? He was married to Lakshmi, the only daughter of his maternal uncle.

When she became his wife, she brought fifteen acres of paddy land with her. Siva, the framer ploughed and sowed paddy and planted rice in the city. He has a solid physique. Siva never said that he was sick. Due to the skill of his farming, he initially caught got high yields on the plowed land. The government praised him for his high yields on his land in the province and awarded him the title of "Yield Hero", as well as the gift of a tractor and plowing training at his own expense. With the income earned from his hard work he graduated his only son Mahadevan who married his sister's daughter Saraswathi in Poonakari. Siva had two grandchildren. The whole family lived in a native house in Poonakari Sidhar Kurichi. Mahadevan was not as interested in agriculture as his father and worked as a teacher. He did not want his father to plow the field just anymore.

Farmer Sathasivam was the trustee of the temple as he expanded the temple at his own expense. Palm trees on the edge of his fertile paddy field

The Sri Lankan army recaptured Poonakari from the LTTE. As a result, they turned Siva’s paddy field into an army camp. Siva was unable to cultivate his own land due to this military occupation.

The Murugan temple too was also ravaged by the military. Sathasivam was greatly affected by the demolition of the temple He could not stay idle at home. His mind was greatly affected by the events of his life.

Every day he would go to the ruined temple and his occupied land and stand in the distance and weep with tears. His son Mahadevan was setting up a grocery store. Siva was expecting his land to return to him one day.

He would get up early in the morning, brush his teeth, take a cup of coffee and snacks from his wife, go outside and return home soon after. Will not talk much with anyone. Where Siva is going is a mystery to anyone. Mahadevan was told that some people had also seen Siva inside the ruined hut in his land acquired by the Army, that land became a security area, and no Public was allowed t enter the land d which was once Sivas paddy field that produced different varieties of rice and fed many people in the villages

"Mom I heard that our suddenly disappearing father was seen in a dilapidated hut near an army camp. That is a dangerous act by him."

"Now I remember , son, I carry cooked food in a pot along with palmyra toddy for his lunch ng walk across the field to a small hut in the field . Seated in that hut we both enjoy the food together. I suspect that he may have gone to that hut in that memory, son, ”said Mahadevan's mother.

" Mom I told Dad many times not to go to the side where the Army camp is. That the Sinhala Army does not like Tamils. They are of the opinion t that all Tamils belonged to the LTTE. “

"Why do you say that, son? Daddy does not like LTTE fighting. He has always wanted peace. People from the Jaffna peninsula would say that there is no need to migrate through Lake Kilali. He often worries me that he does not know why the Tamils are fighting ."

“The hut is near an army camp. So, it's dangerous for Dad to go there, Mom.”

"Son, you know about your father." He is the perfect obstinate. He will do what he thinks. He has the most attachment to his land next to his family. After the war, our land was occupied by the army. An army camp was set up on the land which had good yields. The glory of that soil is not known to the army. Few residents said that a Buddha statue had appeared on the land. After a while, they will bring Sinhalese families and settle them in that land There was no one to send the Army out. All this is happening with the support of the government. I assume that your Dad have gone to that hut to look at his land and recover old memories and get rid of anxiety .”

"Mother, is the army going to understand all this?"

I reported to the Poonakari police about my missing father, who had left home, had not returned home for two days. I hope that they will find him , Mom. "

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Mahadevan, with the help of Village headman, complained to the police that his father had not been seen for two days. With the help of a policeman Mahadevan searched Siva all over Poonakari and finally when he approached the hut near the army camp a stench pierced his nose. The scene they saw there shocked them. Sathasivam ‘s body lay on the ground in a decomposing state. It did not take long for the police and Mahadevan to realize that their father had died of heat stroke. The policeman interrogated the army officer in charge of the camp, who saw a man coming to the hut frequently and shot him on suspicion by a soldier in the army suspecting him as a LTTE spy. ” Officer said

Mahadevan was proud of his father's courage in going to see the condition of his land at the risk of his own life..

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Over time, under pressure from many other countries, the military abandoned the land. The army handed over the land to Siva’s son . Mahadevan decided to give up his profession as Teacher and started farming in his father’s land which he now owns His wife Saraswathi took the food to the husband Mahadevan like her mother-in-law. Both sat in the hut and ate together. Mahadevan celebrated the Thai Pongal day at the renovated Murugan temple.

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