You may be away from your parental village, far, far away, but when you are in India, do visit and pay respects to your gramadevadas and contribute a token amount to the temple, which would have been a thanneer pandal or an alamaram for your parents.
While in India, I do visit Perinkulam and Kavassery, once a year at least and positively attend the Perinkulam car festival. One of the happiest and blessed moments in my life was when I could circumambulate Krishna Swamy’s ratham, holding a board bearing my ‘NamAmi nithyam Navaneetha Krishnam ‘ stuthi and display it on the outer wall of the temple.
I used to spend an evening or two, on the bank of the Chooriappan kulam, sitting in isolation, watching the cremation ground opposite to me, where the bodies of my ThAtha, and a few relatives would have been converted to ashes and my one year old Eder brother buried.
‘This is for you all’, I used to say, dipping my head and body into the waters of Chooriyappan kulam, before getting out of that place.
All said and done, one’s attachment to his root, is amazing.