Pongal offered to Engineer

THENI: The people of Palarpatti in Theni district venerated the British Engineer Pennycuick by preparing pongal in front of his statue on Sunday on his birth anniversary. Pongal has been celebrated in this way for the last 13 years in Palarpatti, at the initiative of the Pennycuick Rejuvenation Forum based in the village. On Monday, people of the village held a rally at the Pennycuick auditorium built in the village. They also offered paddy saplings to the portrait of the engineer. A cockfight was organised by the forum in which more than 200 roosters from 18 districts participated.  O Andi, president of the Pennycuick Rejuvenation Forum, said Stuart Jonson, a grandson of John Pennycuick, had visited the village in 2005. To remember Pennycuick’s services to the people and to thank him, Pongal is prepared only in front of the auditorium and not in peoples’ houses on the day of the harvest festival, Andi said.