Aparna’s Blog

The sound of some music band out on the street wakes up all of us at home. We realize that it’s being played for the procession of some Amman. Seeing through the window, we wait to get a glimpse of the deity. It was taking quite a bit of time for the deity to reach our part of the street. We go out into the street and see the music band followed by a group of nadaswaram and tavil players. And then surrounded by a small group of devotees was the Amman embellished by jewels, huge, colourful garlands and lots of flowers - beauty and divinity personified. Seeing the festive atmosphere, you don’t realize that it’s 1:30 am in the night! Isn’t this what the month of Adi is all about? With Adi being synonymous with festivities in the ubiquitous Amman temples all over the city and with even some of the small temples in street corners having their own utsava vigraham (processional idol), you can often see some idol in procession.

P.S.: This happened yesterday night and for the first time in the last few weeks, I suddenly felt the need to pen this down and felt the words pouring out. Is my bloggers’ block finally gone?

I never thought that my blog will ever reach the state in which it is now. Somehow, for the last several weeks, I have been caught up in a pretty hectic routine in which my blog doesn’t figure at all! Thought I will at least say a quick Hi to you all even though I don’t feel like writing anything. Neither the songs of Raavan nor a few other songs to which I am addicted big time nor the architectural beauty of the temples at Thirumalai Vaiyyavur, Siruvapuri and Pancheshti which I recently visited, seem to give me the much needed motivation to write something here.

P.S.: Call it showing off or sharing my happiness with you or whatever you want to, did you see that T.M.Krishna has linked my post in his website? I am so happy!

This walk was by Dr. Chithra Madhavan and it was organized by ‘Namma Mylapore’ on 7th March, 2010. Srinivasa Perumal, Kesava Perumal, Kapaleeswarar, Mundagakanni Amman, Madhava Perumal, Karaneeswarar and Virupaksheeswarar temples were the temples that were covered in this walk. History, architecture, sculptures and inscriptions were the focus of this walk. So, we didn’t see the main deities in most of the temples.
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After seeing the grand Arupatthumoovar at Kapaleeswarar temple, I had to ‘unblock’ the blogger’s block somehow and write this post. This is a very long post! Read it when you find time.

Despite living very near Mylapore for almost 15 years now, I had never been to Arupatthumoovar even once! When I was studying in school, festival time at Kapaleeswarar temple always meant getting a holiday or two and that was all. This year’s Arupatthumoovar was on last Saturday (27th March) &, initially, I wasn’t planning on going for it. My mom having gone for Arupatthumoovar for the first time last year, tempted me to go and, here I am now, all set to relive the grandeur of the fest which left me awe-struck.
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I had been to Guruvayur on 31st Jan, a Sunday. Guruvayur is about 28km from Thrissur. We reached the Guruvayur Shri Krishna (Guruvayurappan) temple at around 4:25 pm. The temple is usually closed from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm. So, almost half the queue complex outside the temple was already full by the time we reached. There is no concept of buying tickets and getting a special darshan here either. If one doesn’t want to go to the inner sanctum of Guruvayurappan, then there is another entrance through which one can go near the dhwajastambham of the temple alone. The temple has a tank called rudra tIrtam, which is next to this entrance.
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A few months back, I had been to Chamundi Hills with a friend. It was fun since we did not have any idea about the place as such and how exactly we were going to go there. All I knew was that there is a temple of Chamundeshwari, a huge statue of Nandi and a statue of Mahishasura in Chamundi Hills. It is another fact that it so turned out that those are the only things that are there.
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The weekend just got over, but with just a few hours of work in between, a two-day mini-vacation of sorts has already started for me. Am right now on the way to Tirupati for a relative’s wedding and, of course, a visit to Tirumala and a few more temples.

I love these long-distance car journeys on highways. Let me now not start the complaint about parts of this NH205 not having great road. The sun, though shining bright, is slowly getting ready for setting and am eagerly awaiting the visual treat that I am going to be presented with. Rahman’s music is already providing me an aural treat.