That is not some worm stuff.. it is really delicious "Omapudi" that just "melts in your mouth".. magnified to see detail that you don't normally care about.. but there is something to that texture that makes Omapudi what is really is..
anyways, digressing as usual..
Wishing everyone a Happy and prosperous Deepavali, Diwali, Deeparaya.
May knowledge light up your life!
While the rest of you go back to your firecrackers, new clothes, sweets and savories, I have a few close encounters of the third kind to do with the boondhis, ribbon pakodas and mysorepak..
You are busy clicking away on your camera, worried that the approaching chariot might run over and your zoom may not be enough to save you and your mom lets out a yelp "watch out!"
You take your eye away from the viewfinder and look down to see a dude rolling on the floor, sorry, rolling on the road.
You missed stepping on him narrowly. The camera doesn't do as good a job of absorbing him as his body is absorbing the dirt on the road.
"Is he a beggar?" was the obvious question.
"Edhavadhu Vendudhalaa irukkum da!" comes the reply.
By that she meant "he must have prayed to some god that he will roll on the road during a temple festival, collect money and then go donate it to the god!"
The sucker for technicality in me immediately responds "His chances of getting money are better if he is at eye level with the people, no?" and mom just moves on. Her face seems to say "to each, his own" and I meekly follow her.
From that point on, started watching my feet after every shot.
When six hundred or so folk pull a ther (car) with 8 foot wheels around a temple tank for over 5 hours followed by a few mini ther's, it is not fair to compare it to any modern day car.
This is one event where no writeup can do justice. It was just spectacular. There was a public exam scheduled for the government schools that monday morning and in spite of that, this was the crowd!
There are only happy tears, when words fail you.
My grandpa got to see this video and he could not speak. He just lifted his hand and moved it to show "I bless you". That made my day, that made my "trip" and somehow for a fleeting moment, erased that image that I had of myself as the grandson who lived far away, unable to help his grandpa in any way.
A few photo highlights..
The remover of obstacles, literally! Vinayagar goes and clears the mylapore morning traffic for the other chariots.
The lineup from behind
The main Chariot (Ther)
Munnazhagu!
Pinnazhagu? Jr. was so envious of Ambaal's long hair!
Subramanya, Valli and Devaanai
A stitch shot of the main chariot.
This will be the last event summary post from the festival. I had to fly out the same night and missed the Arubathumoovar and another favorite, the China Potti fireworks! After this Chennai trip, there is a new belief. It is a small planet and there might be another chance to see this Utsavam in this lifetime, for one never knows.
ps. My original Video was rejected by Youtube because it was 47 seconds longer than the 10 minute limit. The next attempt was my edit of that video which ended up very grainy.. so the video posted above was the third or fourth attempt which should also be near high definition clarity!
Linking my two earlier attempts (1 and 2) of making this video out of almost 30 minutes of unedited footage, just to remind myself "if you try and fail, try again!"
Part of the lure and the lore that mythology and the gods create, are provided by multi-headed creatures and human beasts.
They definitely make for fantastic stories, develop your imagination and get you ready to believe in Harry Potter almost thirty or so years later!
Did you know that the Lord of Mylapore has a night program as well during the festival season? Yep. His calendar is fully blocked for that week and he is out late at night, sometimes as late as 5AM!
In this video, we catch him getting warmed up for an all nighter, on his polycephalitic snake. There was a large crowd for this Friday night special.
As a kid, we would never get this close to the god because of the crowd and the fear of a kid getting lost in the crowd. Any tamizh movie fan knows that the number one way to lose a child is to walk the kid through a temple festival crowd.
Here are the pictures.
The many headed Naagam (snake)
Kamadhenu, aka the mother of all cows, giver of infinite gifts
The horned goat
My mom said "5 headed snake. you always loved this one". On careful inspection at home with the digital pictures and the video with a 120x zoom, one finds out that the snake actually has 7 heads, not five! Even grandma was surprised by this find.
Well, what exactly is a manimal? A man-animal aka "Purushaa-mirugham" in Tamil.
It is a scary looking stead for the gods. Oh, yes, the mind is still in Mylapore..
This one was on a weekday and there were high school examinations in the state government schools smack in the middle of the festival and the crowd was not as big or as enthusiastic. The local government is atheist and these days, the poor kids from Mylapore have to study while all the bands are playing outside. Now that, is tough!)
Just like the attendence on the last day of a cricket test match that was a definite draw, this crowd was comprised only of the real ardent devotees who were going for the record books to say "I attended every day!".
Still it was fun to watch as they did the rounds faster. The photo sampler follows..
Purushaa-mirugam (the manimal)
Singham (Lion)
Puli (Tiger)
All of them in series..
My theory? The whole idea of having a utsavam is to entertain kids and get them to like the temple and associated concepts at an early age.
This was the "catch them young" marketing campaign?
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 11:27PM 
