Wander Woman

Attukal Pongala is the biggest congregation of women in India,perhaps in the world too. It is the celebration of the goddess Bhagavathy. Once a year, women from all over Kerala come to this temple, near Trivandrum, and worship the goddess. The gathering is so large that helicopters are used to shower flowers and holy water on the devotees. I was lucky to be in Trivandrum at a time when this fest was going on, though not for the entire duration. I heard that on the last day, the entire area around the temple is taken over by women and this place is used to cook payasam to offer to the goddess. Its like a mass communal cooking of payasam, which is then distributed among followers. I just had one nagging question in my mind. Its a temple of the goddess, worshipped by women and yet the priest or the person who heralds the rituals and festivals is a male. Considering that this is known as the 'sabarimala for women', wouldnt it have been appropriate to have a priestess? Here are a fe...

The temple festivals of Kerala are quite intriguing. Temples here are divided on the lines of the deities eg, Krishna temple, Devi temple and Ayappa temple. I went for a local Krishna temple festival. I was surprised with the arrangements. The festivals generally span three or four days and elaborate arrangements are made for it. On this particular occassion i had the pleasure of seeing elephants and listen to the kombu(a wind instrument). The pooja started at around 9 in the morning and continued till 11 to the accompaniment of Madhalam(drums) and Kombu. I learnt that only a single community called Maraars are eligible to play these instruments and Maraar boys are trained from the age of three so that by the time they get to play these instruments, they have the rhythms by heart. It was a spectacle - a group of men playing these instruments in unison and three elephants in attention with the idol atop one of them. I did feel bad for the elephants though, because they stood for such ...