onam

There is an ayyappan temple in the neighbourhood. We had never known about it for all these years.It is unostentatious and does not blare loud devotional songs. It is tucked away in a small lane and does not have flashy gopurams to broadcast its presence. It has a small tile roofed temple as though it is a family deity installed within your own house.It is full of feel good factor about it. There are just two sannidhis, one of ayyappan, the main deity and another of pillayar. It has lots of trees of flowering plants inside the compound.It has an old world charm about the place.There is a single 'pookadai' just outside the gate.I go past this temple on my occasional walks in the colony and the liberal and heady smell of 'malli' and 'jaadi' are a welcome assault on your senses.It opens well past 6 pm and has a devotional songs played in a very low volume which one can hear only inside the temple.
Of late I am seeing a group of elderly ladies assemble there in the evening and recite bhajans, slokas and devotional songs. To ward off the friendly mosquitoes which hover around them, they carry all sorts of contraptions and they make a regular 'whoosh' sound inbetween beats!Some of them cannot sit on the floor, so come with folding chairs but their regularity surprises me.
Last week during onam, I felt like visiting this temple. P and me decided to go there after 8 pm. The place was teeming with malayalis of all hues and sizes and ages in traditional attire with sandal paste on their foreheads and all of them having such well washed and clean look about them.The temple was full of flowers and thorans and wore a very festive look. Very beautiful and artistic and colouful rangolis, the 'pookalam' was adorning the floor space. I am really fond of these flower rangolis and stood gazing at them trying to memorize the design and floral arrangement.There was nadaswaram innisai in the background. But unfortunately they were playing only tamil devotional songs which did not merge with the mood. But they cannot import them from kerala ostensibly!
We just entered the temple and witnessed the 'mahaarati '. There is something about the string of lamps that ayyappan temples display.They are so beautiful and immediately take you on a divine feel. The idol is very small and huge garlands were adorning the deity and were laid like a huge mat in front of the idol. We all took the sandalwood paste prasad and were surprised that a massive dinner plate was handed out for every devotee. Sambhar rice, curd rice, kesari and pattani sundal were handed out in liberal quantities. Soon a big queue formed and as we wer coming out of the temple we could see the neighbourhood suddenly erupting into a sea of humanity heading straight to the temple. I was reminded of the screen play in some tamil movies, where they will show all lanes are full of people heading towards purposefully towards one particular spot, where there is action.I saw my keerai kaari hurrying with her children as also my neighbour's servant maid with her family.There is something very satisfying about annadanams.We brought our prasadams home and I was happy to share it with the watchman in the next door apartment block.He obviously is not tuned in to the neighbourhood happenings!