Mottai No. 2

Chittu has a lot of mottais lined up - some mandatory and few prarthanais. And given that she is a girl child, we want to finish them all as early as possible. They say 3 days is enough between 2 mottais, but I am not convinced. I don’t want to offer something just for the sake of it. Me & S have decided that it should be 1.5 to 2 months minimum. So we planned for the next trip on 2^nd February 2012. We decided it pretty late and all train tickets got booked. So we decided to go by bus. K paati decided not to come as she finds bus journeys tedious. But she dutifully prepared the maavilakku dough and gave. We dropped her at S perippa’s house on 2^nd morning. Thatha was in Delhi for a meeting and returning on 4^th morning only. So J paati, thatha & mama said they will join us on 4^th night or 5^th early morning. I went and bought the vasthrams on 31^st Jan. Had a meeting till 7.30 PM on 1^st Feb. So started early from office on 2^nd, came home, did the packing and had dinner at J paati’s house. Itinerary as below:

2^nd February 2012 (Thursday): Start from home at 10 PM, Take a train and go to Perungalathur, board KPN Travels sleeper bus at 11:10 PM

Notes: The bus was so damn comfortable. Chittu slept immediately and got up promptly when we got down at 4.30 in the morning. S decided that wherever we go, if sleeper bus is available, we should opt for that J

3^rd February 2012 (Friday –Thai veLLikizhamai): Get down at Chathram bus stand in Trichy at 4.30 AM, go by walk to Appu athimber’s house, take little rest, get ready. Go to Manakkal temple, put mavilakku, abhishekam, lunch @ Vijaya’s house, return to Big thatha’s (my perippa) house (Let us call him Sam thatha from now on) @ Srirangam. In the evening darshan Ranganathar, Thayar, Utsavar periya perumal in Yaanai vaahanam, Dhanvanthri bhagawan, BOP from Andal for Chittu and stay at Sam’s.

I want to write down the names of the saptha kannigaigaL in the Manakkal temple as we tend to forget everytime. This would serve as a reference for me to teach Chittu when she grows up. Here we go – in as is sequence – Braamhi, Maheshwari, Vaishnavi, Kaumaari (Manakkayi / Nangai amman) Varaahi, Indraani, Chaamundi

Notes: We had an absolute darshan at Manakkal & abhishekam was performed sincerely. Sam paati helped a great deal in arranging for the maavilakku by mixing the flour, bringing pooja articles, etc. The maavilakku glowed for quite sometime without any hindrance and I gave vethalai paaku to a few of them who had gathered there. Chittu was running all around and was excited by the huge elephant and horse structures in the temple premises. She even slipped slightly where the granite platform ended and the concrete platform was used for the ignorable area in corners. Both the platforms were not at the same height and they had filled it sand to match it, but still there was a light difference and Chittu slipped there. Thankfully, she didn’t get hurt and didn’t cry too

Sam thatha had bought a beautiful and extremely convenient & secure house at a newly developed gated community in Srirangam and did the gruhapravesam on 2^nd Sep 2011. We couldn’t attend the function as it clashed with P akka’s wedding. Everytime something else or the other comes up and we have not been able to attend any of their functions. Soma chithi’s wedding happened when S was hospitalized and was in the ICU in 2007. Soma chithi’s seemantham was in Jan 2008 but we had just then visited Trichy few days back, so couldn’t make it again. I was so damn guilty as my perippa is such a nice man & very loving and affectionate towards me. He took the responsibility of finding a good & safe PG and settling me down in Bangalore way back in April 2006. So I wanted to spend a good time at his place this time.

Being a Friday, there was a lot of crowd in the Srirangam temple. So we took a special entrance ticket in both perumal & thayar sannidhis for Rs. 50 & Rs. 10 respectively. We got a chance to see Yaanai vaahanam too & periya perumaL was glittering on top of the sliver elephant. It was being lifted by devotees, but the speed was remarkable & smooth that it looked like being pulled by a hydraulic. Sam paati said, yaanai vahanam is too heavy and they carry it very fast and do not stop anywhere.

4^th February 2012 (Saturday): Lazy morning, get up late, relax, wash, bathe, have lunch, take rest. In the evening - darshan @ Selva vinayagar temple within the apartment complex, Samayapuram & Thiruvanaikkovil. On the way back pick up Thatha, J paati & S mama (I’ll call him NSK from now on…too many S and it is confusing) who had come by Pallavan Express and back to Sam’s

Notes: Sam thatha had asked for an autowala to come in the evening to go around places. But the autowala came with a Maruti Omni saying, it has been 3-4 days since he took the vehicle out and the battery would go down. So he would take us in Omni for the cost of an auto. Look at Chittu’s luck J In Samayapuram thiruppaNi was happening, so all special entrance tickets were issued outside near the main entrance. And one cannot do a complete pradakshinam too as the northern side of the prakaram was completely closed off. We took Rs. 25 ticket and had a quick darshan in 15 minutes. Magamaayi was glittering as usual with merciful eyes. In Thiruvanaikovil we got Rs.10 entrance ticket so that we can go close to Akilandeswari amman. Man! Her feet look so damn real as if someone is literally standing in front of us. Had a very good darshan and at Jambukeshwarar sannidhi, the ticketing guy had already closed the accounts, so allowed us to go free of cost inside the shrine. Chittu had a great time in the big & long prakarams running like anything. She wouldn’t catch hold of any of our hands, nobody should lift her, she will not follow our way, rather we should be following her way. She learnt to climb up & down the big steps by catching hold of the nearby pillar / sculpture and carefully placing down the foot on the floor and then removing the hand and running away. She was in an uncontrollable state and enjoying the vast area as it was all hers.

5^th February 2012 (Sunday): Mottai @ ThiNNiyam, Abhishekam, Anbil darshan, ManakkaL again as J paati & thatha couldn’t come on Friday, Lunch @ Vijaya’s house, Stop over at Sam’s, pack and leave to Appu’s, board KPN Travels Volvo at 11:20 PM at Chatharam bus stand

Notes: Chittu woke up & we started on time. Sam paati had ordered for idlys and we collected them on the way. We were about to start having it after crossing the Cauvery bridge when J paati passed on Chittu from the middle to the backside where me& S were sitting. As soon as she came to me, she just puked out all the milk she had early in the morning. Didn’t know if it was indigestion or if the milk was not good (there are frequent power cuts in Trichy) though it didn’t show any signs of it when J paati had boiled. We stopped over, cleaned and she was all OK and smiling. But still I didn’t want to take chances and bought Domstol and Savlon (for after the mottai) in a medical shop near Thiruvanaikovil. We were late to the ThiNNiyam temple and the gurukkaL & the other party who had also given for abhishekam were waiting for us. As soon as we reached, the barber was ready and the mundan process started in the platform to the left of the temple. As usual, NSK mama had Chittu on his lap and S caught hold of her hands. She cried as always as someone was doing something to her which she couldn’t see.

The temple attendant had arranged for hot water for Chittu. But it had a red color stuff floating all over. I got it filtered, but still it was there. But no other option, so I had to use the same water saying “Kandhan uNdu kavalai illai” By the time NSK mama & S got ready, the abhishekam had started as the other party had to go elsewhere and had waited for quite long. So half the abhishekam was done before NSK came and almost 3/4^th was done before S came in. I felt very sad they couldn’t be there from the beginning, but what to do? I prayed my heart out to Lord SubramaNya – our family diety for health, wealth, courage, strength, patience and a long happy life. Santhanagopla Swamy temple which is pretty near was closed by the time we were out of the Murugan temple. So we were off to catch a glimpse of Anbil Mmaariamman. The temple was too crowded and the uchi kaalam abhishekam was going on. Me and Chittu were crushed and I couldn’t stand for beyond 10 minutes. So stood on my toes, had a darshan & came out with Chittu for her to get some fresh air. There were a lot of goats roaming around and Chittu kept saying GOAT…GOAT and even touched one with great courage J As soon as she touched it, there was a sense of achievement on her face J

Later, we went to Manakkal temple. It is a common graama dheivam for both my family & S’s family. So J paati & thatha wanted to go there as we had come all the way. Abhishekam was happening there too and we had a nice time & were off to Vijaya’s house for lunch.

All in all it was a pleasant trip. Sam thatha had arranged for a Tavera on both the days to accommodate 9 adults + 1 kid. It was home made food all along for 3 days. Chittu had great fun and enjoyed all the attention. Sam thatha’s apartment had wide corridors, she ran at her free will. She had breakfast, lunch and dinner in the corridor running and eating. She attracted the neighbors there too. DIFT (Lift, she means) was her favorite and she kept running towards it and I had to be extremely careful because the hand rails were too broad – broad enough that Chittu can crawl inside and we were in the 2^nd floor. Our usual jam packed Trichy schedule was highly relaxing this time as we were conscious enough not to have so many items in the agenda as we were travelling with a baby. We started that night - contented and satisfied. Chittu slept on me in the bus and didn’t give any problems. I was skeptic as to how she would behave (onward was in sleeper, so nothing different from a train) but she was a darling. We got down near our house at 4.45 AM the next day.

S gave everyone a shock of life when he was nearly hit by a mini truck. The signal for pedestrians was GREEN and for the vehicles was RED. S is a person who abides by traffic rules to the dot. But the truck driver was not bothered to follow the signal as it was early in the morning. Fortunately he saw it in the last fraction of second and backed off. THANK GOD!!!! I did not get to see it in close quarters as I had already crossed the road with Chittu. But J paati, thatha and NSK mama had literally hearts in their mouth and almost shouted. Be careful, S! You are the centre point and all our lives revolve around you.

Chittu was still sleeping when we reached home. J paati took the traditional haarathi and all of us slept for a couple of hours. I was working from home that day as SM was on leave. S got ready and was about to leave when Chittu woke up and started playing with him. He lost all mood to work and took off and all of us had a good time together J