This years birthday was celebrated with a difference.


I went to Trivandrum to participate in the pongala for Attukal bagavathy devi. Every year it comes around the end of Feb or beginning of March. This year it happened on my birthday Feb 28th. My MIL has been doing it for more than 20 years. She believes in the devi completely. It has gained popularity over years and this year the count was around 30 Lakhs. Ever since I got married, I've been talking about attending one and finally this time I made it.


Our place was in someone's house who my MIL and her friends know for years and they have been doing pongala in this house for the past 10+ years. There are around 11 places reserved our group. Place is around a feet by two approximately which is just enough for keeping the 3 bricks (which is the stove) and for you to stand infront of that. And there is just a few inch gap between yours and the next persons. The necessary materials - bricks, mud pot, Dry coconut leaves, and 'kodumbu' or 'kodhumbu'(this exists in the tree along with the coconut flowers, just could not find the english equivalent!) had been kept in that house a week back. People who dont have any such pre arrangement find it very difficult to get a place. some of them come the previous day and sit in any of the 'allowed' pongala streets/roads...


We packed each of our bags with the 250 gms of rice, a kilo of jaggery, ghee, coconut, water to drink, paper to pack the pot after pongala, some vessels to wash the rice, plates to cover the pots, knife and towels on Saturday. On the day of pongala, we got ready by 4:45 am in the morning. Autos that were booked, a week in advance, picked us up and took us to a place called kaaladi which is around a km from the temple. Police and volunteers work round the clock to regulate traffic. I felt that the whole city understands the enormousity of this event and all were working towards making things done smoothly. We had a glitch - one of the autos ran out of petrol and with gods grace got another auto who agreed to drop us at our destination - I was told that our auto had two first timers and devi generally try to test the faith. At that moment, I just hoped that things will go on smoothly. My problem is that if something wrong happens, then I start attributing every little mishaps that come in life to this incident for a long time..


We reached their house at around 6:30 am. Some of my MIL's friends had reached earlier. Bricks were arranged in a line. All pots were kept on the 'aduppu/stove' after washing, filled with required amount of water, all kodhumbu kept near us for easy access, rice washed and kept ready near the pot - all these activities took an hour and a half. We wanted to have a darshan of devi before the pongala began. I think usually, someone in the group manages to get special passes and hence they go from side gates and finish their darshan in less than half an hour time. Am of the opinion that any darshan, you should go through the hardship everyone goes through for you to value it that much. Also, the positive vibes of the crowd also gets to you while standing and hence you feel good (funda :)). This time, they could not manage any passes and so we went to the main gate, saw the hugggggggeeeeeeee line and returned back as we did not want to miss the start time.

At 10:10 am, everyone was ready and almost waiting for the 'get, set, go' signal. In the temple, the main pongala aduppu was lit and there was this sound of the drums and kolavai along with that which is heard in the places close to the temple and I believe in the places slightly far off, they go by the live telecast... All of us, lit our aduppu from the lamp that the owner of the house had lit and started the process of making pongala - which is letting the water to come to boil, put the washed rice in it after putting a little in the aduppu, wait till it boil and flows out of the pot, add jaggery and wait for the pongala to get done. After that add roasted coconut pieces, cardomom powder etc., Since I've used firewood stoves at home when I was in school, I had less trouble in getting the pongala done with minimal use of resources (I was feeling very proud about it!), while I saw many struggling. Fire was outside the aduppu also for some and for some there was so much smoke. Whatever it was, it was a problem for the person standing next to them. I saw two things that are taught in fire drills being used here. 1. Everyone is insisted to sit as you tend to be less affected by smoke than when you are standing 2. All were using wet towels to safegaurd their eyes and also to be able to breathe in the smoke.

Sun was not too bright till we finished making pongala and there was less wind. I was prepared enough by everyone for the worst conditions and hence it was a pleasant surprise. After finishing the pongala, it is just closed and kept on the aduppu. Fire is also put off. The house owner was serving lunch after hers was finished. While there were some in the group who doesnot eat till the neivedyam is over (which was scheduled at 3:15 pm), since I felt guiddy even during the middle of when I was making it, I decided to go ahead and eat. HAd lunch and waited for everyone elses to get over. Refreshed a little bit and went and stood in the longgggggggg line. It was organised so well that in an hour, we had a nice darshan and were out. Waited for the neivedyam in the main sannidhi and waited for the 'potri' to come to our place and sprinkle water in our pots. Since they make it a point that every single pot is offered to the god, thousands of potri's go around all the places where pongala was put and the entire process is managed within a couple of hours.

As soon as that gets over, people immediately leave. Police and volunteers everywhere to regulate the traffic. We had a flight to catch at 7:45 pm and hence took off as soon as the neivedyam happened. Even with couple of traffic jams, reached home on time, packed our luggages and reached airport just about half an hour before the flight departure! All through the way back, there were several people distributing juices, watermelon pieces, water to all the devotees.

I was just amazed about the planning and execution of the entire phenomena. Hats off to the organisers!

For me, this is the first time, I've ever done something so spritual in life and I kind of felt so contented...