Kapali Kovil Utsavam - Adhigara Nandhi

The song goes ...

KaaNa kaN kOdi vendum, adhigara nandhi sevai thanai..

10 million eyes to view the adhigara Nandhi (commanding bull)

The way they carry Lord Kapalishwarar on the silver bull, the way they sway it to the rythmic drum beats, it is a sight to watch.

It has been 17 years since I got to see this! What with coming to the USA and the India trips always aligning to summer or winter, you never get to go there during Navrathri time (september) or Utsavam time (April). This trip was indeed a godsend.

My tired father and grandparents thanked me so many times for bringing the utsavam to them with the videos and photos.

Here are some photo highlights as well.

There are many of you out there in the same boat. Hope you enjoyed the video and photos.

Another day, another vahanam..

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What makes a festival festive?

Is it the gods?

Is it all the action?

Is it the crowd of devotees?

Is it the zillion other kids in the crowd?

or could it just be...

Kaathaadis of different shapes,

sizes,

and colors,

A billion bubbles

big ball and apple balloons

screeech screeech screech..

getting your hands on these WMD's minutes after your brother got his apple ballon

flutes galore

click click click click peacocks

and if you are a girl, some lovely nai kuttys (puppies)

glass and rubber bangles

and some paasi maalais from your friendly neighborhood kurathi

and is it?

sweet panju mittai (cotton candy)

thengai burfi and perichchambazhams(coconut sweet and date fruits)

poovam pazham, malai pazham, rasthaali ? (types of bananas)

pala cholai (jack fruit)

Pattani, pori kadalai (puffed rice and roast nuts)?

Do you still have any doubts?

Didn't think so!

ps. All of the above photos were taken between 4th and 6th April 2009 around two sides of the Mylapore temple tank around the Vijaya store corner during the Kapaleeshwar temple utsavam (festival).

pps. The photographers mental age at the time of taking these snaps was approximately 7.258 years.

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Happy Valentine's day!

Yes! Here we are again.

This year we got valentines (little sticker thingy's) from both Jr. and the little one. Tons of them. They got a bunch of artwork gifts for each other and for us.

Was in two minds on what to do on Valentine's eve?! The sore throat which left me speechless yesterday finally relented after some powerful antibiotics, cough syrups, non stop Halls and Ricola treatments, not to mention the frequent nocturnal salt water garglings which reverberated through most of Cupertino and the Los Altos Hills.

The original plan was to launch my own Pink Chaddi Campaign by buying San a pair of nice pink Chaddis. Worried that this might spark a Pink Chappal campaign from her, decided against this idea.

Instead the plan is now changed to catching up on work, some light blog reading, blog posting and going to bed early.

If these folks knew about the Pink Chaddi Campaign, they would have made a killing in India. Seriously their stock would have gone through the roof! Looks like they missed the boat. Well, there will always be some Sene or other and some campaign or other that sends Chaddis, aranaikayars, goli soda, thundu beedis, etc. to the Sene's who will promptly open Chaddi, aranaikayar, goli soda, thundu beedi shops and resell the merchandise and make a healthy profit.

If Vaitheeswaran Koil recycles Uppu Milagu(Salt and pepper) packets offered to the god Karthikeya and the Bom Jesus Basilica recycles my candles offered to Jesus, almost sure that the Sene folks in Bangalore will recycle the Pink Chaddis offered to them!

All said and done, one does not need a special day to show ones love to the near and dear ones. To prove that point, we did the usual round of after dinner arguing today!

Mathematically, all this is explained clearly in the Sundar Valentine equation which shows :

Ergo, the love in our family is a constant, at least when measured in and around this time of the year.

Tensions run high at work, home and everywhere in between!

Sometimes I wish American festivals are as simple as the desi ones, where I could come home, take a shower, wear my silk dhoti, sit down while the kids and San watch me.. do something along the lines of

Aachamanam...Achutaya namaha..
Om Boohu, Om Buvaha, Om....
Mamo partha samastha durida kshya dwara sri parameshwata preethyartham .. shube shobane.. svetavaraha kalpe .. Valentines day pink heart poojam karishye!

offer a few flowers, candy, hershey's kisses, pink paper hearts etc. to the photos or idols of cupid, Guy Fawkes, romance novels etc., do an aarati, ogle at madisaar wearing wife and get on with life!

Wouldn't that be nice?!

Just like we go to the local Hindu temple and make our offerings of food, incenseand prayers to the gods on Indian festivals, we will go to the local Temple of capitalists aka Great Mall and offer things to the local godess aka Wife as part of Valentine's festivities and get blessed.

For those of you just celebrating love, a heartfelt happy Valentine's day!

ps. On a purely tangential note, we hope that the purchase of all those candy, hearts, ballons, pajamas, chadddis, flowers, etc. will revive the economy and the market will get its heart pumping again!

pps. Valentine's day may not be a necessity in India, but with the mechanical lifestyle here, it is not a bad idea to devote a day to make people stop, take note and say "I love you!" to those you care about!

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What is a blog without Pongal pictures?

Was so busy with the game that the Pongal photo post never made it through!

Last year we made pongal without the Prayer part, because my aunt passed away.

This year Pongal was a relatively subdued affair, considering it made it on a weekday. When I came home early to do the prayer, there was a pleasant greeting at the doorstep..

There was a prayer, which coincided with sunset instead of sunrise,

and some really yummy Pongal and Vadai!

Note to self : Next year, take the day off and celebrate.

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To have or not to have Pongal ?

Pongal is a festival that gives us a chance to thank the Sun for shining down on us and giving us food to eat!

2006 was great!

2007 Pongal was spent in Bombay with the in-laws (We had just reached, and were starting to go out)!

2008 brings us some questions. My aunt passed away a few weeks ago in India. My dad, who is the only sibling left of what was a dozen kids, could not even go to the funeral as he is tending to my recently operated mom in a city that is alien to him! I know that he shed a silent tear or two and moved on because of his current circumstance. That said, my mum told me over the phone that this year, there is no Pongal for us!

I do not know if this is a custom restricted to Indians? south Indians? Hindus? Brahmins? a sub set of Brahmins? etc. etc.

It is possible to understand the sense in the one year mourning(yes, it is a no festival celebrations rule, till the anniversary of the death), to remember the person who passed on. It might make that person's soul happy, when they are looking down and they see their family is toning it down when the rest of the townspeople are painting the town red, but no one can actually verify this.

The thing that gets me is that this is very hard on the kids. Many a year, as a kid, when my parents would declare no Deepavali due to the death of some older relative we have hardly met, we would actually curse that relative! If kids are closer to god and we were actually cursing the dead relative, the parents were doing more harm than good by not celebrating! They could have cut down the prayer and given the kids the sweets and fire crackers.

However, I do have to add that when two of my uncles (dad's brothers) passed away within a three day period, I really did not feel like celebrating anything for a long long time... I was also not a kid anymore! That was 1993 and those two back to back events left my dad and his elder sister the only two left out of a 12 pack!

On the one hand, I am torn by what my dad is going through. None of his generation is left. He might be feeling lonely for all I know. I do feel that my aunt (who I knew) could be remembered by a toned down pongal!

Not fair to Jr. and the Little One though. They do not know my seventy year old aunt. Jr. spent 10 minutes with her three years ago, and the litte one has never seen my aunt!.

I have decided that there will be no prayer, but there WILL be Pongal for the kids to eat. Planning to make the Pongal myself, with a silent prayer for my aunts soul to rest in peace.

In the event I do not make the Pongal, we know at least two local Indian restaurants that will have free Pongal! for all who eat there...

Here is my grandmother's recipe, in case you are interested in trying...

1. Take 3/4 cup rice+ 1/4 cup moong dal + a few spoons of channa dal, roast in pan in low heat to make them dry. Then, put in pressure cooker, add two cups water, one cup milk, cook partially (let your cooker whistle once if it normally whistles thrice) and set aside.

2. roast cashewnuts, raisins, cardamom seeds in ghee (clarified butter) and set aside

3. soak some saffron in a few spoons of water and set aside

4. In a big vessel, add 1 cup jaggery (or 1 cup of molasses liquid, if you are in a place like Troy, New York and Jaggery is not available! works the same) and 1 1/2 cups of water. Stir till the consistancy of the liquid is such that when you take it on a ladle and drop the liquid back into the vessel, the liquid does not break or spatter. Remember the ad's you see on TV where the cough syrup smoothly coats the inside of your throat? That consistant!

5. At this point, add the contents from the rice cooker to the sugar syrup and start stirring. Add some more Ghee and the saffron water and keep stirring. When the ghee starts to segregate, add the roasted Cashews etc.

6. Finally, sprinkle some pachai kalpooram into the pot (literal translation is green camphor. don't know where this is available in the USA. we have a small box, which I got from India in 1998!) and give it a final whirl.

You are now ready to taste something that is downright Divine!

To all those out there celebrating, Happy Pongal!

"Iniya pongal nal-vazhthukkal!"

May your year be as sweet as the Pongal you make!

A footnote: it is spelled pachai and not pachchai!! Here is the Wiki Link to the edible camphor! Got to go find out if this tree is available in the US! and plant one in the backyard right away...
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