VKR Seniors' Tour, Day 4 (Tuesday, 3 Dec 2014)

VKR Seniors' Tour - Day 4 and final (Tuesday, 2 Dec 2014)

We particularly made sure that we left hotel room at the earliest. It was our final day, and we were behind schedule. We rushed and despite the Sabarimala crowd had a fleeting darshan at Chenganur Devi temple that we missed by a whisker the previous night.  Back in hotel to check out, we were told by another guest that the Pandalam palace and the 'Thiru Abharanam" display were open. 

So we reversed the mini bus and left for the Pandalam palace. According to legend, about eight hundred years ago the then reigning king and queen were a childless couple. Vishnu and Shiva were under pressure from their devotees to end the atrocities of Mahishi. She was particularly angry at the trick Gods played in getting rid of her brother Mahishasura whom Durga killed. Like her  brother, she too had obtained a peculiar boon from Brahma which made her death difficult if not impossible. So Vishnu as a male and Shiva as a female (Mohini) arranged for the birth to Dharma Sastha (Harihara putra) and let the Pandalam maharaja find the baby in a forest. Sastha, or Ayyappa, grew up into a strong lad mastering all arts required to become a military commander. Thus one sees all the war equipments of those days on display - the sword, spear, protective shield, and what have you, all made of gold - and well guarded. We also made a small tour of the palace where Ayyappa grew up. The current senior palace lady, in her eighties overflowing with the royal grace and face, greeted all visitors. We talked to her for a while. 

From there we headed for Mannarsala, a Naga temple. Here the childless couple come and place one particular cooking utensil (uruli) on its back - topsy turvy. Later when a child is born, they come back and reverse it, and do a gratitude puja. A living example is Vasantha's son Prasad who was born after Vasantha performed this ritual. (For the younger generation, Vasantha is my Chittappa's elder daughter, settled in Calicut - Kozikkode)

Now it was getting noon and the temples would close. So we hurried to the next spot, Ambalapuza, the abode of Krishna. The temple is famous for two things. One, here they play flute, the favorite instrument of Krishna, instead of the customary Nadaswaram. My co-brother in law, Kamala's husband Hari had the privilege of playing flute whenever the regular guy was out of town or went on leave. Two, its prasadam, the Ambalapuza pal payasam. We reached in time for darshan, but alas would have to wait for an hour for the puja to conclude before they distributed prasadam. So we denied ourselves this privilege.

We had two more in the list to complete - the temples in Alapuza and Chertala. For both we would have to wait till the evening. That would mean we would be back in Coimbatore way past midnight. And Rasa/Manni had to take the next early morning flight. So we decided to skip these two and head for Coimbatore bringing our four-day long tour to a successful completion. 

Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa.   

Snippets (in a lighter vein, please)

Part of our foolproof arrangement was that everyone will change seats at each break so that all will have the pleasure of - or,  will be subjected to -  front, back, window, middle or aisle seats. But it so happened that at the first break when it was announced, no one opted for any change. 

Rasa had deliberately kept the last row of seats vacant just in case anyone wanted to lie down for a while. No one availed of that. So  Raja occupied this space for the most part stretching his leg and dozing undisturbed except to extend his hand involuntarily to accept eateries distributed now and again. 

I distinctly remember everyone having said something or the other, but I don't particularly recall Rati Manni uttering anything all through the journey. Or, did she?

Rasa, Shanta and I were seated in close proximity to one another. So we could regale ourselves with some of Ramanathapuram and Vadakkanthara childhood incidents, and Leela joined in wherever she was party to it.

No one ever got lost in the group except that Raja was the last to board a little later invariably - he never fails to survey the place, surroundings and more importantly the shops before surfacing casually.

Mani managed to capture his quota of daily nap wherever he was, be it in installments thanks to jerks and sudden brakes that brought him back to life for a while.

Sundaram made his usual kind of noise, as though he was running the show -  the look busy, do nothing kind.

And, finally vote of thanks:

- to Rasa for selecting an unexplored route (for most of us, and tried and tested for him) with an array of temples that we might otherwise have missed in life; for his meticulous planning of miles/temples to be covered in a day; places of halt, etc. If you ask, then how come you missed two temples, the answer is: we covered two unscheduled temples - Srivilliputhur and Sankaranarayanan earlier. And Pandalam palace was on our 50:50 list.

- to Mani/Shanta for letting the Global Village, their home in Coimbatore, be the focal point for all the hullabaloo, and the accompanying hospitality;

- to Raja/Leela for taking care of all train and cab bookings (absence of tower and range notwithstanding), making enquiries, and doing errands;

- and to Lalitha and me (no one said that, so I am claiming it myself), for keeping accounts of the entire trip and emerging with a cash-in- hand shortfall of only Rs 7/- in the final tally - loss of less than one rupee per head, that is.

- and finally to Prem Nazir, the driver, for his safe and steady driving all through, except on the return journey when he was in an undue hurry. Yes, we heard him answer a phone call from home. Probably he reassured his wife and children that he would join them for dinner.