It was around two in the afternoon, Mala was at home ironing her uniform for the next day. Her parents had gone to the village and promised to be back by the end of the day. The entire house was in her command and she enjoyed the silence in the house. As she was ironing she heard a knock on the door, when she went to the door, she saw Bala standing there smiling.
“ I heard you were alone wanting company, that is why I came”
“ Sorry, I like the silence in the house, please don’t be under the illusion that I want company” mocked Mala.
The two girls teased each other for some time,Mala then asked
“ so what is the plan for today?”
“Little sightseeing perhaps” muttered Bala.
“ you look busy though…” uttered bala
Mala turned around and knelt down in front of Bala and said “Hey, anything for you, sweetie, what do we do now?”
Bala smiled and said “ come with me”
The two of them set off on Mala’s cycle. It was a half an hour ride. They crossed melur road and took a narrow path down into the dasavathara sannidhi road and further into the banks of kollidam river bank. As they went closer to the banks of kollidam the river was gushing onward towards Kalannai but they moved upwards towards a small village. The lane was very narrow so the two of them had to go slowly leaving way for the other vehicles to pass by. They arrived at the small hamlet with barely 50 -75 houses. As they moved closer the village was lit up with lights and there was music played in high volumes. As they moved closer, the streets were small but every house was washed and cleaned and the streets were filled with kolams all the way. The houses were white washed and there was so much activity the ladies were dressed beautifully with jadi and jasmine flowers; the faces were bright with turmeric and big bindis, they moved from one house to another, they carried plates of fruits, coconuts, flowers garlands, and pots of paal pongal. Mala was dazzled to see the place with so much activity. The two of them moved towards the far end of the road. Suddenly from nowhere the street ended with a small temple. The temple had no roof, no huge structures, but it had a medium sized compound wall. The men folk were busy tying ropes and making a pandal and waiting for the arrival of the head man and the poojari.
Bala pulled Mala to the side and said “ sit down and watch” so Mala sat down on the stone nearby, not knowing what to expect. She never questioned Bala, she knew there is a reason for them coming to the place and was waiting to find out.
After sometime their music stopped and the villagers stood on either side and in walked the head man of the village with a box in his hand along with the village poojari.
Poojari was a medium height lean man in his late 40’s with a wide forehead to hold the thiruneeru and a kunguma pottu. His eyes were sharp, his plain body showed the rib cage and in his waist he wore a veshti in the village style and the red towel tied around his waist.
When they came near the temple, the poojari walked before the head man, stepped into the temple arena and came out with an arthi plate and welcomed the headman holding the box. There was pin drop silence as the sequence unfolded. Everyone there seems to know what will follow next but waited with holded breadth.
After the arthi, the poojari took the box from the head man and placed it on a slab in front of the small mandapam. Inside the mandapam was a small deity with her fist closed as if holding something in her hand, but there was nothing.
The poojari placing the box went into a frenzy of chants with his udukkai and the urumi drums were drumming to the chants of the poojari and the crowd was mesmerized, even the air stood still . The ladies now came and laid all the items in front of the mandapam.
The poojari in a musical way addressed the crowd “ Let us remember today 100 years have passed and unto this day on chitra pournami day when annathamman came and saved our village from hunger and disease. Now he started narrating the story. 100 years ago, when there was a food shortage in the village no one had eaten for days as a result they were very weak and would drink only water and eat some roots. The villagers had lost all hope when on chitra pournami day at 6 o’clock when the full moon was slowly rising, a small girl entered the village wearing a thandai and as she walked past each house the children of the house stepped out in a trance and started walking behind her. She collected all the children and stood here at this very place wherein she fed all the children with paal annam. The children were then followed by the mother’s and then the father’s . The entire village was fed and before she left the village people begged her to stay, she removed her thandai which she wore on her right leg and gave to ancestors of sankaran pillai and promised to come every year to shower her blessings and from that day onwards there has been only prosperity and no famine. The sankaran family holds the key to the box every year it is brought to the temple for annathamman to come and wear them and shower them with prosperity.
A kalash was kept in it the coconut flower bunch was kept with flowers and the kalash was decorated with flowers with parrot dolls on either side, as the chanting grew louder, sounds of udukai and urumi melam ripped through the air, the box was now opened and the poojari took out a thandai from inside. The thandai was black and looked like it was made out of stone. It was placed in front of the kalash.
The sounds increased with ladies dancing to the tunes of the melam, the mood was very festive. Suddenly Bala got up and moved into the crowd and started dancing with the ladies, it appeared that none of them saw bala amidst them, mala sat and watched everything in silence, she sat there like the fly on the wall, nobody noticed her amidst all of this, that was fine with her, she was again a silent spectator in all this. The tempo increased, dancing continued, chanting grew louder, Bala was dancing totally lost in the crowd and then Mala saw Bala walking towards the kalash she turned around and vanished.
The poojari stopped his chant, he cried aloud “ Amma has come, the crowd stopped, all eyes on the kalash. The kalash with the coconut flowers now glittered like gold .The thandai which was black like stone now bright and glittering as though it was studded with gemstones. There was a hush.
The priest prayed to Bala turned annathamman for good health, prosperity and the whole village were all prostrated on the floor, some crying with each one having their set of problems. The poojari now heard the voice of Bala saying “ velanna, i am very happy to see all of you again, ask all the pregnant women to come forward” the pregnant women came forward and bala touching all of them blessed them with healthy children, she called shankaran pillai the head man, shankaran stepped forward , she asked the poojari to give him the paal annam, the head man touched bala’s feet before he received the prasadams, now each one came forward and she blessed all of them. Mala stood there watching everything in silence…
Bala Evaraiyum maṟappattum illai ; etaiyum maṟuppatum illai...
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