Trip to the God's own Country...

Hi all...
Meeting u all again after a long time.. but in a really happy and somewhat tensed mood.. Life seems to b somewat better from the last few months.. In this post am gonna write about the joyous moment that i had during the last weekend, when i went to Kerala.. :)

It was friday evening, and only 3 of us ( from my company) wer in a mood to have a great weekend ahead, as we r on the way to Kerala for some dual purpose.... yeah, we have to attend one of our colleague's marriage there, but apart from that its the time, when the people all over Kerala gather to this place [Thrissur], to see n enjoy the Pooram festival which wll be takin place in a traditional and auspicious manner and once in a year...

As my colleague is from Thrissur, we dint worry abt the stay and food... as we can nalla motta adichfy that already motta..

It was almost time for the train, and i was little bit tensed whether i wll catch it or not, at tat time i recieved a call and some good/gr8 news, of some sort which i havent heard from the Final Days of my 3rd year College Life.. that made me feel good.. and started briskly for the trip... [Will blog abt this seperately... ;)]

Guruvayur
We reached Thrissur and had a warm welcome from the motta's family members, his amme and chechi [mom and sister] and i hv to write a lot about his sister's cute,kutti, vaal payyan.. Keshu..

Then we planned to go to Guruvayur, which is very near to their place.. went there in train.. some half an hour journey.. loved to watch those coconut trees along the sides... and after reachin there.. we wer supposed to be wearing a moond[dhoti] alone, and nothing in the top.. wat to do, i dont like these sort of restrictions but heard ppl saying.. We are nothin in front of God.. So we hv to... Then we had a nice dharsanam..

Thrissur Pooram
Ok lemme start describing abt this traditional festival, which happens in a year..
There are two Amman's in the Thrissur town and a Sivan temple in the center.. all these together form a circular area exactly at the centre of the Town..

The two amman temples are Thiruvambaadi and Paramekkavu.. and the Sivan is Vadakkunaathar... The traditional story goes like, these two ammans wanted to marry Sivan, so they started fighting infront of the Sivan temple, and they finally returned after samadhaanam...

So, hw is this story being depicted every year... Tats the gr8 thing that happens.. there are 16 elephants from each of the amman's side.. [ total of 32] each of them decorated with the traditional ornaments in their head and neck.. and the middle one of each 16 has the amman representing in its head..

And ther are 3 ppl standing on the top of each elephants having the traditional umbrella and visiri.. [ and they used to change these traditional umbrella, a minimum of some 45 sets from each side.. and this is called Kodamaatam ], and they other two standing on top of the elephants, have to rise up and down in some unique style the visiri's they r having all thru the day, i can imagine hw stressed they might be, but in their face i can see only happiness and they might hv felt they r doing for God.. :)

And I loved the music that was played.. it was coool.. and i keep on humming the same for hours.. on the final day the two elephants representing the goddess alone meet right in front of the sivan temple.. bow to each other and leave... :) was really nice to see those things.. :)

And the main part of this festival is the Vedikkat [fireworks] more than 40 lakhs will be spent for this thing, but this ther was a tragedy in one of the places where some half of the fireworks are placed got blasted and some ppl died.. so it was cancelld...

But we felt ok, as the other traditional things went on smoothly..

Keshu - the vaal payyan
Keshu, is goin to his 2nd standard, but his cute english tat he used to talk with us [as he doesnt know tamil, and we dont know malayalam] and the wordings he used to yell at us.. "You are a mandhaboodhi, You are a chaanagam" [ meaning dumbhead and cow dung resp.. ;-) ] I donno he found abt me.. But i juzzzz enjoyed...

As we planned not to take him to Pooram, coz of the crowd and things.. he took our camera and mobiles and kept them hidden.. though had tensions at the last moments.. i juzzz enjoyed tat too.. but felt bad, wen his mom scolded for tat.. and he started crying.. so bad..

But, we wanted to hav a good time with him in a good place.. as he s all alon durin his summer holidays, so we took him to a dam [Peechi dam] on the final day.. we walked deep into the forests and we njoyed like anything...

The Food
We really enjoyed all the food, that we prepared for us.. motta's mom and sister took so much effort and they kept on preparin items and served us.. really cool things, most of them cooked in coconut oil.. and kuzha puttu, aapam, prawn fry [ juz made me to remember the prawn fryof kumarakom restaurant], chicken curry, chicken stew,full fish fry [ tat we really coool], boiled bananas [i hvnt heard b4], that typical gundu gundu rice[ only had it on first day, later they had the ponni rice for us]... and the typical jeeraga boiled water..

Colleagues's marriage

It was at somewhat faraway distance from Thrissur, in a place called Kothamangalam, and we had to travel in two buses for abt 2 and half hours.. but i was lookin along the sides while travelling, but i cudnt see any unoccupied places like the ones tat i used to see during my journey in tamil nadu [ yeah, Kerala is supposed to hv highes population density.. so it has to be like tat.. ;)].. We reached a Church, it was a Christian marriage, i hvnt seen any before, so it was a little different to watch.. I can understand wat was goin is the Mass.. but along with the mass the father used to say the names of the bride and groom and some sentences following in malayalam but with the same accent that even ourside fathers used to utter.... so can understand to some extent wat is going on.. they exchanged rings.. and finally for the awaited pandhi, but tat was little different too.. enjoyed tat.. returned back.. :)


Ok makkalae.. I think am writing toooo much.. but still i feel i missed out lot of things.. but enough for this.. tata..

See u all in next post..
Bye..