Omalur, is Akila's place and in the marriage, we got invited to Omalur by Rajamani mama for the annual Ramanavami festival there. We wanted to go and when we got the telephone call, we started preparations. So, after a few discussions, we decided to drive!!! Filled up the Corsa to the brim at a Shell station and we started at 0830 on 29th April.
Just before we hit electronics city, we saw the much heard of Sri Ramanasramam that Akila spotted. Got to Omalur at 1315 after a cool drive on those real cool roads that are worthy of the toll we pay. We were not sure of what was to come, so, i had taken a few trousers and shirts, but just 2 veshtis (dhotis), one for daily wear and the other to the temple. We were taken straight to the temple for lunch and it was a very simple, but a very relishing one.
everyone takes care of you there!!! they are just one big family!!! met padmanabhan mama, who became a very good friend [more about him follows]. then, we met all of akila's relatives one by one and they welcomed us to the celebrations. the last 5 days of the festivities take place on a big scale (that we had no clue of until...). then, we went back to rajamani mama's house and relaxed for a while. We had to buy some veshtis for another occasion, so we requested rajamani mama to take us to Salem to which he readily agreed. We got ready at 1530 and drove to Salem; had to wake up rajamani mama many times to ask for directions; he had not slept for the last 2 days because of his involvement in the festivities; he woke up each time, told us how to go and off he would go to sleep; i would get jittery after a certain distance and would wake him up again; he would wake up, speak, and sleep :-) We parked the car and entered this small looking shop, but were lead to another room FILLED with veshtis!!!
rajamani mama reeled off the list and they promptly appeared; this is where i saw the quality of veshtis and got tempted to buy some; bought some for our use too; got back by 1800 to Omalur; rajamani mama got ready to go to the temple and begin the Vishnu Sahasranama archanai and Lalitha Sahasranama archanai; he got 2 people to start the former and 2 other the latter.
some of the people assembled there had books of either and tried to follow one side. this is where padmanabhan mama came and sat beside dad and me and gave us a book of Lalitha Sahasranamam and i told him that i can read tamil, but not at the pace to follow the chanting!!! But, dad did start following and that's where our involvement began. padmanabhan mama told me that they did not have a sanskrit version (that's something that occurs to me now; i can do something about it!!!). so, i just sat there, but i did concentrate and listen to the chanting; some of the names in Lalitha Sahasranama have really beautiful meaning; it was about 2000 when this was done, people started towards dinner, but the 4 of us appa, amma, akila and me sat before the beautifully stacked photos of rama pattabhishekam, hanuman, murugan, adi shankara, shiva, parvathi, dakshinamurthi, krishna, and many more and began singing nama ramayana and after that, we sang hanuman chalisa; i opened my eyes after finishing the chalisa and an aarathi was performed; after that, we had dinner and came back to see that preparations were done for the evening bhajans; stayed there and a group of bhagavathas began time sharing and started to reel off bhajans in the order: vinayagar, saraswathi, guru, murugan, amman, shivan, krishna, rama, vittala and hanuman. there were very very beautiful bhajans and they mixed these with jayadeva ashtapadi and many more that i heard for the 1st time. in the meantime, amma and akila went back to rajamani mama's house and went to sleep. dad and me stuck on and just about 2330, we saw a huge figure emerging with a huge mask of vinayagar!!! everybody's spirit soured high; vinayagar danced gleefully to the bhajans and he just won all the hearts there!!! specially those of the kids!!! then came a troupe of kids wearing different costumes, radha, krishna, mahishasura mardini, and a group of kids doing the kolattam; special mention about the little girl who was mahishasura mardini, who danced to a song played over the tape; an elderly person wore a green cloth and he lied down on the floor to become mahishasura and this girl put one foot on him, raised the spear and brought out her tongue and gave a fierce look to convey that mahishasura was no more; wow!!! that was it, you should've seen her there!!! everybody was thrilled, many an eye was soaked in tears of joy!!! the time had moved beyond 0000 hrs, but where was sleep? this was the secret of keeping awake through the night. bhajans went on and the chief bhagavathar took a lighted lamp in his hand and placed it in the middle of the hall and many of the men there started encircling it after the bhagavathar and began dancing around it. the time was 0130 when we decided to retire and off we went.
next morning, the bhagavathas went to each house begging for rice, this was called unchavrudhdhi. then, all the bhagavathas came to padmanabhan mama/lalitha paatti's house and
all of us prostrated to the chief bhagavathar whose padapooja was done by padmanabhan mama. we all went around the bhagavathar, touched his feet, and got a few grains of rice that was collected by him as blessings. then we went to the temple. all the bhagavathas got to the temple, people prostrated to the chief bhagavathar and got a few grains of rice from him.
we got to know that this was one of the biggest days there. all the people there and the bhagavathas started getting ready to perform seetha kalyanam. a group of people entered the hall with lots of goodies that were called seer (goodies given to people to eat after a poojai) and they placed them all in front of the stack of photos. we had our breakfast of pongal, it was very tasty. got back to the hall and sat amongst the increasing crowd. elaborate bhajans began after padmanabhan mama started off the day with the aarathi. then, came the time for performing the engagement of rama and seetha, then came the time for rama's upanayanam, and then came the seetha kalyanam!!! it was an elaborate ceremony with the poonal and thaali carefully stuck about rama and seetha images. it was done to 2 photos of rama pattabhishekam. it was a very lovely sight to all the eyes there. i was about to go to sleep, but for akila's coming with the much needed water bottle and due to god's grace, i stayed back to view the lord's marriage in all detail. jai sriram. dad wanted us to sing nama ramayana and hanuman chalisa again, but we postponed it. the crowd was huge and all of them were seated in the same hall for lunch. i thought this was unmanageable, but i was proved wrong. 3 sets of people, one at the back of the temple, one in the hall and the other in the dining hall were made to be seated. we were in the dining hall and i was telling akila that we would not be served food for a long time, but the plaintain leaf appeared, so did the dishes one by one and lo and behold we started our lunch!!! not only that, they finished serving all the people in the hall and came to serve us and in fact overtaking my expectations!!! just awesome!!! latha mami (rajamani mama's homemaker) came with buttermilk and saw that we were still in the first part of sambar saadam (rice). that was it, i knew these people meant no joke when they said that these celebrations were going on since 75 years!!! can you believe that? after lunch, we went back and had some rest.
i woke up at 1800 and rajamani mama said that a procession of rama pattabhishekam photo was following and asked me to join it, i nodded. this is where we met aniruddh and amruth, 2 kids aged 13 and 10 who were latha mami's relatives. these kids who were supposed to go back to salem wanted to stay back till the end, so, their taaththa entrused them to their paatti and left. we all got talking and these kids had a glow in their faces that you could easily notice. they wanted to join the procession, but only amruth did. the procession began about 1900 and we joined the palanquin carrying the just married rama, seetha accompanied by lakshmana and hanuman. we were a part of the group following the people carrying the palanquin and this group was doing its own bhajans. naturally, we started singing with the group. i even took lead in a few of the bhajans!!! i got stuck to just one line of "guru maharaj guru jai jai para brahma sadguru" and could not get another line to sing, so i kept repeating this a few times and stopped. my first attempt was pretty bad. the others were happy to have someone lending a voice to the group. i was happy to be a part of it. small kids began leading and they were just awesome!!! i sang one whole song on krishna and rama (from the long ago days when dad used to take us to a vinayagar temple and made us sing bhajans every thursday!!! we hated those days, but what about now? things change so much!!!) i could remember all the lines and so did not make a big mockery of myself. appa - thank you! the palanquin entered the temple and our group ended with a bhajan on hanuman. had dinner and got to know that dad and mom had finished theirs. went to rajamani mama's house for a short break and we got back to the temple for another round of bhajans and more expectations!!!
bhajans began with another set of bhagavathas, but the chief remained the same. there was one bhagavathar who sang kannada and hindi bhajans and we sang full throated after him. again, the chief bhagavatha brought the lighted lamp and a few people got around the lamp to sing and dance around it. this time, the group comprised of many kids. one venkatesan anna whom akila got me introduced to asked me to wear panchakachcham and join the group. i was hesitant but he pushed. a little while before this, aniruddh and amruth came back wearing veshtis and boy they looked so godly!!! i was asked to join the group around the lighted lamp and i complied much against my wishes. i thought, after all, we are here as a part of the celebrations, so, go full throttle. we started to dance about 2230 and it went on till 0130. can you believe that i was a part of this all the time? aniruddh and amruth were there too, with raghavendran, one of the grandsons of padmanabhan mama and many more kids. the final song came in and the chief bhagavatha began making a chain and all the kids started to run behind him like the train. i was hesitant to join this group as i was the only non-kid there!!! but, i decided to just follow the chain. initially, i was behind raghavendran and i had to bend to hold him; that's when aniruddh came and said anna you hold me because raghavendran is too small. what a gesture and presence of mind!!! awesome!!! just before this, we had to sit around the lamp and i sat in the usual manner, but amruth showed me how to sit and said anna sit like this!!! i complied :-) these kids knew the entire tradition and each time they had so much of enthusiasm to be a part of it. imagine how would it be to grow in this environment!!! these kids were a specially blessed lot.
after this, 2 men were dressed like ladies who were to play the part of sakhis, the consorts of lord sri krishna. they began dancing to find their lord, talk to him, appease him, the lord was playing with them and wouldn't appear to them and how they went about thinking of him, feeling pangs of separation, and each feeling was expressed in a song. many of these songs were sung by a bhagavathar who specialized in this field. 2 of the songs i remember are:
and . the time was about 0400 and since we were to drive back that day, we went off to sleep. dad stayed back and he told me that at the end of it, they took out a procession of lord hanuman's photo and one person was dressed as hanuman!!! i missed it. this was at about 0600 in the morning!!! and both aniruddh and amruth were awake till that time!!!
i woke up at 0800, got ready, went to padmanabhan mama/lalitha paatti's house, and had a sumptuous breakfast of idlies with chatney, milagai podi and curds. they wouldn't stop serving us!!! every serving was done by a different person and they wouldn't listen to my 'NO'. they would ask me to eat more with affection and i couldn't say that word NO. they would say 'just one', but would serve 2 or 3 and finally, i could take no more and said NO!!! we had the breakfast here because that day, there is no breakfast served in the temple. we hurried up and went to the temple to be a witness to the abhishekam to lord hanuman!!! what a beautiful sight it was. he was given a shower of water first and that too many times, then came rounds of milk showered on him, then came curds, then came turmeric and each time, the archakar gave the lord a tilakam of kungumam (kum-kum). my eyes went wet seeing the lord giving us the darshan in all those different ways!!! parallely, all of us started to chant vishnu sahasranamam, then nama ramayanam, then someone chanted a few shlokas from arunagirinathar's tiruppugazh, then we all sang hanuman chalisa. we were sitting right in front of the lord and that made it all the more beautiful. aniruddh and amruth knew vishnu sahasranamam by heart and sang without the need for a book!!! they were just awesome!!! then, everyone present there were asked to have lunch!!! we could not have any food because the stomach could only make space for a dinner :-) so, we just had a little payasam and started to bid farewell to all the people we got to know!!! aniruddh and amruth were surprised that we were leaving and amruth exclaimed "you are leaving NOW!!!" nice little kids and i just hope we keep meeting them more often than an year!!! went to a few of akila's relatives homes, got vettrilai-paakku (paan leaves and betel nut), got back to the car and started our journey back. we travelled at a good speed and got home pretty early.
we have resolved to go to Omalur every year god willing and take many more people with us too. jai jai hanuman, jai shriram
sahasranamam, bhajanai, unchavrudhdhi
-seeru-kalyanam, oorvalam-bhajanai-sakhi, aanjaneyar
