Peruvemba calling

Kumara Ramaswamy, my extended family member for over 36 years now (not a case of lost & found in the Zoo family member, but a case of auto-correction from friend to family member !) informed me that his family deity Pooja will be held in end December and he wanted me and my wife to attend the same in Peruvemba, a small village near Palakkad in Kerala.  It was my wife’s desire to have darshan of little Krishna in Guruvayur better known as ‘Guruvayurappan’.  We thought it was a perfect opportunity to have two mangoes in one stone and tickets were booked accordingly.  Little did we realize that one can get only one mango in one throw.

26 Dec 2022 (Mon): We boarded the Ernakulam Express train to Thrissur from KR Puram at 7.15 pm.  The scheduled arrival at Thrissur as per timetable was 3:55 am the next day.  Being ‘munjaagirathai muthanna’ I was awake by 3:15 am itself and kept seeing my wrist watch (not Baywatch)/mobile etc. 

27 Dec 2022 (Tue): In keeping with the tradition, the train arrived Thrissur an hour late around 4.55 am.  We had to wait for Prasad’s family who also arrived from Bangalore by Kanyakumari Express and reached Thrissur at 5:45 am. A TT was arranged to go to Kumar’s chithi’s house in Thrissur.  We had a warm welcome, had bath and visited Kottapuram Shiva Temple.  We were joined by another troupe of relatives from Chennai. After breakfast, we left for Guruvayur, 45 minutes journey from Thrissur.

We reached Guruvayur around 10: 15 am.  

There was a serpentine queue for dharma darshan. We bought ‘nai vilakku’ ticket for Rs 1,000/- which enables straight special entry to the temple door.  As in Tirupathi, the guards keep pushing us inside the temple. Guruvayurappan as little Krishna over there is literally a small idol.  There are only oil lamps lit inside the sanctum and there are no lights facing the idol. Even before we could have proper darshan of the Lord, we were pushed aside.  The solace is that the Lord has seen his devotees in person and am sure He will be with us in all our joyful & sorrowful moments. Maybe He wants us to visit Him again and I am sure He will make it happen.  We had lunch at the temple. The lunch was literally a feast-type menu.  Later we were told that it was sponsored lunch by a devotee on that day. We left Guruvayur around 12:15 pm.

We reached Peruvemba around 2:45 pm. This village is about 45 minutes drive from Palakkad town. Well, my image of a village changed after seeing this place. It does not have shackled homes. Instead, it has individual homes which can give a tough competition to some of the best architect designed homes in Sadashiv Nagar or Indiranagar in Bangalore. Every other home has a NRI who has pumped money to rebuild their ancestral property.  A good way of bonding with hometown.  Our stay was arranged in one of the ex-Brooke Bonder’s house – Prakash Srinivasan.  Prakash was with Brooke Bond in late 1980s/early 1990’s. This was a 150+ years old house, with refurbished flooring, minor repairs to address some building cracks but keeping intact the structure. Along with us, ex-Brooke Bonders Seshadri, Mouli and JP also stayed. It was a perfect opportunity for us to reminisce old Brooke Bond days.

Around 5:00 pm, we went to Peruvemba Shiva Temple. As per local tradition, one can have only half round of the prakaram (circling the temple) and has to walk back to complete the other half circle.  As a Tamilian, this was quite strange for me as in TN/Karnataka one can always go around the prakaram in full circle. From there, we walked to Ootukulungara Bhagavathy Temple, Kumar’s family deity.

Temple Legend: The temple is situated where there was once a paddy field. Legend has it that a farm worker plowing the field heard a sound of his plow hitting metal, releasing a flow of blood. He ran away and narrated the incident to the landlord. The Landlord inspected the place, was convinced of the peasant's story, and brought in an astrologer. After conducting the prasanam, the astrologer concluded that the idol was the swaymbhu idol of the Bagavathy, making the venue extremely sacred. The landlord constructed a temple where the idol was found. (Source: Wikipedia).

With colorful lights all around, the place was beaming with festivity. We had a good darshan of Bhagavathy Devi.  Had the opportunity of lighting up the innumerable oil lamps placed around the temple. We also witnessed evening ‘Arati’ and ‘chanda melam’. It was a pleasant heart-filling experience. Having spent an hour inside the temple, we walked back to have dinner and retired for the day.

28 Dec 2022 (Wed): A short sight-seeing trip of some places in Palakkad was arranged.  Palakkad Fort was our first stop.  After going round the fort with some photo sessions, we moved onto Malampuzha Dam and Garden. At the garden, we took rope-way cable car to have a bird’s eye view of the garden.  We then strolled to the dam and came back to board the TT.  We reached Peruvemba by 2.30 pm, in time for lunch.  The food becomes more tastier because of the 'unadulterated' vegetables and 'pure' water available in the village. After taking some rest, went to Bhagavathy temple in the evening again.  Being my birthday, had to attend to numerous calls and respond to over 150+ greetings on Whatsapp before going to bed.

29 Dec 2022 (Thu): This was the Patham Padhiyam day. We got up by 4:00 am to visit Bhagavathy temple and were in the temple before 5.30 am. There was already a big line up of villagers dressed up in their best attire. Had darshan of Bhagavathy Devi and returned home by 6.30 am.   Vehicles were blocked half a km away.  We had to walk this distance to board our TT for some temple visits arranged by Kumar. The first temple was Meenkulathi Bhagavathy Amman temple situated in Pallassana village. 

This temple is also referred as Kerala’s Meenakshi Amman temple. Had a good darshan of Bhagavathy Devi. 

We then went to Santhana Gopala Swamy temple in Pallassana. Again, were blessed to see the Lord and seek his blessings. Post visiting these temples, we returned back to home, in time to participate in the Pooja celebrations held on account of Patham Padhiyam.  In our return walk from the drop point to home, we saw both sides of the narrow road lined up with petty shops selling idols, candies, ice cream, pani puris, fancy store items, etc.  The whole village bore a festive look.

Every year in December month, 11 day festival is organized by the temple committee.  Special Poojas and Homas are conducted in line with tradition. For all the 11 days, breakfast, lunch & dinner is served with prior booking of sponsorship. Patham Padhiyam, popularly known as Chanthatam is the most important day of this festival.  This day is celebrated on a Monday / Thursday following 10 days of the festival. On this day, chandu abishekam is done to the Devi from 6 am onwards till next day early morning 4 am and all devotees are allowed to freely enter the inner portals of the temple and reach very near to the Goddess to seek her blessings. The entire village is fed for lunch.

This year’s lunch was sponsored by Kumar’s family. Sponsoring lunch on this day is considered to be blessed and only one family is expected to bear the entire cost (no sharing of cost between families allowed). With this unique rule also, it was a pleasant surprise to note that the next earliest booking slot available is only for the year 2041. All participating devotees are also considered as blessed, hence we remain blessed.  We had lunch by 1.30 pm and took rest in Prakash’s house.  Around 5.30 pm, came to Kannan’s house for catching up with other friends.  Had dinner by 7.30 pm and had to walk for almost a km to catch the TT to go to Palakkad junction as traffic was blocked on the roads leading to the Devi temple.

Funny recalls:

a)    Kumar informing Seshadri that vehicle has been arranged from Olavakkode.  Sesh getting down at Palakkad junction and thinking that he has got down at the wrong station and giving a wake up call to Kumar at 5.00 am itself for clarification.  Later, we were informed that locals still refer Palakkad junction as Olavakkode.

b)  Seshadri recalling our Brookefields trips funny moments – Seshadri waking up in the middle of a pool of water - reason being Nagkumar switching off the fridge thinking he is switching off the AC in the middle of the night.

30 Dec 2022 (Fri) : We reached Bangalore by 8.00 am.  Before I conclude, I take this opportunity to offer a ‘big salute’ to Kumar who planned our travel and stay in the neighbourhood homes very efficiently.  It is not a child's play to make arrangements for 90+ family & friends. Guest’s needs of cot was also taken care of.

I had the privilege of the first person to sleep in the newly painted cot that was 150+ years old (in today’s world it would be referred as “designer’s cot”). A heartfelt thanks to Prakash & family who put up with our stay and loud talks/jokes/laughs etc.  Finally, a big thanks to Kannan & Family (Kumar’s cousin) who was the local person to help Kumar in all the arrangements, be it transport, catering, bedding, etc.  The untiring work of Kumar, Prasad and Geetha need a special mention without which this trip would not have been a memorable one.  Kudos to the entire team involved in this mammoth task.