ExpertDabbler

There is a dialogue in Devar Magan which would go on the lines of “Unakulle ipdi oru gramathaan olinchurukaradhai ippo dhaan parkaren” by Gowthami.

Whenever I listen to this “Karumaathur…” song in Virumaandi, it seriously evokes a part in me which I have almost successfully buried in Coimbatore and Chennai. Maybe there is a “gramathaan” in me too.

One thing which lingers in my mind everytime I listen to this song is the Panguni Pongal festival in Virudhunagar. Virudhunagar is no means a village. A district headquarters can’t be a village after all. But it does not have any of the cosmopolitan pretensions of the big city either.

The pongal is a Mariamman festival. And like all Mariamman festivals, this too shall have “thee chatti” in the second day of Pongal. Usually Pongal falls on Sunday. Followed by the chatti on Monday and the third day will be the day of the temple car also known as the “Thaeer”.

Pongal:
I was very religious when I was a kid. This should explain the bhakthi and fear i had for Mariamman those days. Later on, i could not accept certain practices and have ever since maintained a fair distance from Mariamman. Its fair to say we have parted ways and have remained that way till date. My mom is still a devotee though.

What started out as a religious thing soon turned out to be an occasion to hog some incredibly fabulous dishes for me during my adolesence. The special ‘kalkandu’ pongal and a dish called “thuvattal kari”(its a veg. dish) made out of a variety of vegetables is the high point of Pongal for me. Till date i’ve never seen any one who can cook that “theeyal” and “thuvattal kari” with such flavour except in our families. And my amma is the BEST in that. Yummy!

‘Agni Chatti’ day :
This Agni pot or “thee chatti” a monday, is usually declared as a local holiday. During “chatti” the whole town would be wild with Saami adum ladies, and this rollicking folk melam. The folk musicians are invariably guys coming from neighboring villages and almost everyone who takes agni pot on that day will engage a group of such musicians. And what stamina these guys had! The day would typically start at about 4 AM in the morning for them and would go well into the night. These groups of musicans would charge in hundreds for a trip. That was their only day and they would be really keen on making hay. The procession would start from the devotees’ residence and proceed to the Amman temple with the folk music. And after that the group will be hired by other Amman devotee after due negotiations.

Temple Car Day:
This was always a tuesday. Since all the folk music group are busy on Monday they would offer their agni pot or ‘chatti’ on the third day as a way of gratitude to Mariamman for all that they earn on Chatti day is because of amman.

My dad had a great taste in all these. He had never been particular about the “thee chatti” day which was usually crowded and commerical as far as music goes. But he was very keen to see the way these folks perform with their instruments when they make their own thee chatti. My dad would wake me up early in the morning and we would go out and have a refreshing Padhaneer and we would start our walk looking for these guys performing. He would travel all the way from Coimbatore to Virudhunagar just to witness this event. They would start a rhythm and would slowly start working on the crowd. In a matter of 15 minutes they would really enter that FLOW state. Man, i’ve never seen rock music concerts but those guys certainly would be on a rock and roll that day, for sure.

The temple car procession in the evening is a relatively tame affair and signals the end of the celebrations.

Nowadays due to several reasons, i usually dont go to the Panguni Pongal festivals. It reminds me of so many things including my dad. In a way, the big city pretensions offers us a convenient escape route from some memories.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006 at 7:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.