It's Festival Time in Mylapore ( March - April 2012 )

It's  Festival Time in Mylapore

In this auspicious tamil month of Panguni ( Mar-Apr) , in Mylapore , a 10 day utsavam  in Sri Kapaleeswarar temple. It is a coincidence for Sri Rama in the same month this year to celebrate His avatar day – Sri Rama navami. So in Sri Vishnu temples too a 10 day festival is going on . In Mylapore Sri Madhavaperumal temple and Sri Adi Kesava Perumal temple celebrate it in a big way by taking the utsava murthy twice in a day , morning and night in mada streets . The same ritual is being followed in Siva temple for Panguni utsavam.

The famous utsavam of Sri Kapaleeswarar are – 3^rd day morning – Adhikara Nanthi. The main daities , Shiva & Parvathi will be taken on a silver Nandhi vahanam and Pancha moorthis’ ( Vinayagar , Shiv Parvathi , Muruga & Chandigeswarar ) follows in procession on the streets. 5^th day night is Rishaba vahanam , which comes out of gopura vassal at midnight. 7^th day morning will be Ratha ( ther thiruvizha ) and 8^th day afternoon , the arubathu moovar (63nayanmars)follow Lord Kapaleeswarar. Both the days there will always a big crowd in the mada streets and diversion of bus route will be announced regularly.

Thanneer Pandal , more & Juice pandal you can see around mada veethi. Panagam will also be served sometimes. When we were young and active in Scouting  , me and Gopi, my brother  do social service through Ashoka Scout Group . We help the devotees to from a circle around the Ratham for safety and all the scouts  form a human chain to protect public from the ther chakras ( Ratha Wheels ). Similarly for Arubathu moovar festival and Rishaba Vahanam  we do service along with other  Bharat Scout groups.

Every day and night many Mylaporeans used to visit temple festival for all days and some for the big events mentioned above. The road side platform shops  will be busy in selling  their toys , pasi mani mala by Kuruvikara ladies ( with their young ones tied  in their hip ) , pericham pazham ( dates ) , pala pazham ( jack fruit ) ,  nannari sarbath carts , thapoosani ( watermelon)  carts  etc. will flourish in their business.

For young and old Mylaporeans , this festival is an important one and many non-residents of Mylapore  and who lived earlier in Mylapore will never miss this festival and make it at least a day or two with colourful cloths.

On arubathu moovar day , Thiruvalluvar Nayanar & Vasuki Ammaiyar , Big faced amman ( upto neck only ) from our old house neighbourhood  used to join  in the procession behind Lord Kapaleeswarar. Vaira sevai ( Lord Muruga wthl diamond studded dress and kreedam ) from Chintadripet is a special attraction. Vana vedikai ( fire works ) from China ( china petti – where many dolls comes out one after other when it glowas with colour fire )  is a highlight show.

When we  were  young  we enjoyed with parents and periappa( father’s elder brother )  , and later in our college days  with street friends .

Similarly Ramar utsavan comes daily in morning and night from Sri Madhava perumal temple and we were fortunate that our street was mada veethi for Perumal. Pushpa pallakku ( Floral Palanquin ), Ther ( Ratham ) , Hanumantha vahanam , Garuda vahanam  were star  attraction . We stand to show arti to the deity in front of our house in both times.

I feel great in sharing my old times of Mylapore festival here and many who read could recollect their old times  and cherish the past. My blog  is created to cherish the past and I love the good old days .

Chant Hare Krishna  today ,” Sri Rama navami day “  forever and be happy.

3D Society of 16 TV !!!

3 D Society of 16 TV , Mylapore

A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations,  and dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members.

The above statement is taken from WIKIPEDIA  about Society !

In ‘70s’  a Society is formed by only three constituent  members  through persistent relations and dominant cultural expectation . So  to serve the society  the 3D Society is established by  only three life members : M.D.Chander , M.D.Gopinath & Suresh Kuppuswamy !!! Don’t be surprised ! The thought struck  to start a society , when we were sitting on the parapet wall on the terrace of  16 TV ( our house at 16,Thiruvalluvar koil St., Mylapore ) and  watching the people passing through the our street and  few  looking ahead to see our crazy posture on the wall .  So we three have decided to do something for the passing society in cultural aspects ( LOL)!

A sign board saying “ 3D Society “ painted in a black background with white letters  and fixed on top of the front door frame in  upside down  position , just to attract the passing crowd . The very next day we could see the results ; that is the comment of the public and wondering why  such a board is fixed in that position and who are the  society members and what  they are going to  do and many other matters behind their mind. We felt  that  people have their own curiosity  in looking into other people’s business  and  so a black small notice board is made and tied in the steel grill of our house verandah without any writing . Again watched passers  whose   head automatically turns towards our black board and disappointed  , as there is nothing to munch ! Next day we  started wring silly slogans , just for fun . That also attracted people and they were looking forward for more daily !Like that the 3D society started to serve the Mylapore  society !!!

Any society should have an office and a meeting place.  In our house backyard ( thottam ) we had many bamboo sticks of 5 feet long each , belongs to our scout group. I was the quarantine master for that and started to make a makeshift tent with that and old thick bed sheet to accommodate three of us to sit, chat and sleep.

The tent is well equipped with power supply , a bulb with shade , a transistor of Giri’s ( Nelco brand , flat deck type ), Coke can pen stand , few posters and an ORIENT multi- purpose fan of Suresh’s , Cut pieces of coconut tree to a height of  2 ½ feet  were bought  from nearby Thiruvalluvar Koil  thottam  by us at cost and  used as stool to sit and watch the road  from terrace .

Major time pass after studies  and a round to Luz , Shanthi Vihar for Alu tikki channa , with Gopal ( Jr. To Suresh in School of Architecture ) , Jaggu ( Gopal’s brother ) ,  was  late night listening to music .

Music   treat to the  neighbors of 16 TV in 1970s’

Does this  seems to be a weird ?  By whom ? By what means ?  For what reasons ? Did the neighbors enjoyed the treat ? How it was given ? From where the  music treat was broadcasted ???  All these questions comes to everyone’s mind with eagerness  to know what it conveys ! to be frank I wish to write about the fun we  had on the terrace of our house , I would prefer to call home .

 Suresh’s dad , who was with Post & Telegraph  ,  had a Radio service  shop “ Maxwell “  near Sri Karaneeswarar koil and  Suresh’s  elder  brother was also working in late hours along with father after his office hours . He was with  Nelco , a trusted name for Radio &  Transister Radio .  There were many  music system comes for repair and unclaimed also. One such Turntable cum Record changer “ Grundig” of Germany , we took to our tent for entertaining us and the neighbours !

Lot of LPs’ ( Long Playing Records ) was with us and we blast  the music by keeping the player in the centre of the terrace and the speakers nearer to the parapet wall.  Famous  hit records of those times –

Mili , Jawani Diwani, Yadon ki bara hat , Hum kisee se Cun Nahin , Kati Patang , Mera naam Joker , Bobby , Kurbani and so on in Hindi.

Ossibisa, Kenny G , Pink Floyd , Bony M , Abba , Neil Diamond , Tom Jones , Shadows , Ventures , Beatles Tina Turner , Carpenters , Madonna , Samantha Fox and so on in English .

The record changer holds 10 LPs at a time and once started our hands are free to change the records. Of course it disturbed some but attracted many .

On the terrace of our house , one late  night ,  a film – Kulebagavali of MGR’s  was  screened on the next door ( Sathy’s ) house first floor wall . The nearby slum people graduallu gather in late night on the street junction to watch the film, as it was viewable from road too. Some have creeped on Arvind’s house roof and came near the parapet wall of ours and  assured that they will quietly watch. MGR’s fight with a lion was a highlight of the film. These are all unforgettable memories of 16 TV and 3D Society’s charity show !

After the music treat to ourselves and others we three used to go out for a cup of tea  at midnight  in BROTHER'S TEA STALL opposite to Sanskrit College , in the junction of Sullivan Garden Street , next to Malabar Saloon. It is still there !

After retreat to our DEN , we go to sleep , of course we used to have a sound sleep , for a fresh next morning .

This is our life style in teens . Our Den life was great and  we are really good boys as we never had  any bad habits.  We were proud when our Suresh got a gold medal in B.Arch. , University first rank and also a gold medalist in MTP in School of Architecture and Planning, Madras. He is now the Dean  of the same institution and Estate Officer of Anna university . I had a chance to attend his graduation convocation in University of Madras . Me and my brother also got graduated and  took employment in three years interval as he is younger than me.

Life and times at Mylapore of mine with Gopi and Suresh cannot be forgotten and the reason for writing this episode is Balaji Sethuraman , my good  next door neighbor kid  and of  my brother Ramesh’s  classmate , who is  14 years junior to me. But he could still recall the terrace life of us at  our home , 3 D Society’s fun loving days ,  though he was too young at those times.  He mentioned our dress style of bell bottom pants and jeans pant and long hairs of Suresh’s and more and more. My brother Ramesh also could recollect the good times from his childhood memories on us.

More of  Mylapore times will feature to cherish the past , which the present day kids could not enjoy !

Think Krishna and thank Krishna for the good times he gave us and Chant Hare Krishna and Be Happy.