Ripples on the brain

Girish, I must tell you. I have read this post probably a thousand times and still laugh at it every time. Amazingly written - your literary skills and MBA vocabulary were probably at their peak at that time.

My version of what happened around this time two years ago is here. Time flies!!!

Even back in Chennai, funny moments are not very infrequent during Avani Avittam. That is why I normally prefer performing the rituals in a temple rather than with a help of a vaathiyar at home. In the temple, there is always an ample scope of finding the funny maamas - the ones that don’t know how and when the pavitram is to be worn, the ones who repeat achamanam, or om booho when the vaathiyaar utters them (rather than saying the mantram itself), the ones who say the mantram a trifle earlier than the others or say the familiar phrases in the mantram loudly along with the vaathiyar instead of following him (and feel smug in the midst of others who just repeat them), those that don’t understand the sequence of the mantrams (i.e. upakarmam, brahma yagyam, kandaraishim tharpanam, vedarambam etc.), those that make a mess of the new poonal (sacred thread) given to them (usually it needs to be unknotted before being worn, but most of them create additional knots in their attempts to unknot it!) and those that don’t realize when the ritual ends and check with others to confirm everything for the day is over . Usually the enthusiasm levels are higher initially and they drop after the first 10 minutes after which most of the souls only note the change of the mantram sets. The decibel levels reach the crescendo when “Yagyopaveetham paramam…” is uttered, when everybody realizes that it is mantram for actually wearing the new poonal (but even there some people make the mistake of holding the wrong hand up etc. ), and then usually drop for the rest of the ritual.

I usually go to the same temple every year and spot the same set of crowd at the same batches (there are three batches in the morning usually) - the ones that need to go to office and school come early and rest join the 7 am or the 8 am batch. Back home there’s always a host of sweets and special dishes to be relished!

Happy Avani Avittam and Gayathri Japam!