In Her Presence

God's Own Country is so true. Kerala will always remain in my heart. If I could afford to buy a miniature version of a tharavadu, one of the traditional houses, by the river, I would do that in a heartbeat. T had been inviting me for a long time and after a year and a half of procrastination, she still had a little flicker of hope that I would visit her. She made one last ditch effort to coax me to make it to the famous Chotanikara Magam festival, which is celebrated every year by the women folk. 

I was missing Nina, their boxer. She is a bundle of joy and very pretty too. She had a near death accident in which her hind legs were fractured in a hit and run late night. Her resilient spirit got her through, not to mention the unflinching love her family gave Nina and nursed her back to health. So I had a lot of things running on my mind. We went back and forth about getting tickets and finally, I went early morning to the reservation counter and managed to get a tatkal ticket.

I had a pretty decent trip and had to wait for an hour to be picked up from the Ernakulam train station since T was experimenting with the shortest route, which invariably took her longer than expected. In the meanwhile, I enjoyed the beautiful sunrise and got into a brief conversation with a family from Pune who were on a pilgrimage. T and I ended up chatting and catching up with so many things, that we missed our morning plan to go to the nearby Poornathrayesha temple, dedicated to Vishnu, who takes the form of Santhanagopala Murthy. This is one of Kerala's greatest temples and well-known for its utsavam held in Nov-Dec, known as the Vrischikolsavam. The lord is believed to be the elder brother of Chotanikara Bhagavathy. 

Later that afternoon, we made it to the powerful Chotanikara Bhagavathy temple for the magam darsanam. She is worshipped in three forms, as Saraswathi, Lakshmi and Durga at morning, noon and night respectively. The temple architecture stands out as a testimonial for the wooden sculptures, also known as vishwakarma sthapathis. She is believed to cure those who suffer from mental illness. During the makam thozal, She is given a ritualistic bath in the sacred pond and for the makam darsanam, when the temple opens at 2.00 PM, she is adorned with gold jewels, ornaments and garlands. It is believed that this was the form that Vilvamangala Swami saw after the installation of the Keezhkaavu Bhagavathy. The crowd was massive and the sweltering heat did not help. Women were jostling each other and my friend and I were beginning to wonder if we will last for the next couple of hours until we reached the main sanctum. After nearly three hours and a lot of fervent prayers, we were blessed with Her grace. It was a sight to behold and the very purpose of my last minute train ride to Kerala seemed fulfilled.

For the next day, T had organised a temple tour starting with the famous Edapally Mahaganapathy temple, which is maintained and worshipped by the royal family. The temples of Kerala and their rituals adorning the deities and worship is one of the most breathtaking experiences for a traveller. 

From Edapally, we went to the Kodungallur Bhagavathy temple in Thrissur district. This was my second visit to the temple. The last visit gave me goosebumps just seeing Her form. The temple is believed to be a dedication to Kannagi and her martyrdom, built by the Chera king, Chengottuvan. Yet another popular belief was that Shakti was installed by Parasurama on the advice of Lord Shiva, when the former was tormented by the demon Daruka. Bhagvathy in the form of Bhadrakali is believed to have killed the asura. She is the residing deity in this temple.

From here, we headed over to the Kadampuzha Bhagavathy temple in Malappuram district. On the offerings is known as Muttarukkal, where people flock to get rid of obstacles that they face by buying coconuts to be broken by the priest into two equal halves, signifying that the problem has been destroyed by divine intervention. If a coconut does not break, the devotee has to return with a  fresh coconut to break. My friend was nervous as hell and was worried sick that the coconuts may not break. What we did not know was that on a weekend, it will take us forever to reach the Goddess. We had to wait for 5 hours in the queue by which time, my acidity built up. In the end, alls well that ends well. The coconuts broke into perfect halves. The lady ahead of us was not so lucky and had to return with another coconut since one of them did not break.

After lunch at a nearby restaurant, we went to the next temple on the itinerary, the historical Thirumandhamkummu temple in Angadipuram. 

The goddess Thirumadhamkunnilamma,was believed to be the protector of the Valluvanad kings. The principal deity is Lord Shiva followed by Bhagavathy. Legends say that King Mandatha, an ardent Siva devotee asked Shiva for an idol he could worship until his end. Shiva gives an idol which was dear to his wife, Parvati as well. She sends Bhadrakali to restore the idol from the King, but she is unable to do so. Finally, Shakti takes her full form and the King hugs the idol for protection. In the tussle, the idol splits into two and the thrimurthis (brahma, vishnu and shiva) appear on the spot. Shakti says she will remain with the idol because of her affection for Him and also installs Bhadrakali for worship. The viewing of the Goddess is also very unique. The door is opened only in parts for worship. The temple is up on a hillock and the walk around the area is beautiful.

On the last day of my stay, I had planned on making some lovely chutneys and some curries for lunch. I got through it half-way and had to make a mad dash to the Poornathrayesa temple. We went there in time for the closing ceremony and our fervent prayers for His darshan were answered. It was divine blessing.

The trip was absolutely satisfying except for my gastric attacks that undid my poor system. Nina, however came to my rescue. Maybe she sensed it, I don't know. I had been

throwing up for the entire trip because of the heat, long hours and spices. When I headed home, I was all curled up on a mat resting. She came bounding out of nowhere and jumped on me and licked me all over. She is a drool girl, so I generally don't let her lick me. But this time it was completely different. I felt instantly better like instant coffee. It is so hard not to fall in love with her. 

I am just waiting to hop back on the train to see her at the gate and fall in love all over again. Yes, add Austin and Mickey to that list. I can't help myself. I just can't.