Sshh... It Happens...

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I could hear music everywhere. The city was vivid with everyone preparing for the upcoming Navarathri festival. This is my first year in Chennai and all this preparation is new to me. In Kerala we do celebrate the festival, not with this much fervor. It is a simple function celebrated completely at home and at temples. But here, the celebration is everywhere. Each one of the shop is crowded with lively souls buying things for Ayutha pooja which was the very next day. The pavements were packed with energetic vendors selling out Navarathri special goods.

It was such a lovely evening and I was walking from the railway station towards home. I really missed my home at this moment. I wish I was at home preparing for what we call ‘pooja vaippu’. I remembered all the wonderful times when we were kids and how we used to keep the books at our pooja room as part of the ritual. We don’t have to take it for two days and it is always the best days in life then. We don’t have to study not even read something. I used to keep even rough note there so that there is nothing left to be read. All these sweet memories came to my mind and I realized how far I have come from there. Again, the hassles of the celebration woke me up from the reverie. I could see that there has been a stage erected in front of a house for keeping bomma kolu.

Coming to the celebration, I must say that even ‘bomma kolu’ is completely new to me. I have heard of this many times but never got a chance to see it. And none of my friends here in Chennai has put up the kolu in their house. So this is my chance to see it. Here I must really appreciate the enthusiasm of Tamil people. What all rituals they have!

I already knew that there is no need of invitation to go and watch a bomma kolu as anyone is invited anytime. So without hesitation, I went inside the erected pandal. There was loud music and beat of drums, everything suitable for a spiritual atmosphere. I moved inside to get a better glimpse of the dolls.

But there were no dolls. An old woman kept in a freezer box. Relatives standing next to the dead body with a glum face. And one lady whining and beating her chest occasionally.

May her soul Rest in Peace!