kirukkal.com

[pic: kapaleeswarar.com]

Yesterday, I spent a warm evening at the Mylapore Kapaleeswarar Temple. This is the first time I had been to the temple since the consecration happened on August 30th 2004. To visit a temple within the first forty days of its consecration is tantamount to performing a Ashwamedha Yaga. I missed it anyway. Mylapore still remains/will remain to be the center of spiritual chennai. Not much has changed around the temple except for the new bhavans and hotels that have mushroomed. However, the roadside shop near the theradi still gives away tasty bajjis of all types.

After the kumbhabishekam, the gopurams glitter in the twilight with the backdrop of a bluish sky. Couldn’t take a shot as I didn’t have my digital camera. Usually I love the gopurams that have lost their paints which give them a antique look and re-itrating that truth stands tall over time. However, this mylapore temple has one of the finest gopurams in the city and I did bask that same pleasure even with the finest of paints.

That new red neon board fixed in the middle of the gopuram said, Anbe Sivam. Wow !! It meant a world to me. For Hinduism, isn’t to be seen as a religion. It’s a way of life. Anbe Sivam is a much profound explanation to that definition. The ideology of Shiva, the theology of Hinduism all encompassed in just two words.

Inside the temple, near the sanctum sanctorum, the white cardboard read, Non-Hindus Not Allowed. Ah!! Red alert. With all that Anbe Sivam philosophy up the gopurams, this board with just a few feet away contradicts. It hurts. This is the second time I’m boring this over in the blog. The last time I vented this out was while I had been to the Madurai Temple. Why wouldn’t this be taken out may be a question to the believers who have understood the Hindu school of thought.

Giving a live commentary of deepavali is getting a little boring. Thats even to me but I just can’t resist this one.

The fireworks stuff, I think just got better over the years. South India has really adopted the crack the crakers in the night from the north over the last couple of decades. Tonight was a gala night as the skies lighted with the colors of fireworks. Sounds everywhere. Near ones, distant ones, echoed ones, lighted ones and what not.

Six years back, on a diwali evening, when me and my friend were driving desperately to Woodlands Drive-In, it was just zero visibility due to crackers, over T.Nagar and we just prayed not to bump on some poor pedestrian. Tonight wasn’t a similar one. The visibility was quite normal. Some kids say that in schools, their teachers were highly dis-couraging them of bursting crackers due to pollution. With half of the kids having this excuse and the other half glued to their television sets watching Baba and Azhagiya Theeye, the crackers have certainly lost a lil bit of their charm.

On televisions, Kamal Hasan ruled the day. Jaya TV’s 3 hour long show named Kalakka Povathu…Kamal, where Kamal had several guests like SPB, Chitra, Manorama and many others visiting him and sharing their experiences of working with him. All this and they also rendered some nicest songs. SPB sang the all-time hit, Kamban Yemaandaan and had Kamal to do lip sync for that. It was nearly perfect and SPB said this was a kind of soul sharing which he and Kamal had. Goosebumps. By popular expectation, Kamal sang that fantastical Anbe Sivam number in the end. Can’t have ended it better.

Trisha on a special interview was completely cool and seemed to be all herself. After a long time it was like witnessing a lead girl from the tinsel world who could shed all those fantasies surronding her and could talk sense. While talking about her Aayitha Ezhuthu experience she remembered how Mani Ratnam, to keep the crew’s spirit high, wore a life jacket and dived into the beach along with Sidharth and her during the shoot of Hey !! Goodbye Nanba. Long sentence that was.

Anniyan Vikram was on the ECR roads waving Happy Deepavali to strangers and giving them a sweet surprise. His long hair also says Anniyan is still on sets. Let’s hope they can make it to pongal. On Baba, Rajini is busy using that sixth mantra. Baba…Cinema Cinema.