Attukal pongala comes to Chennai

CHENNAI: Eight years ago, C Venugopal from Chennai suffered a road accident that left him in a precarious condition. Venugopal, who works at a yoga centre in the city and has since then completely recovered, believes it was his mother's prayers at the famous pongala festival dedicated to the goddess of the

Attukal temple

in Thiruvananthapuram that has given him a new lease of life.


In Chennai for close to eight years, the family has not missed a single year of Attukal Pongala at the ICL Home Town in Porur since. This is also among the oldest venues of the celebration in the city, organized by K S Dev Anand Kumar and his wife Shanthi

Abirami

for 12 years now.

The Attukal pongala, which made it to the Guinness Book of Records for having the world's largest gathering of women in Thiruvananthapuram has grown its roots in Chennai too. Women fast for nine days leading up to the festival, and on the ninth day, throng the streets to cook a rice delicacy called 'pongala' - made of red rice, jaggery,

coconut

and ghee - over a brick hearth and offer it to the goddess.

M Nanda Govind, former president of Malayalee Club and Confederation of Tamil Nadu Malayalee Associations, says the festival has grown phenomenally over the past few years in the city, with as many as 10 lakh Malayalees joining the celebrations.

"The makeshift stoves here are lit at the same time as in Thiruvananthapuram and the ritual has high significance among devotees, as it symbolizes piety and fulfilment of wishes. Especially over the past two years, we have seen a large number of Tamils and north Indians joining as the festival represents universal ideas of prosperity and well being among devotees," he says.

Sath Sangama, a

Hindu

Malayalee association that organizes one of the most popular Attukal Pongala celebrations in the city at A M Jain College in Meenambakkam saw close to 1,000 women participating this year. "We are recognized by the main Attukal Bhagavathy temple at Thiruvananthapuram and get the holy water from there," says Sathish Nair, president of the association.