MY TRIP TO SATHANUR

My dad and I had planned to attend the sathanur koil kumbabishekam that was going to be held on the 15th of SEPTEMBER ’08. This is a short travelogue of my trip down south that includes the koil kumbabishekam as the major part of our tour.
It was 8.20 in the late evening when we started from home. I was a little too excited about this trip as it was my first trip with my dad as the only company through out the journey. With my brother jokingly commenting at me and my mom laughing at it, me and my dad started off for a long night drive in our car. Our plan was to pick up my uncle from his place and then head on to vaitheeswaram koil.
We reached pammal exactly at 9pm where my uncle had been awaiting us. Just a five minutes break and all the three of us left the place by 9.05. Mr.murugesan, our driver had accompanied us to the tour but my dad hardly let him drive the car. As car driving is something that he enjoys the most, guess he would really have had a very enjoyable time doing it.
Our first destination was obviously our kula theiva sthalam -vaitheeswaram koil for which we took the dindivanam route. From pammal, we caught the GST road and crossed my college SRM at around 9.50pm. What a colorful night it was, the lightings over tall buildings, highway lightings, and lights beaming out from the Lorries and cars which was a treat to the eyes. It’s very rare that we get to enjoy all such things in our daily routine. And on top of it all, with my dad’s excellent and smooth driving, I almost dozed off to sleep.
It would have been around 11.30pm when my dad woke me up for tea at a small tea shop in a place called “Irayanur” approximately 35kms from pondy. Though it was only a mouthful, it was highly refreshing and we geared up for the highway drive once again. I was listening to music in my i-pod, my uncle having a sound sleep, the driver accompanying my dad in the front and my dad driving-we crossed puthucheri at 12.00am and reached Chidambaram koil at around 1.40am. just as we’d been going, I’d dozed off once again when my dad woke me up saying we’d reached vaitheeswaram koil in less than 5 and a half hours. The time was 2.10 early in the morning. After sending the driver to his hometown-kumbakonam, we lodged our bags and luggage in a small room near the temple and took a nap for a very short while.
At 5.00 am, my dad, uncle and I vacated the room and went into the temple to take the holy dip(snanam) in the koil kulam which is considered auspicious. It is believed that a dip in that holy pond would make you free from all the diseases as the temple is famous for lord Vaitheeswaran. I’d been there many times since childhood but this time, it was a new experience as I already said, it was the only trip without my mom’s company. I was given the responsibility of taking care of my dad, myself and the belongings all myself which was indeed a great task. Once we got ready, we had a very nice dharisanam of the god-vaitheeswaran and the goddess aavudai naayaki and returned to our car. My dad and I went to a near by stall to have our morning break-fast which was a small cup of tea. We usually have a practice of going to the famous “thayyal nayaki” a small hotel where we had our breakfast after every dharisanam when ever we went as a family, but this time it was only this small cup of tea as my uncle had to fast for the "chathurmasiyam viratham".
Thirumanancheri was our next nearest destination which was a sudden inclusion in our trip. The place is famous for lord shiva’s temple(uthvaganaathar well-known as “kalyana suntharanar”). It is believed that a person looking for his/her marriage is blessed to get married soon if he/she visits this temple-kalyana suntharanar koil. From there, we drove to “neruveli” a small village near thirumanancheri. This place is famous for the “utharavaahini kaveri river”. At around 10am, my dad and uncle decided to have another holy dip in this kaveri river. I noticed something strange there- my uncle applying the soil from the banks of the river kaveri on to his body, and to my astonishment, my dad too was following him. When I asked what was that all about, my uncle explained that it was as good as using a soap and that it had a lot of medicinal values. May be it sounded too superstitious to me, but no wonder my dad was amazed by his uncle’s dedication and values of such beliefs. I clicked a few snaps of the place and shot the fast running clear water of the kaveri in my vedio camcorder. All the three of us had our home-made food that we’d packed for our tour. We relaxed there for about an hour and headed off to sathanur.
Just as we started from there, my uncle suggested that we would visit the “vana durgai koil” at kathiramangalam and soon our plans changed all over again. On our way to that temple, we came across another small mariamman koil where kumbabishekam was going on. We were right on time to attend the poornaahuthi which was around 10.40am. And 20 minutes drive from there, we reached the kathiramangalam temple.
I had become pretty exhausted by then, wonder how my dad managed to drive with so much energy. Quite a long drive from there and at 1pm, we reached our final destination “Sathanur”-my dad’s native. I’m sure it would have been a nostalgic experience to him for he kept telling me his old memories and his childhood stories throughout the trip with such an excitement. We went to hari mama’s(my dad's 1st teacher) house where we’d planned to stay for the night. The old lady(hari mama’s wife) was kind enough to welcome us and serve lunch which was around 2 o clock in the noon. After so many hours away from home, I had a “feel good” experience there, a feeling of being “at home” again. Evening at around 6pm, the temple visits began once again. We visited almost all the temples in sathanur ranging from the smallest and the oldest to the biggest and most famous temples. One evening was definitely not enough to admire the nuances of the temples. Mr. and Mrs. Shankar (hari mama’s daughter) had also accompanied us to visit these temples. Wow!! Wat a woman she is! One of the very very few people whom I admire is this lady-Mrs.Raji shankar. It seems she’d been born and brought up in sathanur and no wonder every tom dick and harry knew her so well. She was so friendly, and made me feel comfortable through out my stay in sathanur. We had a sound sleep that night in their house.
Next morning, on the day of kumbabishekam, I woke up at 5am and got dressed up to attend the kumbabishekam. After having breakfast, we went to the temple and the pre-kumbabishekam rituals were going on. My dad was thoroughly enjoying his day, meeting his old friends. I was made to sing a few songs over the mike on stage, another thing that my dad really enjoyed. The temple was getting crowded as time went. Almost the entire village had gathered there to watch this great event. Finally, the kumbabishekam took place in a very grand manner and I had taken few shots in my camera. It was time for lunch, and we all had a great feast in one of the biggest houses in sathanur, and the family was known for their hospitality.
We relaxed for a very short while and I then started packing for my trip back home. It must have been 2pm by the time we started off from the little village. From there, we went to kumbakonam to pick up our driver and headed off to Chennai. Again a long drive and I spent the time listening to music and messaging my friends. Back to Chennai in no time, dropped my uncle at his place and reached home safe. I must agree I missed my mom a real lot, but then altogether it was a wonderful and memorable short tour down south with my dad.