There is a Murugan temple in the village hospital compound. Murugan is the second son of Lord Shiva, younger brother of the Elephant God – Ganesa. This temple’s yearly festival was to be held on the 13th of May, 2006.

The village Doctor Das took charge of everything as the temple was within his area. He first arranged for the painters. The painters wanted 2000/- rupees and Das offered them 1500/-, they finally agreed on 1700/- rupees. They made a list of the paint they required.
Das sent the list to Ganesh with the hospital nurse Dhanam.

Ganesh gave the list to the paint shop in the village bazaar in Kurumbur. Ramanatha Pillai promised to send the paint to the temple in two days. Ganesh then went to Alwarthirunagari which is 10 kms away.

There he went to Bhai’s shop. This shop is owned by a Muslim. He has all the requirements for a temple festival. Communal harmony at its highest. Bhai did not require any list. He knew everything that was needed. All Ganesh had to tell him was the budget. They both agreed that a thousand rupees would be enough.

Shivan in the meanwhile gathered firewood for the occasion. He also made arrangements for four banana plants that would be needed for the decorations. Two would be tied on the hospital gates and the other two at the temple entrance. He also brought husk from the rice mill for the holy fire.

Eral is another 10 kms from the village. A cloth shop here supplied all the new clothes for the Gods in the temple. New clothes were also bought for the temple priest, the visiting Brahmins who would perform the rituals, the musicians and Das the organiser.

A Pandal contractor was brought in to put up the decorations. A man who hired out speakers and mikes was brought in to play religious songs on the festival day.

On the 12th Ganesh went to the temple to meet Das. The grocery merchant had sent everything. The vegetables had arrived. Bhai had sent his things. The Pandal had been put up. The temple had been freshly painted. Everything seemed O.K.

Ramar the man who would conduct the festival arrived on time. The first thing he noticed was that there was no Ghee. Das immediately sent his son Karthick to get Ghee from the nearest shop.

The next complaint was from the helpers who were making Panchamirtham. This is a concoction of five fruits which is served as prasadam at the end of the festivities. Their complaint was that the quantity of the fruits was less. Village elders advised them that the quantity of each fruit was not important and they should just add more bananas to make up the quantity. But the helpers were not happy, they said the taste would suffer.

Next the cook Muniamma said that there was no Chillie powder for the Tomato rice. One young boy went to get that.

The holy fire was lit and amid chanting of mantras the fire was fed with everything Bhai had sent. Finally a coconut enclosed in silk cloth was put in the fire. A lot of the assembled villagers threw coins into the fire.

On top of the temple tower is a Kumbham made of five metals. Holy water was poured on this. While this was happening it rained gently. All the villagers were happy. It meant that the Gods were happy with the pooja i.e. prayer. This is called Kumbhaabhishekam.

Then the Gods were decorated and they were clothed in new attire. A special pooja was done inside the temple. The visiting Brahmins left.

The villagers sat down in the temple for a meal of Tomato rice, Payasam and Panchamirtham. Payasam is sweet and is made with rice, jaggery, some ghee, dried grapes and cashew nuts.

After this most people went home. A few stayed back to clean the temple.