Attukal Pongala - 2019

I went to Trivandrum the second time for this auspicious festival -  Attukal Pongala.

It is the festival where women participate and make prasad for goddess Attukal devi.  This festival is on 20/2/19.

Attukal Pongala is the largest congregation of women for a festival in the world. Pongala, which means 'to boil over’, is the ritual in which women prepare sweet payasam (a pudding made from rice, jaggery, coconut and plantains cooked together) and offer it to the Goddess or ‘Bhagavathy’. The hearths of devotees are lighted only after the one inside the temple is lighted. The ritual can only be performed by women and the streets of the city are jam-packed with faithful devotees during the time of the festival.  It is believed that Attukal is the resting place of Kannaki, the great heroine of  chilapathykaram Kannaki proceeded to Kodungallor.  On the way she halted at Attukal for a while.  Knowing the arrival of Kannaki, the people of Attukal welcomed her by offering pongala. The famous ‘Attukal Pongala’ is celebrated in memory of Kannaki’s visit to Attukal.

Pongala festival has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest attendance of women on February 23, 1997. 1.5 million women had participated in that year's Pongala.

The whole city is lit with lights and everybody chants bhajans in these 10 days.

This time we reached Trivandrum 5 days before the Pongala. I was surprised to see the light arrangement. My cousins and I went in the night to see the light arrangement.

There is another ritual called Kuthiyottam. This ritual is performed by young boys of age below 12 years on the Pongala day - the final day of the ten-day festival. 

I am waiting for tomorrow, the Pongala day. My mother would do perform the ritual. Arjun and I am excited as we would be distributing juices and drinks to thirsty women, who do Pongala in the scorching heat.

Edited:
Pongala day went well. My mom made the prasad. Arjun and I distributed juices to all the ladies. After the Nivedyam, Attukal devi takes a tour and goes Manacaud shastha temple, along with Kuthiyottam kids. There were around 850 kids for Kuthiyottam!!
Overall the arrangements done by the Kerala government was good. Whole city is in the festive mood.

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By Aryan.

PUFC not PUBG (Part 2)

In my previous post, I had mentioned about PUFC tournament 

(https://www.facebook.com/PUFCBangalore/). It is a tournament organised by few football enthusiasts - Pradeep sir and Shafik sir. 

Under 12 team

Under 9 team

We, the under 12 team called Rigel Strikers, was out of the league, though I was the man of that match. One match we played with the Parkville predators and they were predators in themselves!!!! Anyway, we were not qualified for semi-finals. However, Arjun was in the under 9 team called Eagle strikers and they were in semi-finals.

The semi-finals and finals happened on Sunday, Feb 10th.

The match began at 10:30 a.m.

It was a breath taking match. It was 2:2 when it was full time. Then it was time for penalty shootout.  Both the teams did 12 penalty shootout and still was draw!!!Even Arjun scored a goal.

When the next round of penalty shoot out started, we lost!!! 

We got third position and couldn't reach the semi-finals. However, the team will get medals and certificates. Kudos to under 9 team.

It was fun for three weeks. Now, I should be back to the reality of studying for annual exam. Looking forward for more tournaments like this and will do my best.

By

Aryan

PUFC not PUBG (Part 1)

I am really excited about PUFC. Yes, I am right; It is not PUBG, it is PUFC (Player Unknown Football Championship).

This is an initiative by a group of football enthusiasts, who are organizing tournaments for budding players in the neighboring apartments.
Check out their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PUFCBangalore/

Pradeep sir was an awesome commentator. Not only he had vigilant commenting skills, but he was also a good observer in selecting the man of the match.
Shafik sir had tremendous patience in handling all our questions and was cordial in arranging the whole event and managing all the teams.
Hats off to both of them.

Arjun and I are part of Rigel Strikers and Eagle Strikers team.
We enjoyed playing the match this Sunday. Looking forward for the next one.

Aryan

GIIS Srijan 2019

Today was our Science and Art expo at GIIS. All the students prepared charts, models, posters, and we had to display to our parents.

I was in English skit and SST project. Arjun was in Yoga.

We went in the school bus and my parents came around 10 a.m.

First, they went to Arjun’s class. It was well decorated class and all kids were happy and cheerful. Many models were displayed. Yoga corner had the most fun. All the kids started to do the asanas’ and they were counting till hundred.

After that they came to my class. I was with the SST team explaining about Qutub Minar. My parents saw all projects and now it was time for my skit.

We performed the skit very well. We were all well-coordinated.

Arjun and I enjoyed today. 

Thanks to GIIS school for hosting GIIS Srijan 2019.

Many volunteers were around and they were helping parents all the while. KUDOS to the GIIS team and kids. My parents appreciated the efforts and looking forward for more such events.

Aryan.

The Amazing Dubai

I know, I am very late to post few updates. However, better late than never.
In the month of December, we visited Dubai - Our first international family trip.
It was exciting and thrilling one.

As a coincidence, after we came from the trip, I had to make a travel brochure. Hence, picked up few pictures and made it based on our trip. This becomes my travelogue.

 By Aryan

Trip to Madurai, Rameshwaram, and Trichy

It was summer vacation. Whole 1.5 months went boring. Things took a turn, when my cousins arrived from Indore. Suddenly, we planned for a trip to Madurai, Rameswaram, and Trichy. We started at 6:30 AM from Bangalore. My uncle, being an expert driver, drove the car. We stopped at some place for breakfast, around 8:30 AM. I ate samosa and idly. For the next few hours, I was feeling carsick. I sat with Mamma and started listening to few of my favorite songs. Around noon, we reached Poppy’s hotel. I must say, it was a decent one. They gave us a refreshing towel and juice at the reception, something I have experienced for first time. We ate sumptuous lunch and at 4 PM, we went to Madurai Meenakshi Temple. Temple was huge and majestic. It had a pond in its center. Very old temple with huge doors and pillars.

I lost my temper, when we had wait in long queue, to get the darshan of the goddess. We stood in the queue for 1 hr. 30 min. Trust me, it was one kind of experience, watching different people and moving like a snail. Then my Mom set milestones and it became little easier. The temple garbhagriha is lit up with diyas. We went to Adayar Anada Bhavan for dinner and back to hotel. Day one was eventful.

Next day, after having heavy breakfast we set out our journey to Rameswaram. We checked into a Hotel called Vinayaka. My cousins and I got a separate room. It was quiet exciting. After having lunch, we set off to Dhanush koti. It is a place with sea at two sides and road in the middle. It seems, Hanuman and other money clans laid stones to reach Srilanka. It was so sandy and we were literally getting carried away. The sea was rough in one side and calm in the other side.

After being there for 30 mins, we headed towards to a Kushi beach, by crossing Pamban bridge. Kushi beach seemed to be user friendly. My cousins and I enjoyed a lot. It was quite memorable.

Image courtesy: Google

The next day, early in the morning we left to get the temple darshan. Rameswaram is a big temple. Not much queue though. After darshan, we got some keychains with shells. We had a hot idlys as breakfast and straight away hit the road to Trichy.

Srirangam temple, in Trichy has four main doors. The temple is having great architecture and the Lord Vishnu is the Anantha sheyanam position. We could easily get lost in the temple. It was so sunny that we couldn’t roam much.

Anyway, it was time to get back home. The rest of the journey was peaceful and we reached Bangalore around 8 PM. We made dinner at home and was relieved to be back home.

We all slept like a log that day.

Overall, the three days trip was fascinating and had lot of memories clinched to it.

By Aryan