Conversation with the priest in the main Perumal sannadhi is strange. Old man, never seen him before. Tells us that Narasimha Jayanti is on May 1, gives us patrikai. I ask him politely about whether a different murai is doing the Narasimha puja – “what will you do with that?” he asks me, “Just for my understanding,” I tell him, and he proceeds to give one lecture on how one should keep sights on Perumal and not to the squabbles below (basically). This is the second such about-turn at this temple, confirms my hunch that this is a complex place in the midst of the throes of something and therefore will be risky to try to document.
We are leaving, security guard says “how much did you pay him?” and I’m like “why should you ask that?” so he says “only if you pay him, he would talk this much.” I’m laughing and laughing. Where are the priests? They are not here, says the maid. It all seems quite odd. But the speaker playing the Krishna mantras are lovely.