This is Murugan’s birth day or nakshatra naal, the day of the great processional Mail-aattam! I’m not sure how we come by earlier and do not register that the whole set up to carry and dance with the utsavar on a peacock vahana is being fashioned out of bamboo. Ingenious. There’s a big dance with a matching music (how to describe it in words? It anticipates the sashaying of the peacock tail) at the purappadu point which we do not see. Kadir tells us about it later. But we follow the procession mid-way until it returns to the temple and all deities move indoors. And it’s quite something. The peacock sashays, the kudais dance. The music matches. On return, the Kailaya Vadyam is something else – maybe even too intense for the small spaces this temple occupies. No respite, crowds inside, almost nowhere to move, and music loud enough to burst eardrums but so addictive. The moolasthanam is closed for the night; the utsavar here seems to have a life of His own! I guess it’s his birthday, so he deserves a romp around town in full form.