(Rahu kaalam): 108 Pongal offering 2pm onwards cooking, after 3-530 or so puja. Very delayed. Arun went. The first pot of pongal that’s set to cook seems to be the temple’s own. It is placed in front of the maha balipeetham. Neelakantha Gurukkal lights the fire himself and lifts the pot onto the stove. Bhaktas trickle in after 4pm and pongal stations prop up along the western and northern prakarams. By 5pm, the cooked pots begin to arrange themselves in the Gayatri mandapam, awaiting the late arrivals’ completion. By the end there exactly 11 batches of pongal, including the temple’s own pot and another one in the temple’s madapalli. Once completed, the priest collects a ladle of pongal from every pot into a single bucket. After this, the helping priest takes another pass, this time collecting coconut water from the bhakta’s coconuts and returning the two halves. Soon after, an aradhanai and archanai complete the puja.