This is Andal’s Janma Nakshatra naal, of course. The scheduled 7am purappadu begins around 8. Simple affair, Perumal and Andal walk out and left, straight towards the Mandapa on Sankardas St. Once there, aradhanai and curtain closes. 1030 abhishekam, done by 11. We stop by a little past noon, hoping to see the aradhanai. But it has still not begun, so we decide to let it be and come back for the 7pm aradhanai. Thathacharya spots us and calls us out later for not coming to the aradhanai! Oops.
Little did we know that Perumal and Andal would soon be shifted back to the temple due to a suicide down the road, thanks to which the deities cannot remain there anymore. The aradhanai happens around 8 at the temple, with everything else after that being delayed as well. By the time we are finished with the prasadam, which was given in meagre quantities because prepared only for the small crowd that would have been at the mandapam, it is already past 830pm. We decide drop into the Sivan koyil for the unjal utsavam (which we miss) and catch Perumal and Andal on the road again. We notice that everything at Perumal had been slow today, including the purappadu itself, stopping for a significantly longer time at the houses where people come out with archanai thattu.