Big day for Sundara Vinayaka as their Brahmotsavam begins – one would think. But perhaps not, given the air of laidbackness that permeates. The time given on patrikai: 6am to 9am. I get there at 630am to find the temple still locked from the previous night. It takes me three back and forth trips over the next 2 hours to finally catch them – not beginning the puja – but beginning to prepare for the puja. At 9am. That’s a three-hour delay. At 9am the priests begin to settle in, tying thread around the kalasas and pulling out packets of manjal, kunkumam, etc from their bags. The two utsava murtis of Vinayaka are taken into the garbhagriha. This preparation goes on for two hours, while some odhuvars and assistant priests trickle in. Finally, at 11am, five hours after the scheduled time, the homam begins. The abhishekam inside also happens simultaneously, saving a handful of minutes after the 5 hour delay – “the economical Indian”, I thought to myself.
As the homam and abhishekam are completed, kalasas are carried by Rani madam and her husband for three rounds of ul-purappadu. Kalasa abhishekam is done inside, and the flag is raised. This happens rather unceremoniously, with one bell tinkling, and nobody really paying much attention. The moola Vinayaka and his two utsavars are seated without any alankaram after their abhishekam. Once the flag is raised, everybody waits for the alankaram which is done by a rather young priest-boy, maybe 13 or 14 years of age. Once done, he is praised for it by an older priest who assisted in the homam. This is followed by deeparadhanai and prasadam. The ul-purappadu was to happen after everybody was done with prasadam, and it’s already 1230, so I took my leave.