Gurukkal said they were ready to do the Ambu Podudal, which properly should happen around 630pm, I learned, perhaps based on the tithi timings. It roughly did. Alankaram still going on when we reached, though moola murti was ready with ambu in hand. Once the utsavar was ready, she was brought out into the street. In the ground across the temple was a banana stem, dotted with kunkumam and chandanam. Sriram Gurukkal brought out the Kalasam from the main sannadhi, water from it was sprinkled and the area sanctified along with all of us standing there. Utsavar in the form of Durga watching. Then the elder Gurukkal went into the garbhagriha, pulled out the ambu and came running – running – down with it, to stab the vazhai maram and cut it down. It all was very dramatic, unexpected, and happened in a flash. The Durga utsavar circled the cut banana plant once. Then the priests and crowd went back into the temple and we left so as not to miss the event at any of the other temples we were chasing that evening. But as we did, Durga had her victory dance around the prakaram of the temple inside.
The next day we saw @yenpondy’s video on this very event, from exactly our angles and perspectives, and we did wonder how that footage had been procured without us noticing a thing–until Arun pointed out that there’d been a woman there taking video… Another instance of Yen Pondy being at every place, at every moment. Not sure how they do it. But they did capture the senior Gurukkal’s wild dash exceedingly well.