It was Sunday, day 9 of the Brahmotsavam, where we had the maximum crowd to witness the Rathosthavam. I was waiting for an ideal moment to snap a close up solo portrait of the Divyadampathis. Somehow right from the start till the end of the entire Rathosthavam, someone or something was obstructing so that I couldn't compose the full solo portrait that I used to do every day till now. Perumal is back after successful trip in the Ratham , but still seated in it, accepting archanais and offerings from a queue of devotees.
I walked inside the main hall, where devotees were sitting and chanting the divyaprabandham. I saw a few people carrying trays of mixed nuts, sugar candy(kalkandu), dry fruits distributing to all devotees around them. I was in between two of them one having tray of small kalkandu and couple of full dates (muzhu perichampazham) and the other one was having a variety of exotic mixed nuts and dry fruits (walnuts, badam, figs, dry grapes etc). I was really tempted to have these.. but which one first ..? Icchuvaiya? Aachuvaiya?
The one who was having the kalkandu and dates (icchuvai) came towards me and handed over few kalkandus and one full date. Since it was a full date, after eating the fruit side I was left with the stone (kottai) in my mouth. By that time I finished eating, the person who had the dry fruits (acchuvai) moved away from me distributing them to other devotees. With this kottai still inside my mouth, I decided to go out near the canteen to find a bin to spit the stone. On the way, I looked at the Perumal, still sitting in the Ratham with only a few devotees left with archanai plates. I found a bin - safely disposed the kottai, sanitised and while coming back Perumal is getting ready to alight from the Ratham to go to the chakra snanam.
When the volunteer devotees tried to carry Perumal down from the Ratham on the right side, they couldn't do so because of the Ratham was parked in such a way there was not enough gap to move in between. So they have to keep Him down on the left side momentarily, adjust slightly the Ratham's position to enable them to carry Him back to the temple. By that time most of the devotees already started moving towards back of the temple to witness the chakra snanam.
Perumal along with the thayaars were now alone with no one in-front or behind them. The sun is blazing, the jewels (thiruvabharanam) were glittering in the sun shine. What a moment and this is what I was waiting for !! Spontaneously I clicked..
Filled with joy and content, I went back inside the temple thanking the perumal for giving me the dates and while going saw this person who carried earlier the dry fruits but with now an empty tray..
By,
Ramesh Raghuraman