Of occasions and meanings

It is that time of the year where the most common question on the street would be “Swami enga irukaar” (where is HE). Possibly the one question, for which yogis, philosophers and all theists, spend their entire life in search for an answer, which any common person whom you may meet on your way in mylapore for the next ten days, would be able to answer, confidently and almost always correctly. The response could vary anything from “He is near Vasantha bhavan..you can take your time. He will be there for next ten fifteen minutes”, “He is resting in Thangavel nadar store area”, “He is just crossing fund office”. Atheists or non-believers may get gob smacked on the responses and on the accuracy with which god’s location being discussed.

It is thiruvizha time, as the lord of mylapore makes his town tour, on different vehicles along with this consort and cohorts. The heavily decorated vehicles, especially the floral designs, are the highlights of the arrangements, which become discussion topic of their own, whether they have bettered the previous years design or not. It is the main reason why any one born or brought up in this area, will never leave this place. The temple, the festivities, the occasions, the grandeur, the devotion, the culture, the crowd, the noise, smell, visuals, everything is what make Mylapore what it is, been and always will be. Probably one of the very few towns which has the famous Ther “car festival” ,where the lord makes a tour of the streets surrounding his temple, driven by the sheer strength of his devotees. The vadam “rope” is impossibly big to be covered within both your arms and requires the town to get together, rolling up their sleeves for their lord. And since this happens to be around summer in its prime, even those who don’t take part in pulling the rope, do their bit by pouring water from terraces on those who are doing the hard part. Some even fan them with visiris made of palm leaves, offer them water or juice to drink. It is collaboration at its peak, on sheer voluntary basis, where you only need policing to control people from going overboard with their sense of contribution. It is a lovely sight to behold, the purpose of the event possibly being to showcase the divinity on everyone of those around and the lord sitting inside the chariot is a representation of the being, bringing out the divine ness inherent in everyone.

Coming back to the question – the casualness or the literary nature of the answer is possibly the hidden in plain sight truth. The answer for “where is god” is actually the same as that given by the passersby even on days outside of this festival. He does stay near vasantha bhavan, take rest in Thangavel nadar shop, pass by fund office and possibly everywhere else as well – with or without the occasion, which is only symbolic.