While the rest of the country was celebrating Holi(the festival of colours), I was among a million plus women offering Pongala to goddess Attukalamma. Pongala means “to boil over”. Pongala - a sweet rice dish is prepared and offered to the goddess on this day at a particular time.
I landed the day before at 9pm and was a bit worried when I heard the flight attendant say that the temperature was 30 degrees! The prospect of making Pongala out in the sun next day was a bit daunting. I could see that the footpaths and road sides were earmarked/ reserved for the next day much in advance. Fortunately, my aunts had booked at a hotel, who promised us a place to do Pongala right next to the hotel. If you land up unprepared, it is unlikely that you will find a place that day. Empty plots, roads (Appx 10 km radius from the temple), large courtyards are all used.
On the day of Pongala, we landed up at our designated place at about 10 AM with whatever stuff my aunts had bought at our designated spot. It was already hot and humid. After seeing how we were scrambling around to do stuff, people who were doing Pongala next to us just took charge, told us what to do and helped us with stuff that we didn’t have. Our neighbor had flown in from Dubai, my cousin from US! I knew that a number of close family members were in the city somewhere offering Pongala, but meeting them were impossible because nothing else happens in the city that day! There are no vehicles plying in most of the roads since they are blocked for the occasion.
Pongala, traditionally is made in earthen pots and cooked over fire in the open space. The heat, the wind and the smoke are things that you are subjected for couple of hours. But you don’t realise or feel any of this since you are so focused on making sure the rice and water boils over from the pot and helps you get the blessings of the goddess. It has been a while since any of us had done cooking over the fire built from wood! So initially it was a bit of a struggle. The fire to light the wood comes from the temple at a pre-designated time. The excitement rises when you see it get transferred from one stove to another. The bricks, the pots and the spoons (made out of coconut shell and wood) are brand new! We struggled to control the fire a bit and were on track quickly.
There were a few anxious moments before the Pongala boiled over successfully. We were told to put the lid on(traditionally done with a banana leaf) and told to sit somewhere and take rest. Usually people sit near the pots till the “teertham” (holy water) from the temple comes. Since ours was a bit modernised pongala, we went back to our rooms to the comfort of the air conditioners. The announcement to assemble back came at 2 and the next daunting task began. The Pongala is done bare foot. By the time we came back, the roads were so hot that we could hardly put our foot done. We managed with some left over banana leaves and newspapers. The theertham came at 2:45 pm and we were done. We carried our pots back to the rooms, ate some Pongala and packed the rest for the family.
The city returns back to normal in couple of hours. The corporation staff and volunteers clean the whole city in no time. The bricks get used to build houses for the economically challenged section of the society!
This festival is celebrated on the 9th day of the aattukal ulsavam and the city of Thiruvananthapuram gets into a frenzy! You will see the preparations starting days in advance. Earthen pots, bricks will be available in every nook and corner of the city. Shops would sell you all the required material to make Pongala! Read more at http://attukal.org/pongala18/pongala18.htm
I spent 4 wonderful years in this city during my engineering degree course. This wasn’t a well known festival 25 years back. Over the years it has become a large gathering of women from various parts of the world and somewhat commercialised. The Guinness book of world records for the largest gathering of women (estimated at 1.9 M) was awarded to this festival couple of years back. This year an estimated number of 2.4 million women offered Pongala.
I landed the day before at 9pm and was a bit worried when I heard the flight attendant say that the temperature was 30 degrees! The prospect of making Pongala out in the sun next day was a bit daunting. I could see that the footpaths and road sides were earmarked/ reserved for the next day much in advance. Fortunately, my aunts had booked at a hotel, who promised us a place to do Pongala right next to the hotel. If you land up unprepared, it is unlikely that you will find a place that day. Empty plots, roads (Appx 10 km radius from the temple), large courtyards are all used. 
On the day of Pongala, we landed up at our designated place at about 10 AM with whatever stuff my aunts had bought at our designated spot. It was already hot and humid. After seeing how we were scrambling around to do stuff, people who were doing Pongala next to us just took charge, told us what to do and helped us with stuff that we didn’t have. Our neighbor had flown in from Dubai, my cousin from US! I knew that a number of close family members were in the city somewhere offering Pongala, but meeting them were impossible because nothing else happens in the city that day! There are no vehicles plying in most of the roads since they are blocked for the occasion.
We were also told that we can’t check if the rice is cooked well before you add “sarkkara” (raw sugar) and coconut. You just have to know when to add them.
There were a few anxious moments before the Pongala boiled over successfully. We were told to put the lid on(traditionally done with a banana leaf) and told to sit somewhere and take rest. Usually people sit near the pots till the “teertham” (holy water) from the temple comes. Since ours was a bit modernised pongala, we went back to our rooms to the comfort of the air conditioners. The announcement to assemble back came at 2 and the next daunting task began. The Pongala is done bare foot. By the time we came back, the roads were so hot that we could hardly put our foot done. We managed with some left over banana leaves and newspapers. The theertham came at 2:45 pm and we were done. We carried our pots back to the rooms, ate some Pongala and packed the rest for the family.
The city returns back to normal in couple of hours. The corporation staff and volunteers clean the whole city in no time. The bricks get used to build houses for the economically challenged section of the society!
It was a fulfilling experience, and so much of fun being the little sister/niece after so many years :-)
Written very well Manju... Good to know what is Pongala
ReplyDeleteWow, so beautifully written. I could visialise myself there. Must have been an amazing experience Manjula!
ReplyDeleteThank you Sateen!
ReplyDelete