Senior teacher Chandra Ramani who belongs to the famed Solar House family of South Mada Street, famed for being the cradle for chess, says that when she was a child, she has been atop an elephant that was taken out in the procession for the Panguni utsavam of Sri Kapali Temple.
“We children would run out and ask for rides and we would be pushed atop and have short rides on our street,” she recalls.
Besides an elephant, she recalls horses being part of the utsavam procession.
In her 70s now, Chandra Ramani who continues to reside in the new avatar of Solar House, shared her memories to Mylapore Times which is video recording these memories of the utsavam.
These videos are posted on the newspaper’s YouTube channel – www.youtube.com/mylaporetv
Three others have also shared their memories here.
R. Nagarajan ( seen above) says only able bodied men carried the swamis in all the processions and that there were palaquins or chariots were not in use then. “Petromax lamps were used to provide the lighting,” he recalls.
Kallukkaran Street resident K R Jambunathan, in his video, says that during the Arubathumoovar procession, when the swamis from other city temples joined the procession, the coming of Vairaswami from Chintadripet was looked forward to eagerly. “Thats because he was adorned with lots of jewels and diamonds,” he says.
N. K. Natarajan, a senior resident of East Mada Street says family and relatives would stay at their residence for the ther and arubathmoovar, so there was a great deal of cooking for 25/40 people.
“On arubathamoovar day, we prepared puliyathorai rice for some 500 people and distributed it at our door,” he says.
Here is Natarajan’s story – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcx76lTETqw
If you know of a senior who can also share unique memories of the utsavam, WhatsApp name ands contact now to – 80150 05628
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