Community Pongal celebrations in the Mylapore zone are a thing of the past . Even the number of people drawing kolams on thresholds during the margazhi season have reduced.
On January, we spotted very few spaces where people had taken time to design large, colourful, theme Rangolis.
Overnight rain had rendered the area of the inner streets of Mandavelipakkam wet and so people who often, are enthusiastic to draw large Rangolis for the occasion, were discouraged.
In Chidambaraswamy 2nd Street, a zone that lies off Royapettah High Road, some families, dressed for the festival, cooked pongal in pots kept on fire in the open on this street, celebrated festival traditions and enjoyed themselves. Quite a nice sight in a part of Mylapore which is chaotic on weekdays!.
People came out in areas like R A Puram and in Mylapore to have small, common functions. But the zing of the festival was missing.
At St Thomas Cathedral in San Thome, the priests here led the community in symbolically cooking pongal and sharing it with church-goers at about 8 a.m., even as a kolam/Rangoli contest was going on on this campus. A special Mass was celebrated in the church.
Other local churches also had symbolic celebrations, which they do every Pongal.
