Aadi Perukku

My husband & I were savouring our first cup of coffee on Saturday when my mother called from India. She reminded me that it was Aadi perukku (or padinettam perukku - falls on the 18th day of the Tamil month Aadi). Since it is not like diwali or pongal it never occured to me that the festival was on that day.

All the plans changed and soon I made the traditional kalanda sadam which is special for the occasion. The menu turned out to be semiya payasam, cabbage kootu, coconut rice, tamarind rice and appalam. Once all the cooking was done we offered some prayers to the Lord and then had our meal.

We went to the temple in the evening. My God!! The temple was so crowded. One one side Ayappan abishekam was taking place. On the other end prayers were being offered to Andal. We reached the temple on time to see all the artis. After that we took part in the Ayyappan poojai.

After the Ayyappan poojai they had full course of prasadam. We had sakkarai pongal, tamarind rice, lemon rice, aviyal and curd rice. The food had that divine taste one associates with temple food. Something is really extraordinary about the food temples serve. It has a special taste. Once we had our share of the prasadam we swapped places with the volunteers and started serving. There was a biiiiig line of devotees. When we thought the crowd had dwindled a fresh set of people appeared out of nowhere. It was just amazing about how many people turned up that day.

By the time we got back it was almost 9 p.m. It turned out to be a day well spent.