All Roads to Mylapore-2

I take immense pride to call myself a Mylaporean ; being born and brought up in Mylapore, the Panguni festival is one of the much awaited festivals in Mylapore . The festival does not just hold a religious significance but also an emotional and cultural bonding with those associated with this event.During our childhood days we would eagerly await this part of the year, when the local schools would declare holiday for a day or half , mainly to counter the traffic in the area. There were many things that were fascinating about the Utsavam; as a child I used to be awestruck with the number of road-side shops with all the handmade toys ranging from those small cars with strings, paper fans, Bow & Arrow, Maharaja Toppi(Cap), the bubbles, the bioscope, shooting the balloons.(man..am I getting a little too nostalgic?!)and lots more.The ratnam (the merry-go-round, and the mini giant wheel (?!)) also would get added on to my list of to-dos for the season.There is one more aspect to this shopping..the purchase used to be thrilling as the budget would be restricted to the paltry sum that I manage to collect during the rest of the year...(collections usually peak during the Navarathri Kolu when the neighbourhood mamis would bribe us a rupee or two in the name of vethala pakku for singing a song!!)As I grew up, and as my interests were getting more girlish, I used to stop at those bangle-sellers and the tribal people (koravan-korathis) who sell amazing ornamental pieces made of beads (pasi mani).

These 10 days, Mylapore in all its crowded chaos, the flower vendors, the roadside shops, the fruit sellers and the buzzing market is definitely a place to visit. I can infact go on and on about the whole thing…but in the interest of time and space, I would like to stop here. But I still have hoardes of stuff to talk about including Kolams decorationg the road,Madisaar podavai, Kalathy’s Rosemilk, The neer-more (Buttermilk) and lots more...because as you would have known by now, Mylapore is truly special!!