After schooling and marriage the brothers and sisters drifted away from Sulur to places as far apart as Salem, Chennai, Dehradun and Jamshedpur. Their children, now married with grown up children of their own were losing touch with each other. And this was when my wife's cousin and Hyderabad-based Govindarajan organised Ramanavami celebrations last month at Sulur. It was a family reunion that revived decades' old memories and my wife returned from Sulur with resolve to stay in touch with her cousins.
She didn't expect to have another family re-union so soon after her Sulur visit, when we had a surprise meeting with some Sulur family members last week at Coimbatore. Those we met included my wife's two other cousins - Kunju and Vijaya. The occasion was Vijaya's son's poonal.
Rangarajan, Shekar and Raghu at the poonal of Vijaya's son. Raghu and his wife came from Chennai to conduct their nephew's poonal, held at Ayyappan Puja Sangam, Coimbatore. It was a community ceremony at which poonal was conducted for nearly 50 eligible boys by the local Shankara society.
The community hall was packed with relations and friends of families celebrating poonal. And the ceremony was conducted by priests engaged by Shankara Society. The society charged a modest Rs500 from each family; and besides conducting the ceremony they held a community feast for the participant families and their guests. For the purpose of economy and because of space constraint each family was requested not to invite more than 10 or 15 persons.
My wife and I were there, courtesy my niece Kalpana and her husband Muthuraman, whose son Mukesh had his poonal at the Ayyappan Samajam. And we were unaware of the thread ceremony of Vijaya's son, held at the same place, same time.
It was not until after the ceremony that Raghu and Shekar noticed me taking this picture. They were thrilled to meet my wife again, so soon after their Sulur family reunion. Raghu even complained that Subbu had failed to inform him about her Coimbatore visit when they met at Sulur.
But then he quickly realised that we could turn around and hold him guilty of having neglected to invite Subbu for their nephew's poonal. Raghu and his wife were the prime-movers at their nephew's poonal. The boy's mother relied on him to conduct the ritual; and Raghu, on his part, was glad to be of help to his Coimbatore cousin.
Vijaya (right) appears pleased at the way the proceedings went; and her sister Kunju (wearing a similar saree) stood up in excitement as she spotted my wife in the hall. My wife has little recollection of when ,and how long ago , they had met last.
Another person she met after decades , though both live in the same town (Mysore) was Bhavani. I am not sure of how they are related, but I have heard my wife referring to Bhavani's father who used to run a radio shop on Mysore's Sayyaji Road during the days before television. Radio Mani mama, as he was known in family circles, is no more. So is his radio shop.
Pattu sitti was perhaps the senior most member of the Sulur family to bless the poonal boy. Conspicuous by his absence was her son Govindarajan who hosted the Sulur Ramanavami celebrations.
He told me on phone that the Sulur family has been conducting the yearly festival at the local Ram temple for generations. And he wanted to hold the 60th year of the celebrations on a grander scale. Govindarajan made it a point to invite everyone associated with the Sulur family; and expressed , in passing, his hope that they would be liberal with donations. I couldn't make it to Sulur, and I don't know how much, if at all, my wife contributed.
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