Nanganallur Days – Nostalgia

The last time I really celebrated Pongal was in 2002. That was when we had put 5 Rangoli Patterns in front of our sweet home, 1 in front of the door, 2 inside the house and 1 in the courtyard. With Mom preparing the 2 versions of pongal for breakfast, the spirit of the festival was achieved to the fullest. I never realized her pongal was the best until I started missing. Since then I neither had the time nor the interest to celebrate the festival (any for the matter) with the same spirit.

This year seems to be a really dull pongal, considering the number of emails, SMSs or scraps flowing in. The festival falling on a weekday, it had to be somebody or the other to remind me about the day. I wished just four people all day. Today being a holiday in this country, my cousins wanted to compensate for what was missed out yesterday in terms of food. So he pulled out a bunch of papers containing the recipe for ‘Ven Pongal’ and ‘Sakarai Pongal’. (Not that we are cooking pongal for the first, jus that our kind of cooking is slightly different from the regular tamil style). The very sight of the picture (below) got my thoughts wandering about the Nanganallur days. I have spent about 2 solid years in this place and I miss the Nanganallur Anjaneyar temple like crazy.



My house hunt in Chennai was getting really scary, considering the n number of problems: water, cost of rent, neighbourhood and distance from my workplace. It got too complicated for me and I left it to my dad to find one. After some research, he landed up in this under-developed (no longer) area. Madam luck being with us, we found a really good house without compromising on any of the above mentioned factors. Enough of water, Affordable rent, excellent landlords and 20 minutes drive to office. There I promised Mr.Anjaneyar that I will pay him a visit every day.

I did justice to that promise atleast for some time until the leading road became unusable for days due to the heavy floods. But I never stopped visiting the temple, though not every day. Apart from the peace of mind I got there, the below are the various reasons for the affinity I had towards the temple

1. Pepper Rice: Distributed every day in the evening probably a little later than 7 PM. The best Prasad they ever made, amazingly tasty.
2. Ven Pongal: Distributed every day Morning. I used to have my second breakfast before going to work. Very taThis is where my thoughts landed up today morning when I saw the pic.
3.Sakkarai Pongal: Distributed every day in the evening around 7 PM. If you are early for pepper rice you will be lucky enough to get this.
4.Puliodhare: I know this is available in the weekdays. But I normally get this when I visit the temple during the weekend in the mornings a little later than my usual time.
5.Curd Rice: Yummy, but I never got chances that frequently.
6.Vada: These are hard and can be preserved for days together, but have a taste similar to that of the regular ‘uzhundhu vadai’
7.Sundal: Or I woukd say ‘Chundal’. Normally made of chick peas and available early in the evenings.

Looking back at Point #2, I have been celebrating pongal for almost 2 years. And it took me almost three years to realize this!!!!!!!

........To be Continued