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Thaipusam

Friday, February 20, 2009

My overdue post, well well, Thaipusam as always is the best festival in my eyes.
I totally enjoyed it and it was something I would always look forward to yearly.

Before I begin my photo galore, load this video aiite?

But its seriously damn loud!
So make sure you really tone down your volume.

My lookalike sis and Lita sis :) Oh and yes, Arun and his sister in the background.Lol.

Our prayers that had to performed by all before leaving the temple.
As once again to remind ya'll, its a 4km walk from one temple to another.
We reached the temple at 2.45 am and we left the temple at 4.30 am and reached the other temple at 6.45 am.

I spent my free time taking photos when I was needed. And this was the crowd under the given free space for us to set up whatever things we have.

I spotted this Pal-Kavadi (Is a semi-circle shaped kavadi) and I found the main photo so beautiful. It's of Lord Muruga, for whom we're celebrating this festival for.

So prayers started, everyone had to pray and get ready to begin the walk.

My sis.

My bro, he went into a further stage of devoting himself.
In our religion, the highest form of penance is through shaving bald.To give your hair.To most men and women,the most precious thing on you is your hair, so we give that away as a form of penance.
And the best part was my my cousin brothers also did that,one of whom didnt even take part in this festival but went to shave.
By right, all kavadi bearers should shave too.

My cousin's first year in participating.

Getting blessings from the elders as they spread the holy ash across our foreheads.

The crucial moment, where the milk pot is being placed above your head.

And this one didnt even yawn once or sighed or complained in that 3 hours of walk.

This is Chu-Chu, I totally adore him and he never fails to humor me .

I tried to zoom into this guy! I was shocked, off late many Hindhus go beyond what we are suppose to do and serve as a penance.

After two-three hours of walk, not including the waiting time for piercing whatever my bro, sis pierced, we reached. But as I said, its only when we're nearing the temple where those carrying the milk will feel the burden even more, when it weighs more or appears to be so, our belief is that thats when our Lord really tests us and we do all we can not to move the milk-pot from our head.And we waited atleast for 1 hour to enter the temple though we were at the foot of the temple.

But at the same time,I got to witness a few beautiful things.
The Lord whom we carry this festival for has 2 symbolic animals/birds to him.
Most of our Gods has a vehicle, and the vehicle is an animal.
For this Lord, his vehicle's a peacock, and the rooster represented his army.

So I wasn't surprised as always to find a rooster sitting on the temple, and a peacock inside the temple.
And no, its such a busy event for anyone to go get these birds and situate them for whoever doubts this statement.

My bro.. :) We were on the steps entering the temple.
Once we stepped it, the vibrations took over most.
My brother started dancing with his kanda.

My sis, so happy seeing the Lord infront of her.

Saw a chariot with the Lord beautifully standing. :)

After we were done with serving the milk and watching the mik carried thus far being poured onto the deity we made our way outside where tents are built to do our ending things such as taking out the piercings, or dismantling the kavadi and so on.

While doing so I was keeping a lookout for some eye-catching kavadis or anything else and I saw this!

My bestfriend, the Elephant god on a chariot. But the speciality of this chariot is it doesnt move on wheels but instead is carried by 6-9 men.

See the rods below?Thats where the men have their shoulders bearing the weight of this deity.

Saw another one, She's the Mother of both the Elephant god and Lord Muruga.

AWWW! LOVED IT!

So after everything my cousins and I split our ways and made plans to meet up for the next big thing! One of my cousin is carrying a standard Kavadi, and its the first kavadi among us cousins so we finalised our meeting time and we were off in cab home to sleep for 3 hours before waking up to have a final prayers and have a vegetarian feast cooked by my mum.

My bro and I rushed down by a cab to the temple as my cousins were all there already, but my bro had to catch his friend halfway as he promised to come by and so we did , walk and walk and walk despite taking a cab to find his friend.
And when we did I was taken aback, his kavadi was compact and so so so beautiful.
Every standard kavadi has a peak, in the peak sits their favourite God. Most of them would carry Lord Muruga on their peak as its his festival, but some choose to have their favourites.
And my brother's friend had Lord Muruga and his 2 wives. And it was beautiful!

The peak was made of pure gold. Beautiful uh?

:)

After having so many calls after us for not being present while the prayers began for my cousin my bro and I rushed down by train to the first temple.

My cousin... already wearing the necessary things and waiting for more piercings. As you can see he already has two spikes pierced infront.
He had another 94 spikes more to go!

Oh and yes, meanwhile I spotted T* there and he came over to talk to me.
We always meet each other at the same location.Lol.

More....

After all the piercings and a few obstacles faced it was time for the crucial moment yet again, to fix the top part of the kavadi to the base.

This is Gana bro's kavadi. Both my cousin(Thamo Bro) and Gana bro had the same deity for their peak and thats their all time favourite Elephant God. :)

Oh and did I mention, my sisters and I decided to go for a colour code this year and so did the guys.
The guys combination was white jeepa(Top) and purple vesti(bottoms) and for us was pink tops and white pants.

I loved this kavadi.

The crowd at around 4 pm.

After Gana bro, Thamo bro and Raj who was also carrying a Kanda like how my bro did we were ready to leave the temple at you know what time? 6.30 pm! Took about 4 hours to pierce,do the prayers and finally leave for the walk.

I love this picture because there's something so magical about this picture.
Top right, the one in green. Fierce uh?But means something.
Thats Gana bro btw.

My cousin tailgating behind. Lol, oh and see my sisters in pink. Lol.

He posed for me.

Leaving the first temple, to officially begin the walk after a coconut is broken.

The moment we made our way to the extreme left lane of the road which is barricaded for us this event, the guys started singing and the brothers who were carrying the kavadis started dancing along.

Thats Raj and his kanda along with 108 lemons pierced on his back.

:) My cousin.

It was happening, it truly was and I recorded it all.
Watch it k!! :)

Now and then the guys had to jack up the kavadi so that the one carrying it can breathe in properly and take a few seconds of rest. Like he won't be able to do so if not for the jacking up process as it may result in the spikes coming out.

Honestly, the walk for us was 2 hours from one temple to another in the wee hours of the morning.
But when it comes to Thaipusam evening/night, 2 hours doesnt even comes up to half the distance covered.
We took 3 hours to get out of Tekka area which was 1/4 the distance covered.

This was the second temple we had to go pass.

The Bhajan girls. Lol . :) I love them all. Arun's sister also came in pink and it was nice ay.

In the 6 hours of walk they have to atleast sit a while, its like 10-20 kg on your shoulders.
The younger men go for chains and not spikes that are hooked to you.

Meanwhile, we sing we clap we cam-whore and my bro has to intrude.
My bro looks so cute after shaving bald I reckon.
Everyone's calling him the laughing buddha. Lol.He does sort of have a glow?

Taking a sip of water after all the dancing.
If I remember correctly this was when I saw Elan at the side of the road wanting to jump into the lane we were in. Lol.

THE SIBLINGS! :) I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS PICTURE.
Its like when the kavadi bearer sits down on the stool a while, we can help by slightly massaging the legs and thats what both the siblings did to their eldest sibling.
Awwww!! And I was like, 'WAIT WAIT I NEED TO TAKE THIS PHOTO!'
You can see my cousin was very tired, and right then we were 1/2 there only.

Another jacking of kavadi moment and Arun simply had to pose whilst at it!
Love the combination :) white and purple or whatttttt?!

Oh yes, okay you see the boy just above this word?He's like the bestest devotional singer I ever came across in Singapore la. (Ya'll can see it in the video!)
SERIOUSLY, his voice is SO LOUD AND NICE AND OMG PLEASANT.And his friend behind, the fair Chindian lookalike?He sings too! And I am like wow-ed by them.
Their songs were all superb choices and they often made Gana bro and my cousin to dance non-stop.

Finally reaching the temple... :) the moment was beautiful. I never followed anyone till the end, meaning till the temple. Normally we would go home halfway,but this year my bro and I didnt want to when our own cousin is carrying we would of course go all the way!! :)

Gana bro taking a rest...the beauty of this festival in my eyes is this when you see people extending their help to even complete strangers?
Like if a stool was needed immediately and couldnt be found, one of the guys would just go on fours and allow the kavadi-bearer to rest on his back .
Oh yes that's Rajan on the right.

One point of time, I helped to jack the kavadi up! :)

My sis and Siva! :)

My brother really had a blasting time then, he was behaving like an omg typical(dancing) that his friend caught him at it and asked him if he really was a graduate! LOL.
But who cares,its all for God. :)

My Seanpaul cousin got too tired and had to sit down.

I don't even know! Hahaha.

See the guy behind?He's so funny la!
There was this point of time we were walking and ther was a police watch looking at us from above. And we were all singing a song when he just edited the song to say 'Policeman is watchingg....' and it fitted into the song so nicely I couldnt take it I started laughing.
Its in the video! Ya'll gotta watch. :) (You gotta understand Tamil of course.)

The flight of stairs to the temple!
AWESOME DAY! AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME.
:)

Go ahead to watch video please!
Click here

Loves and Misses ya'll!