Meeting the brother

Ezhunnallippu inside Sastha temple, Manacaud

The salute

In honour of the Goddess, who is considered as the elder sister of Manacaud Sasthavu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ezhunnallippu reaching Sastha Temple

Ezhunnallippu

Ezhunnallippu reaches Manacaud junction

A display of colours

The melam

Pandara Ottam

The lanterns

The Goddess

Kuthiyottam reaches Manacaud Sastha temple

Finishing point

Getting the blessings

Back home

Pongala pot boils over

For the goddess

Praying to deity before putting rice to the pongala pot

Putting rice into the pot

Pongala boils

Pongala time

Lighting the fire

Getting the fire from Sastha temple, Manacaud

Lighting the fire

The pongala fire was lighted at 10.45 AM

Ready to ight the fire

The long wait

The morning refreshment

 Women queue in front of the SBT Manacaud for the breakfast

Million rising

 

Millions of women have occupied their places for the pongala ritual, virtually making the pongala city to a kitchen, its a women's world and a women's day today

Pongala night

Pongala eve

 Its pongala eve, and its a celebration of womanhood, even late at night in this women city. Awake and half awake every woman is enjoying it full of heart.

Spirit of womahood

The long wait

 The disruption of water supply following the bursting of pipe lines in four places in Trivandrum city has given a hard time for women participating in the pongala ritual. Long queues of women are seen in many city points with pet bottles and vessels to get drinking water supplied by the water authority. The government sources say that it would take at least 20 hours to restore the water supply, water or no water, the spirit of womanhood cannot be beaten.  

Its a sea of women

The evening rush

Women continued to flow to the city from early morning and occupied their places along the roads and lanes of the pongala city. The Attukal temple has also witnessed an enormous crowd as women who have come for pongala headed for the temple to avoid a last minute rush for darsan.

Attukal Pongala 2013 : the countdown begins

The city is already crowded as if it is the Pongala eve, giving a hint to the massive turn out of women expected on Pongala day. Women from outside the Trivandrum district have begun to arrive, the roads leading to Attukal have virtually turned to market places, crowd, crowd crowd, its what you see here in the Pongala city

Festival colours

From the festival ground