pranthechimi

Whenever i go to navarathiri mandapam at trivandrum, this haunts me. One day during the navarathiri days,when i was below 10, i went to mandapam alongwith some of my friends. as they would not allow us from 6 pm to 9 pm ( there will be concerts of great stalwarts like MDR, Semmangudi sir etc and the kings and queens would be there to hear it) we chose 3 pm. There was no one as it was not darshan time. Yet we tried to explore the heritage ( i always scored very less in social studies and i used to write the same things whether it is the golden period of Aurungaseb or Akbar) I being s shortie, would jump and see through the kilivathil ( a beautifully decorated small window through which the kings and queens would see us but we cannot see them - an engineering skill) Eda atha rajavinte kasera - a big cushion seat with golden decorations - (the ranis always were an attraction for me, the white skinned beautiful ladies dressed in Kerala style)then the mural paintings of the devi riding on the lion, the large wooden pillars decorated with wooden betelnuts, and the new coconuts from Chenthengu a variety of coconut trees that rises only upto about 5 ft.and the coconuts were of orange colour. We took pride among our peer group who stayed far away and knew very little of this mandapam, and told of these sights in the palaces..

Suddenly somebody from our group was yelling "eada odikko, pranth echimi is coming" She was seen running towards us. She was yelling, Kallan Kallan..The policemen in plainscloth stopped us..We lost the strength in us and did not know what to do.. but when they knew that we did not steal anything we were left free.. That was a lady who was mentally challenged..But she dressed like any other brahmin lady ( 18 gajam)..Her face was full of pox marks..I had even seen my grandmother giving meals to her at our house. She eats rice kept for 4 people.

After that incident we never went to mandapam at that time and we never met her face to face...