Inner Self

                                                              As my native land is Kerala (India) I need to write something about my place. Tomorrow the whole world is going to witness an event, the biggest women gathering in the world. Yes! we do have a Guinness world record on our credit. Its a festival "Attukal Pongala" . "Pongala" means "to boil over". Its an offering made to the Goddess who reside over the Attukal Temple, believed to be an avatar of Parvathy. This festival of pongala has a story behind it, which appears in "Chilapathikaram" written by "Elankovadikal". 

                                                                Kannaki was the very beautiful, devoted wife of Kovalan, son of a merchant. But in between their happy married life entered a dancer named Madhavi. Kovalan fell in love with her. she gifted Kovalan two anklets filled with rubies. He spend all his wealth on her, only to realize his mistake at the end. He came back to his wife Kannaki. They decided to shift their living to the city of Madurai. Kovalan calculated to sell one of the anklet and earn some money to start living in the city. Unfortunately, at this same time Pandya's Queen lost her anklet, which actually was stolen by a court member. Kannaki's anklet resembled Queen's anklet, the only difference was Queen's anklet was filled with pearls while Kannaki's anklet was filled with rubies, which was not visible. Kovalan was called to court and immediately beheaded without a trial. Hearing the tragic news, Kannaki came running to court and flung open her anklet to show the King and Queen that it was made of rubies. The king and Queen realised their fault and died of shame. Unsatisfied, Kannaki cursed the whole city to flames. It is said that in order to bring back peace to Kannaki's mind, the women of Madurai offered her "Pongala" and begged her pardon. Kannaki came back to her self and took back the curse. And this is the ritual which continues till. It is believed that Kannaki came to reside in attukal and thus Attukal Temple came into being.

                                                             What stroked my mind was the two incarnations of a single women. Kannaki was a very obedient, honest, chaste women. The qualities of an ideal woman, and imagine how she transformed to a divine being when her beloved was killed. There is this inner self, inner women inside every woman we see. Woman are considered to be the symbol of peace and tolerance. They have been following the same from time being. But when something threatens her loved ones, we can see another self of her. Women has always tamed this self. Recently, I heard a news that a mother beat the pulp out of a man who tried to rape her daughter. We never know when the inner self awakens. Today when I hear music,festival bells around me, all I can do is to praise the divine being whom we call "Amma" (mother) who is the protector and destroyer of whole universe.