Guruvayoor Ekadasi... memories of another day!

Guruvayur Ekadasi brings fond memories of my childhood days spent at our village, Mannalur in Palakkad dist of Kerala. As an eager 8 year old whose thoughts were filled to the brim with mystical fables from mythology, Ekadasi day was indeed a special one more so due to the visit to the nearby temple in a group consisting of cousins and other elders as well as the special diet which certainly had a charm of its own.

We would be woken up early in the cold December morning and after a bath in freezing waters of the  'Mananchira' (the nearby pond), would partake of the 'theertham' which rather signified the culmination of the fasting process. The main challenge after that would be to refrain from eating anything made of rice, and so wheat attained a whole lot of importance that day with breakfast consisting of wheat upma, lunch of wheat 'kanji' and dinner possibly a repeat performance since chapathi's were more of a rarity those days. (i'm speaking of the late 1970's). 

Betel leaves with arecanut was considered auspicious after lunch and older women would assemble in the cool courtyard after lunch for this ritual. Somehow, the teeth and tongue stained red by the betel leaf juice  held a sort of repulsion for me and to this day, i have not developed a liking for the stuff! I remember i used to be enthralled by the stories from Bhagavatham which one elderly relative used to narrate...

The evening temple visit in a group which consisted of several cousins, aunts,and other relatives were the main attraction of the day and we would happily walk kilometers to and fro savoring in the sights and smell of the countryside. we had to walk across fields and rough terrain to reach the temple, but who cared so long as there were pretty flowers or 'vellarankallu' (white pebbles) to add to our booty! 

Ekadasi, in those days, was not just another ritual to follow. It was interlinked with a lot of other traditions and held a different sort of charm which has totally disappeared along with time. I am not complaining and  neither am i lamenting the fact. Change is a way of life and the sooner we adapt to it, the better. But tomorrow, as another Guruvayur Ekadasi comes by, i can't help thinking about those carefree bygone days which my son can never experience nor enjoy...