When We Gatecrashed A Wedding As A Grand Finale To The Tour!
I thought my travelogue would end with Guruvayur. But something extraordinary and funny happened on the last day of the trip and deserves a blog of its own.
The morning after, we had breakfast and visited Maamiyur temple.
Some of our group had already visited the temple and got Darshan of Lord Shiva. But when I, my son, my sister, cousin and aunt went to the temple, the sanctum sanctorum was closed due to some renovation and repair work. We spent some time inside the temple and decided to visit ISKCON Guruvayur that I had checked on the internet.
My sister, my son, my nieces and I hired an auto which dropped us off into a remote location where a tall building bearing the name of ISKCON stood proudly. Since there were no other vehicles (or people) to be seen there, we requested the auto driver to wait for a while. He obliged.
We entered the building and removed our chappals, only to be informed that it was the guest house of ISKCON. We asked for the temple and the receptionist gestured to a low-lying structure opposite to us. We went there, feeling confused.
Only, it was a small house and held an altar for Jagannath, Balbhadra and Subhadra! The deities were bedecked beautifully, in the typical manner legendary to ISKCON. It wasn't just a temple we visited, but a house filled with the love and care of Jagannath Prabhu. We had a swift and memorable Darshan and left for our hotel.
I have to mention that the auto-driver didn't charge anything extra for waiting. A rare but welcome occurence.
While in Guruvayur, we also visited the site of Mara-prabhu, an enormous sculpture depicting Maha Vishnu as a face on a tree. There's an interesting legend behind this.
Poondaanam, a devotee of Maha Vishnu, was reciting some prayers and in a state of ecstasy, read 'Amara-prabhu' (the eternal Lord) as 'Mara-prabhu' (lord of the trees). He got severely reprimanded by his Guru, Bhatathiripad. On the same day, the Guru received a vision of Maha Vishnu as a figure in the trees, asking him - Isn't the Lord of the Universe also the Lord of the trees? The Guru realised the sheer power of Poondanam's devotion and was humbled.
We left Guruvayur to return to my parents' house at Palakkad. We had planned to meet my cousin at Thrissur.
What happened was that, we gatecrashed a wedding to meet him.
When my cousin realized that we would be arriving at his location by afternoon, he insisted that we have lunch at the wedding function of his wife's relative. He didn't take no for an answer and we had to ultimately agree.
We reached the location and found ourselves in front of the famous Anjaneya Swamy, a huge idol of Shri Hanuman that puts up an epic light show in the evening. The unexpected Darshan of Hanumanji was the highlight of our visit to Thrissur.
But nothing can beat the embarrassment of walking into a wedding hall and eating lunch without even knowing whose side we were representing - the bride or the groom. The lunch was simply delicious and we temporarily forgot our embarrassment.
Not forever though. I will be calling the said cousin to a function that he knows nothing about, and making him eat a meal there. Just to give him a taste of his own meal - sorry, medicine.
In the evening we reached Palakkad, feeling tired and still reminiscing about our trip.
We left for Hyderabad the next day and enjoyed the train journey that offered beautiful panoramic views of mountains along the route of Coimbatore - Erode - Salem until it got dark at Jolarpettai. We also saw some heavy rainy showers in Erode.
I have to mention the beautiful temple of Varijala Venugopala Swami temple that we happened to see enroute Telangana. It was Saturday and the unexpected Darshan of Lord Hanuman made us feel blessed.
Like every trip, this one too was full of moments, experiences and memories that I will cherish for a lifetime. More than the places, it is the time spent with family that makes a trip worthwhile. Here's to more such trips, moments, memories and experiences!
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