A Day in Nemmara Kerala: Temple Festival Filled with Lights and sounds...

I almost gone tired after traveling to different places every weekend but my love on travel hasn’t reduced. This time, decided to travel to Nemmara, a small Village near by Palakaad district with cheriath , one of my Colleague to celebrate Bhagavathi Amman temple festival. Kerala, the place famous for culture, Banana chips, Coconut and Beautiful girls. Kerala, one of my favorite places in India and used to be in my travel list always. April 1st 2011 packed up the things, most importantly my Love Nikon D5000 and Vanguard tripod to capture the Lovely fireworks. After reaching my hometown Coimbatore, Purchased some beautiful toys for cheriath daughter. (Toys - The Best ways to communicate friendship with Kids) ..

 April 3rd 7.00 AM, The journey to Nemmara village started. Cheriath explaining me the background of festival in the whole travel. My curiosity increased. After 2 hours of journey we reached Nemmara Village. Narrow roads, Old Kerala style Homes, Farms on the both sides, Ponds....Awesome...Before reaching Home we visited Bhagavathi Amman temple. Shirts were asked to remove before entering the temple .One question used to strike in my mind always, why in Kerala shirts are asked to remove before entering in to the temple???? ...Google gives me different answers for this. After a short visit to temple we reached Home. Cheriath Family greeted me with smile and the whole family filled with enjoyment. I was introduced to Cheriath relatives. Somehow i am able to understand some Malayalam words...Home filled with relatives, Kids Playing childhood games...I don’t what to do! After sometime Joined with kids and started playing games which relaxed me and made me to feel that i am a part of a family...Lunch time started, Lunch was served with different varieties vegetables and Sambars...Awesome taste... Thanks MOM for the preparation...After Lunch, had a small Nap to comfort me... 

Bhagavathi Amman temple resides in center between two Villages Nelliampathi and Nemmara.Function is organized by both the teams and celebrated with blasting crackers and drum sounds. There used to competition always between these two gangs, who blast more crackers? Who build artificial temples better with good lightings? I Supported for Nemmara (This is just Mini Background)..

 

I and cheriath went to the Shiva temple, a KM away from home. That’s where the festival starts. Temple filled with huge crowds, Eights elephants standing in a row, God Bhagavathi statue Placed at the top of the Master elephant forehead. These elephants are specially trained to adhere the cracker and drum sounds. People started to wave their hands after hearing the drum (Panchavaathiam) sound and started dancing...People shooting videos and clicking the snaps including me either to upload in FB or for their memories ..Dance, Music went for almost an hour without any interval... An hour later, nine elephants walked in a row towards Bhagavathi temple...For every two houses elephants are feed with Fruits, Leaves and their Legs are washed with Water to decrease the heat... I, Jumped over the compound wall to shoot some pictures of the elephant...Hot sun burning my head, totally exhausted and returned back home to have some energy drinks. Played Cricket for a while in hot sun and returned back to view another spectacular event. Elephants are parked on their respective yards. This time a different instrument is used... 

Chenda, the Guys who played this instrument had awesome power and stamina. Again People started waving their hands in enjoyment and drummers rocking the Play ground. Play ground filled with people all over nearby state and village. To Take a Perfect pattern of the musicians in a single row, it took me 30 minutes. Imagine the Crowd!! Music Blasted in to the ears of the people for almost an hour... Time arrived, to shift the elephants from their respective yard to the temple...On the Other side, Nelliampathi people rocking with the same pattern of music and so on… 

“Rain Rain Go away” this was the mantra of the day... If it rains, Festival function going to be screwed up... Do God Hear our sweet voice and do what we need???  No chance!!!!... His Play Started... Rain started to drizzle and sad emotions in People face... In no point of time, a heavy blasting sound shook the whole village.Yaa; it’s the sound of mini dynamite crackers. Sad Faces are now filled with smile... 

 From both part of the village, Crackers blasted with heavy sound and Sky filled with smokes, totally Polluted... Some People Love the Smell of Cigarette smokes, some love petrol smell, the list goes on... I am no exception here, I love the smell of cracker smoke and when a bit smoke entered in to my lovely nostrils, I was completely floating in heaven (Have you guys watched 40days 40 nights movie, recall the scene of hero floating in heaven surrounded by ******** objects !!!!!!....)… Heavy frequency sound scattering the entire village in different directions, at one point of time I prayed to god when this hell sound will be stopped… God heard my voice at last and stopped it after 15 minutes   ...Even you can tolerate the sound of train horn but not this blasting sound…“This is just a trailer Machiiii…. Watch the Movie at 3.30 AM today one of the Cheriath relative said to me….” To relief myself from the sound , I went home and Covered my whole body with Bed sheet… Building started to vibrate after 10 minutes... 

The next mini trailer started, Fireworks now... Sky filled with awesome colors... Mounted my Nikon in tripod and started clicking the snaps of the fireworks… My first shoot of fireworks, a different learning...That night was a Shivarathiri for me…

Cheriath Uncle started to explain us a scientific concept of absorption of sound.”Why the sound absorption is less during night time, due to this we hear heavy sound during night time not the same in day time??...In day time sun has the potential to absorb the sound energy through medium called selenium due to which the sound what we hear is less when compared to the night time and vice versa effect in night...Sounds interesting 

Time to watch the real movie now, Narrow road filled with People to watch the real effect of Dynamite crackers... Camera is fully charged now. Camera in one hand and tripod in another. A guy came towards me and asked Are you a news reporter?.. I smiled what this smile indicates yes or No? Need to ask the guy who asked me!!!..People eagerly waiting for the moment. Some Climbing on the coconut trees nearby to watch the beautiful scene... Playground nearby temple was completely dark and mobile phones display lights appeared like a “Star in the New Moon sky”… Movie started, People all over the ground whistling (“What You will do when the Rajini or Shahrukh Khan Name displayed in the movie screen???...)… 50% effect here... Nelliampathi gang lighted the fire and blasting continued in the dark environment, Building started to Vibrate in Heavy sound... The Final touch of the blast was awesome and its unforgettable moment. After Nelliampathi it’s the turn of Nemmara to show up their talent..

Next morning arrived, Packed up the things, Bye Bye to my new family and returned to my Home town... Time to plan for the next trip… See you in the Next travelogue…

"Memory Remains…"

About this village:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemmara 

Fireworks :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7NAitq30kU