The kabali i know

Rajni starrers have always created a flutter before they release on screen. The mass hysteria  and craze this charismatic actor has generated across all ages  is beyond one's imagination. If he is not spoken for films, then he is popular through his charity work, spiritual work and  through his jokes that are on par with Sardarji jokes. His movies and his punch one liners have been made into a book for management students ( I have blogged about his punch oneliners  in "the name is Rajnikanth"). Then it is little surprise to note the mania that his new movie "Kabali" to be released on july 22 is creating. The movie is already marketed well by AirAsia's aircraft serving like a hoarding and  finance companies like muthoot having his photo engraved on silver coins. Not to be left out many small companies in Bangalore and Chennai have declared july 22 as official holiday to avoid piled up leave requests to the HR department. There's already Kabali mania all around so let me allow the world to indulge and revel in it. Ofcourse, i too enjoyed its teaser and am waiting to watch it but for now , i talk about the Kabali i know and relate a memory.

Vacations for me meant going to my grandparents place in Mylapore and as kids my grandparents inculcated in us a value of going to temple and the popular deity of the ancient  Mylapore temple was Kabali or Kapali...actually Kapaleeshwarar but conveniently called Kabali.(in tamil script p and b sound similar).

               Kabali kovil - the soul of mylapore clicked in 1930 ....image source:Madras history group

As kids on vacation who would want to wake up early, have bath and go to the temple? Atleast , not us. We wanted to play and do things beyond time and laze around on vacation but since thatha would insist, all of us would  go to the temple. Sometimes, accompanied by our elders and sometimes on our own, usually during mornings we were on our own. After walking through the lanes dotted withTpotpourri of colorful shops ranging from flowers, pooja items to appalams, we would walk into the huge temple.  After  marking our presence hurriedly  around all the deities  which was more like a play  for us. since we knew not what devotion or focussing on god was, we would play around the praharams and finally settle down in a landing in a corner of the temple where there was a sand pit ( actually  a  space created from the removal of granite from the floor ). We cousins would chat happily around the sand pit creating castles and sharing tales , have the temple prasadam and walk back home at 11.am.

Again on fridays, There was regular archanai  from our home in kabali kovil. This Archanai would happen exactly at 8.p.m on Fridays which coincided with Oliyum oliyum on TV.( a chitrahaar programme which featured songs from movies. This time paati would insist that we go with mami or chitti to the temple to get back the prasadam. We all would play  hide and seek from elders and hide in wash rooms and terrace and avoid going to the temple and whoever went with mami would sulk and  walk to the temple.   So many such memories flood when the name of Kabali is mentioned that looking back,  Could "Kabali kovil" be the reason for me to love temples??!!

Today, I love going to temples, I love the ringing of bells, the colors, the chanting, the fragrance of karpooram and incense stick soothe me and i love  ancient temple architecture, temple murals, the paintings and keep reading the legends and stories, the sthala puranams etc. Perhaps, all this must have come from those daily ritual of playfully lingering in what we call as the "Kabali Kovil"  .

P.S: Starting today, planning on a self-imposed blog marathon. will try to write for a week,drawing inspiration from daily life, free-writes etc...today's post inspired from kabali advertisemnt in newspaper( muthoot finance)