THE BEST OF THE BEST

(23rd October '06) This was the day I started my journey back...

Finally I managed to convince myself to make a visit to the temple! It was not out of devotion... there is something very unique about this Goddess, She is the only unmarried deity I know of. I told myself to visit her as a friend and also to see her famous diamond nose drop.

The next major choice I had to make was, what to wear! Like in many south Indian temples, here also men are not allowed to enter the temple with their shirts on. Though I did not want to visit temples in this trip, I still had my silk attire in the backpack. I love wearing it in different south Indian styles. It makes me feel good and it also looks good. This time I thought I should try the Tamilnadu style. I chose a style which will keep me covered fully and also will not violate the rules of the temple.

Here let me say something about about this attire; This is nothing but two pieces of cloth! The real magic is in the way you drape it on you.


The place I stayed is just outside the temple. I kept aside enough time as it is common that you end up waiting in long queues whenever you visit a temple. I gathered all the change I was carrying and put that in my pocket before I started for temple. I walked barefoot and as usual there was a crowd of tourists all over. From the time I reached the main entrance, I noticed one person observing me closely. After entering I was looking for the way to get inside the temple. All temple priests were dressed in white lungis, one of them showed me the direction. Only till this point I was very conscious of everything around me!

I was about to take a step in the direction showed by that temple priest, all of a sudden the person who was observing me appeared in front of me and said, "Special darshan... come with me!". He did not even wait for my response and made way for me shouting at the temple priests and the crowd around. He was dressed in red lungi, not sure whether he is one of those temple priests or someone else! On the way, I saw one board written in tamil with two numbers 50 and 100. I think it was for special darshan. I tried stopping this person to tell him that I don't have that much money on me to give him. I guess all I had was around 30. He took me directly to the gate of sanctum, bypassing all queues. He opened that gate and asked me to get in. I found a big queue inside, people paying respects to the Goddess one after the other, who were allowed to stand in front of the deity only for couple of seconds. The temple priest sitting over there was giving each of them kunkum as a blessing.

The very next moment I found myself in front of the Goddess. I was spell bound. I am short of words to describe. She is standing about 5 feet tall in some parrot green clothing. She is looking amazingly beautiful, more than that the expression on her face is very pleasant and soothing. Her diamond nose drop is shining very bright lightening her face. I had never met such a friendly and beautiful female so far. She made the whole trip worthwhile.
She is THE BEST OF THE BEST