It’s a short road that leads to the entrance of SMSS Hindu Mahila Mandiram in Poojappura — an institution set up for women by social worker and teacher K Chinnamma in 1920. Inside, in its spacious and airy hallways, there’s brisk activity.
Home to numerous stories, the Mandiram also houses a higher secondary school where inmates, i.e. girls between 10 and 18, study. Preparations are underway for the next of the ongoing Class 10 and 12 Board examinations. In between, there are occasional talks about the upcoming Attukal Pongala festival.
“It has been held every year since the pandemic on the campus in front of the old building you saw at the entrance,” says K Shymala Devi, an employee of the Mandiram since 1998.
Till a few years ago, the older inmates of the home, girls between 15 and 18 would be accompanied by the home authorities to a space near the temple where the Pongala was offered.
“But now, Pongala itself is changing; spreading in fact. People are offering the ritual right at their doorstep even in remote areas of the city. So we decided to offer it here,” Shymala says.
On the day, the precincts are cleaned up and adorned with flowers and two hearths made in which the offering is made. “The girls who can take part arrange everything. Two big pots of Pongala are prepared, which are distributed to the girls after the ritual,” says Aneetta Alexander, who is in charge of the home.
“We celebrate every festival here... Onam has students doing it the very traditional way, Vishu... and other occasions. Pongala, too, is one such way to rejoice for them,” she adds, as she points to the girls busy devouring lessons for the exams.
One of them, Sindhu (name changed), says she has been taking part in the rituals here for some years. The girl hails from Peroorkada, where her family lives. She and the others in the hall were left under the care of the Mandiram because of the dire situations at home, most of their mothers being single women.
“I want to be an engineer. I will pray for that during the ritual. And also for my mother who struggles for me,” says Sindhu.
The others too have similar things to pray for and aspirations to strive for. They seemed undeterred as they buried themselves in books that, according to them, were the only way they could find a better life.
“I still miss the Pongala my family and I used to put together. So my prayer will always be for my mother and good education,” says Nirmala (name changed). Good marks were also what Class 12 student Srilekha wanted for herself and her sister, who too is an inmate and a Class 10 student.
Outside the Mandiram, Poojappura bore the signs of preparations for this year’s Pongala on Thursday. Many hunched over earthenware sellers buying pots to cook the sweet porridge in to offer to the Goddess.
The women who come to offer Pongala — the steamed rice porridge laden with jaggery, ghee, and coconut, which is offered to the Goddess — is ever-increasing with accounts of women coming from as far as the West to participate.
From celebrities to commoners, almost all make a beeline for the ritual. The occasion gives them a reason to celebrate, to delve into the now-emerging Pongala saree trends, invest in off-beat earthenware which too bears alluring trends of creativity, and, of course, to meet up with people who could be called ‘Pongala’ friends — they bond thus just once a year, during the festival.
Cut away from all this din and fervour are a group of women who are within the confines of odds. Their days do not bear the everyday rush or rigour of a free, happening life, housed in the state-run Mahila Mandiram at Jagathy, a home for destitute women. Pongala here is a very private affair, say authorities at the Directorate of Women and Child Welfare, under which the Mandiram comes.
“There are women who are from very compromised backgrounds and with sensitive histories that may haunt their present. There are also women who face mental crises due to the times they endured. The Pongala is a community festival in which they participate but within the precincts and in a very private way. We do not allow anyone to enter into that privacy because we do not want things made difficult for these women,” says director Bindu Gopinath.
However, for the Attakulangara Women’s Central Prison, the Pongala festival is one where the inmates get to showcase not only their festive fervour but also their largesse and culinary prowess.
“They get up at around 4am on the Pongala day and prepare food for the people who come to participate in the ritual. There are many who prepare hearths just outside the jail gate, and they are offered lunch by our inmates after the preparation of the porridge is over,” says jail superintendent Sithara I.
The jail is in a heritage building that was once said to be the royal stable. Inside it stands a serene spot at the centre of the jail complex where there is an idol that is worshipped by the inmates every day. On the day of the Pongala, however, the prayers are more elaborate.
“Other days, they offer the flowers grown on our campus. But on Pongala day, the flowers are brought from outside, and the space is done up well. Cleaning begins some days ago, and some of the inmates, in fact, are on fast right from the day of the customary ‘kaappukettu’ ritual that marks the start of the Attukal temple festival,” says Sithara.
About 25 people offer the Pongala inside the jail precincts. “They are mostly the staff. But for the prison, we make a huge common hearth in the middle where the Pongala is prepared in an ‘uruli’. The inmates do the initial ritual and then retire to their rooms till the Pongala is consecrated ritually by sprinkling the holy water," the superintendent says.
"There are chants and prayers held during the time. Some inmates do it for certain prayers they have...like a petition that has to come through or for some legal cause. They take austerities too for that during this time.”
Gearing up to fulfil prayers and vows they had made are the elderly inmates of the Vanchi Poor Fund Ammaveedu, an old age home for women. Last year, one among them, 78-year-old Sarasamma, was hospitalised.
“The hospital authorities had kind of given up, but Sarasamma’s friends at the home here began praying for her and vowed to offer three pots of Pongala for the presiding Goddess of Attukal during the festival. And now, they are preparing for that,” says Rethika Nair, the manager of the old age home.
She says the women here take very strict vows, adhere to austerities, and celebrate the Pongala donning new ‘settu mundu’ on the day of the ritual.
“They are oldtimers and hence their festivities also bear the charm of the old times. Most of them have no one or nothing to return to. They were brought here from nothingness," says Rethika.
"Take Sarasamma, she has none. Now, she is all happy, singing songs and preparing for the festival which shows the love of her friends here who prayed for her speedy recovery and return. She feels at home and among people who love her. Pongala, for these women, are occasions for such camaraderie and love...beyond the customary feelings of prayer and religious fervour.”
She points to the nearby Sree Chithra Poor Home, where children from less fortunate backgrounds are housed, where too hearths will be prepared for Pongala offerings.
“Here, the touch of motherliness has a different taste," she smiles. "Sweet and full of the warmth of love like the porridge to be prepared for the Goddess.”