SABARIMALA: During the Mandala Makaravilakku pilgrim season in Sabarimala, R M Sreenivas from Bengaluru is a familiar sight at Sannidhanam. It is his voice over the loudspeakers that guides the pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He has been an announcer at the shrine for the past 18 years. According to Sreenivas, he was an alcoholic at one period and he was removed from the BSF for being drunk during duty. He later ventured to do odd jobs like sweeping and driving an autorickshaw to find money to booze.
A turning point in his life came when P K K Panicker of the Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sangham of Karnataka advised him to take up the duty of a Kannada announcer at Sabarimala. Since he wanted to recover from alcoholism, he happily accepted the offer and joined duty in 2000.
Though he joined as a Kannada announcer, he had to make announcements in Telugu and Tamil gradually. “I learnt Telugu and Tamil myself when the Devaswom authorities requested me to announce in that languages too,” he told Express. “In fact, it was easy for me to learn those languages as I have neighbours from Andhra and Tamil Nadu. Now, I am fluent in these languages,” he said.
Since 2000, he has not even once missed darshan at Sabarimala. He completely recovered from alcoholism eight years ago. Now, he is also a tutor at a de-addiction centre at Bengaluru. He also shared his apprehension about the prevailing police restrictions at Sannidhanam. “Sabarimala had a divinity. Now, it’s looking like a police camp and the number of pilgrims has come down due to fear. Hope a positive change will come soon,” Sreenivas said.