LB becomes MB-Concluded

Samayapuram Mariamman is considered a very powerful goddess by many including myself. When I was a kid, my first head tonsure was done here too. It is said that just staying at this temple will cure one of chicken pox and measles. Many locals visit this temple hence the amenities are poor.

It was a Sunday and the temple was so crowded by 10.00 am that we found it difficult to park our cab. There are two entrances to this temple. We stood near that entrance which was closer to the tonsure shed. This shed is one big hall with a guided entrance to manage the crowd. By its side, was the bathing hall leading to exit. The queue was similar to the one in Tirupathi. Thankfully, we had a pass and a temple person to guide us. My brother agreed to seat LB in his lap during the tonsure process. He changed into shorts and we entered the shed. Yuck, what a sight met us! Men, women and kids sweaty and wet, pushing everybody and the floor was littered with water, slush and hair. The amount of hair I saw in that shed is enough to make one Mr. Universe puck his intestines out. I saw so many helpers cleaning the place continuously but the crowd was so huge that the minute a place was cleaned, it got dirtied by others.

We were guided to a person in a corner. He was just finishing tonsure for a middle aged lady with knee length hair. As practice, all barbers here use new blades for every tonsure. My dad took last minute pictures of LB with his hair. I prayed fervently that LB should not make a fuss. Though LB started crying initially, towards the end, he was merely whimpering at the thing we had done to his head. The barber was patient and gentle and did not get a single nick. We thanked him profusely and pushed through crowd to exit. In the process, I think we all got some free sweaty, wetly hugs and pushes and some fallen hair on our dresses and feet.

My father had arranged for special bathing room for LB near a hotel. VIPs who visit usually take their bath here. If it gives a picture of clean bathrooms to you, then you are mistaken. This ‘special’ shop has a thatched entrance and a hall leading to open space in the rear. There was a huge water tank from which we have to take mugs of water to bathe. Anybody and everybody will have a view of your bathing!! But since it was only LB and my bro who had to take bath, it was fine with us. The shop lady gave us one pot of hot water and we quickly bathed LB and dressed him up. The boy who was whimpering till now started laughing aloud touching his tonsured head.

After feeding him, we entered the temple through the main entrance with our guide. There was a temple elephant here too but the crowd was menacing that we didn’t want to take a chance. VIP pass helped us immensely here. We were led to the deity straight and had a good darshan. The idol was very huge like in Tiruvannaika and had fiery eyes. I thanked this goddess for my motherhood journey till date and prayed for easier path going forward. We bought a sari for the goddess which the priest draped on the idol!! After getting garland prasadam, we moved to the waiting hall. There were ladies selling kan malar (thin aluminum strip denoting eyes) and other body part replicas. We purchased some and prayed to the Goddess and dropped these miniature body part aluminum strips into the hundi.

So this was how L’Buddha (LB)

became Mottai Boss (MB).