Less than an hour after makeshift brick hearths lining the roadsides and open spaces in the State capital were lit on Sunday morning, the ritualistic offering to the deity of the Attukal Bhagavathy temple, mostly a pudding of rice, jaggery, ghee, grated coconut, and banana, bubbles away furiously, almost done.
Among the multitudes of women who have descended into the city for the famed Attukal Pongala are those who prepare ‘therali appam’ and ‘mandaputtu,’ often because they are praying for some long-held wish to come true.
