Mezcal mother of tequilas

We had bought this Mezcal

 ( Tequila is Agave cactus made ..mexican drink ) 

Mezcal is the Mother of Tequila ,

yes the original Cactus drink of Mexico 

Today slowly being sold all over the  world as an exotic drink and becoming famous ,

Usually a dead worm is in bottle fattened on the drink called Gustav ,

You  can see it if u look carefully at picture .

Earlier it was a cottage industry in Oaxaca and there were plenty of Mezcal bars .

We bought one 750 ml bottle  in Oaxaca pronounced Wahaca a heritage town one hour by flight from Mexico city the mother of Mezcals as a novelty .

The brand BENEVA  we bought was a reputed one too and had a smart showroom to sell it .

We forgot that we had no check in ticket and we couldnt carry it as cabin luggage on return unless we pay ten times for on spot check in !

So on day of return we were bit anxious .

First  we tried bartering it to our airport drop Taxi driver as fare ,he just laughed at us 

Guys I am born and brought up with Mezcals Are you Indians trying to pass me off with one but he  just said 

no sir !!

As soon as we reached Airport wife even tried her sob story to a  security officer of  how we poor and old 

( senior citizen ..me ) Indians made a mistake and can we take it in for sake of Indo mexican detente .

Security man replied politely with no diplomatic inundoes 

No Madam no liquids beyond 100 ml

Wife was eyeing me with purpose

 Oh no 

Not that 😟🤔

I knew what she wanted 

She would asked me drink it off why waste it !🙄

My dear itsnt mineral water its 65 % 

W/V absolute alcohol !!!!

She knew that being a doctor herself but she was more a woman when it came to not wasting things !

You will need a stretcher for me I said 

I will be flatter than an iron !

So with that finalised we decided to throw away our prized Mezcal in a bin as no one seemed to want it !

It should have been Cochin many would grab it .

Suddenly we saw a sales outlet of the same brand in lobby .

I saw a couple trying to browse drinks there 

I said hello 

Looking for Mezcal 

I have one for a bargain !!

The man nodded and looked away 

I never thought I would become a bootlegger in distant Mexico at this stage of my life 🙄

The salesgirl was listening .

She asked me hello Sir if its our brand I know your problem dont worry leave it here I will give you a chit and you can collect a brand new one at our counter near Gate beyond security .

People do it all the time and we help our customers you see .

Oh my Mescal God

I couldnt believe it

So we did bring back the mezcal back .

 On a lazy sunday I had one peg on the rocks with my co brother

It was smooth not very bitter i didnt use salt or lime as with Tequila but with sprite .

Went in smoothly and with no percebtible effect then or later 

Maybe I needed more 

So thats the story of Mezcal the Mother of Tequila .

Ps .....the mutton Biriyani was made by yours faithfully

 

Hari kanya temple

 

Varahamurthy shethram

 

Varahamurthy Shetram Paniyur ,Palghat dt near Pattambi .

Went on 4 september 2021 

we drove off from Guruvayur to visit two ancient temples of Kerala .

The first one was Varahamurthy temple in Paniyur ,Kumbidi village ,in Palghat dt on way to Calicut or Kozhikode by road towards Valancherry .

As name suggests its a temple where Lord Vishnus Varaha avatar is deity .

The Varaha or wild boar was the avatar or life that Vishnu took to save the earth hidden in the primordial ocean by demon Hiranyaksha as per our scriptures .

Varaha dives into the sea in the universe (not seas in our earth as earth is buried in primordial ocean ) and brings up earth in his horns and earth is represented as Bhoomi devi .

Varaha has a boars head and a human body .

Now why was this varaha worshipped here ?

Parasurama again a Vishnu avatar yeons back gifts all he has to Kashyap to atone for his sin of killing kshatriyas or kings 21 times in anger for the injustice they did to his father .

He then raises land from seas by flinging his axe which is Keralam .

Unfortunately the land kept sinking so sage Narada advises him to worship Varaha to retrieve it and Parasurama thus consecrates the earliest temple in Kerala for varahamurthy .

One can call this even the first temple ever in kerala .

They say between 800 Bc to 1200 AD when the Perumals ruled .

From those days its very famous Paniyuran and aayiram paniyooran refers to the patronage to the temple for centuries .

The temple has been renovated rebuilt several times since then .

The greatest Temple architect and artisan of Kerala , Perumtachan has said to have added his final touches in this temple his last after which he threw his measuring road and chisel which is still preserved here .

The story says Perumthachan after losing his son and being guilty of his death wanders around and reaches this temple .

Hes miserable and hungry and asks the carpenters working in the temple for some food but they ignore him and go for thier lunch .

When they return they find many columns of wood marked and inadvertently cut them as marked not knowing Petumthachan had played a trick on them .

On cutting the wood most dont fit and the carpenters are worried about thier work as they retire for the night .

They realise the old man ignored was Peruntachan himself but cannot find him .

At night they hear hammering noises and find perumthachan had completed the work perfectly .

They tell him now that the work is over they will have no work at all.

For this Perumthachan laughs and tells them not to worry and blesses them that as long as the temple stands some work will be on all the time .

Which rings true .

Even now we saw some renovations going on .

Incidentally perumthachans chisel is preserved in between two granite slabs .

The temple is built in sylvan surroundings with fields rivers pond around it .

Its spacious with a typical kerala temple elevation .

It was a memorable trip indeed to visit this ancient temple with so much behind it .

Chunangad bhagavathy temple nallepilly

 

At times destiny drags you to stumble on something which you wouldnt see otherwise .

Nallepilly is a sleepy village in Palghat where we go frequently to pray in premilas family deity Chunagad Bhagavathy temple .

Though Kollengode her ancestral village in Palghat is far off from Nallepilli this relationship is still maintained ,its said her ancestors had moved to Kollengode from Nallepilli .

So this temple on main road from Chitoor was quite familiar to us .

On one occasion while Premila was immersed in her prayers i drifted off and walked into a small lane opposite temple and went on walking looking at the nice old houses on the road .

After about 10 mins and around a km away I found a very cute temple with very graceful old houses around .

I asked some people about temple and was told it was a Vishnu temple with a Bhagavathi too .

Today I again accidentaly  found out this was a temple around 250 years old with lot of stories behind it .

For one it had a relationship with Bhagavathy temple in Angadipuram near Perintalmanna called Thirumandhankunnu temple .

And the godess here was Thirumanthankunnu bhagavathy installed here .

We had visited there too .

How did this happen ?

It started with Kunjulakshmi Amma married to Kunjunni Thampuran of Mankada family rulers of Valluvanad .

Kunjunni thapuran expires and Kunjulakshmi as a widow moves to Nalepilli in Palghat .

She buys property from one Mannadiar in Nalepilli .

She has two sons Raman and Krishnan menons who later join British administration .

They were very capable in administrative duties .

But they are falsely implicated in an act against Raja of Cochin .and loses all their property in Nallepilli .

Raman Menon rises and becomes a judge .

The Raja of Cochin realises the innocence of the brothers and  gives them back all property and they build an ettukettu 

The Ankarath family thus becomes famous in Nallepilli .

Since Kunjulakshmi amma had two   sons  and no daughters ! The system of Marumakathaayam assured the property would have no one to look forwards 

So krishna menons daughter is adopted into Ankarath family .now property would be passed onto her children .

The family manges very well .

Thus I came to a temple 

And dazedly felt I should see this lovely temple .

Uthralikavu temple

In our quest to visit temples in Kerala  today was a special day .

I had for long been seeing pictures of a very beautiful temple nestled admidst green fields with blue and brown mountains in distance with a green canopy of trees dotting the base of the mountains .

Even such a show stealing scene is enough, but to beat all that in this picture post card temple ,was a railway line going behind it  and if one managed to capture a train speeding behind, its a photographers delight .

So we decided to visit Uthralikaavu temple .

Though I did get some pics of a train behind temple the angle was wrong as it wasnt seen with temple and when I was in right place no train came too .

So I borrowed some pics from online to show its beauty .

Location and Reach :

This lovely place is situated in Thrissur District in Kerala about 4 km from Wadakancherri town which is in between Thrissur and Shoranur .

One can reach Wadakancheri by road in Kodungalur Shoranur road .

Its about 20 km from Thrissur and from Guruvayur almost same .

We drove from Guruvayur with roads quite good in Guruvayur Wadakancheri route joining Kodungallur Shoranur road .

It was very scenic with green lush paddy fields and distant mountains .

The temple is a very small one ,placed plonk in middle of paddy fields and a road leads to it with green all around ,

I can imagine how it would look in monsoon times with heavy rains  in Kerala .

I mentally noted to come here then again with better camera .

History of temple :

Uthralikavu temple or Rudramahakali temple is situated in the Aka Mala Desham ( Aka..inside Mala ...woods in other words a valley )in Thalapilli Taluk Enkakad village Wadakancheri Panchayat Thrissur Dt .

The place is Enkakad 

( like Shivas hair Thirujada ) 

Its said Lord Sivaas a mendicant begged rice from nearby Uriyari hills or Uriyarikunnu  ( uriyari is 150 ml of rice ) and later cooked it nearby and place was known as Vechanad later becoming Machad .

Lord Siva loved this place and gave seats here for two Godesses ( bhagavathis )one to northeast ie Akamala to Rudrakali now Uthralikavu and other to south called Vazhani for Thiruvaani .

People believe Thiruvaani kaavu Bhagavathy the giver of voice and music Vaani is elder sister of Rudramahakali .

Hence Thiruvanikaavu vela or festival takes place one week before Uthranikavu vela .

Another version says Uthralikavu Bhagavathy is younger sister of Mahakurumba Bhagavathy who is installed in Wadakancheri Shiva temple at Karumarakad .

During annual festival Karumarakad and Uthralikavu deities are mounted on caprisoned elephants in a grand procession to reach Wadakancheri and come together to Uthralikavu for a joint procession  or kootezunallippu .

Another legend says Kelathachan like Paliathachan of Thrissur a local chieftan owned lands in Akamala .

He used to travel a lot with his ola kuda or palm leaf ,once when in Kollur Mookambika temple on his return Mookambika bhagavathy was supposed to have sat on his ola kuda and come to Akamala without his knowledge .

When he placed his umbrella on the paddy field ridge on reaching his  Enkakad village she hopped off liking the place and decided to stay there .

An Aal maram or Banyan tree was planted to give her shade .

Years later a women sharpening her knife on a stone there found blood coming from it and when prasnam or divine enquiry was done , it was found that stone was a swayambhu or a self made idol of the Godess hence she was installed in present site but with an open sanctum and a poovam tree covering it as she was a vana devi .

This is considered as the Moolastanam of Uthralikavu .

Even to this day the sanctum inner part of present temple  is uncovered and looks at sky with poovam treeabove main idol .

It was also revealed in enquiry that Devi wanted a Tamil brahmin as priest .

Most kerala temples have Namboothiris as priests .

Hence a priest from Padinajatimuri near Wadakancheri was appointed as chief priest 

The Chakingil madam family the priest belonged originally was from  palakkad and a old brahmin lady   had migrated to central Kerala during times of Tipoo sultan fearing him with her son and an uruli or vessel to make payasam and took asylum in a Namboothiri illam near Thriprayar temple in a place Vlahayil .

The boy was later called Vlahayil Anayan pattar  ,he was a well known cook and it was his descendants who were selected as priests to this temple.

The priests still hail from this famous family which was blessed to produce many great Indians .

The previous chief priest was there from 1918 to 1981 and made temple popular .

The Uthralikavu vela was conducted by people of  three villages Enkakad Wadakancheri and Kumaranellur .

But today this temple too is under the reins of state Goverments Dewasom board and they decide on how to run the temple and pay its employees a very sad feauture for all temples in Kerala as the two fronts ruling kerala in turns for last 7 decades are only intrested in looting temples .🙄

The festival here  begins with para or visit by Bhagavathy to nearby areas where she would be welcomed with great devotion and fervour and offered traditional offerings .

It would start with Enkakad village where the Moolasthanam was present and first house would be Mullakal tharavad of Kelathachan .

The pooram or big vela would have all three villages send processions in an order and have a kooti ezunallitippu .

So this temple with so many lores behind it is also the miss world amongst temples

Try to visit it .