Chorunnu

Chorunnu for Malini vava was done today - October 14, 2018 at Sree Ayappan-Guruvayurappan Temple, Mahalingapuram here in Chennai. The attendees were of course the residents of Apt2F, No19 2nd Street Sakthi Nagar plus Malini vava's maternal grandmom - Sujatamooma.

The purpose of the blog is to record the details of the ceremony since digital memory can withstand the test of time whereas in case of its organic counterpart, the sanity of the details can fade over the years.

It was a simple process of taking a receipt at the counter for chorunnu for Rs.30 - no pre-booking is needed. The ceremony itself is a simple one, but let me try to record in a detailed way.

• The main priest laid a plantain leaf and water poured over.
• Myself, Deepa sat in front of the leaf with Malini vava in lap and Nandita in Deepa's. 
• We were facing the deity of Guruvayurappan. A lighted nilavillaku was in front of the plantain leaf  
• Following menu items were kept on the leaf - well-boiled white rice, nei-payasam, salt, papadam, banana
• I was asked to utter/whisper the name in Malini's ear - 3 times
• All the ingredients were mixed and smashed well
• On the sound of a sanghu (conch shell) blown by a priest, a minuscule amount of the mixed item was presented to vava's mouth - 3 times
• Others were asked to touch payasam in vava's mouth
• A dakshina amount was offered to main priest  and the chorunnu is done.

We followed it up with a Thulabaram for Nandita with banana.

Th temple with main deities of lord Ayappan and Guruvayurappan seemed to be well organised and neat. It was bustling with activities but was by no means crowded. A couple of pictures from the temple.