Thursday, December 20, 2012

The Tonsure and Ear Piercing Ceremony

One of the biggest milestone in any South Indians life is the day we get the first Tonsure done. For convenience sake, we got both Tonsure and Ear piercing done on the same day, 09Nov2012.
Megha was almost 11 months old then. Below is a picture taken a day or two before the ceremony...with her beautiful hair. I was feeding her then...

With our families help, we celebrated this memorable day at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam in Tirupati, Andra Pradesh, India.

Most of the family whom we invited showed up.

The day before, all of us staying at Chennai went to Tirupati in a hired taxi. Oh it was fun! Megha slept pretty much all through the 6 hour journey. Avva had some motion sickness which soon subsided with sprite. My parents, sister and other family members from Hyderabad were already waiting for us in Tirupati.

That was the first time my sister was meeting Megha. Meg took to her perimma (Aunt) in absolutely no time. They bonded pretty much right away. Here you see Vineela, Rajesh mama, Jayeesh and Kulwant.

The morning of the 9th, we all set off to Tirumala in different cars. After the usual rush (which usually is present no matter how well we plan ahead), we reached Tirumala on time. Below are our relatives from Chennai with the exception of Durga atta and Ravi mama who went ahead to Tirumala to help my parents set up everything at the guest house.

My mom and Durga Atta had already set up the pooja room.

 I had mixed feelings that day. On one hand I was happy that Megha is getting the tonsure done, and sooner the better, but on other hand I was thinking that the last link to Megha is now gone. I mean, this hair which is being shaved is the hair she was born with, the same hair which she has from inside me...

anyway...

she cried a bit in the beginning but soon she stopped when my mom gave her a plate full of almonds. Just before finishing she started again but controlled after I started singing her rhymes.

I couldnt have been more proud of her. She did so well during this. I think in under 15 minutes the whole this is done.Some sandal wood paste was applied on her head for her to cool off.

She got changed and then we went for her ear piercing. Oh boy...I cried more than her :) lol She did pretty well though. We used a numbing gel; she cried because she was uncomfortable, not because she was in pain.
In both cases, Dimpu mama did a wonderful job of holding Megha. Below is Meg with dad, both freshly shaved heads.
 Then we went for darshan. It wasnt a bad day actually, we were out in about 3 hours. Srinu mama made friends with one of the security guys and we could stay and look at Perumal for about a full minute! this is the first time in my life (and i had been to Tirumala several times) I got a chance to really stand and observe Him. What a sight it was!!

I am soooo proud of Megha. She took everything in so well.

Then we headed back towards the guest rooms, had lunch and returned to Tirupati. All of us VERY tired by the end of the day.
Picture with my sis and parents.

3 comments:

  1. Nice blog ..! I really loved reading through this

    article.. Thanks for sharing such a amazing post

    with us and keep blogging...
    ear

    piercing Hyderabad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello there, thank you for the kind words.

      Delete