'Nenmara Vallagi Vela' Festival

March 31, 2010.
     It was around 9 PM, I got a call from one of my friend Babu, who resides at Mettupalayam and it was an invitation call. He invited me for Nenmara Vallangi Vela Festival at Kerala on 3rd April. Few days back, Babu have explained about the festival and showed me couple of fabulous pictures taken during same festival last year – 2009. I decided to join him for this year festival and checked the train booking status. Fortunately tickets were available in Tatkal quota in Cheran Express, so I booked my ticket and eagerly waited till the Saturday to witness this event.


About Nenmara Vallagi Vela:
     Nenmara Vallangi Vela is an annual festival of Kerala celebrated at Nellikulangara Bhagavathy temple in Palakkad. Nenmara and Vallangi are two neighbouring villages in the district. In fact, this festival is a competition between these two villages. The festival begins with the traditional flag hoisting ceremony, called as Kodiyettam. Various art forms like Karivela, Kummatti and Andivelaare are staged during Nenmara Vallangi Vela. During the celebration, 22 caparisoned elephants line up in ritual magnificence under a decorated canopy. Fantastic Fireworks which are held during evening & night are also highlights of the festival
For more info @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nenmara_vallangi_vela

Map:

View Larger Map

April 3, 2010.
     I packed everything in my travel bag and started my journey for the festival; I reached Coimbatore at 6 AM in the morning and travelled to Babu’s house in Mettupalyam by a local bus. After refreshing and energizing with breakfast, we (me, Babu and his Friend Karthick) started our travel to Nenmara-Vallangi village by 9 AM from Mettupalayam. 2 of Babu’s Friend – Rakesh and Sekar joined us at Coimbatore. After lot of flops, we left Coimbatore by 12. Actually we planned to leave Coimbatore by 10 and to reach the town by 1 or 2 PM. Yes, we were far behind our schedule

      We took NH 47, Coimbatore- Palakkad National Highway for our journey. With Babu’s fantastic driving skills, we managed to cross Tamil Nadu border with in an hour. I thought we will be reaching the village on scheduled time, but everything collapsed because of the Toddy shop. Babu, Rakesh and Sekar were excited on seeing the Toddy shops. FYI.., Toddy is illegal and banned in Tamil Nadu, but in Kerala its a perfect drink for celebrations and we were able see at least one toddy shop for every 2 KM. Another thing is a pot full of Toddy drink cost you only Rs. 6. So nothing surprise in their excitement rite.

     We bought about 3 pots of Toddy drink and my friends were enjoying the drink. I was capturing every moments with my camera. During that time, Babu has offered me a toddy pot to drink. I just had a slip of Toddy, My God…. What a disgusting smell and taste it has (Sorry!!! Toddy drink lovers; Please forgive me for my comment :P). Therefore I decided to take only pictures of it not to taste it any more in my Life. This disgusting drink has killed an hour of our journey time.

     Late start up, flops and Toddy drink have put our journey by 2 hours behind and finally we reached the Nenmara village by 3:30 PM. But due to elephant parade roads were blocked and we stopped for some time. In the mean while I had chance to see and had time to click few pics of the elephant parade. After 30 min road was cleared and we reached Rakesh’s Uncle home, where we had fantastic Kerala brinyani with Welcome drink [:P]. From Rakesh’s Uncle we came to know more about the festival and stories behind it. We also came to know that the festival has started by 8:30 AM it self and the sad part is all the elephant parade which I want to see was already over. I was disappointed little bit at that time, but compromised my self when Uncle told me about the wonderful fireworks that are going to be held in the Night.



Fantastic Fireworks
     We came to know that Fire works were done as 3 parts of the festival. Initial phase of firework begins by 4:30 PM; second is sample works done by both village around 7:30 PM and Finally the Mega showdown fireworks done on the next day early morning 3 AM. After late Lunch, we left to the temple and had nice views of the temples, with decorated elephants. Forgot to mention about the crowd, my God what a crowd it was. I guess at least 2 lakhs people were there to see the festival & Fireworks. We spend few hours in the temple and saw the initial & sample fire works and came back to Rakesh’s uncle home for the dinner. Frankly speaking, I was not so much impressed by the Initial fire works.
     After a dinner, we were speaking about various topics about native culture and history upto 11 PM. After having 2 hours of sleep, we started to the temple again to see the Final Fireworks show down around 2 AM in the morning. Finally we settle down in the perfect place, where we can see both Villages’ fireworks.

     After settling down, literally we were killing the time for an hour. In the meantime Rakesh & Babu explained us how the Fireworks are planned and how it will be executed. The show is sliced into 3 parts, half an hour is given to each village team. In the first part ie 1 hour, both villages will be staging their strength by heavy fire cracker & blasts. Second part is Light show where, they will be staging different designed Lights in the temple tower. Third part is allocated for fireworks in the sky with vibrant colors and design.

     Now the time has arrived, around 3 AM, Vallangi village has started their heavy fire works. Continuously for half an hour, I was able hear and see only the blasts… Literally I could feel the force of the blast which was pushing me backwards. Vallagngi villages have done good work, but not awesome work. After Vallangi village finished the blasts, now its Nemmara Village turn. Wow, Nemmara village executed perfectly and in better & awesome manner. At one particular time, I was checking whether my spectacles and camera lens are fine or not (Think how much force was there during each blast). Another thing, we were just 300 meters from the Nemmara Firework site. During the initial stage of the Firework we didn’t feel any sort of such force, since it started from opposite end. But at the end the distance between the firework and us was only 300 meters. You believe or not, I was taking 2 steps for each blast because I was not able to withstand against the Blast force. According to me Nemmara Team have done excellent work and deserve for the Honor. Hats off Nemmara team.


     After heavy Firework blasts, now both villages were displaying the Lighting show they have created for this festival. Lighting show was followed by Sky Firework show, where beautiful patterned fireworks were showcased by both the Village team. Firework part of the festival came to end by around 5:30 AM. After that we left to Uncle home and slept for 3 hours. After having breakfast at 9 AM, we left Nemmara and Vallangi Village and returned back to Coimbatore/Chennai.


Complete Photo Link - http://picasaweb.google.com/vijay.pal.86/IncredibleIndiaNemmaraVallangiVela#