Malayankulam, Kaisiki Ekadashi and Sri Parankusa Jiyar
Couple of days ago we were at Malayankulam, a small village near Uttiramerur, Kanchipuram, one of those rare visits to my paternal ancestors’ village and temple. It brings cheer and also sorrow in equal measure. Happy that at least we still have a connection with our roots, and sad because not a single one of the 60-70 odd Sri Vaishnava families from the village live there anymore. In my own family they had migrated out even during my grandfather’s time and we never even heard him talk about his village or even think of visiting it. We sincerely carried it in our initials, but had no idea what the village was like. All our families had left the village, letting the family deity Veetrirundha Narayanan temple lie in ruins. It must have been in the late 90s when we heard from Parthasarathi mama, a familiar face to us who used to go to Kanchipuram to buy silk sarees, came looking for Malayankulam families about reconstructing the temple. It was a story of miraculous call t...