One Minute at Attukal Pongala

Claire is writing a post about it, but in the meantime here is a short, shaky clip from the Attukal Pongala Festival. (That post is now up – it’s called Attukal Pongala: Bubbling Over.) Held annually in Trivandrum, the festival is attended by millions of women – 2.5 million in 2009, according to the Guinness Book of World Records – who travel to the southern city to cook sweet rice dishes in earthen pots as offerings to the goddess, Attukal Devi. Years ago, there was enough space for cooking fires outside the Attukal Devi Temple, but its growing popularity has spread the festival all over the city, where fires burn in every space imaginable.

It was tricky to photograph and move through Trivandrum’s narrow streets. Smoke from the fires, just lit, was irritating my eyes – as well as the women’s – and when I took this video there were more fires and pots inches behind me, which I had to be careful not to step on. The music was not added later; it was blaring from stacks of speakers placed on every street corner, playing Bollywood hits right after devotional songs or the words of an officiating Brahmin.

If you enjoyed One Minute at Attukal Pongala, subscribe to email updates or our RSS Feed. You'll be notified when we next publish a story about the Old World.

• Old World Wandering is about overland travel, about hauling backpacks across borders to find connections within regions and across cultures. It is a collection of travel stories from two journeys through the Old World, written by a South African couple who, after eight years travelling and living abroad, are now slowly making their way home, across Asia and down Africa’s east coast to Cape Town. Join them on their journey on this, their travelogue.

  Read more about Old World Wandering»

• • London to Shanghai overland

  • Shanghai to Cape Town overland

  • overland travel

• Iain and Claire are in:
  Cape Town, South Africa

  Iain is reading:

  A Time of Gifts

  Patrick Leigh Fermor

  Claire is reading:

  Bangkok Days

  Lawrence Osborne
• Travel stories from a year in India

• Subscribe by Email

  You’ll receive an email whenever we post a new story from the Old World. (Normally once every ten or so days.)

• • Regions

  • Themes

• On Travelogues

  • A history of travel writing
    Why are ancient travelogues like Homer's Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh still important to us and where is travel writing going, in the age of the blog?
  • Free travel books
    A list of enduring travelogues in the public domain, written by authors both obscure and legendary, like Twain, Dickens, Byron, RL Stevenson and Conrad. Includes excerpts and download links.
• Travel books about India

• • Accommodation in Asia and Africa

  • Photo Gallery of travel destinations in Europe, Asia and Africa

  • Downloads

• Overland Travel

  • The Hippie Trail
    The hip-hike to Kathmandu grew out of Eastern influences on the literature of the West.
  • The Banana Pancake Trail
    As much a concept as a series of criss-crossing transport connections, the Banana Pancake Trail asks important ethical questions of so-called independent travellers.

• Featured by

  Featured by

• Asides

  

  In Ulan Bator, with just five days to go

  

  Where to for travel writing

  

  Where to for travel writing?
• Follow Old World Wandering on Tumblr
• • 
    

    Arriving in Calcutta

    
    
• Overnight Buses