Grihapravesam (II)

After getting the car repaired and getting it home, we all breathed a sigh of relief. We started getting busy with the other arrangements. Once again, our handsome and charming son took an auto and went to the new house to get it cleaned. Hubby dear went to the market to get the flowers and other pooja materials. I got busy at home packing the various things to be carried for the pooja and checking with my list to see if I had forgotten something.

The things we carried included:
Kumkum
Haldi
Sandal powder
Camphor
Incense sticks
Flowers for pooja
Garlands for decoration
Different types of vilakkus (lamps)
Oil
Wicks for lamps
Ghee for homam
Homakundam
Woodshavings and other materials for homam
Various pooja utensils
Rice paste for kolam
Rice, urid whole and other navagraha dhanyas (paddy was being brought by the vadhyar)
Navagraha cloth pieces
Coconuts
Vengalapanai for boiling milk
Gas stove
Match box

It is a practice to spend the night on the day of the Grihaparvesam in the new house. Therefore we had to carry some sheets and pillows for sleeping there.

In between I summoned the services of my beautiful and talented niece to make the kolams. Locating her took almost an hour as she was on her holiday outing.

Finally around 4 pm, we loaded as many things as possible in two cars (my niece brought her car and we dared to take a chance with the repaired car. My son’s argument “anyway, we have to take the car there. Why not make use of it to transport our things?”)

Since the flooring was marble, we added some haldi powder to the rice paste so that the kolam would be prominent. My niece made the kolams, while we arranged all the other things so that in the morning it would be easy to manage the things.




We got the chairs and tables for lunch. We called the caterer and confirmed the arrangements. We also called a taxi and asked him to pick us up next day morning from home.

It was already 9pm by then. We had to get ready by 6 am next morning. So we hired an auto and reached home, had dinner and went to bed around 12 pm and set the alarm for 3 am.

The muhurtham for the grihapravesham had to be either at 5.30 am or after 9.30am, We had chosen the later muhurtham as it would have been impossible for us to reach the place well in advance for 5.30am muhurtam, after preparing the payasam for the neyvedyam and Havis for the homam.

I got up at 3 am and prepared payasam and havis after my bath, by which time, my husband and son also got ready. The taxi came at 6 am sharp and we all (my friend, Veena, also joined us) left on time. The Vadhyar had said “you carry lighted vilakku, flowers, rice, dal,coconut, haldi powder, chandanam etc., when you go in. Accordingly we decorated the entrance with garland and entered the house and kept things ready for the Vadhyar.




By then my mother and niece arrived followed by my brothers and their families and other invitees. Breakfast arrived punctually at 08:30am and we all had good breakfast of idlis, vadai, kesari and coffee. As lighting of the stove was not allowed inside the house until after the grihapravesam, we had made arrangements for another gas stove to be placed outside in the veranda/lobby for preparing coffee. The caterer had brought milk, cups, coffee decoction and sugar. This way we ensured that fresh and hot coffee could be served to the guests as when they arrived. To our satisfaction, we could give breakfast to our guests upto about 10.30am. This was essential as many of the guests were not familiar with the location and had to spend a little extra time searching/enquiring etc to locate the address. Being peak summer many were quite tired by the time they arrived. We had also arranged fresh lemon juice to be prepared and served to all. The caterer also had brought enough and more of the food items to be served for all the people.



Around 9 am the Vadhyar arrived with 4 other vadhyars and started the preparations for the pooja.



We were once again asked to enter the house with kumbham, vilakku, flowers, coconut, etc.
At 9.30am, punyaham and kshiraprasanam (the stove is lighted for the first time in the house and milk is boiled. This milk is offered to the God as neivedyam and is taken by the yajamana, his family and guests) were done, followed by Ganapathy Homam, Navagraha Homam and Vasthu Homam.

All the homams and pooja went quite satisfactorily and all the invitees attended the function.






By the time the homams were over, lunch had arrived. We had arranged with the same caterer we had arranged for the “Grihapravesham” of our house, we are living in now. The only difference being that then he had come and cooked at our premises and we had a buffet lunch with more invitees, this time around, he prepared the food and brought it and we had fewer invitees.

The lunch consisted of:

Kichadi
Pineapple Pachadi
Kootukari
Aviyal
Thoran
Puliinji
Mango pickle
Sambar
Rasam
Parippu vadai
Mysore pak
Chips
Pappadam
Curds

AND

Idichu Pizhinja Payasam

The reviews were soon in, “The lunch was grand!”