REGIONAL DIGEST—ATLANTA
Pillayar Nonbu 2011 From the view point of Divya Chidambaram
It is always an amazing experience to participate in Pillayar Nonbu celebration and follow our ancestors’ custom to thank Lord Ganesha. This year the celebration was hosted by Sampath Uncle, Malai auntie at their residence. As the Chettiars, achis, and kids in their festive outfits started to pour in, they were welcomed with the aroma of bhel puri. While families where arriving, preparations for elai where going on. This year we took 65 elais. Once people finished their appetizers, everyone started to settle down in the main hall.
There in the main hall was Lord Ganesha beautifully decorated with flowers, deepams, and even a focus light. Then one by one all the children and adults sang Pillayar songs. After the bhajans, aarathi began. Following aarathi my favorite part came, watching people chickening out
while trying to eat the elai with the fire. This year elais were handed out by Nagappan Uncle. While each family took the elai they introduced their family with their kovil and ooru.
After the pooja, everyone waited to eat the delicious dinner prepared by the aachis. There was a wide variety of traditional chettinad food. Dinner was a good time for friends to catch up on what each of them was up to.
After dinner, we had some interesting games organized by Raja uncle. The first one was called “Name that Song”. In this game, there were 3 teams: men, women, and children. The purpose of this game was to name and answer a couple of questions to a tune of a song. The next game was called commercial slogans. The objective of this game was to find the company name of each slogan written on a paper.
As it became late, families started leaving with a lovely goody-bag made by Malai auntie. A big thanks goes to the host Sampath uncle, Malai auntie, their daughter Devi akka, and our former regional secretary Peri Nagappan uncle.
Congratulations to our new regional secretary Natchiappan uncle and our Youth Activity coordinators, Subramaniyan M. Chetty & Devi Sampath.
NSNA and the NANAL Team
sincerely thank for sponsoring the postage of the NANAL March 2012 issues to the members living in the 48 contiguous states of the U.S.
Y U V A N A T Y A S A K T H I (YNS Foundation)
YNS is a non-profit venture that provides a platform for the youths to continue their passion for the art of Bharathanatyam and keeping our traditions alive.
Founders:
Ashwini Nagappan, Niveda Ponmudi and Sanjana Krishnakumar Email:
ynsorg@gmail.com Website:
www.yuvanatyasakthi.org
Volume 13, issue 1 29
thiagarajan natchiappan
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