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To the priest who was officiating at the Moolankode Sri Karumba Bhagavathi Temple at Vadakkancheri, Palakkad, P.M.C.Menon asked thus: is there anything I should do?  Prompt came the reply from the person who had earlier performed Soma Yaga the previous year at Angadippuram: there are only a few persons alive, with credentials for performing athiratram yagam now.  Menon should help if and when this yagam is performed.  How much would it cost, Menon asked.  12 years ago, when the same was conducted, expenses came to 30 or 35 lakhs, replied the priest.

Menon agreed, with 2 conditions. One, the ritual must be conducted in his village, Moolankode.  And two, his contribution should be ascribed to anonymous sources.  

And so the yagam was celebrated in his native village, with people of different faiths joining together to make the 12-day event a success.  Says Menon: “Day and night, all worked without expecting any wages.  Bereft of political and religious bickerings, the unity of the villagers came to the fore.”

Perhaps it was just as well that the Chairman of Sobha Group of Bangalore, with projects for construction of lakhs of square feet of built-up area, decided to renovate the pond in the village which was on the verge of being reclaimed.  He had heard that many of the villagers had to trek 2 or 3 km to find a source of water for taking bath.  So Menon purchased it and desilted it, and gave it to the village as a perennial source of water.

Already he has started a training centre at the 12 acres of land he has purchased in the village.  He believes that the intrinsic worth of the youth of this village is equivalent to that of any other business school in the country.  And he dreams of bringing to the fore the human resource potential of the village.

Courtesy: Unni K.Warrier (text), Vibi Job (photo), Malayala Manorama, May 7, 2006
Contributed by: Administrator

"God sends cold after cloths."