My Parents

Guruvayur is the famous pilgrimage town in the southwest Indian state of Kerala. The presiding deity of the Guruvayur Temple is Maha Vishnu, worshipped in the form of his avatar, Krishna. While this town has been developed a lot, the yesteryears saw a series of houses on the left side of the temple while facing from the east nada (entrance from the east side). My grandfather Shakaranarayanan Iyer and my grandmother Kanakambal used to live in the first house next to the temple. For some time, they did not have any children and my grandmother had taken to a 41-day prayer in the temple asking for blessings from Lord Krishna, popularly known as Guruvayurappan. On 12 th  of March 1936, Kanakambal and Shankaranayanan were blessed with a baby boy whom they fondly called "Srikrishnan". He was given away to the temple in a ceremony called “Nadathal”. In this ceremony the child is offered to the temple and the parents walk away about 10 steps. If anyone picks up the child before ...