How a friends group supports festival crowds at the annual Panguni festival in Mylapore

Amidst a sea of devotees joining the Arubathimoovar procession in Mylapore are a bunch of volunteers making sure children are not lost

Mylai Mandaveli Friends Unit has added a fresh feather to its cap. On March 29 when the mada streets around Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore were teeming with devotees for the Arubathimoovar procession, these volunteers took a strategic position, stationing themselves in the compound of Indian Bank on North Mada Street. Their presence equalled safely. With a public address system, they were continually urging devotees to keep their children safe in crowded spaces. By the end of the day, they had helped reunite three children with their parents. And 25 others who are in their second children: they are seniors.

“Two boys, one girl and 25 senior citizens, some who have difficulty in walking,” 76-year-old Thambi K. Parthasarathy spells out the details. Parthasarathy is a core member of Mylai Mandaveli Friends Unit; his voice is hoarse from hours of shouting.

For more than a decade now, Mylai Mandaveli Friends Unit, established by Late M.G. Shankar, has made it a point to volunteer during the Arubathimoovar procession, the highlight of the Panguni festival, where thousands of devotees throng the streets. Annadhanam is the core activity carried out by this informal group of friends who live in and around Mylapore. While performing a raft of activities, the unit adds a service to it, ensuring children do not go missing in the crowds by asking parents to be vigilant and when children do go missing, it finds and reunites children with their parents.

 Mylai Mandaveli Friends Unit at North Mada Street in Mylapore. | Photo Credit: special arrangement

“It was T.C. Vijayan, former MLA and a member of the Unit, who suggested that we do this service during the Panguni festival as the crowds are huge, and the loudspeaker was set up at only one point then,” says Parthasarathy.

Mylai Mandaveli Friends Unit has close to 120 members, and a majority of them have moved to other parts of the city, but they make it in attendance during Panguni.