Lesson learnt

Today my aathukarar left for the holy journey to sabarimala. The pooja and irumudi samacharangal ellam took place at one of his ex-colleagues place, and this post is about the pooja and their family.
Their family is something which i started to envy right from the first meet. They have a very big extended family with all the family members present on the pooja occasions. And they are a typical tamil iyer family who give lots of importance to aacharam and anushtanam. Nevertheless those aacharams and anushtanams make them one among the crowd.
The ceremony started with sahasranama pooja and the normal pooja for the iyappan. Then the family members started to sing songs without any prompting. This includes the age group right from 5 - 80 . They didnt shy away in front of us , who are all the more strangers though ex-colleague. The range of songs they chose to sing were also different and not the standard ones being sung during the golu or other occasions. And lot more interesting was the fact that everybody knew their lines and it was not any kind of oppethify.
Then comes the central part of irumudi . Actually for people who have no idea about this - irumudi means the thengai and other neivedyams which are taken to be offered to iyappa kept in a bag with little quantity of rice . The speciality of this is the nei thengai. Havent heard of nei thengai being offered any where else (pls let me know if it is otherwise). And during this everyone used to sing the sarana goshams. And this family without any inhibitions actually enjoyed singing those sarana goshams . Not even singing , it was literal dancing. Except for the north indian families , i havent come across any tamil family who do really enjoy their poojas along with dancing and singing. It was such a treat to watch. All the grown ups literally enjoying themselves unmindful of the surroundings and surrendering themselves to the cause literally.
It might be annoying for few who are more cultured to see those ladies dancing and singing, but i learnt from them to truly enjoy the poojas ,whatever may be, which we perform at home. I just used to chant the slokas and would keep my kid occupied and finish it. But this gave me a insight on how things have to be done.
Even their interactions within themselves were truly eye-opening. It was such a delight to watch the MIL and the DIL both joining their hands in teasing the FIL. Apparam the DIL and the naathanar together started teasing the DIL's brother. No egos and ever smiling faces with no complaints. While taking their blessings i truly felt their genuineness.
Hope i try to be like them without any complaints, back-biting and vambu.