A resident of Coimbatore has constructed a temple for his deceased parents near Udumalpet in Tiruppur district and organised a festival there recently.
R.M. Ramesh Kumar, a resident of Puliakulam who runs a private civil construction firm in Coimbatore, told The Hindu on Thursday that the construction works for the temple at Deepalapatti village panchayat, near Udumalpet, were completed in 2019. The busts of his father N.R. Marimuthu and his mother Bakkiyam were sculpted at Thirumuruganpoondi and were installed in the temple, he said.
“I lost my father when I was 10 years old and my mother passed away when I was 20,” he said.
Marimuthu died in 1991, after which his mother raised her six children including himself and his five elder sisters till 2001 when she died, he recalled.
“Although one might have several ishta deivam (favourite deities), a kula deivam (family deity) is important. Hence, I decided to have my parents as my kula deivams, ” Mr. Ramesh Kumar said when asked the reason behind the construction of this temple.
A priest has been appointed to conduct rituals at the temple every day, he said.
No events were organised in the temple due to the COVID-19 pandemic for around two years since 2020, he said.
Festival
Following the relaxations in the restrictions, a temple festival was organised on December 19, complete with performances of karagattam and other rural art forms and concluded with annadhanam , Mr. Ramesh Kumar said.
On the media attention he has been receiving since the temple festival, he admitted that he was not keen to seek publicity regarding the temple for his parents.
“There is nothing surprising for someone to worship their parents. If it is a surprise, it means that most of us have failed in doing so,” he said.
