First let me explain - 'The Barani Festival'. It is a rare local festival in India (Kerala -- Kodungalloore) held in a Temple, which is now a tourist spot. The deity of this temple is worshipped with vulgar & sexual song. It is based on a belief that the deity at the temple loves to hear its praises in vulgar language. The only one of its kind I think in the world and still existing. Officials are trying to stop this festival because there are reports of mass groping during the festival. The day of the Barani is like giving license to the drunkards and gropers.
During old times - the time when virgins were first given to landlord before marriage, the festival were celebrated by all including Men, Women & Children with ardent faith by singing the sexual and vulgar songs, but as the Modern era swept the world the festival turned out to 'just an old tradition'. The faith all lost and the festival turning out to just an old tradition saw its problems.
Foremost was the advent of 'Women Societies' development that demanded equal rights & freedom and doing all the things men do including their dressing. To the modern women this type of festival was barbarian and they began to avoid it. Though women folk began to avoid participating by singing they still were present in the temple during the festival time. The vulgar and sexual songs turned out to be embarrassing to the women folk especially when the men were drunk and singing with meaningful action towards them. With all the sexual songs & intoxication, grope was just a call away.
No one knows how and when the groping started. It is said that once when a girl came to the temple to call her father, a singer near her groped her. Everyone was drunk and the father was inebriated and the girl getting groped in between the hot song made the situation slapstick. That single laugh was like a license to all. Others too joined in for fun to grope the girl as she fled. In another version it is said the father groped his daughter and others joined in. Anyhow with all the sexual songs & intoxication, grope was just the next natural thing.
By late 70s women began to avoid it as slowly stories began to spread that only those who wanted a good grope would come. Still some would come to check the story or see the festival and they would get groped. The funny thing was that none of the groped girls got angry and they left smiling or teasing the men. This again gave the men a boost to grope; especially even if a woman complained of the grope the question to her would be 'Why did you go there?' So groping began to get accepted. It began to be known that during the festival if you groped a woman there would be no action even if a complaint were lodged. People made sure that girls of their families never went there during that day.
The song to the deity itself will make women blush.
The song is sung in Verses accompanied by the famous lines
'Thaan aro thanaro thana, Thaan aro thanaro' sung in chorus.
For example one of the Part converted to English is as follows:
"Thaan aro thanaro thana,
Thaan aro thanaro
When the Kodungalloore Goddess tried to open a coconut with a Para
The Para missed and entered the Goddess's pussy.
Hey! Thaan aro thanaro thana,
Thaan aro thanaro."
(Para is a spear like object yet not so pointed, used to remove the hard skin on the coconut. The para is fixed in the ground. This is one of the mild songs. Just think of the others.)
At the initial stage when the young girls were banned by their families from going to the festivals there were grumbling because most of the men did not mention the reason they did not want their daughter or sister or even wife around the temple during the festival. They simply forbade. Naturally this aroused a lot of curiosity in the teenage group and they went in-group to the temple area to see the forbidden festival. Some learnt the hard way but soon the stories spread and all the young girls knew the reason. As the groping grew beyond bounds in the 80's women avoided the Festival but still stood around in groups listening and watching. But soon the drunkards took the streets after the festival and groped the women. In 1990 the women abandon the streets on the festival day. Now there are complaints that after the festival some people go to the nearby houses and trouble the women, which is why the officials are thinking to ban the Festival. A festival which started out in faith turned to a grope festival and if not stopped now may turn into a rape festival.
My mom was one of the curious cats who went with her friends to see the festival at the beginning of the forbidding period. One of her classmate told me the story which I stat below.
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My mom was the unluckiest person I have ever known.