Dasaavatara koodum---hall.

I offered to renovate this hall in Vardarajar temple complex at Kanchipuram in the memory of my son four years back to the official ,whose estimate for the same was within my resources.He accepted it.

When I visited him the very next week , he coldly turned down my offer as coldly as the doctor on whom we had reposed so much faith , when confronted on a clearly avoidable tragedy, saying dismissively that it was an error of judgement and that such stray failures happen in a medical practitioner's life. An young and very precious life to us, snuffed out callously , a mere number ,an statistics in her career.

He cited a meeting that had been convened where donors were willing to pay the costs , six times the amount he had first stated , for its renovation.As it was beyond my means, I let it go.

Four years have elapsed . Yet the koodum--hall hasn't a single work done on it .Even the weeds haven't been plucked.I saw a horse tethered within then and I also saw a horse tied to a pillar now .Whether it is one and the same horse I have no idea,but this once sacred hall is presently still serving the same purpose viz a horse's stable.

ps.Before I could photograph the horse ,it was led away.I last saw it furiously feasting on the ,lush green lawns in the temple percinincts, planted and maintained by a devotee, in good faith.

Note:'Error of judgement' is a valid legal defence , a generous refuge , an umbrella of legal protection difficult to refute, even of those who negate it with their wanton negligence or rank commercialisation or even both,but invoke it with impunity..