Blessings for all at Ooty hospital temple

UDHAGAMANDALAM: The tiny ‘maha sakthi’ temple inside Fakeer Mohammed Sait’s Memorial Hospital has turned out to have a special attraction for pregnant women, thanks to the belief that the temple gives these women the power to deliver their children without excessive labour pangs.Arulmigu Sree Maha Muneeswarar Koil celebrated its twentieth annual festival on Sunday. Situated in the middle of Government Maternity Headquarters Hospital - popularly known as Sait Hospital, after Mohammed Sait who donated the building two and a half decades ago - the koil is perhaps the only one in the district where a woman performs puja.Although ostensibly a Hindu temple, it bears symbols of all religions in the sanctum sanctorum - a cross for Christians, Om Muruga for Hindus and a crescent moon and star for Muslims. The elderly woman priest M Kalliammal recalls, ”I continue to be happy that Maha Muneeswarar is showering blessings on women who come to Sait hospital to give birth. The government has improved facilities at this hospital in the larger interest of the poor.”  The hospital caters to the needs of the entire hill district. Many women with grown-up children come here to worship as they have delivered their babies at this hospital.