My project started off with my interest in the subject of Tamil faith and superstitions. At this point I started to visit some of the temple places in Tamil Nadu. Over the course of my visits and interactions with the people, I realised that my area of interest lies in the faith and penance patterns of one of the major sects of Tamil Nadu. This major community is the Thevar and Nadar communities. These people belong to the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar and Madurai, termed as the Thevar belt. Having arrived at my area of focus, I started speaking to people from the community and started attending the religious ceremonies that took place on specific days. My initial few visits to the ceremonies were merely to orient myself and experience the environment. The ice had to be broken, and a certain level of informality had to be developed with the people. In the later stages, I went and met some of the people at their residence and spoke to them. Slowly they began to open up to me. I could sense their initial reluctance, but they were also willing to try to have a conversation with me. During the course of the project, I visited around eight Mariamman temples located in Chennai and the outskirts of the city.