The auspicious day of the Nandi Mandapam concrete pour arrived and all the monks went out early to the temple site for the 5:30 am worship.

Here Bodhinatha takes some gems and gold pieces to put into a granite block to be placed in the northeast corner of the foundation.

Giant lights are in place for the work to begin before dawn at Iraivan.

Monks, silpis, sishya and Kawakami team gather…

Yoginathaswami performs Ganesha puja

Bodhinatha placing gems into a block of granite.

The block is placed in the northeast corner and everyone comes forward to offer their part by covering it with a small bit of concrete.

Craig Kawakami, the owner and general contractor on the job put his hand to the sacred stone as well.

Meanwhile our Mahendran family from Australia is also standing by to observe this morning’s events.

Mahendran from Perth. Originally from Sri Lanka.

Ragini Mahendran

Their son Murali

The sun has risen in the east; the boom pump truck is in place and the first load of concrete goes into the hopper.

And the pour begins! Craig Kawakami guides the boom, carefully placing concrete in a steady pattern cover the entire area, layer by layer. Here he starts in the auspicious Northeast corner.

You can get a great sense of this team’s professionalism and model teamwork from the following 4-minute video. Our video tale begins with the pre-dawn puja and then follows the first part of the cement pour, which as you will see begins in the dark so the team can get a head start on a long day. The rest of the day’s work will follow tomorrow on TAKA.

Over 50 cement trucks were required! The video is just a partial one, and there will be more of this historic milestone on TAKA tomorrow. Congratulations to Craig and his amazing staff. And to the specialists who taskled varied parts of the project: Pat Debusca, Plant Manager at Honsador/Glover, Richard Basulto and Bill who operated the power screed, Jesse and Mark Evans from Small Line Concrete Pumping, father-and-son who did all the pumping, and to our testing engineers. Thanks too for the veggie pizza, Kuuipo!

Meanwhile the finishing contractor arrives and sets up the automatic screed.

Time capsule container in place….

The block out for the future flag pole or “kodimaram”

That boom pump is amazing. it can reach across the entire area!

The Vimanam shining in the morning sun, before the heavy rains hit about 11am.

This truck is empty and is on his way back to the plant for more concrete.

Concrete pump operator.

Donuts and coffee anyone?

Deva Rajan standing by to help make sure everything goes well. So far all operations are in perfect order.

Nearly halfway now, two feet of concrete is in. Yoginathaswami chats with Craig. Months of planning and work by the Siddhidata Kulam come to fruition today.

More pictures tomorrow. As the morning continues, the rain arrived. Fortunately the pour was virtually complete and a little water on top of the slab was not a big problem.