My e-Diary

CWC 2011 - 'E' for "England" or "Extra ordinary"

2011-03-25T12:07:00.003+05:30

Well... My first blog of this year and I felt it's best to blog about the cricket world cup!!

First of all, yesterday was a great day for Indian cricket. We stopped the Australian juggernaut yet again!! We stopped their test winning streak, ODI winning streak and now knocked them out of the world cup. This blog is not about the famous victory, but about something else that I wanted to blog about for sometime now.

England - They are an extra ordinary team. They have beaten the Windies and the Pakis to get the unpredictables tag. What else could you say about the team that defeated South Africa bowling them out, batted well and deep to tie with India chasing a mammoth score, defeated the Windies in a crucial low scoring game. BUT - they almost lost to Netherlands and lost to Bangaldesh - a match that they had under control till Shafiul their No.9 came in - and to Ireland - who can forget that match - after scoring 330+ and having removed half the Irish side for less than 120, they did something that only extra ordinary teams are capable of doing!!!

Now, they have a QF match against Srilanka. Everybody expects SL to win, given that the match is in SL - but, who knows what's gonna happen. They have the prospect of playing against SA again (unless the Kiwis have other plans) and what's more - facing India (hmmmm.... errr ..... ufffhhh ... oops - or Pakistan) in the Finals. Given the way they have played, I won't mind betting on England emerging as champs :)

BTW, Wishing team India the best for their Semis at Mohali.... Go India Go!!!!!!!!

-Prakash

One for 2010

2010-12-31T09:37:00.000+05:30

Well, Well Well ...

Absent for a full year. I was skeptical when I was typing this as to whether my account in Blogger will still be alive !!! Fortunately, it is.

Writing this on the last day of 2010 - just to avoid a ZERO entry in one whole year. After all, 2010 is such an important year in my life. My status changed from commited to Married :) My friend once joked - "If you are a processor, wife is the application that takes up the maximum utilization". True. I din't even have the time to ............ blog :) - if I may give that as a reason. Bottomline - I was very lazy, though I had a lot to write about. I could have written about,

My engagement experience - courting a half baked smile because of being under the video light constantly and being the centre of attraction for the first time.

My wedding experience - Enjoying the last 2 days of bachelorhood (nothing that I did anything worthwhile when I was a bachelor!!). More video light - more attention - too much of sweat because of the April temperature at Oppiliyappan Temple.

My honeymoon experience - Wait Wait Wait ... - purely from a travelogue perspecctive :) :) The beauty of Manali, the skiing experience, River rafting at the Beas, the snow capped view from our resort and couple of days at Delhi.

Temples - Girivalam at Tiruvannamalai with wife :) Doddamallur NavaneethaKrishna Swami temple, Madhya Ranga and Adhi Ranga temples thereby completing my all Ranga temples visit (Antha Ranga is at Srirangam in Trichy), Nimishamba temple et all.

Cricket - Series wins and the no.1 ranking in test for India, Australia's slump, Sachin's 50th test ton, CSK's IPL and CL wins, spot fixing and what not. All the best to the Indian team for the 2011 WC.

Movies - like Guzarish and Inception - which made a mark.

Still, something made me not to write a blog this whole year. Whatever it is, it has taken a year for my 51st blog to come :)

Hope this year makes up for the drought last year - Wishing you all a GREAT 2011 ...

Cheers

Prakash

As ManiKantan to See ManiKantan

2009-12-23T09:27:00.003+05:30

Firstly, a great round of applause to me.... This is a special blog - My 50th .......... :) :) :). Thanks everyone for bearing with me !!

I made my third trip to Sabarimala starting Dec 8, 2009. Sabarimala trips are special because of the procedure involved. In addition to the 40 day fasting and the Irumudi, swamis (Ayyappa pilgrims) carry other specific stuffs too. As Kanni swami (First timer), one should carry a stick called "Saram" to be offered at a place called "Saramkuthi" as you go atop. The second year swamis will carry a sword made of wood to be offered at the same place. And in the third year, the swamis are called "Manikantan" (Mani = Bell, Kantam = Neck) meaning bell in the neck, as they take a small bell tied to their neck and offer it right at the Sannidhanam (Sanctum). This was special. This was my third trip and hence the title :). Btw, Lord Ayyappa is called ManiKantan as He was found on the banks of Pampa with a bell tied around his neck.

This time was a special experience for me, as we started early (at around 08:30) on Dec 8th. The lunch we had at Dindigul needs a special mention. Superb taste and service at Hotel Saravana Bhavan near the bus stand. We reached Erumeli at 20:00. Had Petta Sastha, Dharma Sastha and Vavuru Swami Darshan as usual and started to Pampa at 22:00. We reached Pampa around 23:30. Took a dip at Pampa in the midnight. Great experience!! Luckily, it was not very cold that time :). We started the ascent at 01:00 on Dec 9th. Reached the top to join a the tail of a 2 km Q :). It was a worthy 8 hr wait and at 09:30 we had the Darshan. Ayyappa, greeted us with His Ghee Abhishekam posture :). Felt happy and tied the bell in the Sannidhanam :) Legend has it that, anyone having this bell at home will get a baby boy. So normally people will snatch the bell even before it's tied. But luckily for me, one swami said he will wait till I tie and then he grabbed it and ran away :)
This time though, we did a lot of moral policing in the Q. We saw people with Irumudi on their head smoking, people running and jumping the Q et all. I think, Sabarimala pilgrimage is all about control and patience. If someone lacks any of these virtues, they are better of not undergoing this rather than spoiling the sanctity of this Holy thing. Well, my personal opinion!!

We had two more darshans of Ayyappa and one of the Malikapuram and started the descent. I had a severe cold and the cetrizine I had in the morning compunded with lack of sleep the whole of previous night made be very drowsy and it was extremely difficult to climb down. In addition to this, the sun was shining bright (no doubt, it will at 13:00 :)) and hence it was hot. It was Ayyappa, who helped me climb down as always :) Well, as said during our moral policing act, we even shouted at some instances and perhaps Ayyappa thought we needed a lesson on patience :) We climbed down safely by 15:00 of course after having our regular Kappa Kanji :)

Of we went to Pattanamthitta, where we took bath in a river around 17:00. Great refreshment and then we reached Kulathupuzha around 20:15 and the darshan was closed for the day. We stayed in the temple mantapam for the second consecutive year :) Had a great sleep.
The opening of the sanctum woke us up at 04:30 on Dec 10th. Had darshan of Kulathupuzha Balakan at 06:00. Of to Ariyankavu and AchanKovil and reached Kuttralam at 12:00. With little funda from Anand and Prasad had the time of my life in a water fall. Went to the 5 falls and it was JUST GREAT. We even had a massage with hibiscus oil and bathed. Of course, all of us got sc***ed with severe cold after that!! Of to Palani to see my favourite God, Subramanya. Special winch and special darshan ticket hepled us to have darshan of the special God in less than an hour :). We left Palani at 21:00 and reached Hosur on Dec 11, 04:30. Swamiye Sharanam Ayyappa!!

This trip is special for one more reason too. After I came back, I went to Trichy and on Dec 20, 2009 - Sunday - something memorable happened which most of you would know :D. Well, I need to change my relationship status to "committed" from "single" in many places!!!
Cheers!!

Tigers' gift to wounded Kangaroos!!

2009-11-12T10:18:00.005+05:30

Well, the Indian cricket team has just authored one of the future best selling classics - "How to consistently loose from winning positions - a practical illustration". I am talking about the recently concluded India - Australia series as most of you would have rightly guessed. At the beginning of the series, I thought India would win the series 5-2. Great that the score line read close to that (the last match was washed out and hence it was 2 - 4), but pity that the Aussies came out on top.

The first match at Vadodara was one of the finest cricket matches. With India chasing 290+ with 7 wickets down for 210, Bhajji and Praveen took us close to the victory. When it was 42 required of 3 overs with 3 wickets in hand, every one felt it's gonna be tough. But when they brought it down to 9 required of the last over (with 3 wkts in hand!!), I think Bhajji should have tried for singles and twos (eventually a boundary would have come!!). But, no regrets, great job done and great mettle shown. The Indian team used this momentum well to move 2-1 ahead in the series (Thanks to that 148 run partnership between Dhoni and Yuvraj). That time I thought, it's gonna be 6-1 India!!

Came the 4th ODI at Mohali - it was great bowling to have bundled the Aussies in 48 overs for 250. Confidence can do wonders but over confidence will do what it did to us!! Coming out of a successful chase in the previos match, with many of the batsmen in good form and Sehwag showing his pyrotechniques to race to 50 in 6 overs, all it required was normal, responsible batting to see us through. It was not to be!!

The 5th ODI at Hyderabad was the biggest blooper of all. No one would have expected the team to chase 350. Had India lost by a margin of 100 runs (like the Aussies did in the 2nd encounter), there wouldn't have been much talk. But having reached within striking distance, with 50 runs required in 40 odd balls and batting powerplay still to be taken, Raina played a skier!! Why was Bhajji sent ahead of Jadeja? When 19 runs were required in 18 balls, why did Sachin have to try that shot? His mere presence would have sent chills in Aussie spines and we would have cruised through!! And as the icing in the cake, Jadeja just ran himself out :( As Sunny put it, "Jadeja runs for no rhyme or reason!!" :). The pitch was just a concrete strip (!!) and you just needed wickets (warm bodies!!) to score runs. Again, it was not to be!!

The Guwahati (mis)match needs no mention!!

Sure, we fought in all the games till the end. It was a great show by our team, but we fought when we needn't have :). With Aussies missing some of their key players, this was one of the better chances to have pulled off a convincing series win. But we lost it 2-4 :( Indians definitely were superior players on paper (man to man), but we couldn't finish close games and that has hurt us YET AGAIN!!

Hope we would improve on that aspect and reach and sustain the mush coveted No.1 ranking!!!
All the best to the team for the upcoming SL series.
Cheers!!

Thirupattur Temple Visit

2009-10-27T12:12:00.008+05:30

I came to know of this temple on Oct 19 and visited this temple on Oct 20, 2009!!!

Thirupattur (or Thirupidavur) is around 35 km from Trichy (a 6 km detour from the Trichy - Madras highway close to Siruganur) and 16 km from Samayapuram (Mariamman temple). The presiding deity here is Lord Shiva in the name of Brahmapureeswarar. As the name goes, the temple has an association with Lord Brahma too!!

Legend goes that a bit of arrogance crept into Lord Brahma's (the creator - in the holy Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) head. Lord Shiva wanted to teach Him a lesson and hence, He cut one of Lord Brahma's heads and cursed Him to wander in the Bhoolokha (or Earth). Lord Brahma, got relieved of His curse here (at Thirupattoor) by installing 12 Shiva Lingas and worshipping Lord Shiva. Because of too much wandering, Lord Brahma had lost his complexion and good appearance and Goddess Parvathi blessed Him here to relieve Him off His pains too. So the Shiva here is called Brahmapureeswarar and the Goddess is called Brahma Sampath Gowri (The one who gave Brahma's wealth back) or simply BrahmaNayagi.

There is a separate shrine of Lord Brahma (really majestic of about 6 ft by 5 ft) sitting in Padmasana, with Vedas, Rudraksha and Lotus in His hands. The Brahma here can change one's destiny if the requests of the devotee are genuine!!! The popular pooja here is the turmeric Abhishekam that happens in the noon (we couldn't see it this time), when He will look His majestic best.
One more speciality in this temple is the presence of "Jeeva Samathi" of Sri Pathanjali (the one who authored Yoga Suthram).

There are shrines for Dakhshinamoorthy, Karpaga Vinayagar, Shanmukha nathar, Goddess Durga and Chandikeshwarar. There is a separate shrine for Goddess BrahmaNayagi.

A separate Brindhavana (with a pond) hosts many of the 12 Shiva Lingas that Brahma had installed. The Lingas that Brahma had installed are 1. Pazhamalai nathar 2. Pathala Lingam 3. Thayumanavar 4. Ekambareswarar 5. Kalathinathar 6. Arunachaleswarar 7. Jambukeswarar 8. Mandooka nathar 9. Kailasa nathar. 10. 11. 12.

I forgot the remaining three :(. Sorry about the same. I will update it when I remember it or after I visit the temple next time.

There is another thing to be noted about this temple. The sanctum sanctorum (of Brahmapureeswarar) is around 100 m (300 ft) from the main entrance and there are 6 more entrances between and yet the sanctum is filled with natural light and the main deity can be seen clearly from the main entrance. Also, sunlight falls directly on the deity three days in a year!!

Definitely a must visit temple. I wish I can visit this temple every time I visit Samayapuram (which I do often :))

Cheers!!

Bhramaram - Movie Review

2009-08-26T14:44:00.001+05:30

I watched the Malayalam movie called "Bhramaram" on Monday. Well, some how the term "Malayalam movie" gets associated only with one class of movies :D. I do not know what got such a reputation to an otherwise quality industry. Malayalam industry (and Bengali), easily would have produced the most number classics and quality movies in Indian cinema (If someone wants to dispute this, please do so with facts!!).

This incidentally happens to be the first Malayalam movie that I watched in a theatre (though I 've watched many otherwise) and I'm really happy that I watched this one.

The movie is about how an incident in the childhood of some one, distorts and causes irreparable damage to his life. The movie opens in a light environment without giving any clue of what is to follow. The hero (played by Mohan Lal), portrays his lighter side. The first half more or less continues in the same tone except for towards the fag end. The initial part of the second half has the hero showing glimpses of what he is really and the well written script leads up to a stunning climax leaving you with a heavy heart!! I do not want to reveal anything more and make you suffer the way I did by knowing the entire story before hand. It is the screenplay and the climax along with Mohan Lal that keeps you hooked to the seat in an otherwise plain film without much of entertainment and commercial elements!!

Mohan Lal has carried the movie on his shoulders, literally. As one can see, EVERY SHOT ends up in his face, which throws the most suited expression for that scene. He is really a gifted actor and to me he is the second best actor in India (Kamal Hasan, slightly ahead of him!!) :).

In addition to all these, special mention is required for the music director - Mohan Sithara. Not for the songs (there are only 2 or 1.5 perhaps!) but for the background score, which turns out to be one of the movie's biggest plus. The child who comes as the hero's friend's kid has also done well.

Bhramaram is recommended for those who like good cinema. It's definitely not for those who look at movies just as an entertainment. You will definitely have the satisfaction of having watched a nice movie.
Cheers!!

T. Narasipur, Venugopalaswami Betta and Nanjangud Trip - II

2009-08-18T16:11:00.003+05:30

This is the continuation of my previous blog ...

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous blog is the presence of Yoga Dakshinamoorthy shrines in all the temples - Dakhinamoorthy in a Yogic pose with Veena in His hand!!

Venugopalaswami Betta:
Well, we left T. Narsipur for Himavadu Venugopalaswamy Betta. "Betta" in Kannada refers to peak. Rightly so, the Venugopala swamy temple is atop the tallest peak in the Bandipur region and that is where we went. The ascending ride was scenic and as we reached the top it was fully misty and the visiblity was less than 10 m! We couldn't see the temple till we were around few metres close to the temple !! Lord Venugopala Swamy was as Majestic as ever - With flute in His hand, cow behind and Gopikas around Him. This idol was also installed by Sage Agasthya. One more salient thing about this shrine is that, at the entrance of the sanctum, there will always be mist (round the year) and the same is sprayed on the devotees as prasadham. Also, there are 77 chakra theerthas around this forest, each having medicinal and divine properties. We learned from a local source that one can cover around 6 teerthas in a day with the help of a guide. There was one such theertha in which a crow took a dip and flew out as a swan and hence there are NO CROWS around this region. We were blessed with a nice sweet and puliogere as prasadham - which was nectar compared to the "sweet" lunch we had on the way :)
Just before the ghat road starts, there is a check post to see whether people are carrying things to make this a jolly good hill station trip (hope you understand)!! Please bear in mind that this is not. This temple is one of the MUST VISITS :)

Nanjangud:

We shivered back (!!) to our car from the temple!! :) We descended down the hill treating our eyes to some nice greenery, valleys, rainbows :), banyan tree and sun flower gardens (stunningly beautiful, as though the field had covered itself with a yellow blanket to keep itself warm!). Nanjangud - meaning, "the adobe of Nanjundeshwara" - is on the Bandipur - Mysore highway, 30 km fom Mysore. Massive temple and an architectural marvel. Nanjundeshwara - The Lord who ate poison - is the Lord who swallowed the poison that came out when Devas and Asuras were churning the milk ocean for nectar. The Shiva linga here is broader than usual. The Amman was looking beautiful as always. There is a massive Nandikeshwara idol too. The Shiva here relieves devotees off all their illness.
On the way back, in Mysore, we also visited a Srinivasa temple (near Datta peetam). The idols (of Srinivasa and Padmavathy) had a striking resemblance to the ones in Tirupathi. We spent some time there and started off to Bangalore.
Again, very happy to have completed a trip that comprised of so many temples that I was visiting for the first time. Planning a similar Mysore and nearby temples trip again. Wish that it gets materialized SOON!!!!!
Cheers!!

T. Narasipur, Venugopalaswami Betta and Nanjangud Trip - I

2009-08-04T14:10:00.006+05:30

Last saturday, which incidentally was an Ekadasi we (6) made a trip to temples around Mysore. Well, we started as early as 5:15 in the morning!!

T. Narasipur:
'T' stands for Tirumakudalu, refering to the confluence of 3 rivers - Kaveri, Kapila and Spatika (hidden river like Saraswathi in the Triveni Sangamam). This is the place where Kumbha Mela happens once in 3 years. Needless to say, the place is divine :) We took a holy dip here.

Pancha Lingam:
The main attraction in this place is the "Pancha Lingam" (5 lingams) consecrated by Sage Agasthya.
There is an interesting legend behind this. Sage Agasthya felt that this place was Dakshina Kasi (Kasi of the South) and wanted to install a Shiva Lingam here near the holy confluence. So he asked Lord Hanuman to fetch a Lingam from Kasi (Varanasi) itself. When Hanuman din't come before the end of auspicious time, Agasthya himself made a Lingam from the local earth and consecrated it. When Hanuman came back and saw that the Lingam was installed, He, out of anger, hit the Lingam hence deforming it. From the deformed portion the mythical river Spatika came out (considered to be as sacred as Ganga). Even now, water comes out from the Lingam on top and the same is provided as Theertham / prasadham for devotees. (We got the same!!). This Lingam is called Agasthyeshwara. The temple has Someshwara and Markandeshwara also inside. The Lingam brought by Hanuman was installed outside (1 minute walk from the temple) and is called Hanumantheshwara. The fifth Lingam is around 2 km from the Agasthyeshwara temple and is called Gargeshwara. One will be welcomed by a gigantic idol of "Arthanareeswara" at the temple entrance. One more interesting thing here is that there is a Ganesha shrine, where the devotees can pray and lift the idol (small one). If one is able to lift the idol, then his/her wish will come true. Believe me, there is nothing associated with the strength of the individual. We were able to see people who were unable to lift the idol!!!

Madhwa mutt:
Just on the banks of the river, very close to the Agasthyeshwara temple, there is a mutt containing the Brindavana of Sri Sri Raghunatha Teertha who came in the lineage of Sri Sri Madhwacharya Himself. Sri Vyasaraja started writing the "Tatparya Chandrika" but couldn't finish it in His lifetime. When asked, He said, He will incarnate as the 10th Guru (as Raghunatha Teertha) in His lineage and finish the same. In addition to the Brindhavanas, there are 108 Anjaneya idols with Sri Panduranga and Chakram (similar to the one in Nava Brindhavana). It was an awesome sight!! Legend says that 108 of the Vanara sena that accompanies Sri Rama, were direct incarnation of the Devas and these 108 Anjaneya idols symbolise those 108 Devas!! There is also a HUGE number of Nagaraja idols outside!! We went round it, with a little fear :)

Gunja Narasimha Swamy temple:

This Narasimha swamy temple is on the other bank of the river (Kaveri or Kapila). When we went, bridge repair work was going on and hence we had to walk across the bridge and take an auto to the temple. The legend behind this temple is - Lord Narasimha came in the dream of a washerman and said that there is a idol of Himself along with gold coins under the stone where he washes clothes daily and asked him to build a temple. He also told that by building the temple, the washerman will get slightly (as much as a seed) more virtue than he would have got by visiting Kasi - and hence the name Gunja Narasimha.
Believe me, these places are really GREAT!! Do plan a visit somtime. Just awestruck at seeing how many temples have Sage Agasthya's mark in South India.

The remaining temples will be covered in part II of this blog.

Cheers!!

Ahobilam trip II

2009-06-11T09:14:00.005+05:30

... Contd from the previous blog
Karancha Narasimha:

"Karancha" refers to a tree ("punga maram" in Tamil). Legend says that, Hanuman was performing penance here towards SriRama, when Lord Narasimha appeared before Him. Startled, Hanuman asked for SriRama for which Narasimha replied that this is his Kshetram and that He was Rama, Narasimha et all. The Narasimha here holds a bow in one of his hands (like Rama) to illustrate this. This shrine is just on the roadside on the way between lower to upper Ahobilam and can be accessed by vehicle. The Narasimha here rules Chandra (or Moon).

The following three temples are in Lower Ahobilam and can be covered in 1.5 hours by auto.
Chatravata Narasimha:

"Chatra" means umbrella and "vata" refers to banyan tree - The Narasimha here gave darshan o Bhardwaja Maharishi under a banyan tree and hence the name. The speciality here is that the Narasimha is a music lover (Sangeetha priyan) and He keeps one of His hands on His lap in the gesture of peforming "Adi Taala". He wxpects His devotees to sing here :). The Narasimha here rules Kedhu.

Yogananda Narasimha:

After killing demon Hiranya, Narasimha did Yoga abhyasam (practise) to Prahladha in this place. The idol will be in the form of Narasimma meditating in Padmasana. The Narasimha here rules Shani (or Saturn).

Bhargava Narasimha:

Bhargava refers to Lord Parasu Rama. Legend has it that Lord Narasimma gave darshan to Lord ParasuRama here. One has to take a detour from the main road into a forest (2.5 km drive) to reach this temple. The temple is on a hill of about 100 steps. It is better to visit this place before evening as this place is infested with bears :) (The guide told us after we came back to the main road :D). The Narasimma here rules Surya (or Sun).

Prahladha Varadhan temple:

This is not part of the 9 Narasimma shrines. This temple is located just few metres away from the mutt near the bus stop. This is one of the 108 Divya Desams of Lord Vishnu. The presiding deity here is Lakshmi Narasimma with shrines for Lakshmi, Andal and Rama.
We had completed all the above temples / shrines on the first day with only the 9th of the Nava Narasimma left to cover.

Pavana Narasimma:

This is the 9th Narasimma. "Pavana" means one who "removes all sins". The Lakshmi Narasimma murthy here does exactly the same. To reach here, there are multiple options. (a) Reach upper Ahobilam, and from there climb 1000 steps and walk 6 km. through a dense forest; (b) Take an auto from Lower Ahobilam, travel around 10 km into a forest (bad road) and walk 3 km. in dense forest (Rs. 650 - to and fro) (c) Take a jeep from Lower Ahobilam and travel 15 km to reach very close to the temple (Rs. 1500 - to and fro). We chose option (b). The ride in auto was bumpy and the walk was through real forest - through water bodies, rocks, bushes. We even saw snakes and langur monkeys. There were lot of insects on the ground. Devotees are allowed only during the day time. The Narasimma here rules Budha (or Mercury).

End of a memorable trip. Lot of travelling, rock climbing, mountaineering, trekking, forest walk and what not and of course great darshans everywhere we went :) We had not booked for the return and hence had to break - Ahobilam > Allagadda > Kadappa > Madanapalli > Bangalore.

Some tips for potential travellers:

1. Book tickets to and from Allagadda. This is the nearest and best place to reach Ahobilam.

2. If not phiysically fit or have vertigo etc. better to avoid Ugra sthambam and take a jeep to Pavana Narasimma.

3. Have enough water bottles (glucose etc.) as water will not be available in all the places.

4. Avoid peak summer - It was 44 degrees when we were there.

5. Get accomodation in mutt. There are not many hotels around even for food :)

6. DO NOT miss Prahladha Varadhan temple.

7. Engage a guide else it will be very difficult and risky.
Om Namo Narayanaya!!

Ahobilam trip I

2009-06-03T20:42:00.007+05:30

Ahobilam, located in the Nallamala forest range in AP, is the avadhara kshetram (place of incarnation) of Lord Narasimha. We (I, Vikram and Anand) went there last weekend. We took a Nandhyala bus from BLR (20:00) and alighted at Kovelu Kuntla (05:45) and reached Ahobilam via Allagadda at 08:00. Allagadda is the nearest place to Ahobilam (22 km). We had booked accomodation the mutt and we were ready by 08:30.
There are Nava Narasimha shrines (9 Narasimha shrines - each ruling one of the 9 planets), Prahladha Varadhan temple and Ugra sthambham to see in Ahobilam and the remaining part of the blog gives the details :)

Ahobila Narasimha:

"Aho" means exclamation or surprise and "bilam" means cave, in sanskrit - Narasimha gave a surprise darshan to Prahladha in a cave and hence the name. This temple is located at the entrance of upper Ahobilam (8 km from lower Ahobilam) and is accesible by vehicle. The Narasimha here rules Guru (or Jupiter).

Varaha Narasimha:

"Varaha" is the sanskrit word for wild boar. Narasimha, in this form killed the demon Hiranyaaksha (brother of Hiranyakashipu). This is a small shrine roughly 3 km from the Ahobila Narasimha temple. One has to walk this distance through river bed and rocks. This Narasimha rules the planet Raghu.

Jwala Narasimha:

This is the ugra (angry) form of Narasimha who kills Hiranyakashipu to save Prahladha. The Narasimha has 8 hands - Shanka and Chakra in 2, holding Hiranya's head and legs with 2, piercing his stomach with 2 and holding Hiranya's intestine as a garland with the other 2 hands. The Narasimha here sits on Garuda peetam and has Prahladha praying near his feet. There are idols of Narasimha and Hiranya fighting with each other. This shrine under a rock is again a 3 to 4 km walk up the hill from Varaha shrine. One has to pass through the forest / hill (through steps and rocks), across the falling river (Pavanashini) to reach the shrine. This Narasimha rules Angarakha (Mars).
There is a small water body called Ratha kundam - where Narsimha washed the blood off his hand after killing Hiranya.

Ugra Sthambham:

As the name suggests, this is a Sthambham or a pillar - The very pillar from which Lord Narasimha came out in the Kritha Yuga to kill Hiranya and save Prahladha. The route is a steep 2.5 km stretch to be climbed through small / big rocks and tree roots. Very risky route but I saw a 75 year old lady climbing up and down - that's devotion for you!! :) I, in fact, din't get down the last steep stretch (around 2 metres) - firstly, out of fear :D and also because I was able to clearly get the darshan from where I stood :). Climbing down was great fun and we uttered so many prayers and slokhas, which we din't even realize we knew :) One can skip this part if not physically very fit - but devotion can do miracles :)

Malola Narasimha:

"Ma" refers to Mahalakshmi, "lola" means priyan or one who is liked - Malola stands for "liked by Mahalakshmi" - Lakshmi Narasimha shrine, about 4 km from Jwala / Ugra sthambam start - one has to tread back the route from Jwala till a bridge and go to the other side of the bridge and climb through a stretch of 250 steps and plain land and reach this shrine. The Narasimha here rules Shukra (or Venus).
After Malola Narasimha darshan, one has to climb down 3 km again through a stretch of 250 steps and plains to reach the Ahobila Narasimha temple as the other temples / shrines are in different routes.
Please join me for the remaining 5 Narasimhas and the temple visit in the next blog :)

Veerasami - Entertainment to the core!!

2009-05-28T09:58:00.003+05:30

People say "Lightning doesn't strike twice". But it has struck Tamil cinema many times in the form of the man they call TR and in his most ***** (I'm lost for adjectives :( ) film - Veerasamy (VS, henceforth) - Yeah, it was there on K TV yesterday and I and Anand watched it AGAIN. As with the tradition I got calls from the die hard VS fans - RP and Sriram - on this movie getting relayed - Thanks guys!!

Go through this Wiki entry on VS - MUST READ.

This movie was released in 2007. At the time when Tamil people are going through the pain of Chimbhu (TR's son) acting as hero in movies, TR just UNLEASHED himself on the audience through this blockbuster!! I saw it once and then again and then again and then - the count is now 11 and it WILL increase :)
Well, I'm not going to waste time in telling the story - there's none!! And it's not the story (!!) which makes VS what it is, but there are certain other things, which I would like to touch upon. TR plays the title role, he is a) an MLA (THE IDEAL one), b) a lawyer, c) a brother, d) a lover, e) a saviour and f) a dier (??).

a) & b):

This part of VS occupies the screen predominantly. The introduction of VS is just superb!! Not even Rajinikanth or alikes would have had such a sequence. I heard that Daniel Craig (007) is contemplating flicking this scene in his next movie (of course paying heavy royalty to TR). VS will be inside a building fighting the villain gang and suddenly he walks out with 5 fighters "exploding" out of the roof in 5 different directions at the backdrop. Breathtaking!! You should not fail to listen to the BGM. There are many scenes where VS fights against corruption in different government offices. The scenes deserve an acamdey award for lack of maturity and the length of irrelevant alliterating dialogues!! In fact, you can bear a corrupt India rather than these scenes :)
c)VS as a brother

I'm already crying. You also should, not because of the weight of the sentiment but for the plight of the sister! I would have been serving a 14 year term in jail for murder if I had a brother like that!! Or perhaps, I would have been let off considering it to be murder for self defence :) Though there are many scenes, the first one, when the sister asks for jeans and VS' explanation on why she should be wearing only sarees and salwars, gets the first position. I was surprised the sister din't run on the road naked after listening to VS :) There are many more after the sister falls in love and VS expresses his confidence, his shock, his surprise, his affection et all.

d)VS as a lover

The best. Love is blind - True. I just LOVE VS' romantic expressions. Mumtaz, who plays the heroine has also given an equally enviable (!!) performance. It's just a great pair - VS is around 5'4", 95 kgs and Mumtaz is 5'2", 105 kgs and they both dance in the GREATEST duet of the millenium. There are other songs when VS turns a poet - wind blows, rain falls and what not. And in the scene when VS parts his love your hearts get heavier than VS himself. The song after that when VS thinks of his erstwhile love just pushes you to the grave...

e)Saviour

There are two fights which are noteworthy after the introduction. One when he jumps from the roof wearing a red track suit (sleeveless) - you get a feeling that there are two legs emanating from the shoulder!! The villain is the most unlucky soul - he had to listen to TR's dialog (by when he would have been completely drained) and also receive his power packed punches and kicks!! The climax fight is the best - when VS dances on the road with his dhoti on one hand and a sword
on the other - absolutely awesome!! You just exclaim - "He is GOD"!!

He dies in the end. The only death sequence in the history of world cinema, when the entire audience would have burst out laughing. His head falls with a BGM of "TING!!", the moment he knows he has not kept his word. Mumtaz also dies. End of it. The audience wouldn't have realized that they had lost 3 precious hours of their life.

I have tried to capture the VS magic to the best of my ability. I apologize to the fans if I had missed / slipped any scenes. Please do add those in the comments section.
I am busy checking for the DVD (it's worth to own one) and the red jersey of VS. Btw, I would recommend IIMs to make their students watch this movie as part of the anger management and patience development courses.
Bye!!

IPL 2 - Goods and Bads

2009-05-25T10:09:00.002+05:30

I had written too many temple blogs recently :). I hope I will continue to write too!! But, for a change this time, here are my views and and a quick recap of IPL 2.

This edition started with a huge drama. When there were questions raised - election or IPL, the answer was obvious - though both have many things in common viz both are team "games", players who represented one team played for someother team (politicians switiching parties and parties switching alliances), star attraction (actors / actresses roped in by parties as well as teams), stars owning parties and teams, cheer leaders (in elections, we, the people and party workers do this job, dancing and celebrating without reasons :)) and above all the GREATEST similarity is the amount of money involved :) - and the IPL was moved to SA. I felt weird when the Indian PL is being played in SA!! But the voter turnout (sorry, audience turnout) was on similar lines and the whole event was a success!! Congrats to BCCI and Modi :)Now, my team (CSK) started rather sluggishly and picked up towards the middle and later part of the tournament and as expected, reached the knockout stage. I was happy that my list of teams reached the semis - CSK, RCB, DC and DD. After this it was anybody's game and DC won in the end. The script couldn't have ended better - Two teams that finished 7th and 8th in the last edition just reversed and played the finals. I was happy for the consistency of DD and CSK reaching the last 4 stage in both the editions!!
But I strongly feel that the knockout stage is the real spoiler in any tournament - not because we lost - but I have my reasons. In the last edition, RR were deserving winners - they showed consistency in the league stage and were literally unbeatable. But KXP was not far behind with as many as 10 wins. But who played the finals with RR? CSK!! (my team :)). In this edition, DD showed real consistency and were table toppers. They had 8 wins out of 10 matches and were playing the remaining 4 games just for the heck of it. When it came to semis, Gilli had a great day, just ra**d everyone and won the game. Ironically, unlike Bangalore, DC din't even earn their semis berth. They were in because KXP lost to CSK in their last game and KKR spoilt RR's party. Somehow RCB deserved a vistory because they were consistent towards the later part of the tournament at least and they defeated real top teams (including DC!!) on their way to the semis. DC on the other hand were totally inconsistent, winning 4 / 4 to start with and then 3 / 10 towards the end (this is poor!!). DC have one less win than DD, having played one more game (the finals)!!! This is ridiculous :( DD - 10 wins / 15 matches and DC 9 wins / 16 matches)

The point I'm trying to drive is, that this kind of a knockout pattern just makes a mockery of the entire league phase. Ideally, at the end of the 14 matches have a best of three finals between the top two teams to reward consistency. Or if there were four teams selected, have a Super 4 kind of concept where teams carry forward points based on their win / loss record against the remaining three qualified teams and then play each other once more. Then decide the finalists!! This would help the tournament and also in generating more revenue :) Otherwise, the champs will be decided based on just one bad day that a good team may have like it happened this time!!

I don't have any grudge against DC but just that I felt something was wrong and hence the post.. End of the day cricket is a sport (a funny game) and anything can happen any day and more so with the T20 format.

DC - Congrats!! RCB - Well played!!

DD - Really Sorry!! MI - Try to win!!

RR - Lightning doesn't strike twice!!

KKR, KXP - Thumbs down!! (I just don't like these teams :()

CSK - My heart is with you!! Well played and you will be the champs in the next edition :) :) :)

All the best to the Indian T20 team... Let's keep the cup :) :)

PS: All you need to win the IPL is to make a 37 year old, retired Aussie player to captain your side!! Just thinking :)

Cheers!!

Kanipakkam and Tiruttani trip

2009-05-22T13:52:00.004+05:30

Yahoooooooo!!!! I completed all the 6 adobes of Lord Muruga ("Aru padai Veedu")!!! It happened on May 16, 2009 - saturday.

Great things are spawned out of no where and this was no exception. As Vikram casually suggested on Tuesday (May 12) that we can visit Kanipakkam this weekend, I felt a great and immediate urge to join him and what more, also got the plan of going to Tiruttani!! So we planned and executed the following trip :)

Kanipakkam:

We started from Banaglore to Chittoor on friday night. The bus was at 23:30, not a great one though!! Never mind, it took us safely to Chittoor at 04:20 on Saturday. Kanipakkam is around 15 km from Chittoor and by 05:30 we were in Kanipakkam. As it was election counting day, there were lot of politicians and party vehicles around. Well, who would not want to worship "VaraSiddhi Vinayaka" (Ganesha who grants boons) on such an important day. Yeah, the main deity there is Ganesha!! Legend says that this was a Swayambhu (born by itself) and the idol here grows horizontally (by breadth) every year!! Ganesha was looking very cute though. We were lucky enough to get 3 darhans as it was not crowded at all. There was a shrine for Hanuman too. Two bachelors together - guys better be careful at least inside if you go :D. One more info about this temple is, there was a practice till few years back that criminals were brought here and made to take a dip in the tank and also worship the lord and they will confess to their crimes immediately after the dip as the Ganesha here is a saviour of Dharma!!
We came out of the temple and had a not so great breakfast. I got to eat white rubber balls for the first time in my life. Btw, the hotel had named them as idlies :D

Tiruttani:

We were back to Chittoor by 10:00. The bus to Tiruttani was from a separate depot. There were many private Tamil Nadu buses from that depot and we got one immediately. It was a two hour journey via Porunai, Sholinghur. We reached by 12:15 and to our luck it was not hot at all. Incidentally, the previous day Tiruttani had logged the maximum temperature in TN (42 deg C)!!We took a room near the foothills. The lunch was great and we ate like pigs (I am sorry about that but we really did :)) and slept like logs for 3 hours. At 16:30, we started climbing Tanikachalam (that's what the hill is called). There are 365 steps and on every new years' day the steps will be worshipped (for the next 365 days to be good :)). We climbed in around 20 minutes as the steps were broad and the weather was also fine.
We took three darshans - two free and one in 25 Rs ticket. GREAT!! Subramanya was dressed in red silk the first two times and in white silk the third time. There were shrines of Valli and Devasena on His either side. This is the place where Subramanya got married to Valli. The Utsava murthy was Shanmuga (six faced Lord) and there was a Abath Sahaya Vinayagar (Ganesha who saves you from danger) shrine along with shrines of Shiva and Durga. We spent around 3 hrs on the hill and got to see the sun set ;). I also got a peacock feather - I wanted it for around 20 years and somehow I couldn't / din't buy it !! Everything has a time ; As we climbed down, I saw the last 3 overs of CSK Vs MI match which CSK won by 7 wkts :) Had dinner and a great sleep after watching DC Vs KKR game which DC won.
We climbed again the next day morning at 7:30 and got a darshan of Subramanya with golden armour. Very satisfied as we got to spend nearly 20 min in the shrine :) :). We came down by 9 and left Tiruttani for Tirupathi at 10:00.

Govindaraja swamy temple:

Tiruttani - Tirupathi was again a 2 hr journey via Nagari, Puthur. We reached by 12:00 and our bus to Bangalore was at 14:00. As we stepped out of the bus stand to just have lunch and leave, an auto wala told that there is not much crowd and we can have a darshan in Govindaraja swamy temple. So off we went, unable to leave Tirupathi without seeing Him :) There was not much crowd and we had darshan of the main deity, Parthasarathy perumal, Andal devi, Kalyana Venkatramana swamy., Ramanuja and Mahalakshmi - all in a jiffy and we were back in the auto towards hotel Mayura. The lunch was awesome as usual.
We had to wait for 40 min for the bus and it was very hot, but we found a AC waiting hall (fundooooo!!!) in the bus stand charging Rs.10 per hour !!!!!!

Happy that I had darshan of Ganesha and Subramanya (completing the six adobes) on the same day and also that of Govindaraja swamy. First time to all these places ...

Cheers!!!

Tiruchendur and South TN visit

2009-05-05T14:08:00.003+05:30

My long time plan materialized on Apr 24, 2009. I had the darshan of Subramanya Swami (Senthil Andavar) at Tiruchendur, taking my tally of six adobes (Aru padai veedu) to five, with Tiruthani remaining. I will write a blog about the 6 adobes once I complete Tiruthani too :).

Tiruchendur:

We (I and my parents) started from Trichy by cab on Apr 24, 2009. It was a 6 hour drive (via Viralimalai, Madurai, Aruppukottai and Tuticorin). We got to see the salt lakes in Tuticorin and I kind of liked the place. We reached Tiruchendur at 15:00. Took a room in a hotel just next to the temple. The temple is right on the sea shore (Bay of Bengal).
We arranged for Darshan through the hotel itself. It's normally crowded and apparently it's the second most crowded Subramanya temple (after Palani). The darshan starts with a Ganesha shrine (as usual) followed by the sanctum of lord Subramanya. We had a darshan of Subramanya in Golden armour (Thanga Kavacham). We then went to Pancha Linga shrine (5 lingas), which is next to the sanctum, but one has to pass through a narrow lane next to the Subramanya shrine to reach there. Legend says that, Subramanya afetr killing the demon Surapadman, got "Brahmahathi dosha" (not sure how, Surapadman can't be a Brahmin!!) and He performed puja to this Pancha linga to overcome this. Also, as He is performing puja Himself, no one else perfroms puja here. There is a narrow crevice open to sky and legend has it that Lord Devendra also offers his prayers to Shiva. It's only from this shrine that one can do a pradhakshinam (circumambulation) of the Subramanya Swamy shrine. Utsava murthy (Lord Shanmuga) is also close to the sanctum. One more special shrine is that of Muruga with His anklet as His weapon. As per mythology, Lord Muruga was mocked at by Surapadma for not having a weapon of His own (Vel was provided by Goddess Shakthi), for which Lord Muruga showed His anklet saying this would be sufficient to kill him. Interesting!! There is a Maha Vishnu sannidhi (with a Ranganatha shrine next to it). Next to this shrine, there is a destroyed rock, believed to be the erstwhile Krouncha malai, ruled by Tharakasura (Surapadman's brother). Legend has it that this was proptecting Surapadman's city (VeeraMahendrapuram - which was in the sea) and was destroyed by Lord Subramanya first. Then there is the Kalyana Ganapathi shrine. All these shrines form a Om (ஓம்). We then visited the Valli cave temple, where Valli hid Herself when Lord Ganesha took the form of an elephant and inimidated Her, to help Lord Subramanya during His romance with Valli :). We also had a darshan at 20:00 (Vibhoothi kavacham). We spent a lot of time in the beach and I enjoyed playing in the waves :)

Next day early in the morning at 05:00, we were in the temple again and we had the Viswaroopa Darshan at 05:30. The handsome God He is, Viswaroopam was just superb. The temple is open from 05:30 to 20:30 through out.

The God here is very powerful. Adi Shankara has authored Subramanya Bhujangam in this temple on this God, when he was suffering from a severe stomach illness and was cured immediately. Recently, in 2006, when Tsunami hit the entire coastal Tamil Nadu, this was the only place where the sea receded and there was absolutely no damage to the temple and no casualties here, in spite of the close proximity to the sea and many devotees were taking bath in

the sea.

SriVaikuntam:

We left from Tiruchendur at 07:45 to SriVaikuntam, which is just 20 km away on the Tirunelveli main road. There is apparently nava tirupathi temples (9 Vishnu temples) in this area, each ruling to one planet. We just visited SriVaikuntam (which was for lord Surya or Sun God). Swami here is called Kallapiran or Vaikuntanathar. Two Lakshmi shrines - Vaikuntanayaki and Choranatha nayaki. This is the 54th of the 108 Divya desam temples of Lord Vishnu.

Nellaiyappar - Gandhimathi temple - Tirunelveli:

After SriVaikuntam, we reached Nellaiyappar temple in Tirunelveli, a city 50 km from Tiruchendur. Massive temple!! HUGE!! Superb darshan of Nellaiyappar and Gandhimathi amman (She was looking very beautiful). There are around 100 big shrines in this temple and I feel it's enough if you visit this temple once a year and get a darshan of all Hindu Gods at one go :). Interstingly, there was a idol of Ravana!! Also, this was one of the pancha sabhai temples (5 temples one fo each metal - this one is for copper or Thamiram, it is on the banks of "Thamira"barani river).

Madurai:

Finally, we reached Madurai at 14:00. Very bad lunch at College House. Meenakshi amman was as beautiful as ever. We eventually reached Trichy at 21:30 on April 25, 2009.

Good trip and with this my mother had seen all the six adobes of Lord Subramanya. Hope I also do that soon :)

Cheers!!

Thalakaveri and Coorg trip

2009-04-16T18:27:00.002+05:30

There is generally a belief that one shouldn't explore "nadhimoolam" (origin of a river) and "Rishimoolam" (origin of a sage). But there is no harm in worshipping a nadhimoolam, if you know where it is :). So we went to Thalakaveri - the starting point of River Cauvery or Kaveri - it is in Coorg district of Karnataka.
Btw, I and Vikram, in addition to seeing Thalakaveri et all, had one more secret agenda. Well, I can't elaborate on this any further and would definitely appreciate one-one queries / calls regarding the same. After all, all is fair with love and war!!
We (I, Vikram, Anand & fly) started from Bangalore at around 2300 on April 4, 2009 in a Tavera. Well, things were fine for around 2 hrs, when suddenly, the driver stopped the vehicle. Part of life, the back wheel was punctured. But what shouldn't and couldn't be part of life was that the stepney was also punctured!! He appeared to be an awesome driver, who had read geography when he was drunk or asleep!! He was very sure that the nearest big town was Maddur aound 40 km away from the place where we were stranded!! Then we tried stopping the vehicles moving on the road for help. Every vehicle that passed went Vrooooom when passing us, as though we were the final pole in an F1 circuit. I don't blame them anyways as these kind of midnight stops can lead to anything (I mean it!!). God gives tests and gives the answer key also in sometime. A highway police patrol, which saw us, came to our rescue. Thankfully, they were not naxals / dacoits in camouflage :). I have to thank those people as they helped us take the tyres (both :)) to Srirangapatna (JUST 4 km) along with the driver and Anand's fly - Anand even offered to go along, but we (I and Vikram) stopped him, as it is always better to get stranded with as many people as possible :). Added to that, the police men told that this is a dangerous area!! Imagine, three stupid people, sitting in a punctured car, on a "dangerous" highway, at 0100 in the morning, windows closed, half asleep, discussing hopeless things... Experience, which could never be forgotten!! We spent an hour after which the tyres came, got fixed and we started at 0400..

Awesome!! Two eyes are definitely not enough to see and appreciate the picturesque Coorg district and the entire travel stretch... Very fertile and green every where. We reached Thalakaveri at around 0900 and it was so foggy that the visiblity was near zero. I got the scare of my life, when I heard that we have to take a dip in the pool near the actual start of Kaveri. I would have preferred to go back to the "dangerous" highway!!

Thala Kaveri:

It is actually a sacred place rather than a tourist spot. A very small 1.5' by 1.5' square - where Goddess Cauvery starts and flows through two states!! Really amazed. Did "Sankalpa snanam" (some rituals and took a dip - fortunately, the Sun was out :)) and performed puja. There are also shrines of "Lord Agastheeshwara" and Ganesha (actually responsible for Cauvery to be flowing from here). There was also a 500 step ascent at the end of which there was nothing (really) - a view point. Like a**** we climbed the steps, took some snaps and climbed down. Just realized that we are geting older.

Abbey falls:

Now that we are done with the main agenda, we asked the driver as to what are the other places of interest around (a mistake indeed). The hero suggested a place called Raja's seat - a rock bench, where the king sat and admired nature. Our 42 senses worked (we were 7 people and all our 6 senses worked :)) and we din't want to see some rock at noon (at least if a queen had sat there we would have :D). So now, the driver suggested Abbey falls. This time we weren't lucky :( We went with dreams of playing in the water fall n all that. We paid 20 Rs for parking and walked down a descent of 2 km with towel, shorts etc. There was a water fall and there was water also. But, the maximum you can do from the place till where tourists are allowed was, hear the sound of water falling and see it too... Nothing else. Again like ***** we climbed up!!

Balmuri falls:

After the Abbey debacle, came the best part of the trip (life does have ups and downs!!). Balmuri, nearly 10 km from Srirangpatna, is a water body - with water flowing த்ரௌக் small man made interruptions - Awesome place to enjoy. Really great!! No risk involved and the 2 hours time we spent in the water made it the greatest two hours of the trip.

Srirangapatna temple:

The temple of Ranganatha swami (MahaVishnu in a lying down posture), very similar to the one in SriRangam (in Trichy). In fact, there are three Rangas - Adhi Ranga (in Srirangapatna), Madhya Ranga (Shivanasamudra) and Antha Ranga (Srirangam) - I have seen Adhi (beginning) and Antha (end) - no philosophy involved :)

We left from the temple by around 20:00. Nothing much to tell about the dinner we had, except that again I would have preferred starvation or getting stranded - driver's choice of hotel :) We reached back by 22:30 - end of an eventful 24 hours - excepting for the puncture, Abbey and the dinner - enjoyable one too!!

PS: please contact me if you want the address of the driver ;D

Bye!!

Jyothirlingam Darshan I - SriSailam

2009-03-19T17:15:00.003+05:30

Sourashtre Somanadham, cha Sri Shaile Mallikarjunam,

Ujjayinyam Maha Kalam, Omkaram, amaleshwaram,

Paralyam Vaidyanatham, cha Dakinyam Bhimasankaram,

Sethubandhe thu Ramesam, Nagesam thu Darukavane,

Varanasyam thu Viswesam, Trayambakam Gouthami thate,

Himalaye thu Kedaram, Ghushmesam cha Shivalaye,

Ethani Jyothirlingani sayam pratha paden nara,

Saptha janma krutham papam smaranena vinasyathi.

I want to visit all 12 Jyothirlingas and hence the ambitious 'I' in the title indicating 11 more blogs of the same genre will follow over the remaining years of this birth of mine :)!! Yes, I visited my first (second in the actual list as in the sloka above) Jyothirlinga sthalam - SriSailam - Mallikarjuna Swamy and Bhramarambha Devi.
This link gives the definition of Jyothirlinga and lists the 12 Jyothirlingas across India. Well, we (I, colleagues with family and friends) started from Bangalore by bus on March 13, 2009. There are two Super Luxury APSRTC buses from Bangalore to Srisailam and we took the first one at 1720 hrs. It was a 15 hour journey (via Anantapur, Kurnool, Atmakur).
We reached SriSailam by 0730 on March 14. It was a scenic route through ghats and forest. Thanks to Rajesh, our accomodation was arranged (lots of choultries / cottages available and the rooms are indeed good). Our Abhishekam was also arranged immediately. Unlike Tamil Nadu temples, here every one will be allowed to touch the Lingam and worship. Also, if one wishes
(if he's fortunate enough, rather!!), one can perform Abhishekam oneself to the Lingam (Mallikarjuna Swamy) at the sanctum sanctorum. The ticket costs Rs.600 - only one person will be allowed unless married, in which case, the couple will be allowed. It was a 15 minute Abhishekam and a phenomenal experience indeed. Do not miss it, if you happen to go there.
Followed by this, we went to Bhramarambha Devi sannidhi. This happens to be one of the Ashtadasa Shakthi Peetams. Had a great Darshan. We then worshipped the other Sannidhis - Vruddha Mallikajuna Swamy, RajaRajeshwara/Rajeshwari, Lingams et all along with Seetha and Rama prathishta sahasra Lingams.
There is also a branch of Kanchi Kamakoti peetam at the entrance of the temple, with shrines for Adi Shankara, Kumara swamy and Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra saraswathy (known as Maha Periava) - grace personified, as always.

The following are the other places of interest which we visited,
Sikhara Darisanam:

"SriSaila Sikharam Dhrushtva, Punar Janmam NaVidhyate" (The one who sees SriSaila Sikharam is relieved off rebirth), says Skanda puranam (written there :)). This is a point around 8 km from the temple from where the temple's Sikharam (Gopura Kalasam) will be visible for people who don't have rebirth. As expected, I couldn't see :) - I realized yet again, that I need to go a loooooooong way before attaining salvation (if at all!!) :).
IshtaKameshwari temple:

21 km from the main town, around 10 km inside deep forest is a small temple of Ishta Kameshwari. Jeep is the only mode of transport. There is NO ROAD whatsoever - one gets reminded of roller coaster (natural). I had to pray that I should come back fully :). Jokes apart, once one travels the distance, there is a very small shrine of the Goddess. One needs to crouch and go through the small (3 feet) enclosure to have a Darshan of the Goddess. The speciality here is that, the devotees can apply vermilion (kumkumam) to the Goddess' forehead. Great experience!! Had to comeback through the same road and at the end of the travel, I din't know which was where inside my body :). The travel will be difficult for people with back aches and weak spines.

Phaladhara Panchadara:

This place is a natural stream (five streams rather) of water with 5 different tastes signifying the forehead of Lord Shiva himself!! This place was so holy that Adi Shankara composed Shivananda Lahiri and Soundarya Lahiri in this place. There is a shrine of Sri Adi Shankara in this place. The water was unbelievably fresh. A nice place.

Hatakeshwaram:

A small temple of Lord Shiva.

Sakshi Ganapathi temple:

Sakshi means proof. The Ganesha here, takes note that one has visited SriSailam - kind of takes attendance. A cute little temple just like any other Ganesha temple :).

NS dam:

Dam built across river Krishna - is around 20 km in the Hyderabad - SriSailam route. Nothing great - Just timepass.

Well well, we were there for two days and had three darshans at the temple. Tickets of Rs. 100 and Rs.50 are available in addition to the free darshan. Came back through the same route and had a highly unforgettable dinner at Kurnool bus stand. It was so hot and spicy that you won't know whether the food was cooked or you are getting cooked while eating!!! oooooooooooooooooooh.
We reached Bangalore on Monday morning (1500 bus from SriSailam).

A really memorable experience. I wish everyone gets a chance to visit this place and pray that I am fortunate enough to visit the remaining 11!!
Om Nama Shivaya!!!

Naan Kadavul - A classic

2009-02-10T18:11:00.003+05:30

Well, the year has started for Tamil (not restricted to!!) movie buffs with a stunner. Three years it took for Bala and Arya to come up with this classic (I would call it one). A lot of research has gone into the movie - the life of Aghoris, the beggar mafias (I don't know how to call them) and spinning a story relating these.

The movie is captivating right from the opening - The holy Ganges and Bala's trademark tragedies (yet realities of life) on the banks, set the stage. The initial sequence leading upto the introduction of Arya was well thought out and the scene where Arya is identified was simple but startling! When Arya moves out of Kasi, I was actually thinking what next! If it were a cliche' film what followed would have been regular family sentiment, senseless duets with a bubbly heroine, gravity defying stunts leading to the conquer of the villain and a happy ending - Well, I wouldn't have blogged about such a film... :)

Now comes the social menace that Bala has chosen to handle in the movie - beggar mafias. What follows is really frightening (for the faint hearted). The villain has delivered a stunning performance. He along with the choice of support actors for beggars and the environment in which they live has provided the necessary "gloom" in the movie. It actually took some time for me to identify Puja and in the climax it's just impossible!! The blog would be a spoiler if I reveal anything further :)

Arya has done well - a real break for him and worth the 3 year efforts. Ilayaraja is really a maestro. The music stands out and the BGM can't be better. "Pichai paathiram" song is just beyond adjectives - music, lyrics and video - copybook stuff!!Screenplay is tight amd cogent but for an unnecesary 10 minute comedy (not really!!) in the police station (must have been avoided :().

Overall, a bold movie (deserves award(sss)), which can be an encouragement for people who want to create classics. Some might not like this - to such people I would suggest "change your outlook".

A must watch, I must say.
Cheers!!

Sabari Mala Trip III

2009-01-15T11:48:00.005+05:30

Firstly, Happy New Year to all and wish you a Happy Pongal too!

...Contd from Sabari Mala Trip II

Well, after so much of divinity, it was time for some fun!! Yeah, we went to Kuttralam from Achan kovil. For those who do not know, Kuttralam is a water fall near Tenkasi/Senkottai (water source is through the rains in Western Ghats). There are many water falls in the town at different locations and we visited the Main Falls. Awseome!! Superb!! Any interjection / adjective will fit in when I set out to explain the feeling of even being near the fall. The water was COLD and fortunately for us the force was also GREAT!! Great experience, given that this is my first time in Kuttralam. We din't have much time there anyways, otherwise, I would have tried the oil massage and other facilities available there :) After the bath, we were really hungry and had a nice lunch there. There is a Shiva temple (Kuttrala nathar), but we couldn't have a darshan there as it was around 2 PM and the nada will be opened only at 4 PM.

Now back to divinity :)
Srivilliputhur:

For people who've not heard of Andal or Kodhai, She is a lady love (one of the many rather) of MahaVishnu (Vadabadhrasayanar). Srivilliputhur is the place where she belonged to and we visited the same. Typical Tamil style temple with huge Gopuram (The tower features in the Tamil Nadu Govt. state emblem!). Andal was looking awesome in Her shrine.

Adjacent to it is the Vadabadhrasayanar (Sleeping pose facing the North) shrine. The Vishnu here had Brahma on the lotus coming from his navel and fighting a demon!! Great temple and great darshan. I and Anand had some secret prayers!!! :)

In addtion to the temple, Srivilliputhur is famous for milk khoa (sweet made out of milk of course). Packed our bags with kgs of the same :).We decided to stay at Thiruparankunram (near Madurai). When we reached there in the night, we were (not) surprised to see heavy rush and no place to even move leave alone staying, sleeping et all. Cometh the hour, cometh the man (God??). One of our group members had a choultry in Nilackottai (around 40 km from Madurai) and was available for staying taht night. Thanks to him. Off we went there. Stayed and had a good sleep.

Next day we left by around 9 AM to Azhagar koil and Pazhamudhir cholai and then to Meenakshi amman temple. There is already a blog (titled Temples Temples and Temples) about these places and so don't want to tell it again. Needless to say these are all must visit places and we had superb darshan everywhere!! :)
One place that we din't visit during our last visit to Pazhamuthilcholai was "Nupura Gangai". This, as the name suggests, is a continuous water flow from an unknown source!! Researchers have been left confused and the reports are inconclusive. The water of course is considered holy and medicinal (legend says that the water can cure many diseases and also saves against
black magic and other evil forces). There is a Devi shrine (called Rakkayi) near the water source.
We left from Madurai to Hosur at night (8 PM - The reason for the delay is best not discussed!) after dinner.

Reached Hosur by 7 AM (you know the driver anyway) and finished the post Sabari mala formalities and off to office :)

Well, Thanks to Ayyappa once again for making us complete the trip (my second one) and hope to make many more like this.

Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa

Sabari Mala Trip II

2008-12-30T11:18:00.003+05:30

...Contd from Sabari Mala Trip I
While getting down any hill, one needs to be very careful as it's tougher and calls for great caution. But it goes without saying that it will be enjoyable. There won't be any control on one's own legs. Just that we start and go along with the momentum and take great effort to stop. Sabari mala is no different - especially with the 75 degree Appachi Medu and Neeli mala to be treaded down :). It was raining and drizzling in top of that!! Balaji, amounted for the maximum fun yet again - be it scheming against carrying the prasadam container or holding the side bars tightly and taking one step after another or tackling fast runners from behind, providing us with a running commentary through out as to how one has to approach getting down a hill :). At some point, Anand just couldn't stand the comedy anymore that he sat down and laughed and curious on lookers felt he was sick tried to offer help :). Like last year, I had kaapa kanji and kattan chai etc. on the way and signalled our reaching kanni moola ganapathi shrine with a tender coconut :)

When the entire team arrived, again Balaji expressed his anxiety over how to reach Kottayam for catching his train to Mumbai. After huge discussions, it was decided that he will be dropped at Pattanamthitta. Well, we got down after worshipping Kanni Moola Ganapathi and Pampa and praying for the next visit, we boarded a bus to Nilakkal, the place where all vehicles will be parked.

After successfully completing Erumeli and Sabarimala it was time to visit the other three adobes of Ayyappa. So, off we went to Kulathupuzha (It's very close to Pattanamthitta where Balaji got down and we had our dinner), where we were accomodated in the temple mantapa.

Kulathupuzha:

This is one of the adobes of Ayyappa, where He is a Balaka or Child. It's a small temple on the banks of a puzha or river. We had a bath in the river and the water was really good. The temple, had the main deity and shrines for Naga (snake God), Bhagavathi (in a peculiar pose as if She was dancing or saluting) and of course Ganesha. One more interesting thing is the number of varieties of fish in the river (We offered puffed rice (pori), groundnut etc. to the fish). For more on the legends of Kulathupuzha read Prasad's blog.

Ariyankavu:

This is on the Thenmala hills in the Kottayam - Senkottai route. A very picturesque drive with many hair pin bends et all. Here, Lord Ayyappa is in the form of Ayyan - the deity looks very much like the One in Sabarimala. The temple also is on the banks of a water body (I don't know which one) and has shops selling spices and fruits available in the nearby forest.

Achan Kovil:

After Ariyankavu, we were to go to Achan Kovil. We somehow had a great urge from the beginning to visit this temple. The temple is in the midst of a thick forest (20 km ride inside the forest) near Senkottai. The ride was awesome. The driver din't want to take us there but we made sure we go. We started only around 11 AM and we thought that the temple will be
closed from 12 noon till 4 PM. So we were under great tension :). But we reached the temple in roughly 70 min and came to know that the temple closes roughly at 1:30 PM. We had a lot of time and had a great Darshan. Well, in Achan Kovil, Lord Ayyappa is a King, with his consorts - Purna and Pushkala - They are not females but embodiments of completeness and wealth.
The legend says that Here Lord Ayyappa can bestow one with wealth and other earthly needs as he is a King himself while at Sabari mala he can give knowledge and contentment as He is a Yogi/Sanyasi there :) One more legend in Achan Kovil is that the sandal prasadam here can and will cure any venomous snake bite. This link has a good account on Achan kovil and it's legends.

Really happy that I was able to visit all the 5 adobes of Ayyappa.
The remaining part of the trip was in Tamil Nadu and will be covered in the next part of the blog :)
Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa
.... To Be Contd ......

Sabari Mala Trip I

2008-12-17T12:06:00.003+05:30

I was blessed with my second Sabari mala trip (Dec 7 - Dec 11). The first part of our trip will be covered in this blog.

We were to have "Irumudi Kattu" and leave on Dec 07, 2008(Sunday) from Hosur. Like last year, my mother had come to Bangalore a day earlier. She along with my aunt and cousin started early morning and reached Hosur on time (Thanks to them!!). This time, the kattu was in a Ganesha temple. Needless to say, the atmosphere was awesome and compelling. All the kattus were over and by 11:30 we had a great lunch (prasadham) and were ready to leave.

We had left Hosur by 11:45. The vehicle was not upto the mark and the driver's attitude was pathetic and that proved to be the only hitch in the otherwise fantastic trip. After all you need something which is not good!! That's life :). On the way, we had a bath in river Bhavani (I guess), between Salem and Karur. This time we had three kanni samis (first timers - last year I was one). One was Vikram (V) and the other one Balaji (B). Both are funny people in their own rights. B was explaining his experience at the Baghu Bali temple and that became a code word for all of us at various instances. We also had a lot of arguments (political / religious / junk) through out which added spice to the travel :). V was sleeping royally, come what may...

We reached Erumeli only at 6 AM on Monday (The van driver had hit a cow / calf / bull not sure what) on the way. He was dozing through out as we were. At Erumeli, we visited the Petta Sastha temple, Vavuru Samadhi and the Dharma Sastha temple (Erumeli is one of the five adobes of Ayyappa swami - I will write in detail in the next blog). V and B were supposed to do
Petta Thullal, but they din't just as I din't in the last year :). Erumeli is the start of the peria padhai, the 50 km ascent to Sabari mala. As we din't take that path (we take the smaller path 8 km from Pampa), we got Sarams (for first timers) and knife (for second timers - me :)) there and we started to Pampa by van.

Pampa, is the holy river at the foots of the Sabari mala ascent (before Neeli mala). Mythology says, that Ayyappa was found in the banks of Pampa with a bell tied around his neck when king of Pandalam, Rajasekara Pandian found him. As is the ritual, we took bath in Pampa, carried the Irumudi and started the ascent. Irumudi is a holy package containing ghee filled coconut and rice (mainly) on the front side and two more coconuts in the back with or without other things that the traveller may require. After Pampa, one will reach the Kanni Moola Ganapathi shrine (where coconut should be broken as an offering), go up Neeli mala, Appachi medu and Sabari peetam. Our team's protocol is that no one should go beyond Subramanya padhai until the entire team reches there. During the ascent, Balaji was lured by pineapple vendors and was pressed by some external force (!!!) not allowing him to climb and he was successful in not carrying the ghee container (giving weird reasons) et all. All these added to our fun quotient.

Once the entire team reached, we were lucky enough to get a by pass and reached the Holy 18 steps and the Sannidhanam in no time and our darshan was over by 5 PM :) :) :). Everyone was emotional at the great Darshan bestowed on us by Him. We got a room to stay. Throghout the evening, we were able to have many Darshans (thanks to Him).

I and Anand had the opportunity of going for the Ghee Abhishekam the same night. The Ghee Abhishekam, starts at 4 AM everyday and goes on till 11 AM, but one has to join the Q, the previous night itself for a early completion next morning. We went to the Q at 10 PM in the night and was shocked to see some 10 layers before us, all sleeping in the Q. We were intelligent enough to define a new end (at the 4th layer) to the existing Q and soon there were people joining after us :) (trend setters). We were in the open and had very less space. Anand made himself into an 'S' and managed to sleep and even snored on top of that (gifted soul). All was well, when suddenly at 00:45 someone in the area shouted "Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa". That was enough for the sleepy members of the Q, who were disoriented in space and time, to think that the Darshan has started and there was a huge commotion. We used the commotion to move to the first layer of the Q :). From 0045 to 0400, the time flew and the next morning we were able to see the Ghee Abhishekam Darshan and back to the room at 5:30 (on Tuesday).

Then we saw many more Darshans, finished darshan of Malikapurathamma (the female deity there), ate Panchamirtham (4 rounds :)) and started getting down.

Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa
.... To Be Contd ......

Unforgettable Diwali !! - My costliest Trichy trip..

2008-11-04T10:06:00.004+05:30

Of the five years I've been out of Trichy, this Diwali was "special". In fact, not the Diwali per se, but the things that happened before Diwali.

I had planned and booked my Diwali ticket well in advance (as I normally do). To be very specific, I booked the onward journey (for Oct 24, 2008) ticket on July 26, 2008. Exactly 90 days before (Indian Railways doesn't allow any earlier!), you can count if you have a doubt :). Actually, there were no tickets available from Bangalore to Trichy (there are people worse and more paranoid than me :)), I had booked it from Maddur to Trichy (an excess of Rs.20 doesn't really matter). This was the flashback...

On Oct 24, 2008, I (along with Karthik and Ravindra) left office at 2:45 PM (on time, normally I leave at 3:30 PM). We got a Suvarna bus and got a business class ticket ( Rs.5 extra - I am serious, please check in Suvarna buses of KSRTC if you don't believe me). It was raining pretty heavily and I got down at Silk Board. God!! It was like the Bay of Bengal. Took an auto from bG circle to my place. The guy was cool and asked for just Rs. 30 (in place of Rs. 20). When I reached halfway, I was able to see a Pacific Ocean - Bermuda triangle rather... The vehicles which dared pass through the water actually started floating and disappeared!! The devil in me enjoyed the lighter side of the sufferings of those people though :). The auto driver told me that he has to take a big detour to avoid this mess and charged Rs. 60. It really doesn't matter!!

I reached home, packed and was about to leave - it started drizzling. Din't mind it really and got an auto to Majestic at 5 PM. The auto driver told me that the road was pretty bad and flooded (I knew it !!) and that he will take a different "shorter" route. I said yes. We entered the narrowest lane in Bangalore (it was raining heavily by then) and saw the biggest possible traffic jam. I asked the auto wala, whether I can make it to the 7 PM train. He said "Aaraamaagi" (coolly!!). We were there in the jam and I was able to see all the possible vehicles that man had made. trying to turn, manouvre, race ahead... It's a really competitive world you see!!

Well, at the end of a 90 minute wait in the lane, we reached wht people normally call as main road. It was 6:30 and I asked the auto wala about my prospect of catching the train. He said "Kashta sir!!" (Difficult!!). That explains. I reached the other side of the Rly Stn at 7 :05 PM and took 2 subways (drenched in the rain in between)to reach the station. Ran to the 6th platform and found a totally empty platform. The inevitable had happened. The bloody train came and left on time!! My first time of missing a train.. It doesn't really matter!!

Came out of the station. It was raining as if it is the last monsoon in Bangalore for the next 40 years!! Searched around in Majestic bus stand for tamil Nadu buses. Later came to know that the TN buses have been shifted to the Wilson Garden bus stand. Why now??? Took an auto, who luckily charged a meagre Rs. 50. Reached the other bus stand. Got a person, who was having a ticket to Madurai, which I can take till Salem (Rs. 280). When I was waiting for that bus, a direct bus to Trichy was passing me. I was greedy enough to leave the old bus guy and go in pursuit of a ticket. The conductor later said there are no tickets (as if he din't know it before!!). When I was in the midst of nowhere, not knowing how to go, call it supernatural intervention or divine grace or dame luck or whatever, someone asked me whether I need a ticket to Trichy for Rs. 320. The bus was a Karnataka Sarige bus (worse than the Suvarna town bus I had taken!!), still, that was to be my Titanic for the night. I got a special last seat (# 52 to be precise) and the roads do have a lot of bumps... The bus was scheduled at 22:22 and eventually came at 23:15 and left at 00:00.

I reached Trichy at 09:00. I'm actually going through the 7.5 year saturn period and that sure has it's effect.

Total expense for the Diwali travel: Rs. 204(train) +60(auto1) +150(auto2) +50(auto3) +280(missed bus1)+ 320(travelled bus2) = 1064 + drenching in rain + no dinner + too much of running + too much of tension + Rs. 80 (antibiotics and vitamin C for cold).... :(

The Diwali was as usual great and had a nice return journey.....
All said and done, I will never forget Diwali 2008....

iPhone Resurrected - Rising from the water!!

2008-09-29T20:26:00.004+05:30

She was not a phoenix because phoenix rises from the ashes. She was a dolphin !!! She rose from the water :). For people who don't get the context, please read http://prakashvis.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html. (two entries below :))

After what happened on Aug 22, Saravanan was nervous but Venu was crest fallen :). So we decided that we need to look for alternatives - to repair the existing one or get a replacement. We found that the only hope for these kind of unlocked and wet (:)) iPhones, is that upon paying an additional $200, one gets a replacement. So my iPhone went back to the US (with efforts from Saravanan et all). Thanks to Venu for his diligence in getting the replacement after a lot of to and fro and going thru some more hiccups in getting the new one unlocked etc. etc. etc. The new "she" came to India on Sep 24, 2008 and this time Dinesh got it from the same office on Sep 25 evening. I got to lay my hand on her on the same night (no pun meant!! :)).

There were definitely few more hiccups. Saturday, was the day when I explored her fully (no pun meant again - after all you can't remove the case :)). Firstly, I had to move all my contacts from Sim to the iPhone. I din't know that there was an application called SIMport in iPhone itself. Like an a** (something bad meant!!), I was trying to type all the contacts.

Later when I discovered the application, I din't realize I had loaded my friend's SIM and imported all his contacts. Here I was again, deleting all his contacts one by one (not an a** this time, coz, there is no way one can delete all contacts in one go in an iPhone!!).

Next, my iPhone was not getting detected in the iTunes but was detected as a digicam device in the PC. The whole day we googled and eventually found the following procedure from this link http://www.howardforums.com/archive/topic/1363091-1.html.

The procedure which worked for me :)
If the iPhone is not detected in iTunes but gets detected as digital camera in Windiws PC (XP).
1. Search for usbaapl in the C:\WINDOWS system folder. Typically it will be in C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE\ folder.

2. Search for the "Apple iPod" device in "Device Manager" from "My Computer->Properties". If the devices is recognized as digicam, then you can find it under "Imaging devices"

3. Right click on the device and say "update driver". This will open the New hardware window. - Check the ‘Install from a list or specific location’ then click ‘Next’ - Check ‘Search for the best driver in these locations’. Un-check - ‘Search removable media’ and check ‘Include this location in the search’.In the text box copy the path obtained in step 1.
The iPhone will now be detected in the iTunes. :) A thousand thanks to the person who posted this. 1001 thanks to rajeev, who kept the energy going the whole day and kept on googling, up/down graded iTunes software etc.Now, I have it and am enjoying my experience with her, showing her off (just take it literally again ;)).

I just realized, how connected a world this is!! Between Aug 22 and September 22, there were three trips that my iPhone made between California and Bangalore. My God!!
Cheers!!

My Thiruvannamalai Trip - Girivalam

2008-09-22T11:52:00.007+05:30

I realized my long time dream of going for a Thiruvannamalai Girivalam (Circumambulation of the Annamalai mountain) on Sep 20, 2008. I went with Vikram (V) and Chandrakanth (CD). Off we went directly from office on Sep 19, Friday afternoon. It was a 4 hour journey and we reached Thiruvannamalai by 8 in the evening. We had booked a room in Hotel Arunachala (right in front of the Rajagopuram). We enjoyed the tiffin that night and V bought a dhoti but CD was sceptical for obvious reasons :).

On Sep 20 (Saturday), we started Girivalam from the RajaGopuram at 05:30. The total distance to cover was 14 km and there were 8 lingams (one in each direction) to worship. The first one was the Indhra Lingam (East), which is hardly 50 m from the start. Then comes Agni Lingam (SE), roughly 1.5 km from the start. This is the only Lingam that comes on the right side of the Girivalam path. One needs to go in from the main road a bit to worship this. Yama Lingam (S) is the 3rd, aptly situated in front of burial ground and crematorium, 3 km from the start :). Nruthi Lingam (SW) is the 4th followed by Varuna Lingam (W), 8 km from the Raja Gopuram. Vaayu Lingam (NW) is the 6th. Then comes the most improtant at least for professionals - Kubera Lingam (N); Kubera is the lord of wealth, in case someone doesn't know :). The last in the row is Esanya Lingam (NE) roughly 1 km from the Raja Gopuram. The Girivalam ends once we reach the starting point (from the other side of course :)).

In addition to the lingams, there are other special places/temples on the Girivalam path. Firstly, there are Ramanashram and Seshadri Swamigal Ashram after Agni Lingam. Ner Annamalai Darshan after Nruthi Lingam, is the place from where the hill can be viewed straight. After Varuna Lingam, comes the Manickavachagar (one of the Nayanmars) temple and Adi Arunachala temple - This was the temple of Swayambhu (formed by itself) Arunachala Lingam, a must visit temple. Nandhi Mukha Darshan, after Kubera Lingam is the place from where a hillock appears like Nandhi. Then comes Idukku Pillayar temple - a small crevice kind of structure, where one has to pass through and it is believed that this place is a cure for migraine, aches and black magic. Lastly we have the Pancha mukha Darshan, where the 5 faces of Annamalai is visible. Temples of Rajarajeshwari, Subramanya, Soorya Linga, Vasudeva perumal etc. are also worth seeing.

Grandma Gyan: We met an old lady in a tea shop, who literally scolded me for missing the Adi Arunachala temple and guided us to the same. She also conveyed a great philosophy in the simplest possible way - "The Annamalai (hill) will always appear to be coming along with us from anywhere in the Girivalam path (remember we are making a circle). This actually depicts Lord Arunachala coming along with us throughout!!!". Thanks to the patti :)
We also got to see lot of wanderers (Siddhas??!!) throughout. Believe me, they are not some simple beggars or poor people without home. When I offered a biscuit packet to one such person there, he said that he has eaten for the day and asked me to give the biscuit to someone else who is hungry. These people speak English too :).

Some tips and facts:

1. Thiruvannamalai is the Agni (fire) sthalam of lord Shiva - one of the Pancha bhootha sthalas. Thiruvanaikoil (water), Chidambaram (sky), Kalahasthi (air) and Kanchipuram (earth) are the other four.

2. Girivalam should be done bare footed. So better start early in the morning or late evening.

3. The place is divine - please avoid small talk during the Girivalam.

4. Have lots of change and food materials to distribiute to the people around.

5. It is a great experience. Do it when you have a chance or create a chance if you don't :)

After the Girivalam, we went to the temple and had a great darshan of Annamalai and Unnamulai amman and returned to the hotel by noon. We were back in Bangalore by 8 in the evening.
Hope I get many more chances, create many more rather :)
Cheers!!

The birth, journey and death of my iPhone

2008-08-24T19:22:00.004+05:30

Like everyone else, I also wanted to own an iPhone. Not 3G, as I heard that quite a number of complications are associated with it. So settled for a refurbished <3G.

Birth:
As I was chatting with Venu (in USA) with Saravanan by my side, Venu said he had an iPhone for $271 (INR 11587.05 that day) and asked whether I want it. I was tempted and neways I wanted to change my W300i, so said yes immediately. There "she" (henceforth) was born.

Journey:
She set out with Venu's friend 'S' (henceforth) from US down to meet me and share a part of her life with me. She eventually reached India on Aug 18. It was decided that Saravanan would go bring her from S, her a few questions and hand her over to me the same weekend (Aug 23, 2008). Further interactions between S and Saravanan resulted in a lots of to and fro and eventually S dropped her at Saravanan's office early morning on Aug 22, 2008. Here she was just a day away from reaching me. Saravanan asked her a few questions - whether she can communicate properly, sing well (she was singing Bhavayami Gopala Balam by MS from youtube, through WiFi and subsequently Saravanan made me hear it over phone :) )and assessed her looks too (Wait a minute, he is my close friend and he is just a brother to her :)). She was a perfect blend of black (my favourite colour) and silver and she was stunning - as Saravanan narrated.

Death:
All was well, until Saravanan got a call (not on my iPhone, but from nature). He went to the appropriate place and when he bent for having a wash - SPLASH!!! - not the water on Saravanan's face but she fell into the bucket of water just below the basin :(. There she breathed her last. With a bit of googling and searching, we found that "a water dipped iPhone can't work
and even if it works, not fully :(". When Saravanan called and informed, I thought it was a prank and all that but over the next two days, realized that he was not joking. She was gone once and for all and I din't want to see her at all!!
There is nothing great about an iPhone any way and I am greatly thrilled with my W300i. (The grapes are nowadays sour anyways !!

This below piece is dedicated to HER...
She was my love, the daughter of Apple,
Vow!, I thought, I and she would make a good couple,
After all she was refurbished,
Never mind, I was anyways impoverished,
No doubt, compared to her sisters she was cheaper,
That made my love for her go up even steeper!

She travelled across continents and reached Bangalore,
And inturn to Saravanan whose office is close to Ulsoor,
There he donned the role of a tester,
He made me hear her and I felt better!

Before meeting me first time she took a dip in water,
That's when Saravanan called and shouted "disaster!""disaster!"
Neither have I touched nor have I felt her,
But my love for her will stay today, tomorrow and ever after!
Until I own one of her sisters !!!!

Everything in the world happens for Good and has a reason too. Hope this also results in something good sometime later. Let Chaos and butterfly effect take their own course :)

Cheers!!!!!!

Temples, Temples and Temples

2008-07-30T15:37:00.004+05:30

In the last two months I went to few temples, some of which I had visited for the first time. A blog on this..

Denkanikottai:Denkanikottai is a small town close to Bangalore (around 60 km) and Hosur (30 km). I came to know from Anand that there were some temples with historical (and mythological !!) significance in and around this town. So off we went in 5 bikes from Bangalore.
"Kamba" Ganesha temple in Anekal was our first halt. This temple had a Mallikarjuna (Shiva) sannidhi which was a miniature of the one in SriSailam. It was told that the temple was resurrected by Sri Sri Abhinava Vidhya Theertha of Sringeri and Poojas were started regularly. Lord Ganesha appears in a pole or "kamba" and hence the name.
Narasimha swamy temple - This was in Denkanikottai. The significance of this temple was that the Narasimha sculpture here was carved by Arjuna (of the Pandavas) and the rock above the sculpture was moved by Bhima. The sculpture was inside a cave and there were carvings of all Gandharvas and other Devas and also that of dinosaurs!! The temple also has the outline of Lord Vishnu's feet ("Vishnu Padham") on the top of the rock. It is believed that Lord Vishnu killed a rakshasha standing on this rock. This is definitely a place to visit.
Pettaraya Swamy temple - This temple was close to the Narasimha Swamy temple. Pettaraya swamy (aka Vettaiyaadiya perumal - The lord who hunted) is believed to have killed a rakshasha using a mace ("gadha") called "Denkani" and hence the name for the town. The perumal looked really beautiful. Another speciality of this temple was that it had a separate sannidhi for Athri rishi (I belong to Athreya gothra and hence I have worshipped the root of my family tree :)).
Madurai:Two weeks back, I went to Madurai and nearby temples with my parents.

Azhagar koil - About 17 km from Madurai, Azhagagar koil can be reached with a detour from Melur when going from Trichy. Sundararaja perumal or Kallazhagar or simply Azhagar was looking true to His name. Simply beautiful and majestic. He is the brother of Goddess Meenakshi who was ruling Madurai. This was one of the Divya Desams and a must visit temple.
Pazhamudhir cholai - The 6th adobe (of the 6) of Lord Muruga is in a hill just adjacent to Azhagar koil. We were lucky to have visited the temple right at the time of the morning puja. Small but beautiful temple with a scenic backdrop. The hill was cool and there was a distinct temperature difference between the hill and the foothills. Also, a lot of monkeys en route and
people should be careful if they have things that would attract monkeys (hope you understand :)).
Thiruparankundram - Another adobe of Lord Muruga is the place where He resides in a "Kalyana kolam" - the place where His wedding with "Deivana" took place. He resides in a sitting posture flanked by Shiva (father), Durga (mother), Vishnu (uncle), Ganapathi (brother), Naradha (rishi), Surya (The Sun) and Chandra (moon) - a real marriage atmosphere :).
With this I had visited 4 out of the 6 adobes of Lord Muruga. Thiruthani and Thiruchendur are the two left. Planning to visit those soon (with His help of course :)) For those who do not know Palani and Swamimalai are the other two.
Meenakshi Amman temple - No explanation required. Meenakshi and Sundareswara swamy were as Majestic as ever. I was born in Madurai and I always have an affinity to Goddess Meenakshi :).
Viralimalai - While going back to Trichy we also got to visit Viralimalai - another Lord Muruga temple around 30 km from Trichy. Roughly 200 steps, the temple had 11 sannidhis, the main deity being Lord Shanmuganatha (Muruga with 6 faces). Lots of peacocks and monkeys

too !!

Planning to visit more temples and will be back with those blogs soon.
Cheers !!

Dasavatharam - The movie to watch !!

2008-06-26T11:47:00.004+05:30

"Awesome!!", "What a movie!!", "Vow" - This is what the audience of Dasavatharam say after they come out. So did I and hence this blog. For people who do not know - Dasavatharam , is a Tamil movie, conceived and written by KamalHasan, in addition to donning 10 roles in the movie.
The movie is not as touching as say TZP, not as inspiring as say Chak De, not radical as Anbe Sivam/Hey Ram ... This can utmost be categorized as a HiFi - Techie masala entertainer, which shines due to the sheer brilliance of Kamal Hasan and to an extent director KS Ravikumar. The screenplay was so fast till the interval that we din't even realize that 100 minutes passed. Post interval, also was awesome but for the fag end, which could have been better. It will be grossly unfair, if one complains for those last few minutes on an otherwise good movie. So here is my ranking and thoughts on the 9 roles (Not including the main hero - Govind Ramasamy - Not that it was not good but that these are after all cake walks for Kamal Hasan !!).

1. Christian Fletcher - The American Ex CIA, also the ruthless villain in this movie. This is the best to me. He enters the movie just after the first 10 minutes and stays (rocks rather) till the end. The highlights being the scene he kills Mallika Sherawat, when he hits a biker on the road and of course the climax when he dies.
2. Balram Naidu - The RAW officer from AP. He just carries the first half on his shoulders and helps in the humour department with his Telugu - Tamil dialect. His expressions and mannerisms are just great.
3. Grandma Krishnaveni - A typical Agraharam old widow patti. The humour (s)he brings in during the movie and the mourning scene in the climax are the highlights.
4. Vincent Poovaraghan - The South TamilNadu-Kerala guy. He secures this place for his dialect of Tamil and the mannerisms again. It took me sometime to realize that he was KamalHasan.
5. Rangaraja Nambi - The 12th century Veera Vaishnavaite who lives and dies in the first 10 minutes. I couldn't really place the significance of this historical event in the entire movie's context, Kamal rocks even in this. This will remind people of HeyRam a bit. Also, the Kulothunga Chozhan episode and Nambi becoming a Vaishnavaite martyr are a bit hard to believe. However, the initial disclaimer said that the movie is a mixture of history and fiction. So no complaints and no controversies :)
6. Japanese - I don't remember the name though. This guy adds the revenge/sister sentiment aspect to the movie. He scores for his prowess in martial arts and the way he lived as a typical Japanese guy well within himself.
7. George Bush - The make up was wonderful. Really looked like Bush in some places. Surprisingly, he was used as a humour element in the movie. This needn't have been Kamal but neways a good one.
8. Khaleefullah - The 7 ft tall Tamil muslim role. I rate him at 8 because he doesn't play any major part in the script. Also, this again could have been any one else. Not to undermine the innocent humour he brought in during the middle stages of the movie.
9. Avatar Singh - Again no real role. But nice to see Jayapradha and Kamal Hasan together (in yet another blood cancer related storyline :) ).

In spite of the Hifi concepts like bio weapons, chaos theory/butterfly effect, historical events etc. there is no dearth for good (not crass at all)humour (thanks to roles 2,3,4,7,8 and of course Govind) in the script (Kamal Hasan's script reminded of Crazy Mohan's in many places - Hats off !!).
I now realize this blog is pretty long and also became a movie review- sorry about that. Just for completion sake - "So I go with 4 out of 5 and 2 thumbs up for Dasavatharam" ;)
Cheers!!

IPL - Really Premier indeed!!

2008-04-28T14:46:00.005+05:30

A blog about something that's the buzzword now. IPL - Indian Premier League.

Adapted in the lines of the EPL (the football league), both in terms of format and the big money involved, the IPL has definitely given a break to domestic cricket in India. Though the English counties have traditionally had foreign players, the T20 format of the IPL makes it refreshing (don't forget the "cheer leaders") ;).

It is indeed great to see players from different countries playing together. I somehow liked this Afro-Asian cup. At least there, the teams were divided on the basis of continents and the players belonging to a team essentially belonged to the same continent. But in case of IPL, except for the icon players, the team selection doesn't have any rationale. It's really exciting to see Dhoni captaining Chennai, Ishant playing for Kolkata, Vaas bowling to Jayasuriya, Warne belting Symonds for 2 sixes in an over ..... This should instill a lot of team spirit in players. For instance, Deccan with a bunch of very talented individuals don't look like a good team and Rajasthan on the other hand are working wonders with a set of spirited youngsters (I know it's too early in the competition to comment!!). As Dhoni rightly pointed out, "the team that gels well will win".

Also, it is exciting to watch the Indian audience cheer for Hayden's fifty while celebrating Ganguly's dismissal, pray that Afridi performs while Sehwag flunks. Even in the wildest of my dreams, I couldn't imagine this happening, but here I was, hailing Oram, Hayden, Muarlidharan and Hussey M :). There are other interesting battles like the ones between, Hussey brothers, Pathan brothers, McGrath Vs Warne etc.

But it's embarrassing to see that the Aussies are out performing others even here. The match winners and the trump cards in all teams are Aussies, three out of the four centuriions so far are Aussies. I am actually waiting for May, when all contemporary Aussie palyers wil get back. Then, there will still be retired (from international) players like Warne, McGrath and Gilly left. I am sure they will have a say in the outcomes of their respective games.

What's best about this entire thing is the amount of exposure that the local lads are getting and the boost for the Indian domestic arena. But care should be taken that India doesn't end up being T20 masters and Test/ODI minnows. That will be really bad for Indian cricket. Well, Imran Khan once said that there are 3 Ts that make a complete batsman - Technique, Temperament and Talent - while the tests test all the 3 Ts, the T20 tests only "Talent" and hence a 33 % batsman can shine in T20s :). But it is definitely a litmus test for the bowlers and some real good bowlers may come out of this exercise.

Before signing off, let me list my favourites in that order - Super Kings, Royal Challengers, Deccan Chargers, Daredevils, Indians, Royals. The South zone bias is there to see (I think it's natural ;) ) and the two missing teams are not there because of their owners :).

As far as the team composition goes I feel DC, DD, CSK and KKR have a fair chance. Yet, cricket is a funny game!!
Wishing the IPL all the very best. I will blog more, when more interesting controversies prop up :)
Cheers!!!!

Am I an extended SI Statesman?

2008-04-13T20:06:00.001+05:30

I repeated my SI statesman thing again and would you believe it, it's the same set of places again in South India. It happened sometime back but was able to write it only now as I was busy, if I may say so :)

Palakkad (Kerala) on Feb 23/24 for my cousin's wedding. The groom's name happened to be Prakash. I wish them a very happy married life :).

March 1-2, was Tirupathi and Sri kalahasthi (AP). 7 of us, and we climbed up and down as ususal. All my 4 venduthals are over. I think the next time I go, I need not mandatorily climb unless I have some things in between :). Luckily, we did not have any road adventures on the way to kalahasthi as we had last time. We even came back to Bangalore in a cab as we did not want to wait for the evening bus. It was fun though. Anand and Venkatesh are yet to send the expenses settlement which was done promptly last time :).

March 8, I was at Trichy (TN). It happened to be my birthday and Kannan's wedding. Wishing myself a happy birthday and Kannan a very happy married life again.

March 9, I was back in Bangalore (karnataka).

This time, the SI thing extended a bit to West India also and hence the title. I made an official trip to Pune. I kinda liked the city. Lots of open spaces and not as fast as Bangalore. On top of all this, we had a suite accomodation there and that was also great. What was most interesting was the airport. It was a cute airport maintained by the air force. The passengers need not go too far in bus etc. to reach the aircrafts. A simple 1 min walk is enough as good as a railway station. The next time I go, hope I have some time to explore the place.

The next blog will be about the temple trip with my family in the third week of March. Signing off, hoping that I can blog that soon.

Cheers.

Happy New Year!!

2008-01-07T10:54:00.000+05:30

Am a bit late in wishing. Neways, Happy New Year to all of you and to my blog(if no one else is there reading :))

My blogs, of late, have become like Quarterly reports, capturing my three/four months of activity. Hope at least this year I come out of this.

Between August 2007 and now, the only significant happening in my life is my Sabari Malai trip in the first week of December. On December 9, 2007 2100 Hrs, my 25 year long wait came to an end when I had the Darshan of Lord Aiyappan in Sabari mala. It was all the more enjoyable as we waited (climbed, rather) in the queue for 10 hours. The entire period of fast (around 40
days) was great, as I felt, it imbibed in me a bit (more :)) of of discipline. We even got to visit around 8 temples in Kerala. That was also enjoyable as it was more than 15 years since I visited these temples last. Over all, a memorable experience.

Ever since our return, I had very hectic days at office working towards demos and shows. Not long before did I think that it was quite sometime since I slogged like an a**. I am ruing that thought now :(. The last time I worked like this was a good 2.5 years back :). Never would I think like that anymore. Take it from me :). Hope the happy days will soon be back :)

I watched TZP (Taare Zameen Par). Awesome movie. Liked it really. Have to watch it again.

I want to write a blog about the recently concluded Sydney test between India and Australia. Saravanan has also written one. I want to write mine first and read his later as I don't want to get influenced by his thoughts.

Happy New Year once again.See you soon.

Am I a South Indian "States"man??

2007-08-09T08:31:00.000+05:30

The dictionary definition for statesman goes like this "a person who is experienced in the art of government or versed in the administration of government affairs. ". But this blog has nothing to do with that.

Just that, I had spent the last 4 weekends in 4 (all) South Indian states :), starting with July 14 when I was in Karnataka (where I reside currently).

The next weekend was in Andhra when I visited Tirupathi and Kalahasthi. The previous two blogs were about that.

I followed it up with a vist to Trichy, Tamil Nadu. Regular native visit.

The next weekend was in Palakkad, Kerala. A visit which I was planning for 4 long years, but materialized only now :).
Incidentally, Aug 5 was saturn transit. Saturn has entered the zodiac sign of Simha (mine :)). Hoping to see and waiting for changes to happen.

Cheers!!

Tirupathi and Sri Kalahasthi visit II

2007-07-25T10:36:00.000+05:30

This is the continuation of the previous blog...

The MiDnIgHt Conversation:

Well, after we had the nice dinner on saturday and returned to the guest house,we indeed tried to sleep. But the power nap that we had made it impossible for us to even get a wink :). So when I suggested that we go out and chat for "10 minnutes", I had an overwhelming response, with Anand and Venkatesh already outside!! Soon RP also joined us and there we were chatting about everything from black magic, politics, Indian culture, temples, don't know what all... When it was 00:45 on Jul 22, 2007 (Sunday), it was time for the AngaPradhakshinam guys to start. So, those four guys started and I & Anand tried to catch some sleep and eventually succeeded at 02:00. It was raining heavily outside!!!!

The descent:

We woke up at 05:15 to get ready for the descent. Three of us (I, Anand and Venkatesh) were to get down by walk (thru steps) while the other 3 were to take a jeep with our luggages (old people :)). We started climbing down at 06:15. Initialy, we were pretty slow as we were bare footed and we also felt the strain of yesterday's walk. We ate pori, manga etc and even had our breakfast just before Gali Gopuram. We chose a particular shop because the TV there was playing the Telugu version of "Pokiri" but as luck would have it, a kid who was operating the DVD player rewinded and played the opening scene some 4 times and that was what we got to watch :(. But this stretch was total fun and we literally enjoyed every step that we climbed down :). Our legs were not in our control, shaking, moving fast and aching and we were laughing through out. We will end up taking four steps when we actually intended to take only one! I repeat, it was GREAT FUN and the most memorable part of the trip... The irony was, out of the 3550 steps, around 1200 steps covered 7 km stretch while teh remaining 2300 steps covered a meagre 2 km!! We eventually reached the footsteps at 09:30, whereas we actually thought we will be able to climb down in 1.5 hrs :)

Sri Kalahasthi:

In the meantime, the other three guys had reached down and preponed our return to Bangalore by the 15:45 bus. So we had 6 hrs to cover Kalahasthi and Tiruchanoor. We booked a taxi to cover the two places. Tirupathi and Kalahasthi were 40 km apart. We reached Kalahasthi in less than an hour. When we tried to get a Rs. 30 Darshan ticket and go inside, some ____ there said that he can help us get a special darshan at Rs. 500 for 6 people. We din't have an idea of the crowd and hence took up that option to know that it was no different from the actual ticket. We had paid him Rs. 200 and would have been better off had we chose the initial 30 Rs. ticket :(. Still, we had a good darshan at both the Sannadhis (with Abhishekam at the Ambal sannadhi
:)).

Tiruchanoor:

After Kalahsthi, we reached Tiruchanoor at around 13:30 and finished our darshan, thus completing whatever we had set out to complete :))). Not much rush in Tiruchanoor and we had a great Darshan, needless to say She was looking awesome!!

The Stunt:

If you think that our trip to Kalahasthi has nothing else to mention about, then you are surely mistaken. The taxi driver almost finished us off, when he tried to overtake a lorry without seeing a jeep coming on the other side. Luckily he avoided a head on collision by turning and braking at the right moment. Our Sumo made a creaking sound and turned almost 180 degrees on the road and stooped with it's back towards a bush. Fortunately, there were no vehicles coming from behind. Surprisingly, none of us shouted during this, perhaps everyone had thought that the inevitable is gonna happen, just as I did :). Well, we were having our conversation about black magic, some one remarked that, the skull of the first child in the family helps in getting supernatural powers. After we escaped, some witch somewhere has missed three such skulls (Mine, RP's and Srini's ;D).

The comedy:

To add to this, the driver went missing at Kalahasthi when it was time to start after darshan. We looked out for him for half an hour and eventually found him by making an announcement in the Temple's speaker system!! Surely, Kalahastheeswarar had caused this delay and retained us for good :)

Well, something happened (which I won't write here for parliamentary reasons) with Srini in the bus stand. We boarded the bus on time after a nice lunch and reached Bangalore by 21:30. Took a taxi and reached home.

This again was a memorable experience. Hope this would bring all of us all the goodies that we wanted.

Om Namo Venkatesaya

Om Nama Shivaya

Tirupathi and Sri Kalahasthi visit I

2007-07-23T15:08:00.000+05:30

Hmmm... Din't blog for quite a while, as usual. Now, I have got something to write about. Some 6 of us (I, Anand & Ram Prasad, Sriram, Srini and Venkatesh) went to Tirupathi and SriKalahasthi. Here are our experiences and adventures :)

From Bangalore:
Our bus to Tirupathi was on Jul 20, 2007 (Friday), 22:30. I left office by the 18:15 shuttle. RP's house was our meeting point. I, Venkatesh and Sriram reached there by 21:00, Srini also reached there and we went to Majestic by auto(2). On the way, Srini made an attempt to talk in Telugu over phone, with the person who was arranging things for us in Tirupathi. That is when he used Tamilo-Telugu words like "Kilambisthaanu", which catalysed the other person to talk in Tamil, fearing further damage to his beloved mother tongue. I take this opportunity to request Srini not to talk in Telugu any more, at least with people who know Telugu. :). The bus departed at 23:00 from Majestic.

Bugs in Bus:
Keeping in pace with the Indian IT, even the buses have become Tech savvy. The volvo bus we travelled in had "bugs". Whether in software or any where, bugs sure suck. Not only was I a victim but also many other people who were occupying the window seat. I lost sleep and it was very heartening to see the bus reach Tirpuathi in just 4.5 hours. But I was happy with myself, when I woke Anand (sitting next to me) from deep sleep and asked him whether he was also experiencing bug bites :)

In Tirupathi:
Our first agenda was to get a room for 2 hrs for the 6 of us to get ready (answer calls from nature, take bath etc). An agent (if you can call him so) approached us and suggested some places. Firstly, we tried to avoid him. Sriram, in fact, took us along the road, saying, there are many hotels this side, but found only thorny bushes and hence we all turned back and took a place that the agent suggested. It was not bad, given the fact that we were going to use it for not more than 2 hrs. After getting ready, we took a big auto and reached Alipiri (the foothills from where one can start the ascent to Tirumala). We started ascending at 06:10.

The Ascent:
All 6 of us climbed by steps. It was a nice experience as expected. We were celebrating after covering each 1000th step and each km. Total 3550 steps and 9 km. Again, Srini surprised me with his speed of climibing. I could realize that I am growing older :). Eventually, we reached Tirumala around 10:30.

The Darshan:
The person who arranged everything for us, suggested that we go for darshan immediately owing to the rush. So we joined the Q at around 11:00. There we got split into 3 groups (RP & Venkatesh; I, Anand & Srini; Sriram)in the magnitude of the Q. The three groups came out at different times after darshan. It was an amazing sight always to see Him. A great experience. Special thanks to Srini for this.

The birth of "Rules" Ramanujam:
In the queue, two of the groups tried to be Romans in Rome. But Sriram dared to be different. He was much behind and hence came out after more than 30 min and asked Srini "Padichavan thaane nee?". This will go down as the statement of the trip and Sriram will always be remembered for this. There were some arguments there as all of us were hungry and tired. But these are part and parcel of any get together (especially trips), nothing will be memorable without happenings like these :)

The "sleep" and dinner:
We had a not so great lunch. Luckily, we got a guest house booked for us and had a GREAT sleep. During that time Srini got his tonsure done and became the "MOTTAI" Boss and four (except I and Anand) got their tickets for AngaPradhakshinam for the next day. We came back to the guest house after a nice dinner....

The remaining trip will be covered in the part II...

Om Namo Venkatesaya...

Bye!!

Where are we heading II

2007-03-02T11:41:00.000+05:30

Am back !!

Don't want to touch upon why I din't blog for quite sometime. I really don't know whether I have anymore audience left :(

Still, let me write this just for the sake of it.

This is the Part II of the previous blog....

India as a country, especially Indian women, has come a long way from being very traditional and conservative. This was something that many social actvists of yesteryears were striving for. But I feel the whole thing has been overdone. I am definitely not taking a male chavunistic approach, nor am I trying to say that we should return to the older society. I just
want to throw some light on where we stand.

If I compare a male teenager of say 1990 with someone now, I would say the "growth" is linear but with the fairer sex "it" is exponential. As the culture of a society at large is defined by the female part of it, our "Boldness Quotience" on the whole has increased phenomenally. Men even now are men they were while the women have broken their shackles and come out and have
done so emphatically. The current Indian cinema is a show case of this phenomena. While the costumes of men have remained the same, those of women have "come down" drastically and is tending to nothing and the women are "ok" with this.

Not long ago, a woman smoking is a rare spectacle and such an incident will be watched with different reactions by on lookers or rather you can count the number of women who dare smoke outside (if at all). Drinking women? You must be joking. Live in relationships? Are you crazy? Gone are those days I feel.

Now what do we see? Women smoke as much as men do, if not more. Pubs and Discos are brimming with women. And a lot more which I dare not write here. For someone like me, who has got a slap from my mother once for rolling a piece of paper and faking as though I am smoking, these things fall as thunderbolts. Well I don't blame women alone of course. I'm writing about the Indian youth at large.

These changes are attributed to the "Western influence". Outsourcing gave us financial independence, luxurious lives, economic boom and what not, but all at the cost of what we have boasted of, all through our history - culture and tradition. At this rate, these two words will have to be preserved in a museum. There are still some people who are conservative (because of their values or fear!!) and are still not sure which way to take and confused over how to bring up their children.

Let's wait and watch what kind of India our future genrations will be seeing :-)

Where are we heading ...? - Part I

2006-10-11T17:03:00.000+05:30

Well, Something serious and interesting :-)

I wanted to write about Indian culture after I read Arvind's blog on the same. But, I got the necessary motivation only now, after what happened in the train from Trichy to Bangalore few days back.

Here is what happened..
There were two guys and a girl in the train. From their conversation I learnt that they were colleagues(only) in an IT company and that the two guys had reserved tickets, while the girl had a wait listed ticket. Since the unreserved compartment will be crowded, they decided that the three will share the two berths, with the girl paying the reservation charges. This was fair enough. But the real shock(to me at least) came when every one settled down. Of the two guys, took an upper berth and other pair (of colleagues !!!!) went into a bed spread in the middle berth and what followed were giggles from inside!! The witness to this "BOLD"(Mallika Sherawat!!) act were myself(brought up in an orthodox family:-)), an elderly couple in their sixties and a middle aged couple with their 10 year old girl child, who was curiously looking at the middle berth with her mother constantly pressing her head down :-).

This will bring out varied reactions/responses from different people depending on their mental make up, notions on what is culture and above all the extent to which they are "bold". The old couple was stunned, the middle aged couple was speechless, I was confused (to be frank), the child was curious and the other friend of theirs was "normal". But none reacted and the train reached Bangalore on time and all of us were on our own ways.

There is nothing called as right or wrong. But, to me what they did was not ethical and an incident worth a post-mortem. I don't know whether their parents would have been "ok" with this, for that matter even if they would have been when they were in their school or college. What made them bold? Is it the fact that they are earning and are independent? Is it that they feel they are matured and grown up? Don't they bother about the society (people around)? Were they brought up that way? Will they bring up their children that way?

I have more questions and more thoughts which I would put down in the part II of this blog.

In the meantime, I'm really curious to know whether the guys happened to swap berths during the journey ;-) :-)

See you in Part II

Hmmmmmm.... That explains!!!

2006-09-21T09:31:00.000+05:30

Hi All
Sorry for my looooooooong absense...

Let me outline the stuffs that happened after April....

In the first week of June, there was an event called People's week conducted for my group in my company. I was the People's Champion :-) responsible for conducting competitions (quite a long time since I actually did something like this :-() and managing our FootBall team(!!). We reached Semis u know :-))))) and lost there with a score line of 0-6. You win sometime and lose sometime, that's life after all.

Well, since I want to get my MBA, I decided to take the GMAT. Booked it on June 1 to take it on July 20. With inputs from Anuj I carried on my prep and eventually took the test on the D Day. In between, I had severe stomach aches, some 3/4 times one after the other. Well, scored a 700 in my GMAT. Happy !! But wouldn't have minded some 20~50 more. Incidentally I completed 3 years in my company on July 21, 2006. Great!!!

Again, my stomach aches were recurring :-(( My cousin's wedding took place in Udumalpet (Close to Coimbatore) on Aug 21, 2006. Went on a 5 day leave to Trichy. It was great fun, travelling in bus with the family and enjoyed the wedding. We planned a vist to a water fall called Thirumurthi which was close by. As luck would have it, after we climbed some 1.5 km close to the falls, people were coming back and told us that there was a flood. In fact, we saw it for ourselves. Full of mud and what all!! Came back dejected.... I haven't taken bath in a falls till now :-( But the heartening fact is that we made two trips to Palani :-)

Back to Trichy on Aug 23, went for scan (stomach ache) and learnt that I've 3 stones in my kidney!! Was referred to a Urologist who asked me to undergo a diagnostic process called IVP (Intra Veinous Polograph) to detect the exact location of the stone. That was done on Friday and eventually I go admitted to a hospital in Trichy. The surgery was on Monday (Aug 28, 2006). Took a week's rest and joined office on Sep 7, 2006, one day before my cousin who got married
(Thank God!!).

And now I was busy with my App to ISB and hope all these explains why I was absent for so long.

Bye!!

Mumbaiyya Manoeuver II

2006-04-27T17:25:00.000+05:30

Here again, I came to Mumbai !! Official and absolutely nothing personal. If someone would like to consider the petty plan of having vada pav this time as a great personal motivation, he / she is free to do so.
Well, started on April 24, Monday early morning flight. "Monday morning blues", they say. But it was all red for me this Monday. Yeah, you guesed it right. Travelled by the bird (note the pun) airlines !!! ;-). EVERYTHING associated with the arlines is awesome, I really mean it !!! Hats off to the airlines. Landed straight at the office and no need to tell, the whole day I was dull and sleepy as I had to wake up at 4 AM in the morning (you never know about the traffic in Bangalore) in addition to which, I din't even wink in the flight (for obvious reasons :-) ).
The same hotel where I stayed last time. Had the vada pav on Wednesday. Nothing great about it. There is nothing to like or dislike about it. You like aloo bonda, you like Pav and here it is, you would like vada pav.
Well, checked out on Thursday morning, not before a surprise meeting with my Chennai chithappa in the hotel. I was with Qutub and Samir in the auto when something interesting happened. The police caught our auto and asked us to get out and asked questions as to where are u from, where are u going, why are u going etc etc. Fun though. Hope there is nothing serious.
Time to leave. Just wrote this before starting from the office. No need to say that I am excited about my travel with the bird again.

Also, wishing Shri. Pramod Mahajan for a speedy recovery.

Bye !!!!!

Happier than ever !!

2006-04-07T15:50:00.000+05:30

hey

Feeling really happy. People around me are also thinking in the same line of what I wrote in my previous blog. But I don't want to write more about it now. But the devil in me (!!!!:-)) is keeping me happy, when I saw Venkat's and Karthik's blogs. They are confused as I were and am. Probably we were all destined to be confused for this period of time ;-DD

Feeling really happy - again. Why ? Because for the past theree days there was little traffic in Hosur road while going back home !!!! But y'day got screwed when coming. Took 2 hrs... to reach office (Chuck it - can't ask for toooo much.)

Happy again - India won the series against England. Hope they do a white wash :-)

Last but not the least..... Finished my appraisal in the company. Normally I finish it only 2 months after the deadline (??!!) but strange things are happening - I finished 3 days in advance.

That's it.... Will append more happiness as they come. Come on, it's all destiny !!!! (Not again :-)))

"Destined to Choose ?????"

2006-03-27T18:23:00.000+05:30

Somehow, got into a philosophical mood (mode ??) !! Well, if you remember my "who am i ?" post, this one is not far off.

Just thought, "what are we (humans) guys here for ?". I am assuming we are what we are, as in we are all called humans and we all live in earth which is part of solar system and so on and so forth. But what is it that drives all of us ? Is there a HE (HE refers to SHE also :-)) or are the atheists correct ? If there is a HE, what is HE ? Are there many HEs (I mean Siva / Vishnu / Brahma .... / Jesus / Allah ) ? Does the christian HE save the Hindus and muslims also ? Ok, it's becoming too complicated. Let's assume there is one HE perceived as many. Let's not think about the atheists now. Since I am not one, I can't write about how they feel.

Now that there is a HE, what are we in front of him ? Why on earth (!!!???) did he create us(!!), is saving us (!!) and gonna destroy us (!!). These are all assumptions, right ? Science can't prove these, but I say science is something created by HIM and he din't give it the capability to perceive / prove HIM (fair enough ??). Neither did HE give science the capability to explain the BASIC day to day things, as in, science can say how the sun comes from the east, how the earth rotates / revolves etc., but can't say why these things are happening daily (??!!) !!!! Where are all these things heading to ?

Why are there doctors when someone is gonna die if he ought to ? Why are there engineers studying strength of materials / material science / magneto rheological fluids etc. who erect structures to be destroyed by an earth quake , Tsunami or terrosrists ??? Why are there meteorological centres which can predict natural calamities but can't do much about them ? Lots and lots more.

Are we just dolls in front of HIM ? Are we actors in the stage (The World) ?? Are we part of some game that THEY play ??? Do we get to make any choices at all ? Did I choose to do my B.E in Instrumentation and Control or was I "destined to choose" (interesting !!??) to do my B.E in ICE ?? Are things that we enjoy / experience today, the fruits of yesterday's efforts .... or is it just that we are destined to enjoy the fruits of yesterday's labour today or even worse, were we destied to put in efforts yesterday since we are destined to enjoy today ??? Were we destined to miss what all we missed so far ? Were we destined to get what we got so far ? Din't we "deserve" them ?

Again, did we choose our parents ? Will we choose our better halves or will it again be a "destined to choose" stuff ? Come on, two people can't even decide who a child they are going to "make" should look like :-). Not even, the gender at the minimum. :-(

Looks like, we have got nothing to do here. We are all living dead :-))) We just go through what was laid for us before. We are destined to laugh, cry, suffer, enjoy etc. and we just "do" it.

I think, I was destined to write something like this today :-))))))))

Bye for now !!!

Mumbaiyya manoeuver

2006-03-07T19:54:00.000+05:30

I went to Mumbai .... Official, of course, with just one personal goal..... Visiting Mahalakshmi temple (I'm still a good boy, u see :-D)
Started from Bangalore on Feb 21, 2006:
Jet Airways 21:30 flight. My seat was in row 14 and I came to know that the Boeing flights don't have a row 13 in them (superstition !!!???) and it was next to emergency exit. So I was briefed by the air hostess on duty about the safety stuffs. Normally, I dodge it saying I know, but that day I din't want to make the hostess feel bad :-) and I listened patiently with some questions (doubts !!) in between. I am impressed with my human values myself !!!
Feb 25, 2006:
I had to cancel my return ticket to Bangalore for which I went to Santacruz (domestic airport). That just took me an hour. Then had a marathon sleep for 5 hrs in the afternoon, a nice dinner and again a sleep for ...................
Feb 26, 2006:D day - Visited Mahalakshmi temple.
You really can't keep me away from adventures for too long. yeah, I had one. Well, I was staying in Andheri(E) which is in sub urban Bombay and the temple is at a place called Mahalakshmi which is in the city. In Bombay, the autos are not allowed in the city and hence I planned to go by electric train, in spite of my faher insisting on my going by a cab. Come on, I wanted to get a feel of Bombay, after all. All went well - Took an auto from my hotel to Andheri station, got a ticket and boarded a local train. I got to know that Mahalakshmi is the 3rd stop from Dadar and when I reached Dadar I asked a co passenger whether the train
stops at Mahalakshmi and I got the answer I expected - NO. So got down from the train which had just started to move. I din't know of that there are basically Fast (limitted stops) and Slow(stops at all places) trains (I actually ignored the F and S that I saw against the trains, in the boards;-)). Happens. Took a slow train and the third stop really was Mahalakshmi. Got down and just when I wanted to feel a sense of accomplishment, came the beamer in the form of a ticket collector. Hey, I had purchased the ticket but it was a second class ticket and I had happily travelled in a first class coach. Then I had to convince him that I din't intend to do anything of that sort and that it just happened since I'm new to Bombay and son on and so forth. Eventually I had to pay the difference which was 10 times the fare I had paid (One more F & S confusion - coincidence !!! ). Put this at the back of my mind and took a cab to the temple. Had a great and peaceful darshan. Took a train back to Andheri (Got a F - class ticket and boarded an S train - GOOD !!) and once I came back to the hotel, I told myself "You have done it !!".
Mar 5, 2006: Return to Bangalore.

By the way, I liked Bombay more than Bangalore for more than one reason,
1. Bombay is very close to the definition of a city as compared to Bangalore.
2. Bombay is multi faceted as in there are people working in all industries, from all walks of life etc. unlike Bangalore where every second person works in IT.
3. Infrastructure - It will be highly unfair on my part even if I write a line comparing the infrastructure of these two places.
4. Weather - Some might feel Bngalore is better, but for someone like me who had spent 20 yrs in a hot place like Trichy, I enjoyed Bombay weather and really felt AT HOME. After all, that's the kind of weather that will encourage someone to work :-)
5. Dosa - Frankly, I felt the Dosa and sambar of Bombay much closer to the one available in Tamil Nadu. :-)
6. Autos - After Kerala, where the rate is fair and auto wallahs also fair I would rate Bombay autos.

Bye for now :-))

" "

2006-01-04T14:41:00.000+05:30

Do not get confused by the title(For those who cannot see " " is the title, will tell u why later.). Well, this blog is about one of my collegues, boy, of course (at least that is what we all think), who gets at least 10 new names daily (Please refer my previous blog where i had made a mention about this character).

His name WAS (I mean it !!!) Srinivasan B. Let me list down the names that have been conferred on him till date with the short description of "why ?".

"Pasta"
The first name he got was "pasta", yes, the Italian food. This requires some explanation. It was lunch time at my office and we were all standing in the queue to get the food coupon. As we were perusing thru the menu / items for the day, Srini saw some pasta preparation listed and asked me as to whether he can take it. I said, "You can take it and I will be happy, because I feel happy when others suffer". Any homo sapien (with Sixth Sense) would have understood what I meant. But our hero opted for Pasta. It's ok till now. But, the moment he took the first spoon his face resembled acestors of homo sapiens and on top of that he blamed me the mishap citing that I din't warn him. I really couldn't take it and hence opted to call him Srinivasan Pastasundaram, just as a remembrance of this unnecessary blame that fell on me. Since Srini din't prefer modifying his second name, we made it a point to play around with his first name alone and hence named him Srinivasan "pasta" B (Observe the " " in which the name is enclosed, and hence this blog is titled so) and considering the length, modified the same as Srini"Pasta"n / "Pasta"vasan.

"What"
Do you expect us to leave someone who harrassed a teenage girl in a public gathering by "staring" at her and asking her "what ?" in such a tone that the poor lady fainted on the spot and is currently getting treatment for the ever dangerous "What phobia" ??? Definitely not. We named him "what" :-). Derivatives : Srini"what"an, pasta"what"on.

"*****"
Well, this guy's username is "Balai". Since that is too difficult to pronounce (!! ??) we shortened it to *****. Nothing more to it and he is in no way responsible for this name.

"Julius"
Considering the Italian connection that he got owing to his attachment to Pasta, we named him after Julius Ceaser (Good that Ceaser who was such a great emperor, is not alive amidst us to hear this :-) ) as, Srini "Ceaser", "Julius"vasan.

"Junk"
One other team mate found everything associated with him "junk" and named him "junk".

"Roadblock"
To be frank this is name that he got just 2 min back :-) :-)

" "" "
"" is a wild card here where in we can call him anything. Whatever he speaks / does will get him a name for sure. In short, you name it and you can name him with it :-)

He is one guy, who is keeping the spark of creativity in every member of our team ablaze. We just can't move a day without him and hence he canbe called as Srini "can't move a day without" vasan.

bye !!

I wanted to ..............

2005-12-29T17:10:00.000+05:30

Hey
It's really a long time since I am making my presense felt in blogger...... Not that I did not have anything to write, just that I din't :-(. Now that we are just one day away from 2006, I just wanted to wind up 2005 with this blog.

Just thought of listing down what all I wanted to blog about since my last entry and hence the title.

Well, the most important thing I wanted to write about was the all important Saturn transit 2005. Oooooooops !! What all happened in and around that period. Starting from my IT return filing drama to a strategic change at the top level management of the company I work for. Not to mention the changes that happened in my project such as ramp downs etc. The Jupiter also transitted round about that time which made me attribute all good and bad happenings to those two planets !!!! I even remember once when I was in Trichy and my mother had added less
salt in the Pulav which she prepared and I was damn sure that it was because of either J or S :-)

The next one I wanted to write about was one hell of a strip in bangalore called "Hosur Road". S***. ****. #!%$#$#&(^(&#^$*%&(^*#$)(*)_********&#$#&#%^*( *^*&*%^*&$(#^*%!%*&_*%_(&%(*(% ^%*&$%(*-!@#$%~^&*(%)&%($&%((&%!)_(!+_$)!%$(!&+_)+)&(&%&!%$!*#_).I really don't have anything more to say. The time I take to commute to and from office, I could have completed a BE, an MBA and a Ph.D in investment banking :-). There were talks that our office will be shifted closer to the city, but, how on earth can I expect something so good to happen given that Saturn and Jupiter are at 12 and 3 respectively in my chart !!!!!!!

I can't forget the rain that lashed Tamil Nadu, especially Trichy, which resulted in the 9th wonder of the modern world (the eighth wonder is Aishwarya Rai for those who do not know.), water in "Kollidam" a river in Trichy, where I have never seen a drop of water for the past 23 years of my life. There were even plans of building apartments in that stetch of land !!!

And there were these day to day incidents (irrtiations) like, the guy who keeps on talking with his, I don't know who, in my morning bus, so loudly that I know 75 % of his teenage life myself; the poor soul in our team whom we give a different name on a daily basis("Pasta") ; I even had an incident in today's lunch where I saw the reality of "Kali" yuga... do not want to elaborate much though ;).

What else ???? Cant think of any more now.... Might be there is a part II for this blog. Meet u all next year :-)Hopefully, very soon.

Happy New Year !!!!

I did IT !!!

2005-07-25T18:48:00.000+05:30

Quite a long time since I wrote ... Not that I din't have anything to write.

I wanted to write about that "chatter box" female whom I happened to see in my company bus, who din't stop her dialog about the organisation in her workplace as to, who is sitting where, throughout the journey.
I indeed wanted to write about that day when I was so irritated coz of spending almost two and a half hours to go home from my office and had a bus to catch (to Trichy).Also I wanted to write about the new house in Arakere to which we are going to shift in a week.

But superceding all those minor (!!!) stuffs is what happened today :-(.... JULY 25, 2005. A day which I would never forget at least as long as I would file IT returns !!!!!!!!!!!

Let me tell you what happened.... We were supposed to file our IT returns today for which we needed to get our original Form 16 (distributed already to us) and the SARAL form. Since I am a systematic (??!!) guy, I had brought my Form 16 to office desk quite few days before. No issues with that. I was able to get my SARAL form printed out from my company's intranet, fill it, sign it etc. Absolutely no issues with that too. When I thought that I am all set and just filing of the return remains, came the NEWS (shocking indeed) !!!! Looks like we need to have the photocopy of the PAN card. I thought that this is just a formality and proceeded to the queue. When we enquired inside I heard the inevitable !@#$%^&*( ... PAN CARD PHOTOCOPY IS MANDATORY FOR FILING OF RETURNS...

Wait wait.... I am getting what you are thinking now. "What's so great about getting a card xeroxed....???, a matter of Paises. ok.... Even if you do not have it with you go home, get it xeroxed, bring it back and submit.".... Great to hear.. But that was not cho chimple. My PAN card is in Trichy. I was not sure whether I had a photocopy of the same... Also, I had put all my documents in the house where I will be shifting next week. Booooooooooooom !!!

So .... started the day. Took an auto. Luckily I had someone in my club.... I got down at BG circle. Another auto to my place. Reached. Opened the suitcase. Opened my folder. Sh** !!! I donot have a PAN copy. So took an auto back and reached Silk board and waited for nearly an hour for the company bus. Came back......

In the meantime, I had called my father and told him the goof up. He had also made an auto trip around Trichy to get my PAN card from home.
Around 12:30 I was back in office. My father also. Now that he has the the card there were two options....

Option A : Take a copy of the PAN and fax it to my office. Sounds great. My father indeed did it. But receiving here had some hiccups. No film in the Fax machine... once that was fixed, "No paper ". That was also fixed. Then the machine, kind of vomitted, some 8 or 9 papers (backlogs). Mine came too..... GOSH !!! Neither my name nor my photograph was visible. The only thing that I could read was my grandpa's name printed after my father's !!! :-)SO called my father again and got it faxed again .... Believe me !! It was worse than the previos copy :-(((( Option A dropped.
Option B: Scan the card and send me a mail. Sounds cool.... But my day was so bad that this was also not coooool. The mail that my father sent first din't reach my inbox till now. Dunno where it is :-(. When I told this to my father, he sort of had a meeting with all his colleagues(pro'ly had a brainstorming session) and finally decided that he(they) will send the mail via their office ID to my office as well as Yahoo! Id. It did come at last. But only the front part of the card. That was good enough though. Option B worked !!!

The next phase was even more irritating. We joined the queue which was perhaps longer than the Hanuman's tail !!! We were in the queue for nearly 2.5 hrs and eventually I filed IT !!!
Called home.... My mother will be breaking a coconut to Ganesha. I asked her to add one for my account. :-)

The week has started like this.... Not sure what course it will take.... :-) Anyhow I won't mind blaming this on the Saturn transit ... After all I am going through the 7.5 year period of the Saturn ;-))

Ciaooooooooooooo !!

South Karnataka II

2005-06-20T21:02:00.001+05:30

Continued ...

This was a surprise !!! Din't expect I will write this one today. By the way, my colleague pointed out that the places we visitted were not North Karnataka but South. I would change the topic as North Canara I and II.... Sorry !! Thanks to him ..

So, after the heroics that we did on the previous day, we got a good night's sleep. We were supposed to wake up at 05:45 AM. Psyche had set an alarm. The next day when I woke up it was 06:30 AM. We realized that the mobile was in silent mode and the alarm was set. Obviously no way we could have expected it to buzz. Good strategy by Psyche !!!

All said and done, we started to the temple. Udupi Krishna was looking simply superb. Small and cute. Had a nice breakfast in Udupi. The sambar was really good. SOmehow it was Tamil style. Reached back to the hotel and packed. Bye to Udupi and started for Dharmasthala.

When we reached the bus stand we had a minor shock. There is only one bus which has to come from Pune to Dharmasthala at that time. We had to take a private bus and go one some place first (Sorry forgot the name of that intermediate transit location :)) and take another bus to Dharmasthala. That was cool though.. We reached Dharmasthala by aound 2 in the afternoon. Enquired for buses to Bangalore from there and came to know that there is a KSRTC Rajahamsa bus at 10 in the night. So we were left with 8 hrs and we had to cover two more places.

Had a major shock now. A huge crowd in the temple for Darshan and we had only 2 more hrs coz the temple will be closed for 30 minutes from 4 !!! Joined the queue. Took us around 2 hrs. Very well managed. Manjunathaswamy was really cool indeed :-). Then came the best part of the day. We had the lunch at the temple. Traditional Karnataka style of Rasam first and then Sambar. No vegetable. In spite of that relished that first coz we were starving and secondly coz that was from the temple. So 80 % of what we wanted to accomplish was done at that time.

Planned to take a taxi to Subrahmanya.The driver was a nice guy. The route between Dharmasthala and Subrahmanya was totally forest and scenic. Reached there by 6. Absolutely no crowd. Had a peaceful darshan of the main deity and Adi Subramanya too. DONE !!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !!!! We congatulated each other. Had a bajji there which was not all that great. On the way back the driver stopped in a pillayar temple. Bonus !!! Reached back Dharmasthala... Karnataka tiffin and bus at 10. That brings us to the end of a memorable trip that none of us will forget :-)) (senti !!)

I had a day off on monday(Mahavir Jayanthi), the day we reached Bangalore. Others had to go to office. Just slept the day off.

Hope we plan and execute many more trips like this in the future. :-)

South Karnataka - I

2005-06-04T16:30:00.001+05:30

Hi All
This blog is about the trip to North Karnataka that we (Balaji-also called as Psyche, Mukund- also called as Delay and karthikeyan- also called as King Kong) went for. Since you all know that we are good boys(even if you don't, know now !!!), our trip comprised of only temples. We were planning for quite sometime, but it came true only on May 20, 2005. The plan was to cover the following five places in two days (May 21 and 22) - Sringeri, Kollur, Udupi, Dharmasthala and Kukke Subramanya.

Quite a bit is there to write about the entire trip. So I am splitting the same and writing as two blogs and hence the title. This one just contains the happenings(!!!) on the first day.
I would like share one small irony. Something related to work. We at our office normally plan our release to the client on fridays. As it is obvious, I will have some plans of going places (at least to Trichy, on fridays). So normally there will be a little bit of tension in catching my bus etc. due to the release. But when it comes to going to temples like this, there used to be a some sudden last minute tension(don't know from where it evolves :-)) When we planned a trip to Tirupathi and when I was to visit our family deity etc. This time was no exception. That too, there is one specific module which creates the problem always(same one this time too!!- Probably that module was started in some kind of "Rahu Kalam" :-)). Our bus to Sringeri was at 10 PM and I had planned to leave office by the 6:15 PM shuttle. I ended up taking the 7:15 PM shuttle (at least !!) and reached Majestic by around 9:15 PM. This is some kind of indication that, He (or She !) always gives some kind of hiccup in the beginning just to test his devotees, perhaps :-)

So all set now. All four of us were in time at Majestic. We succesfully started to Sringeri at 10:15 PM. To start with, the pushback on the seat in which karthi sat broke and he crash landed his head on the girl beside him. He din't mind though :-) We reached Sringeri by 7 AM on Saturday. The road to Sringeri and Sringeri by itself was beautiful, doing justice to it's name.(By the way, Singeri = Sringa + Giri => Beautiful hill). We came to know that all the cottages were full and even if some gets vacted only families will be given preferrence against bachelors (This is something that i don't like, after all every one would have been a bachelor at some point of time, people are jealous of bachelors pro'ly :-DDD). So we had to get ready in the common bathrooms etc. No complaints. We were ready in an hour.

VOWWWWWWWW!!! Wasn't she gorgeous ??? Saradhambal, I mean - the deity at Sringeri. Such a majestic look and posture. Had a great darshan. Visited the Chandramouleeswara temple also, which is inside the same campus. The architectural beauty of the temple was also great residing at the banks of Tungabadra. We just put our legs into the Tunga as there were too may BIG fish. Then we reached the mutt. The mutt is on the other side of the temple separated by the Tunga. Waited for sometime for His Holiness to arrive. Was able to meet him and since we are from the right families (!!! :-)), we were even able introduce ourselves (as So and So's such and such relation !!) and talk with him. Felt really happy :-). Got his blessings and started from there. Since we were there in some kind of an odd time couldn't have our lunch at the mutt :-(.

Our next plan was Kollur. We did not have a clear idea as to how to reach Kollur from Sringeri. Each one we asked had his own route. So we came to a consensus that we will go to Udupi and then go to Kollur from there. We took a bus that started at 2:30 PM. The bus driver was a man of his words. He siad he will take us in 90 minutes and bang we were there at Udupi at 4 PM. The route to Udupi was also through mountains and we enjoyed that ride too. Sringeri Udupi was around 70 kms. The moment we reached Udupi we saw a bus starting to Kollur which we boarded immediately.

This strip was the most memorable one - in the other sense :-(.The bus driver had the worst habbit of stopping every 15 seconds. His timer was so accurate that he never drove continuously for more than 30 seconds at any point of time :((. Mukund was in some kind of form at that time. He almost reached salvation that he used to give the signal to stop the bus even if the conductor did not !!! At last we reached Kollur at 6:40 PM. Had a nice darshan and since Mukund knew someone there we even were able to do some special puja... :-))). Mookambiga does everything for a reason :-). Came out of the temple with a sense of accomplishment. Had the dinner there. Typical Karnataka Sambar (Ayyyyye :-((). Took a bus to Udupi. Had to stand for sometime but made friends with the driver and were able to sit near on the engine and in the steps. Had a tussle with two idiots, who wanted the engine seat (!!) and because of our influence with the driver (!!) ended up making those guys relinquish the seat. But we had to stand too... Was happy in spite of that as we had the sadistic pleasure of making them stand (ha ha ha).

Reached Udupi by 11:30 PM. Now comes the topping !!. We took a room (A/C) after rejecting two/three rooms in the same hotel. Everything was well till the power went off and we came to know that the generator that the hotel had was not working. Since it was an A/C room there was no way we could even open the windows. It was like a furnace inside. Karthi rose to the occasion. He really did !! Went straight to the reception and had some kind of quarrel and we (minus Psyche) backed him up and came to the conclusion that we are vacating the room (!!!). We got the full refund too :-)). The one thing that pissed us all off is the fact that Psyche was unaware of the entire situation and he was sleeping in the room covering himself with a blanket (!!@#$$&*^&*)& - These were the words that we used on Psyche at that time, censored for profanity :-)) )

Eventually we got a room in a nearby hotel which had a working generator and started a good night(day's !!!) sleep at 1 AM.

To be continued ...

#define

2005-05-13T07:40:00.000+05:30

Quite a long time No see !!! So a Big Hi to all.

From the title u might think i am going to write some techie stuff. Definitely not !!

This blog is just an imagination as to how handy or wierd it will be, if #defines can be applied in real life. Here are some samples,
#define BE_IN_REC MBA_IN_WHARTON

Amazing isn't it? or other way round, if I have a deadly enemy who had completed his MBA at Wharton... Take this
#define MBA_IN_WHARTON SECOND_STANDARD_FAIL_IN_CORPORATION_SCHOOL :-).

If someone is not happy with his/her pay, here is the hike

#define LAKHS_PER_ANNUM CRORES_PER_ANNUM or #define INDIAN_RUPEE POUND_STERLING

I won't mind,
#define ELECTRONIC_CITY BTM_12TH_MAINBy the way, Electronic city is the place where my office is located and I reside at BTM Layout, 12 th main. Currently I travel more than 15 km :-(

How about this ?

#define MY_GIRL_FRIEND AISHWARYA_ROY
No No No !!! I take it back. That would make me just an element of an infinite series of Salman khan, Vivek oberoi ..... Really wierd.

I hope everyone will long to do the next one

#define WEEKDAY WEEKEND .... cho chimple :-)

As a mark of patriotism
#define EVERY_CRICKET_WORLDCUP 1983_WORLD_CUP

Think, that's the only way India can win a world cup ever ;-(

I would have really loved to do this when I was in Taiwan,
#define SUBWAY_SANDWICH MASALDOSA_SAMBAR_IDLY_.............

How many of you will say no to something like
#define Morning Evening ... cooooooooooooooooool

The list can go on.....

Enough. I am getting too ambitious.

But one thing is for sure. There is a saying, "If you can dream it, you can achieve it". I would like to rephrase it as " If you can define it, you can achieve it " :-))

I dedicate this blog to #define specialists ;-). (Hope my team mates will understand !!)

Cheers !!!

Buddha or Narayana !!!

2005-04-26T21:29:00.000+05:30

Am back to India !! Wanted to post this one 10 days back..... couldn't :(
Landed in Bangalore on saturday (April 16) night. Same route that I took, the last three times. This time also I took the transit tour from the Bangkok Air port. Visitted the Grand Palace - Emerald Buddha Temple. Well, coming to the point, this blog is just a comparison between Buddhism and Hinduism.
There is a long standing opinion that Buddha is the NINTH incarnation of Vishnu, out of his "Dasaavathaara", the tenth one namely "Kalki" (Vishnu on a white horse), yet to be taken when the "Kali Yuga" ends through the yet to come "Pralaya" or the great disaster. There is also an opinion that, this thought of Buddha being an incarnation

of Vishnu, was being spread by Aadhi Shankara, whose purpose of birth was to spread Hinduism and avoid it being taken over by the then spreading Buddhism and Jainism. But I do believe in the first statement.

Before putting my thoughts, here are the 10 avatars of Vishnu. Matsya (Fish), Koorma (turtle), Varaaha (wild boar), Narasimha (Half human-half lion), Vaamana (short person), Bhargava (also called Parasu Rama), Rama, Krishna, Bouddha (Should be Buddha) and Kalki (yet to come). Some say that, Balarama (Krishna's brother) is the ninth incarnation of Vishnu. That is not true as it is mentioned in the Bhagavatha as well as in the Mahabharatha, that Bala rama is the incarnation of Aadhi Sesha (The cobra on which Vishnu sleeps). Btw, Lakshmana was also an incarnation of Aadhi Sesha. Please note that, Rama avatar was in "Thredha Yuga" and
Krishna avatar was in "Dwaabara Yuga" and there is no point taking incarnations of Krishna and Bala Rama in the same Yuga - Four yugas as per Hinduism are - Kritha, Thredha, Dwabara and Kali (current and last).

Well, here are my points favouring my thoughts. Buddhism was born in India, the land where Hinduism evolved. I am using the word "evolved" coz, no one knows when Hinduism started and also there are no governing bodies etc. for spreading Hinduism. "Siddhartha" - The real name of lord Buddha is one of the thousand names of lord Vishnu (Sahasra nama). For that matter "Pali" the language that Buddha used to preach is very close to "sanskrit". For instance, the guide who took me around in Bangkok was called, " Suk Neethi" which he said means " Happy by law" in Pali. It means the same in Sanskrit. many places and landmarks in Thailand have Pali names and they sound and mean the same in sanskrit too. Also, all the kings of Thailand are named Rama.

The Emerald Buddha temple had the complete Ramayana depicted in a pictorial form. The hero of the Ramayana according to them is "Hanuman". He is depicted in the same way as we know him in India :-), the only difference being he is a casanova according to Buddhist belief as against the "Brahmachari" image that we have about him. The wife of Hanuman is a Mermaid as depicted by their pictures. There is one belief in Hindu mythology too about Hanuman, which is, when Hanuman was flying across the sea to Lanka, his sweat fell on one of the fish and eventually the fish gave birth to a child who was also as powerful as Hanuman was :-). This is
somewhat close to the mermaid depiction.

There were statues of Buddha with four heads (Brahma). Most of the Buddist temples also have a "Ganapathi" vigraha. Also I have seen Siva in the form of Linga in most of the temples. One very special fact is that, there is a temple called the "Sleeping Buddha" temple, where in the Buddha poses on a "Naga", resting his head on his palm. We have temples of Vishnu in the same pose in "Srirangam" near Trichy or the "AnanthaPadmanabha swamy" temple in Trivandrum (Kerala).

Lastly, there is a Stupa in the Grand Palace which is for "Kalki" incarnation that Buddha is going to take. I will surely upload some photoes in my blog soon. Well, the above blog is definitely not some kind of Hindutva spreading mission :-). Just some thoughts that I was able to corelate between Hinduism and Buddhism. I conclude saying what Suk neethi told me when he left..."
Your God and Our God are the same".

Bye !!

Time to leave ...

2005-04-15T15:43:00.000+05:30

Hey
Today is my 39th day at Taiwan and I am leaving by the 9 AM flight tomorrow. Taipei - Bangkok - Bangalore. Planning to take the transit tour of Bangkok as usual.

This stay at Taiwan was the longest and the most memorable, I would say. Firstly, I landed here on my birthday !!! Then a series of Monday blues and the exciting weekends at Danshui, WuLai and the Pacific, got to meet Edgar, Ashish and Jayesh - nice company. Food was also not that much of a problem since the hotel where I stay has a new chef who knew how to make Indian curry !!!!! Was normally having it for dinner and sometime for breakfast. Of course had a nice South Indian lunch at a friend's place. Weather, this time was totally crazy !! Would be very cold on some days, very hot and humid on some, drizzle or pour on some other day and so on. Was afraid I might fall ill, but luckily nothing happened. :-). Incidentally, I was here for Shivarathri (on march 8), good friday and began "Parthiba" year (The new Tamil year) in Taiwan.

By the way, this week was cool, in all sense (weather as well as work). Our client was happy with the progress, this monday was not "blue" and I managed to get a 1 GB USB disk with the amount of money I had !!! Because of my extension of stay, I ran short of money and hence had to borrow some to settle my hotel bill :-(. I had to drop my plans of buying USB sticks for colleagues and friend(Saravanan), USB MP3 player desperately wanted by a colleague and of course the short pants that Anuj asked me :-( Sorry Anuj... I am sure anuj will ask me how I was able to get a 1 GB USB hard disk but not a short pant .... a valid question. But I am equally sure that he knows the answer.
Btw, Eddie gave me a souvneir, a dabba full of Pcific sand and shells. thanks for the same !!

Ok. time to leave. Will update about my flight, Bkk trip etc. in my next blog from Bangalore.

bye Bye !!

The Pacific or The Hindustan ??

2005-04-11T06:57:00.000+05:30

Hi All !!
I had put my leg into the Pacific Ocean on April 8, 2005!!! Here is the complete coverage :-)

I had to go to another office for a meeting today. So Eddie, from my client's office had come to pick me up in the morning. We first went to the American Express Bank as I had to exchange some money (in fact quite a bit, around 110,000 NT$ !!, for settling my hotel account). Then we went to the place where we were supposed to go. The office building was really massive. I am really quite impressed with the infrastructure here (if at all, it matters !!). The meeting was over just before lunch time. I was planning to have my lunch at the Indian restaurant. Before I suggested this to Eddie, he asked me whether I would be interested to go and see the Pacific. I WAS THRILLED !!!!

But great things in life come only if we make sacrifices. Here is the option given to me.Go to Indian restaurant, have a great lunch. I was even mentally prepared to have Tomato soup, naan, Malai koftha + Bindi masala, Subzi biriyani and kulfi... That's it !! that's what I normally have when I go to the Hindustan (The name of the Indian Restaurant here). Or, take some sandwich or something and go to Keelung island, where the Pacific is accessible. The Red and the Blue pill !! Doing both is not possible due to various reasons like distance, time etc.

Believe me !! It was a very very tough decision to make !! There are two ways of thinking about the given situation. One is, " (1) What is there in the Pacific Ocean ? The same blue, salty sea water. H2O + NaCl. Should I sacrifice a nice food after starving for nearly a month without good food ? After all we live and earn to eat properly :-)" or " (2) Still one more week. I am going to have Indian food once I go back to India. After a month, if I feel like eating a Biriyani, I can. But if I feel like going to the Pacific ... Can I ? For that matter no sea coast is close to Bangalore :-)." Number 2 won. No Indian food :-( !!

So we packed a Spaghetti + French fries and started to Keelung. The ride was through mountains and tunnels. Very picturesque. We even passed the port where a ship bound for Japan was about to start and then the National Taiwan University (where Eddie did his Bachelors degree) and the bridge that marked the end of Taiwan Strait and the beginning of the Pacific !!! At last we were there. It was not some kind of a beach but was a rocky sea shore where people can take some snaps, pick sea weeds, catch crabs etc. It was a great sight to see the sea surrounded by rocks and mountains. We had our Spaghetti sitting by the rocky shore. Not good :-((. Since the water had a lot of sea weeds it was really slippery. So I carefully went in and stood in a place where the waves can kiss my knee :-). Took some snaps as a proof and waved adieu to Prashanth (Hey, Pacific is called Prashant Maha Sagar in Hindi !!)

Thanked Eddie for his suggestion and time and rode back to work, with the sense of achievement, bidding farewell to the Queen of Oceans !!

Weekend Vs Monday

2005-04-07T05:00:00.000+05:30

Hi !!
If the above two candidates contest in a poll there will be no need for counting the votes !!

I am experiencing this Monday Panic like never before, in my current trip of Taiwan. I have spent 4 (weekends + monday) here so far and I was never happy on any of the mondays :(. It's mainly coz, we leave some "over the weekend" tests on friday evenings hoping to see things working great on Monday morning. Guess what ?? That was never the case, this time at least.

Anyhow, all the weekends were great so far :). I would prefer writing about the weekends than the monday that followed :-)

The first two weekends were full of eating and sleeping including a Real Good South Indian Lunch at a friend's house :-).

The third one - planned to go to Damshui - A place close to the seashore; South China Sea. I had visited that place with my client when I had come here, the first time. I remember my client telling me that this is the best place in Taipei to have a date !! As expected and as it was the case with me(and my friends) always, I went there with guys ( :(((( ). Three of them, in fact - Ashish, Edgar and Jayesh - they are also from India and they will be here for at least a month. This is one phenomena that is with us always. Be it Ooty or Kodaikanal or Tirupathi we were a group of 8 or 10 guys always. Taipei was no exception :). No complaints though :-). Had a great time at Fisherman's Wharf and the sea coast. Spent nearly 4 to 5 hours there.

In the last weeknd we went to WuLai Hot springs zone, which is some 50 km from the place where we stay. We took an MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) to Xindian and then a bus to WuLai. The place was amazing - Nature at its best !!! We first laid ourselves in the Natural Hot Springs for nearly an hour. I was surprised to see boiling hot and Ice cold water just separated by a layer of pebbles. Mother nature is amazing !!! Then we saw the water falls. Also, went to the park on the other side of the mountain via Cable car( The only mode of transport connecting the two sides). I was able to see nothing but greenery where ever I turned :-). Came back to the room after a nice 10 hours, with my mind still lingering around the springs, falls and the green vegetation.

As the other side of the picture the mondays that followed were totally _____ and ***** (upto the dirty mind of the reader to fill in the blanks :-)). That's the reason why, I din't write this blog on Monday. Moreover yesterday was a holiday as it was the "Tomb Sleeping Day" in Taipei, a day to pay homage to the ancestors. I converted it to a "Room Sleeping Day" :-).

Awaiting to see what the next Monday unfolds :-). Wish me luck !!
Bye !!

Eating Habits

2005-04-01T16:35:00.000+05:30

This is a bit lengthy, but interesting.

Of late I had faced many interesting incidents with this V-NV (Vegetarian - Non Vegetartian) food habits. Especially the recent surge of Eastern Journeys I underwent have given me experiences that I would prefer to share with you people.

Firstly, I will tell you about the veggie Sandwich that I get in the SubWay outlet close to my client's office, where I normally have my lunch or dinner. The sandwich is called Veggie Delite. I am really trying to find out what's so delightful about this stuff !!! It is bun filled with stuffs that only cattle will enjoy. To me that sandwich is a human rights violation !!! As a human being am i not entitled for something which is baked / boiled / fried or at least heated ? But I should admit that the soup and cookies I get there are good and that's the reason I keep going there.
I can't blame these people. For them vegetarian is something totally harmless - food to be eaten when someone is sick. But different people here have different definitions for vegetarian. When I was dining at the hotal where I stay, I asked for vegetarian fried rice. The guy asked me whether onion is allowed. I felt that was a sensible question and said "yes". Then came the stunner !!!! He asked me whether pork is allowed ??!!@&* To be frank, pork is the last thing on earth that I will categorize as Veg. I could not understand what made him put pork and onion at the same level :-). I answered him with a pathetic "No". I ended up getting a fried rice with some pink things on it resembling shrimp. Then he explained me it is made of soya bean just to give an NV feeling !!!!!

This one is really good. Happened in the flight between Bangkok and Bangalore last time. It was time to eat and the air hostess asked me whether I want pork + rice or prawns + rice. I could not answer. Just said her I am a veggie. She perused thru her passenger list, cross checked with another air host and triumphantly declared "we have no vegetarians on board". I felt ignored and less important than a piece of paper :-(. The only reason why I was not harsh on her was I din't want to earn the hatred of a beautiful creature ;). I think she also had some soft corner for me :). She searched for 15 mins and gave me a veg meal which i really enjoyed !! Three cheers to Thai airways air hotess' !!!

We have a lot of funny arguments over our lunch table in my office where we have a group which loves plants like anything, they never harm them ;-). In one such discussions I said I am a oo-lacto-vegetarian. That is - I can take egg and milk. Bang came the reply from the other group... I am a porko- muttono - chickeno oo- .... vegetarian !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really envy the NVs ;-)

ok.....it's time to have a veggie delite !!

WHO AM I

2005-03-31T12:37:00.000+05:30

who am i
If you type the above, on a unix console you will get a reply immediately. But in real life this is not such simple a question to answer. Please don't think I am going to write something philosophical !!!

"who/what am i?" or rather "who/what are we?" (am assuming no non human is reading this !!)is one question that I would like to get an answer for. Since it is not easy, I would rather rephrase the question as to " what i would prefer to be?"

I really don't want a fundoo looking elderly guy, with a white overcoat, well trimmed French beard and big round spectacles, calling himself the architect of this world (a mathematical system) appear in front of me someday and let me know that I am the outcome of an unbalanced, third order equation, when he designed the mathematical model of his creation(the world). I am just imagining "The Matrix" kind of a scenario. I would not prefer to know that. (Even if it is true I would have some repreive if I come to know that the system has been designed on Linux rather than on Windows :-) )

Nor would I prefer a situation, where in I need to take part in some kind of fight for the very existense of the human race, against the machines, of course with some machines helping us (The Terminator kind of a scenario).
What next ? Do you believe I would prefer to be an alien with some extra ordinary powers ? IMPOSSIBLE. Nor would i like to know that 50 % of people around me whom i think are humans, are aliens (Men In Black, of course.) I do have some strong candidates around me whom I think are aliens !!!!!!

So what is that I would prefer to be? Din't you still get that? Plain and Simple. I want to be who I am now or rather who I think I am now.

Well, enough of this crap. This blog was really the outcome of watching a series of English movies (no other go, cant understand chinese :-( ) . That's the whole reason I insist myself and my friends in my room to watch only Indian movies which are inside a regular formula of family, romance, sentiments etc. .... i mean normal human feelings :-)

I conclude saying .... Be Human !!!

bye !!

To Start With ...

2005-03-31T08:40:00.000+05:30

Hey

For guys who know me well, this might be a surprise !!!! Considering the fact that I know myself (I don't mean i have reached self realization. Just take it literally :)) to a decent extent, even am surprised !!!

What made me do this ? Blogging, i mean, of course.

I do have the habit of writing diary. My diaries normally contain the happenings of the day. Of course my friends will know that nothing really interesting happens in our lives ;-), in spite of which i keep it confidential, just for the fun of it. Still, I do try to fill in some meaningful pages. Also, after reading my friends' blogs i thought of doing it myself. In addition to that I am currently in Taiwan at my client's site. So I am alone, bored, tired (a bit) and in grave danger of forgetting my grammar (sorry, if some taiwanese/chinese are reading this by any chance). All these factors triggered me to do something unusual... So i ended up here.

I really don't know how long I 'll continue doing this, how long this enthu in me will last etc. But till the inevitable happens, i am afraid, you people(if exist) should bear with me.

Ok... my pizza has come. got to have my dinner.
ciao !!!