ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು Guy in Chennai writes...

Thiruvannamalai-The Divine Circle

2011-12-18T19:42:00.001+05:30

Thiruvannamalai is the abode of Lord Arunachala Shiva nestled in the hills midway between Bangalore and Chennai
It is also the place where Ramana Mahirishi has his ashram.
Read more about Thiruvannamala here

I left yesterday from our Chennai Office at 6.15 pm by bus with 40 colleagues to Thiruvannamalai. We left with the intention of doing a Girivalam or spiritual walk around the holy hill...

The road from Tindivanam -Gingee - T'malai is awful after this rain season with full of potholes' and rough patches...The bumpy road made us reach only 11.15 pm ( 5 hrs for 190 odd kms).

We spent first hour in the bus chanting Rudram and Maha mrutyunjaya mantram.

The first patch through the town( starting from the temple- Rajagopuram side)-3 to 4 kms is on Bangalore highway, which is now completely damaged by rains, and I was barefooted then and felt acute foot pain by the sharp pebbles and wading through puddles of rain water stagnant on the road and then speeding trucks and overnight buses trying to run us off the road to the drains ...! (Thank 'Shiva' it was a clear night though it had rained on previous days...)

Then I thought that it's good to complete the walk and concentrate on bhakti rather than get distracted by the pain, and so wore chappals for the rest of the walk like many others with us (the rest of the Girivalam , 9 kms separated from the Highway traffic is in good smooth condition with tiled footpath too!)

The are are 12 lingams and being Karthiga masam, the temples were open poojas freshly done and being done. The jyothi/light atop the hill was visible clearly too...

The first temple for us was Agni lingam and the last one was Easanya Lingam.

Luckily there were like minded people for me, starting with our VP , Mr Krishna from AP, Managers- Ramesh , Bala and others who are traditional by nature and also some Sai devotees.

So we started singing Bhajans, me - Sai bhajans on Shiva (I sang some 12 to 14 myself) , others Murugan, Ayyappa and Amman bhajans/ songs in Tamil and even 'Hare rama Hare Krishna' chants and slokas and mantrams.

Our VP with a golden voice like SPB sang Shanakarabharanam and Annamayya songs -all devotional ones, and that is what made us forget the strain of walking. We completed the walk this spending time singing merrily all through. We had completed the 14 km stretch of Girivalam thus!

We broke once in between for sukku coffe and channa/ peanuts ( roadside kadai/ vendor) and in the end for a fresh bun and tea after the walk.

We left from Thiruivannamala temple parking at 3.45 am and reached home by 8.15 am. It was not possible to visit the temple as it was still closed.

Travel Tips:

You can reach The Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore and Chennai by road in the same duration
If you want to have darshan of Lord Arunachaleshwara , it is not possible till 5 am , when the doors open. So time your walk accordingly.

My Movie Reviews on IMDB

2011-10-13T13:30:00.010+05:30

IMDB( Internet Movie database) is great database for film buffs, mainly for Hollywood, Bollywood and other smaller 'woods' to some extent! (Dunno?... Kollywood= Tamil, Tollywood= Telugu, Sandalwood= Kannada etc)

When you want to recall an old movie, i.e.; when you are on a ‘retro trip’ or want a blast from the past; a visit to IMDB.com is a must.

They have painstakingly recorded Film Industry's products over the decades with credits to the extent available and even allow you (after free registration) to edit the credits, put a synopsis and post reviews with ratings as well. They do not take unnecessarily long to approve your post either.

Before I try to buy up an old Hindi movie I want to see or revisit, or even to try downloading huge MBs of files from free Internet sites, I always visit IMDB first and make sure to know the details of cast, director, Music credits and read a couple of reviews before embarking on catching the actual film... It pays to play safe, you see! And then, you can filter out the riffraff from solid gold!

My own movie reviews ( Hindi and Kannada) (some 30 till now) on this Site are posted here:

http://www.imdb.com/user/ur22493182/comments and click 'Index' for list view!

Read and comment on my work for sure but more importantly, don't forget, you too can contribute on the site for everyone's benefit.

Mankatha and Muran: Crime pays and plays

2011-10-13T12:29:00.002+05:30

Recently watched two Tamil movies: Mankatha and Muran.
Two excellent specimen of modern day film making from Kollywood's ever growing talented stables.
Both tensely plotted, finely filmed and sharply edited sleek products...

Mankatha:

Hailed as Ajith's 50th role (Called Ultimate Star in Tamil film-world)', it is a little unusual one for a main line hero to choose such a character with negative shades aplenty.
But then, when SRK or Amitabh can do it in their own ways, so can he.
The movie is interestingly held together by the talented Director Venkat Prabhu ( of Chennai 600028 and Saroja fame). The main theme ( without spoilers!) is about the infamous controversy surrounding betting in T20 / IPL cricket tournaments and how a crooked cop and a motley group of double crossers plan a smart ploy to gyp the crime don who is managing it, of Rs 500 crore of black money for themselves..
As greed and one-upmanship go on overdrive, some unexpected twists and turns take place and movie depicts how even meticulously plotted crime games go topsy-turvy...
A cop on their heels is Arjun , playing his part to the hilt.
Two heroines and a vamp add some glamour factor but don't have much to do..In fact the vamp( Lakshmi Rai) has a more 'meaty' role( Quite literally too! LOL) than Ajith and Arjun's consorts, Trisha and Andrea
The end comes as a double whammy in line with the societal morals nowadays! Good dekho, paisa vasool film this! They say the songs are chart-busters, but I for one could not remember them after the movie got over..( Still hum 1970s Kishoreda numbers after seeing latest movies..Talk of longevity of music!!)

2. Muran:

They are two strangers on a road trip meeting on Chennai- Bangalore highway..Life has tumultuous upheavals in store for them when they confess about their private lives to each other.
Cheran, a soft and cultured musician caught in bad marriage with a cheating and uncaring wife but has a female friend who looks to be a good future life-partner. But his wife just won't give him divorce!..Another a rich spoiled brat with nuttier habits and lives life 'just for thrills' played by Prasanna, claims he has a bad tyrant of a father who if removed from the path, would do just fine for him. Cheran dismisses the very thought and walks off initially.
But their paths would cross again after the fateful road trip and the psychotic young man Prasanna throws Cheran's life into a tailspin demanding for a Quid pro quo of mutually killing their troubles and avoid Police suspicion.

The movie is full of spine-chilling twists and turns and ends in a befitting manner. This is a good example of modern day thrillers and is a laudable debut by Director Rajan Madhav. Cheran and Prasanna compete for acting honors and just about everything is fine here.

Free download Hindi movies from the net!

2011-10-01T18:47:00.007+05:30

The Hindi film Industry-wallahs will strongly dislike this post perhaps, but I am quite sure without their passive /active participation so many hundreds of Classic and new Hindi films besides regional ones would not be floating on the Internet so freely!
There is no shying away from the fact that now thousands of Hindi movies are available to viewers online.

Many DVD Companies have opened their YouTube accounts and they are offering their copyrighted Hindi films to watch freely online...

Some of the popular ones are :

Ultra: http://www.youtube.com/user/UltraHindi
Shemaroo http://www.youtube.com/user/shemaroomovies?feature=chclk
Eros http://www.youtube.com/user/erosentertainment?blend=1&ob=4
Rajshri http://www.youtube.com/user/rajshri?ob=5#p/u
Bollyhood http://www.youtube.com/user/BollyhoodMovies#p/f
Bollymasala http://www.youtube.com/user/bollyhoodmasala#g/p
Mukta arts http://www.youtube.com/user/MuktaArtsMovies#g/search

There are of a no of others which store vast volumes of Classic 60s and 70s bollywood films like stagevu.com, veoh.com, join4movies.com etc.
A lot of online watch link sites are available like www.onlinewatchmovies.net, www.bharatmovies.com, www.filmlinks4u.net/ etc where links to other sites having movies like youtube, megavideo, mediafire etc are stored

Then there are forums where movies in downloadable parts are hosted like :
http://www.indiancinemafans.com/board/upload/hindi-dvd-dvdrips-6/
http://www.amaderforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=122

So many to choose and so little time to write. Make Google your guide as usual!!

Our Recent Temple tours

2011-06-17T19:17:00.034+05:30

Part 1: Kukke Subramanya and Dharmasthala:

To see all the pics we took during Kukke Subramanya trip, click here

We had been planing to visit Kukke Subramanya swamy temple from the last year , One: because it is our 'family deity'( Kula daiva, mane devaru ) and then Secondly we wished to see and enjoy the scenery in a leisurely train journey.

We started off from Bengaluru-Yeswantpur Raiway station at 07.30 am in late May by Train which has been newly introduced to benefit many eager and grateful travelers like us ,as the train passes through some of the most beautiful lush green hills from Sakaleshpur down to Subramanya (TR No 16515-Yesvantpur-Mangalore Exp).

From Hassan onward, the nature in its lush green luxury beckons you and exhilarates you; It is a certain break from the routine humdrum of City life.The only complaint you have is on the total lack of catering on this train, a 'day train' is expected to provide, .. Absolutely no proper lunch is available during lunch time even at Hassan or Sakaleshpur ( between 12 to 2 pm) and you are left to make do with some Puliyogare or curd rice available in limited quantities on the platforms...Pack something at early morning from Bengaluru if you can!
But then, that apart, you have no time to complain on hunger as nature feeds you abundantly with some spectacular shots of ghat section often whisking through 40-odd tunnels en route...Many co-passengers including my children spent most of the time at the door of the bogie happily clicking away on their Cameras...

The train reaches Subramanya Road station by 4.30 pm .You can take share jeep service( Rs 25/ per head) which we used to reach Kukke Subramanya town. Taxis are available for those who need it..The jeep too passes through some lovely curvy gentle hill roads in the 20 odd minutes it takes to reach the temple town..Really Nice!

As we had booked our room in advance at SLR Residency, a decent and comfortable hotel ( Rents from 500/- onwards), we relaxed for some time and went over to the temple.
We had a beautiful evening darshan of the Lord..There is an elephant there too which does various tricks the mahout has taught, and entertains the young devotees.

Free Dinner is served from 8 pm or so , usually there is a long queue for public, and a small exclusive Dining room for Seva karthas and Guests. Of course, the same simple tasty meal is served everywhere...
After the meal, outside on the small shanty shops,you either buy some knick-knacks , souvenirs for back home and friends.. Or just go back to room and hit the sack..Usually you need to get up early in temple towns anyway, esp if you have a packed schedule, so sleeping early is not a bad idea at all.....
Next morning , wake early, get dressed and munch on some tasty Idly-vada dipping in Mangalore sweet sambaar in the Hotel( How different from the spicy, unsweetened Chennai sambaar!), swallow Mangalore bajjis if you will and then leave for the rest of Kukke subramanya darshan..

The Adi subramanya temple in the backyard accessed through a small winding road, then visit Kukke mutt and the Samputa Narasimha swamy temple on the external fringe of the main temple, visit the Sthala Devi (Hosaligamma ) temple and we embarked on the next visit- the famed Dharmasthala some 70 Kms by road..We opted to take a separate taxi for 4 of the family considering at the rush for Bus, and time limits we had before starting back that night...
The roads to Dharmasthala are undoubtedly lovely, dotted with green winding landscapes and gentle hills , the journey being not at all serious to cause any travel-sickness..

You reach the holy town after nearly 1.5 hours travel..We got ourselves, special darshan tickets at Rs 200 each ( Children like my daughter below 12 yrs exempted) and had a very quick and satisfying darshan of Lord Manjunatha swamy. The famous free mass feeding at the huge Lunch hall, which has created some records in the genre, is an awe-inspiring scene and the food is simple and tasty and served at jet speed!..
oh, WOW! Thumbs up for the efficiency!

We returned soon after and managed to have a leisurely Evening darshan at Subramanya and left for catching the night train back to Bengaluru. (16518 Yeswantpur Exp at 9.50 pm)
This train is alright too, you spend the night asleep after being tired, but it reaches Bengaluru a little later, 7.30-ish, coming through Mysore route

All in all, a wonderful trip to the family deity in the hills..!

Part 2: Temples around Chennai

On an impulse , more because of a personal need, I undertook two temple visits today, two ancient, holy and splendid temples in the suburbs of Chennai...

Here is the travelogue: with titles linked to their detailed websites!

1. Pozhichalur Agatheeswarar Temple, where Moolavar being Lord Shiva, with Shanishwara also being worshiped here...
2. Thiruneermalai Neervannan Perumal temple near Pammal, where the Lord Vishnu as Rama avatar presides...

To see all the pics of the two Chennai temples above, click here

1.Agatheeswarar temple

I had head that the first ancient holy shrine is well known in TN as 'Vada Thirunallar' or as the 'second, mini Shani shrine' of which is there near Karaikal, Puducherry!

I took a Local train trip from Guindy station to Pallavaram, the nearest rail head. From there I haggled with an Auto-rickshaw driver that I needed a Round trip from the Station to these two temples and back to the station..He came up with a figure which as a Chennaiite, I felt was in order and hopped into the auto-rickshaw.

The winding dusty roads across the other side of GST Highway lead to Pozhichalur a non-descript residential area near Pammal. You get off near the seemingly inoccuous Temple entrance without much fanfare or teeming vendors..( Again today being a working day!)

The Lord Shivan is being worshiped a a Medium sized Black stone swayambu- (self evolved) Lingam ..Being a working day, 9.30 am, there were hardly anyone and I had the priest to all by myself. The Shaniswarar faces opposite to the main deity ( who is facing East) and Thayar Aananthavalli faces South.
After participating in the Ashtottaram to both Shivan and Shani, I came out to visit the small shrine of Hanuman..
I recited Hanuman chalisa there and prayed.

That's it and I hop back into the Autorickshaw for the second leg of the journey.

We move through some more winding small dusty roads in Pammal and come up bang in front of a fairly green field and small hill with two newly painted temple gopurams atop it shining in bright sunshine..Oh, you do not expect such sights anywhere in Chennai's flat terrain!( except maybe St Thomas mount)... So I was pleasantly surprised and clicked a photo.

The temple at the bottom is Neervanna Perumal temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu who showed himself in Rama avatar and I heard the sthala puranam from the nice vaadhyar there in chaste Tamil..I did manage to get the gist of it.. ( You can read it in the linked website above anyway!)...The Lord's idol is lovely, medium sized and decked up in bright silks and sparkling jewels..Some sight that!... I witnessed ashtottaram and Mangalarathi...

There are two small temples for Thayar and Lord Rama too, but being a working day 10.30 am, both were locked, but had grills , so I did manage to have some darshan there too..

On coming out you see long flights of red and white painted stone steps leading up the hill...to Lord Narasimha and Ranganatha temples which I had seen from a distance en route. But I lost my confidence learning thare were 200padi( steps) and today being a rather hot sweaty day nearing noon, I did not venture to go up but prayed to the deities from below and left back to Pallavaram Station , to return home..

I had consumed some 3.5 hours totally ( 8 am to 11.30am) , all the way back..So that's how long it takes from the heart of Chennai to these two temples..Worth visiting for devotees of Lord Shiva, Shani and Vishnu in and around Chennai..

My Resolutions and I

2011-01-05T22:31:00.004+05:30

Oh..Everyone makes resolutions for a New year..I make mine too, just for myself..Now between you and me..Pssst!

Here is what is likely to be their fate!

.

Resolutions	Second thoughts..
To walk daily mornings	Outside?..No compelling reason! (We have to go out to go to office anyway!) ..Inside the house?..To bathrooms and Kitchen…Oh, Yes!
To reduce the weight/waist line	I will wear ‘lighter costumes’ …lighter in weight, I mean!... never check my weight on a machine again..till next year… Besides if I reduce my size, what happens to my present clothes..Buy again?...No way!
Not to eat too many sweets and fried items..	How will sweetmeat stall owners and bhajji-bondawllahs live?..C’mon. I can’t be so mean or selfish!...Live and Let live, yaar!
To get my teeth checked by Dentist regularly	Only if it hurts and when it hurts..Otherwise his bill usually hurts more!
Not to do Net surfing late at night	Then when…Day time, taking leave from Office?
Not to blog about Politics or scams..	It is politically correct to blog about scams, I believe..
Not to download movies from the Net	Why do we have an Internet connection then?.. ’Internally net ‘ the movies, is my mantra!
And finally...Never to make any New year resolutions again..	Yay! …Double thumbs –up!

Care to join me in some more?

Ayodhya : A Mixed Bag

2010-10-01T15:59:00.046+05:30

(Disclaimer: The views expressed here are personal, in a humorous vein and not intended to cause distress or hurt to any group or community…)

Whew..I can almost hear a collective sigh of relief across the country as the Ayodhya verdict was pronounced.
It was almost like living in a Military State the last two days, with the milling Police, ‘In-The- Face’ Security, Stifling Media restrictions making it like the End of the world was close and breathing down the country’s neck ..

As it transpired, some kind of a ‘politically correct’ and even ‘likeable’, ‘seemingly fair’ decision was meted out behind the closed gates of Allahabad High Court.
I mean there was something in it for everybody…The winners, the losers and the bystanders…
It was what the Central Govt saddled with the onerous task of maintaining law and order could have ever hoped for..It was as they said ‘No-one-lost-No one won’ kind of a situation…The kind where no one can strongly resent the verdict.

But unfortunately even after this ‘win-win’ judgment, no one came out victorious in the end. It solved exactly….NOTHING…

While Hindus can rejoice over the fact that Lord Ram is now a ‘ legally accepted God’( Much to chagrin of detractors in Dravidian parties who questioned about Ram in the not so distant past), Muslims despite their plea vacated, are free to appeal to Supreme Court or come around for that elusive reconciliatory talks, whatever suits them..
The other entity Nirmohi Akhara( Ram jaane, what they wish to achieve) being Sadhus, and bhaktas of Bhajrang Bali have Sita’s Rasoi to look after…

So is the issue over then?
Or as the Electronic media is blaring non stop: “

India

can move on..”?
May be

India

can and will…No one can hold this great force back any longer.

But this issue will go into another long legal loop in the Supreme Court before any one party can claim actual implementable victory…
In sporting terms this was a DRAW or TIE… Haven’t heard of any Cricket match or football game ending in the Finals with a Draw… If it is not even acceptable to two teams in sport, will it be in real-life scenario as complicated as this one?

Hopefully one day , the Supreme court will give the final “FINAL” Decision and we can all move on..to the next controversy !!

My 20 Good Murder Mystery Films in Hindi...

2010-09-22T21:01:00.088+05:30

I have been a fan of Murder mystery films from a long time and make it a point to watch as many whodunits as possible.With such a penchant for this genre of films, it is no wonder that I thought about writing a post listing 20 of such favourite Hindi films starting from 1960s till now..
This is based on my likes only and your own may vary..Please comment if you like to add some more..
In any case you may like to catch up with these movies if you have not watched some..
.
So here it goes....in descending order of ranking from 20 to 1....

20. Jangal mein Mangal (1971):

The movie starts with the a group of College students ( Kiran Kumar, Reena roy play the lead) getting romantic in a jungle camp, despite the strict forbidding wardens played by Pran and Sonia Sahni..Things go bump in the night and a ghostly creature wreaks havoc and murder..Who or what is it.?.This film was a cult hit then, popular among the younger generation what with its hit songs and romance .... but somewhere in the end the plot comes unstuck and loses grip, meanders into a usual masala film climax…...which explains why it got the last rank...( Tum Ktni khoobsoorat ho... being a memorable song from this oldie!)

19. Gupt (1997):

Rajiv rai's thriller starring Bobby Deol, Manisha Koirala and Kajol is an interesting premise about a jealous suitor and the mania it induces which has homicidal consequences.
Well kept suspense till the end, Good music and tight screenplay with the lead trio putting in professional performances made it a worthwhile watch...

18 . Anamika(1973):

This tells the tale of a mysterious woman played by Jaya Bhaduri who comes to the shelter of a woman-hating author Sanjeev Kumar , the story takes many interesting turns and then a surprise mystery solved in the end…Well known hit songs ( Meri bheegi bheegi si and Baahon mein chali aao ) and tight screenplay makes it worthwhile on a rainy day!

17.Parwana(1971):

In his pre superstar era (1970) , Amitabh Bachchan plays a jilted lover to Yogita bali who falls for handsome Navin Nischol..Is all fair in love and murder?...Many have motives, but who is the real culprit?…Excellent premise of schematic murder that comes unstuck in the end...Referenced in the recent movie, Johnny Gaddar!..A couple of unforgettable songs too.( Simti si sharmaayeesi, Yoo na sharma phailaade)

16. Majboor(1974):

Amitabh bachchan’s towering presence, Pretty Parveen babi, mysterious fatal disease dogging the hero and a murder and ransom case. Add to this: Tight car chase scenes and well handled suspense of the killer’s identity makes it all watchable repeatedly, the movie has some hummable numbers (Nahin main nahin dekh sakta, Roote rab ko and Aadmi jo kehta hain)

15. Mahal (1969):

Dev Anand and Asha parekh star in this long winded story of impersonation and murder of a rich old man in a palatial bungalow and hero is framed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.. Wait till the end to find out the truth on what transpired…Good performances, storyline and being a typical Dev Anand film and its share of popular hit songs!( Ankhon ankhon mein hum tum and Yeh duniyaawaale poochenge)

14. Humraaz(1967):

B R Chopra's hit thriller...Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar and Vimi ( the ill fated actress who died penniless in real life) star in this musical murder mystery which is quite an edge of the seat stuff...Superbly handled plot , suspense and music in heady mix makes it a favourite ( Nile gagan ke tale, Na Mooh chupaake and kisi paththar ke moorat se etc are hummable even today)

13. Duniya(1968):

This is a late sixties offering starring a stylish Dev Anand and beautiful Vyjayanthimala. It has a solid multi layered suspenseful story of a homicide tried in a court of law, excellent courtroom showdown between Balraj Sahni and Dev Anand , hit music and pleasing photography…A little slow in the first half but a good humdinger watch nevertheless! ( Dooriyan nazdikiyaan is still popular today)

12. Khel Khel mein(1975):

Rishi Kapoor and Neetu singh with Rakesh Roshan star in this popular musical murder mystery of a college students’ prank going awfully wrong....The screenplay, the hit music, the chemistry between the lead pair and well-kept suspense all make this a heady concoction..
( Ek main aur ek tu… and khullam khullaa pyaar)

11. Samay(2003):

This is a very thrilling and professionally produced movie staring Sushmita Sen as a female Police Officer in a rare role for a heroine . Everything about the investigation and killer’s identity is kept under control, and yet the last few scenes come off too timidly and leaves a a bad taste in the mouth..., It had a lot going for it but somehow it leaves this mystery film in the 11th position and not any higher.

10. Shaque(1976):

This movie set in an offbeat mode by Directors Aruna-Vikas tells the story of an office colleague’s murder which raises the hero’s wife’s suspicions convincing her that he had a hidden role in it and that rocks their marriage…But what’s the truth?…A strong and silent Vinod Khanna teams up with talented Shabana Azmi in this gripping thriller.

9. Buddha mil gayaa(1971):

Known more as a comedy caper starring the veteran Omprakash as the runaway old man, it is actually a riveting murder mystery in which two out- of- work Photographers( Navin Nischol and Deven Verma) get embroiled in several murders taking place one after another.....
They are at their wits’ end, trying to unravel the mystery.. Good hit songs by Kishore-RD Burman combo.
Director Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s only brush with thrillers!
( Raat kali ek khwab mein aayee among the hit songs)

8. Kab, Kyoon aur Kahan?:(1970)

Dharmendra plays a suave CID Officer who romances Babita on board a ship and slowly we get to the plot which involves Babita’s dad who dies under mysterious circumstances leaving behind a huge “ jaaydaad” and an evil looking uncle Pran who is after it and her.. Nothing is at seems as the sinister plot unfolds and our innocent heroine is under threat of losing her sanity and perhaps her life too.. Unless of course the hero manages to unravel the mystery and save them all...A dash of horror makes it more pulse-pounding...

7. Shikar (1968):

Dharmendra and Asha Parekh star in this late sixties Murder mystery set in a jungle resort in which both the police and villains are after the heroine who has amnesia, suspected to have killed the villain, and an innocent hero rushes to her rescue. Good screenplay, nice songs and a very satisfying film…

6. Gumnaam(1965):

A classic whodunit in a mystery island where the characters get bumped off one after another and each suspects the other ; all the while a ghost song repeatedly plays near the bungalow...what’s really happening here?...Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Pran and Helen star in this golden oldie mystery thriller. ( Title song and Hum kaale hai to kya huva)

5. Teesri Manzil(1966):

This was a tie for the fourth place..It’s a great entertaining movie with hyper-energetic Shammi kapoor, pretty Asha parekh, glorious RD Burman songs and an excellent murder mystery that keeps you glued till the last scene…
Director Vijay Anand’s best work in the era and total paisa-vasool !
( Aajaa aajaa and deewaana mujh saa nahin and a host of others in the hit album.)

4. Dhund(1973):

Again BR Chopra, the maverick is back with a chilling mystery starring Danny, Zeenat Aman and Navin Nischol , where on a foggy night the woman is ostensibly is shown to have killed her sadistic hubby, and a stranger has a car breakdown and enters the home at the same time to rescue her…..But what is the truth? Excellent cinematography and tight screenplay, and the mist creating an eerie feel throughout. A worthy watch to see how nicely everything falls into place at the end.

3. Ittefaq(1969):

Rajesh Khanna and Nanda star in this 1970s songless BR Chopra mystery about a Mental patient cum murderer on the loose and a lonely woman at her bungalow on a rainy night where they find a corpse…Excellent eerie ambience and tight screenplay…Must watch to find out who is behind it all..This is a gem of a movie starring the superstar in a role few would have chosen in their hey days..Rajesh Khanna and the story makes it worthwhile...

2. Khamosh(1985):

Vidhu Vinod chopra was good at his work and here he is at his professional best as the Director of a chilling serial murder mystery which takes place in the sylvan Kashmir setting amongst a film crew out on outdoor shooting.
Good solid performances from Nasiruddin shah, Shabana Azmi , Amol Palekar and Pankaj Kapur. The last minute revelation and a shocker of a climax are the high points in this thriller.

1. Kanoon(1960):

This classic is like the definition of a murder mystery. Ashok Kumar and Rajendra Kumar lock horns as Judge and Lawyer in ‘whodunit’ case in the courtroom with a layered plot… Shot in B&W, with no songs and other common distractions, B R Chopra manages to bring out the best from the thespian artistes and make you glued to your seats till the final dénouement.
A thinking man's mystery far ahead of its time...

Now over to you, readers...!

Cricket leaves Football 'Offside'?

2010-06-12T12:32:00.014+05:30

After Cricket T20 world up comes the Football one....
But only chronologically..Because popularity wise football rules..!

Nearly 200 countries avidly follow and practise this game unlike Cricket which is normally played in ex- British colonies in the Commonwealth realm..

For some, Football is a religion and the fans are known to be hysterically passionate bordering on violent where the fortunes of their home teams or clubs are concerned.

But in the scheme of things that the football body FIFA adopts, only 32 countries qualify for the world event once in 4 years...India isn't one of them, unfortunately...

India has indisputably made its presence felt as a world cricketing major but never as a serious International contender in what the world also calls as Soccer.....

Many blame it as too much emphasis on just Cricket, be it attention, coverage or Corporate investment wise...It is said that no other game including Hockey once known as our National game have ever managed to raise the passions of Indian sports lovers like Cricket does...

But you see, that's the point... I started talking about football , didn't I, and see where I ended up?

I vaguely remember following football in my childhood in Bangalore where I grew up when some B league tournaments were played out for free in Malleswaram grounds and there were some enthusiastic followers then too.Understanding the game , some even cheering one favorite team or the other...

Football bodies in India should have woken up then , back in the eighties when Cricket was enthroned as the undisputed monarch of public attention and love.

They should have taken the palpable popularity of some its well known teams like Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Dempo etc to its deserving heights and sought some corporate and media help to do their bit for this very exciting and popular game the world elsewhere follows...
If football fans in India feel they have been shortchanged as Cricket has usurped the pride of place, leaving no leeway for other games, they could be right, but they have woken up only too late...

All said and done, football festival has kicked off in South Africa now and promises to be as exciting as ever...

Let us hope due to some miracle the fever catches on here enough to do some favour to the floundering Indian football sometime sooner than later. And football bodies raise their pitch enough to succeed.

They have been languishing in the 'offside' for long, so this should be their 'goal'…( pun intended!).

Powerplay in Cricket!

2010-04-18T13:29:00.004+05:30

I said Powerplay and I do not mean the first few overs in the Cricket match when there are no field restrictions...

Very similarly, we are now witness to powerful politicians and industrialists and film stars and their kin dabbling with Cricket and breaking ( someone said" Bending is OK") rules of ethics and propriety besides bring up the indecent display of slush money itself that goes in to bidding and auction of players...

Lalit Modi , the so called wizard of this new exciting phenomenon called Cricketainment, started it all two years ago and no one was sure how the money came and went. But we were just ‘bowled over’ by this new recipe which mesmerized the country like a new drug.

Now with the ugly face-off between this money spinner Lalit Modi and the present Junior Minister of External ‘affairs’ (LOL!) Shashi Tharoor, the skeletons are tumbling out of the IPL cupboard and it’s not a pretty sight.
Sure, Cricket has come far from its humble beginning of being a gentleman’s’ game to something resembling a gladiator like action sport…But that still should not have robbed it of its basic tenets of legal discipline and sport ethics..
It now transpires that this Kochi team which has made more news even before it started playing, has a kin of Tharoor tucked away who is getting this sweet deal or sweat equity or what have you..

We do not know how many such clandestine or ghost deals have been struck in earlier bids or money has been pooled/ siphoned off from/to undisclosed sources.
Coming to the matches themselves, it is cricketainment alright, because it is more thrilling than any cricketing wizard can hope to predict and prophesize..
Most matches have had unpredictable twists and shock results much like a bollywood masala film…,which makes one think if this is all kind of ‘controlled’ entertainment for the sake of filling the stadiums and keep TV TRP ratings alive? You know how advts and publicity is big money these days…

Is this some kind of IPL management’s own way of ‘fixing matches’ to keep the thrill factor alive till the last minute? We may never know..

In any case they have managed to grab the entire nation by the scruff of its neck and keep us addicted to this stuff and glued to TV screens..

Though the big ‘phoren’ guns have not fired this time, on the plus-side, it has thrown up fresh young talent and that should make for a good reservoir of cricket possibilities for the next few seasons...

There are no ‘no-balls’ in this cricket business now; everything is a ‘free-hit’!

My Favorite Kishore Duets- video links

2010-03-06T23:31:00.015+05:30

Legendary singer of Bollywood and my favorite male voice, Kishore Kumar sang many wonderful and memorable duets with Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Aarti Mukerjee and a host of others for heroes from Dev Anand to Sachin for decades he was active...Here is an attempt to recapitulate his versatile talent in some of what I consider his 25 Best songs ... This is my next after the previous post on Kishore solos......

These are again the presently available you-tube links of original film song clips..

Download them as long as they are availble...Cilck the links and follow to youtube site,,
You can record the songs to your computer with firefox /download helper..Sometimes the videos may be removed by youtube.

You could still search in the site with the title as keyword...

Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi – (Aandhi )

Saara pyar tumhara - Anand Ashram

Do Panchi do tin ke (Tapasya)

Tum aa gaye ho ( aandhi)

Panna Ki Tamanna (Heera Panna)

Karvate Badalte Rahe - Aap Ki Kasam

Tere mere milan ki ( Abhimaan)

Tere Chehre Se – (Kabhi Kabhie)

Agar Tum Na Hote– ( Title song)

Chandini raat mein ek baar ( Dil E naadaan)

Bhool gaya sab kuch (Julie)

Aap ki Ankhon Mein Kuch ( Ghar)

Hum Dono Do Premi Duniya Chhod Chale --- (Ajanabee )

Ghum Hai Kisi ke - Raampur Ka Lakshman

Aasman Ke Neeche - Jewel Thief

Jeevan Ki Bhagia - Tere Mere Sapne

Dooriyan Nazdikiyan Bangayi ( Duniya)

Kora Kagaz Tha ( Aradhana)

Kal Ki Haseen Mulaqat ( Charas)

Aaj Madhosh Hua Jaaye Re – (Sharmilee)

Miley Miley do badan ( Blackmail)

Lekar Hum Deewana Dil - Yaadon Ki Baraat

Gata rahe mera dil - Guide

kab ke bichre ( lawaris)

Jaane jaan- (Jawani Diwani)

Enjoy and share...Let me know if you had any difficulty or if you want some other songs of his...

Kishore Kumar -'OId is Gold' songs

2010-02-21T12:08:00.031+05:30

In Hindi film world, there will never be another Kishore Kumar the veteran singer-actor- director who sang with such panache , such wide variety of songs for so long and for so many actors, which can at best be re-mixed today but not even rendered with equal effect.

I have been browsing you tube for video songs of these 60's to 80' s hits and even came across some B&W classics as well. I want ed to share the goodies with everyone too..

I have compiled the songs with their you tube links below and you can watch you favorite actors from Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna , Amitabh and others in original movie song clips.

Please let me know if any links did not work :

( Right click > open in new tab/window.)
( Better download these videos using firefox /download helper..Sometimes the videos may be removed by youtube)

Sublime Kishore Kumar song Videos:

Sublime Kishore Kumar song Videos:

1. jeevan se bhari teri aankhen ( safar)
2. Phir Wohi Raat Hai ( Ghar)
3. Tum Bin Jaoon Kahan - Pyar Ka Mausam [1969]
4. Kiska Rasta Dekhe(Joshila)
5. Yeh dard bhara afsana - Shreeman Funtoosh
6. Mere Dil Mein Aaj Kya Hai - DAAG
7. mere mere bhigi bhigi se - Anamika –
8. Ruk jana nahi tu kahin haar ke ( Imtihan)
9. Pyaar maanga hain ( college girl)
10. Mere Naina Sawan Bhadon - Mehbooba [1976]
11. Rimjim Gire Savan - Manzil -
12. jab dard nahi tha seene main ( anurodh)
13. Badi sooni sooni hai (Mili 1975)
14. O Mere Dil Ke Chain- Mere Jeevan Saathi (1972) -
15. O Majhi Re - Khushboo
16. Chanda O Chanda (Lakhon mein ek)
17. Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, Blackmail (1973),
18. BANPHOOL Title song (banphool)
19. Gum Hain Kisee Ke- Rampur Ka Lakshman
20. PHOOLON KE RANG SE DIL KI KALAM SE ( Prem poojari)
21. Yeh lal rang kab mujhe chhorega (Prem Nagar)
22. Yeh Jeevan Hai (Piya ka ghar)
23. Sama hai suhana suhana Ghar ghar ki kahani
24. Dil Aaj Shayar Hai [Gambler]
25. Ulfat Mein Zamane Ki – (Call girl)
26. Ghungroo Ki Tarah Bajtha Hi Raha Hoon Main...( Chor machaaye shor)
27. Kehna hai kehnaa hai ( padosan)
28. Chalte chalte title cong
29. Mera Jeevan Kora kagaz korahi reh gaya

30. Wo sham kuch ajeeb thi ( Khamoshi)

31.Rangoli sajaao re ( Rangoli)

32. Koi lautaade mere ( door gagan ki chaaon mein)

33. Mere Mehboob qayamat hogi (Mr X in Bombay)
34 Hamen Aur Jeene Ki - Agar Tum Na Hote [1983]
35 Dil aisa kisi ne mera ( Amanush)
36 Teri Duniya Se Hoke Majboor Chala...( Pavitra paapi)
37 Ye vahi geet hai jisko maine –( Maan jaiye)
38 "Aa Ri Aaja kuwara baap

Review: My name is ….ENOUGH!

2010-02-19T13:29:00.003+05:30

The only message that comes across clearly from the movie ‘My name is Khan’ is that

All American Muslims should not be treated like terrorists in America by other fellow Americans and US president is supposed to ensure that…

Fine!

But what beats me is why is this film called a ‘Hindi’ film, a bollywood product and is being released in India with so much fanfare and unnecessary (perhaps sponsored) controversy?

Moreover, besides being irrelevant to this country, the dialogue in the movie is 75% of time in English with fake accents…It can hardly qualify as a ‘Hindi’ film and much less as an Indian film…

The performances by the lead pair are average; leaves you with a feeling that you have seen it all before…

Even if we agree that Muslims should not be viewed with suspicion and much less subjected to violent discrimination in that country (I say `even if we agree’, because there is no strong reason proposed by the film maker to that effect!), the hero need not have been affected by Autism or more appropriately Asperger’s syndrome which is a very strange affliction and is certainly not common enough among ‘only Muslims’ that they should be given an exemption from suspicion!

That USA, as well as other ‘white’ countries need to look at the humanitarian crisis created due to their Anti Muslim fixation is indisputable but this artificial film hardly makes a strong case for it.

Besides, others say this movie is liberally lifted from other english movies- Rainman (Dustin Hoffman) and Forrest Gump( Tom Hanks). I haven’t seen either and perhaps they are right.

In any case nothing looked very original in this film anyway.

In fact we are getting sick of watching ‘sick heroes’ affected by unfamiliar diseases-Paa, Ghajini and now MNIK.

Give me Hrishida’s Anand anyday where the hero braves the ‘familiar’ cancer with unfamiliar courage and fortitude.

Thanjavur -Tiruchi Temple tour -2009

2010-01-01T12:40:00.041+05:30

We set out this winter on a temple trail on what is fairly familiar stretch to me, but with my family of wife and children who had not seen these ancient temples in the Tiruchi-Thanjavur belt.

Day 1:

We arrived at Tiruchirapalli Junction from Chennai on Rockfort express by 5.30 am and we had a pleasant ride to the Hotel ( Hotel Femina, Tiruchi) in their pickup cab.
It is a good hotel to stay for trips like these, a little up-market but comes with a good complimentary breakfast in their Woodlands restaurant and you won’t have any complaints about their room and service.

There is even a Travel desk where we booked a cab for both the days of our tour..Charges were quite decent, I can say, as the drivers were courteous and well-informed.
We had planned to see Thanjavur the first day and Tiruchi on the second. A compact Indica meant for four of us stood ready at 8.45 am at the Portico.

It is around 60 kms to Thanjavur town from here and our first stop was though at Thiruvaiyaru which is about 13 km away from the city. We started at 9.00 am. The driver seemed to know his way around and was quite co-operative.

Thiruvaiyaru
The driver took us through what he called a ‘shortcut’ and it was a new tarred village road under PM Graam sadak plan, so it was a smooth ride through green paddy and sugarcane fields, but it was 10.20 when we reached the Thyagaraja Samadhi at Thiruvaiyaru.
We met hundreds of villagers dressed in yellow who do annual padayatra to Samayapuram temple all along the road. Young and old with walking sticks, stood out for their spirit and devotion.
The annual celebration of Thyagaraja is around the corner and Ganapathi homam was in progress when we had Darshan of the revered poet-saint’s samadhi.

The next stop was the ancient panchanatheeswarar templ e at Thiruvaiyaru also called Iyaarappar temple. It is one of the saptha sthanam temples of Lord Shiva, a huge temple with a no of prakaarams one after another but it looks like the temple really needs some maintenance.
After darshan here, we left for Chandran temple, one of the navagraha temples nearby.

Thingaloor Chandran temple:

One of the smaller shrines outside the usual Moolavar (always Shiva) had quite a few devotees praying there when we reached. We offered our prayers and left taking arati and vibhuti.
It was around 11.00 am now and we needed a cool break and so we drank delicious tender coconuts outside the temple.

Thittai Guru Bhagawan temple

We reached here in about 20 mins from the last stop.
This navagraha temple had celebrated Guru peyarchi just a week or so back, (the moving over of Guru from one zodiac sign to another) and we could see the Shamiana and barricades for it too. Vasishteswaraswamy is the ruling deity here and the Lord Guru is outside in compact enclosure bedecked in yellow. Children prayed for their smooth sailing in education and we two for everything else in life.

Punnainallur Mariamman temple

As we enter Thanjavur there is a diversion to Punnainallur on the suburbs, and there stands a lovely temple dedicated to Goddess mariamman.
Though there was a huge rush, we managed to have darshan with special ticket and broke for lunch at Gnanam Hotel. The food was moderate, both in price at Rs 70 per Veg. meals and taste.

Thanjavur Palace and library
( All pics below-click to enlarge)

Maratha ruler Serfoji II was a connoisseur of art and literature and has a palace full of antique statues and palm leaf, manuscripts and rare books. This is worth a visit for art and literature lovers and quite awe inspiring. Wish they could renovate the place and make it more attractive.

Brihadeeswara temple or Periya Koil (Big temple)

It is without doubt a colossal monument of Chola style stone architecture. The sheer size of Gopurams, shiva lingam and statues are magnificent.

We are there on a Pradosham day and hence even this huge temple looked very crowded. I had a ‘near darshan’ while the other three family members managed to push inside and had direct darshan. Felt blessed and blissed!

We had managed to cover 6 temples and one Samadhi in one day from 9 to 7 , which was pretty good going. Thankfully wife and children co-operated with the tough schedule and enjoyed themselves too.

We returned to Tiruchi, had dinner (snacks like idli , dosa) in Guru Hotel near our stay and took well deserved rest.

Tip:

· Travel taxis charge Rs 600 plus Rs 4 per Km. We had covered 160 kms in day.
· One needs to provide for the temple special darshan tickets which vary from Rs 5 to 25/-
at most places in this stretch besides parking fees also in the same range.

On the way Thanjavur-Trichy --a green stretch!

Day 2:

We managed to leave by 9 am after a sumptuous breakfast, courtesy of Hotel Femina and left for the Trichy- Srirangam tour. This time the driver was more informed and did the entire basic route planning for us.

Rockfort

The famous oldest rock formation in the world houses two ancient temples.
One needs to climb 200+ steps to Thayumanuvar temple midway and all 430 till Uchi pillaiyar.

We had decided against climbing the steps of Rockfort to uchi pillaiyar temple due to our physical constraints; so we had darshan of Manikya Vinayakar at the foot of the hill and left.

Jambukeswarar temple at Thiruvanaikaval

Situated on the banks of Cauvery River, this one takes one’s breath away at the sheer size and beauty associated with the architecture.

Hailed as “Jala sthalam” of the famed panchaboota sthalam (representing earth, water, fire, air and space) and one of the 275 shiva sthalams of Tamil nadu, this temple has a no of long carved corridors and you must see it to believe its ambience and effect it creates on devotees.
The Sivalingam is said to be submerged by water when the neighbouring river stream is in spate and meant to represent God form as water. At other times you can see and feel water inside the garbhagriham where you have to stoop and enter. The Lord's consort is Akhilandeswari , housed in a separate temple.

Samayapuram Mariamman temple

Although we did go Srirangam temple next, there was a very heavy crowd waiting for doors to open at 1 Pm. Hence we quickly left this place to visit Samapayapuram Mariamman temple.
Thousands of padayatra pilgrims had gathered there and it was a sea of yellow.

Momentarily my family got separated in the melee but got reunited inside the garbhagriham. The rush and jostling all was worth it and we had the benign darshan of the red faced Devi soon.
We had a quiet delicious Veg. lunch, Iyer style at Maduraa hotel in this interval.

Srirangam Temple:

Srirangam temple is not just another temple but a small town in itself. It was three days after Vaikunta Ekadashi and naturally there were serpentine queues and it looked like three-four hours at the least and we chose to pay to have special darshan quickly. The paramapada vassal door is open during these days.

The Lord was decorated with Moti( Muttu) and we really felt blessed seeing the deity at very close quarters.

Gunaseelam Perumal temple

On the Trichy stretch, amid greenery and flowing Cauvery canal waters lies a lovely temple dedicated to Prasanna venktachalapathi.

The temple opened at 4.30 pm an we had towait for 30 mins. Again the wait was worth the trouble and we had good darshan with little crowd for a change this time.
It is supposed to be a powerful deity and a no of mentally disturbed and diseased people are said to have been cured by praying here.

We took timeout and wet our feet in cool welcome waters on the way back.

Woraiyur vekkaliamman temple

This is an open to sky temple and we had evening darshan here in the last lap. The amman is said to have saved the villages from mud rain and asked the devotees to build a temple where she would stand unsheltered.
The deity is lovely and so was alankaram. This one is not to be missed by anyone touring this stretch.
Tip:
The second day trip took us 96 kms in a day but we covered 6 temples again between 9 to 7 pm!

It was a memorable trip for the family and we cherished it.
We took the night train back to Chennai.

Some pics from our mobile cameras are shown below

Brihadeeswara temple, Thanjavur

Trichy-Thiruvanaikaval Jambukeswarar temple

Panchanatheeswarar temple

On the way Thnajavur-Trichy

Thanjavur Palace -ceiling

Thanjavur palace and museum

Chandran temple , Thingaloor

Kurbaan: Terror flick in un "saif” hands

2009-11-24T22:12:00.005+05:30

I saw “Kurbaan”, the much hyped Hindi thriller from Karan Johar factory.

I can give it only 2 out of possible 5. And that is considering its very few meritorious points.

The possibility of an intelligent Hindu Green card holding Psychology professor ( Kareena) falling in love with an aging( Age shows) Muslim professor( Saif Ali) who comes up with unbelievable corny lines, is in itself a no-brainer.

Add to this, the chances of both getting Visa/ permission or whatever to USA in this day and age is too slim to be swallowed too.

Once in USA, she insists on renting a house which has strange neighbors who later turn out to her hubby’s fidayeen unit members with evil designs, wanting to cause mayhem for US’s Afghan atrocities back home..How all of them managed to reach the shores of USA after 9/11 ad Iraq is again implausible...How and why Kareena managed to select the very same house from amongst many houses they see in the process is also baffling…The director meanders along with a medley of soulless characters, the best of whom is Vivek Oberoi, who starts well but when he says that ‘he will take on suicide bombers on his own without Police help’, you ask yourself, “Is he for real?”..And he is supposed to be a media person with American upbringing…hmmm..

If that was not unbelievable enough, the normal American intelligence guys and why , even commoners who call FBI even if their cat caught cold in the snow are credited by Karan Johar and Co with as much 'intelligence' as the normal Mumbai policemen exhibited during 26/11 times..

Saif looks jaded; his transformation from a wooing professor to fearless terrorist lacks conviction…Kareena is OK in parts but looks wafer thin…

Their much discussed Chemistry?...Well , it is more ‘Physics’, I daresay…

Karan Johar and terror subject looks to be a very un”saif” proposition indeed…

And yes, "New York " was much better somehow…

Under 'mining' trust for power!

2009-11-10T22:08:00.002+05:30

Under 'mining' trust for power!

Like many simple minded people who in India live more on hope than facts, I too felt that BJP was 'different' or at least they had vowed to make a 'difference' from the shady Congress-JDS types in Karnataka...

The warning signs were there to prove me wrong all the way but I tended to gloss over them deliberately giving them a soft corner in my heart...

Then came the Mining kings, called in Kannada as "Gani dore" , who had pumped in money for Elections ensuring victories in God knows how many constituencies... and now all they wanted was pay-back...their pound of flesh was demanded in the most shameless fashion yet seen in BJP annals or in the checkered political history of the State.

Arm twisting techniques coupled with 'Resort politics' was enacted out in the most undignified way possible in front of a stunned, flood-battered state.

Yeddyurapa stood exposed as the man who 'took from them' when it suited, and now 'refused to give'! The Reddys wanted nothing but the heads to roll...
Fiery words and false hopes ensued from both the embattled parties and the scene shifted to Dilli Durbar for show-down...

And what a poor show it turned out to be with the BJP Leadership acquiescing to most of the repulsive and rampantly corrupt demands of Reddys for 'benefits in their backyard'...

Tears were all Yeddy had for the people of the state as a disgraceful and unbelievable patch up was acted out purely for media benefit and gullible public consumption...

Reddys and their coterie of chosen IAS, IPS men will now rule over their Districts with impunity and gay abandon...

Jai Karnataka mathe...A Great gift for the Rajyotsava month...

How long will this unholy truce last , only time will tell...

Terror on silver screen

2009-09-29T15:35:00.003+05:30

I’ve just been to the much awaited Tamil movie with family- Unnaipol Oruvan.
While this Kamal Hasan’s version of the Hindi original A Wednesday, stays faithful to it barring a few scenes, there are some differences as well…

Unnaipol Oruvan is taut and engaging and boasts of sterling performances by Kamal and Mohanlal, though I would think Naseeruddin Shah was more intense and plausible as the ‘common man’, than the underplaying Celebrity actor that Kamal is.
Yes, it is hard to believe Kamal Hasan who has been lighting up the silver screen for 5 decades now, as ‘just one of us’ , though he wears a non descript shirt and pants without makeup.( That’s quite a break from his routine, I mean the ‘make-up’ part!!).

As for the ‘stupid common man’ as he claims himself to be is concerned, you or me wouldn’t be a ‘Communications expert’ who can scramble Police networks, make our cell-phone locations untraceable and can match wits with a computer hacker…
Hell, I could shiver with fright, just imagining talking to the Police commissioner of my City!

Nor would I or you know how to make bombs merely by ‘googling’ nor park a bomb laden jeep right by the runway of an airstrip!
We would find this all quite uncommon to do, especially with a bag laden with tomatoes and drumsticks in the other hand.

So, he is then a very bright , net savvy common man, but that is still fine.. So was Naseeruddin Shah in the original, so that’s not a big change in the remake.

But I could never figure out why he had to plant bulky black bags slyly in trains and malls all over the City and we are simply told at the end that ‘they were all empty and none had bombs’ …Kind of self-defeating exercise , especially when no one finds them in the end either. And the Director keeps you confused by repeatedly showing the Train bogie with the cop’s wife and child as if there was some big peril right above their heads…Talk of Red herrings!

But it is really the stout Mohanlal here who really betters the bald-headed Anupam Kher of the Hindi one.. This man has wonderful screen presence and is a pleasure to watch in the expressions department…
Ganesh Venaktraman who plays toughie cop Arif is damned good find too.

Shruti Hasan in maiden outing as a music director goes ‘bang bang’ rock music throughout, apart from it there is a song that goes ‘allah jaane allah’ etc sung by Kamal.

Go watch it , for Kamal has given us , the common men, a two hour glory and heroism in the face of death dance of Terrorism ..

My rating : 3.5/ 5.

Bridging the gaps

2009-07-15T10:15:00.001+05:30

As a Civil Engineer and especially an ex Gammon staffer who started his career there, it hurts me no end to see the flak the company received for the recent accidents and loss of lives and thus its own loss of face.

Don’t think for a moment that I condone the lapses that resulted in the earlier Hyderabad and the recent Delhi Bridge site mishaps.

I don't.

But then its just not about a single careless Gammon India and only them that should be blamed…It goes much, much deeper than that.

We talk about safety standards or the lack of them and hasty arrangements in the Delhi or Hyderabad mishap sites…Do we for a moment pause and think whether we as Indians are safety conscious at all?

To ask difficult questions, by way of introspection,

1. How many of us , I mean the educated citizens, always wear helmets while riding two wheelers on metro city streets?
2. How many times don’t we overtake from left, jump the signals and bribe the greedy cops at street corners for our lapses?
3. Isn’t it quite common to see hasty two wheeler riders zip along the foot paths in Bangalore or Chennai just to get ahead to the signals throwing pedestrian safety to wind in their wake?

To be more specific to the Construction Industry,

1. How many of the construction labourers are provided even basic safety gear by employers, how many of them default on these unabashedly and again bribe their way out with ‘powers that be’ to carry on nonchalantly?
2. How many construction labourers in Indian sites have been trained and taught not to ignore helmets, boots and safety harnesses while working in dangerous conditions? And how many follow them despite being a declared rule in many Corporate construction sites?.. How many trained personnel or licensed drivers only operate and handle construction equipments and cranes and lories laden with materials?
3. How many times have we not seen steel rods sticking out dangerously from Lorries in front of us with a red kerchief tied to them? And what about carrying wooden poles and long furniture on pillions on scooters and sticking out of Auto-rickshaw sides?

I have seen many construction sites in my career and believe me the answer to safety questions followed is shockingly negative.

I am equally amazed now working in a British MNC from their site pictures and videos that not once, even by chance do ‘they’ miss out on life saving precautions in UK and elsewhere…Not once and not anywhere…Safety and equipment training are scrupulously followed and are given paramount importance.

Let’s face it, Safety is not in our blood…Ask any NRI on visit to motherland if he dares to drive cars on Indian roads today…They shiver with fright…

Then add to this deadly risk- corruption, greed and utter carelessness…You have the perfect recipe for sudden death and destruction!

The bottom-line is- It is for us to cultivate safe working habits and bridge the gaping holes in our system before finding easy scapegoats for short term goals.

When the Cup slipped....

2009-06-16T13:43:00.008+05:30

The proverb says that there are many slips between the cup and the lip…It however doesn’t say much when the cup itself slips out… I am talking of course about the T20 World cup of Cricket which India managed to lose…

There have been of course hoarse cries baying for blood and ‘off with his head’ sentiments expressed plenty already. Difficult for saner voices to be heard..

We will have to examine carefully the performance of Indian team to get a clearer picture…One striking thing is that Dhoni didn’t strike the ball well ( pun unintended) as good as he used to and in critical times too…Then some tactical blunders like Jadeja’s, that he did…All that is still acceptable and to some extent forgivable…
But not when he says, post match, that India is a ‘sentimental country’…
Sentimental countries forgive you, sir, when you ask….Not cold blooded countries who merely act than feel…
Dhoni perhaps a needs a lesson in sensitivity there…

Success is not always being first, its really about doing better than you were, said a wise man…That is what makes us sit up and ponder…We were doing much better than failing to chase ( a self inflicted injury after winning the toss!) a mediocre target of 153 runs against a ‘not too hot to handle’ English team..
What then happened this time around..?

IPL, that’s what it’s all about…

How can we expect, most Indian players who contested fiercely against each other in IPL so very recently, to fight for a common cause and jell as a team in the T20 WC?
There were some still unhealed ego wounds somewhere hanging over from those emotional Chennai superkings, Delhi daredevils and Punjab Kings XI’s close contests.. Most International players now playing for their own countries were their recent team-mates...

Besides most became exhausted , ‘fatigued out’, home-sick and some like Viru picked up unwanted injuries at a crucial time…

Its not me who feels this way;Gary Kirsten, our Coach does, as well…He was there throughout and he should know…

If you make cricketers slaves to money merely by hosting dissimilar tournaments and in different continents too soon, then you forget the human factor… It was too much, too soon...

Success is not final and failure is not fatal, said Churchill...

And then every machine needs a rest too…Don’t our cricketers?

That’s what all of us need too…Rest and some cold introspection at our calendars..
Rest will take care of itself…

Mamata or Karuna...No love lost already?

2009-05-26T16:33:00.003+05:30

Mamata or Karuna...No love lost already?

Look at the names...Mamata and Karuna, the names of the undisputed winners belonging to UPA from two states which had no hesitation in giving them a free reign of the next 5 years of their collective destiny!
Mamata and Karuna both mean the same thing...Compassion, love, camaraderie...something like that...

If only names were true indicators of their behaviour and character, Manmohan would have been 'sing(h)ing' a different tune by now...

But belying all expectations exhorted by their names and meanings, the greedy allies are pushing for maximum pound of flesh without any karuna or mamata to each other or to the beleaguered congress!

From TN, the DMK patriarch is behaving as if there is a single point agenda of sending all his children and kith and kin to the Union cabinet , believing that it is his 'berth' right for having trampled upon Amma's two leaves and gotten the Congress a few seats in his State! In fact they 'engineered' a miraculous recovery and win for Chidu in Sivaganga...He was trailing behind ADMK candidate all the way to the last 10 mins and suddenly he scraped through ...The Home minister was home safe!...Who says secret ballot doesn't work?...

Pity, they could not serve Main shankar Aiyer too similarly...Probably he did not matter!
In the fracas for Minister seats ,the so-called poetess-daughter Kanimozhi silently dropped back, saying she will spend her balance 2 year Rajya sabha term ' honing her parliamentary skills'..Some sensible lady that!

But 'Madhurai veeran', Azhagiri had no such qualms..Hopefully he will not replicate the Madhurai's winning formula in the Capital..Don't know what that means?...Ask anyone in/ from Madhurai...

Mamata on the other hand with her unrestrained attacks , riding the anti incumbency wave, 'left' the Ruling party in WB far behind in the race for power and has resurfaced on the national arena as ebullient and as shrill as ever..She wanted Railways and nothing less...To victor go the spoils, they say...As long as she does not 'spoil' the existing healthier condition Railways find themselves in Post- Lalu era. Already indications are that she issued a populist statement saying she will issue Rs 15 and Rs 20 passes to people below Poverty line.. as if that 's what matters to the poor souls first!

But if they want to issue such passes in this densely populated nation, they will have to multiply the present Railways staff by 10 times at the least, says a very senior journalist on a Talk show...

As soon as DMK upped the ante and threw a king sized tantrum on Minister berths, Mamata too joined the rat-race and says 'why not me?'..Give me more, is the shameless cry from the ‘allies’...

Why talk more?

The Elections are over...We, the people have gotten back to our jobs and life and Politicians to theirs...No one has time for each other, at least for the next five years, hopefully...

Rising Sons en(N)d DA

2009-05-17T17:45:00.004+05:30

Rising Sons en(N)d DA

Everyone was waiting with bated breath for the Election results, switching TV channels from T-20 matches to News. Like I did.

Then yesterday it became amply clear by mid-day that the ‘rising’ sons of the grand old political families like Azhagiri fighting on the party’s Rising sun symbol from Madurai in TN and Rahul from the Gandhi family with his young ‘Hand’, who scorched the soils of UP in harsh sunny May days, had their last laugh…

….Exceptions like Raghavendra , Yeddyurappa’s son in Shimoga eclipsed the Machiavellian Bangarappa of the Congress too… then there were Kumaraswamy, Jyotoraditya and Milind Deora all carrying their fathers’ political genes had reasons to smile, for their ‘Dilli dreams’ had come real.

Varun , son of Sanjay Gandhi has made his political debut too… But unlike Azhagiri or Rahul Gandhi he did not belong to the UPA…But in his own ‘foot in the mouth’ way, he might well have contributed to the ‘end of NDA too’!

But while a Raghavendra or a Varun bloomed ‘Lotuses’ with their individual victories, Stalin , the other son of the DMK patriarch and Dayanidhi , the son of Maran family worked behind the scenes to ensure that their ‘Rising Sun’ verily burnt Amma’s ‘Two green leaves’ in TN…

The UPA which dashed and ended NDA’s comeback hopes this time around with resounding results is yet to mop up the remaining numbers to hit the magical 272 to resume Power…But then who will be naive enough to think that they won’t, with all their machinations and persuasive skills and resources available in plenty?

If you look at the background of it all and what must have transpired in Indian Voter’s minds, you would see a dismal Market scene where thousands continue to lose jobs, bursting population , Infrastructure at breaking point and burgeoning pollution and a threatening Global warming…Plus the shifty and ‘blow hot blow cold’ BJP Politicians with rampant in-fighting on the Right extreme and Left parties belonging to another age and time with their ‘no-takers’ Marxist philosophy might have been seen as poor alternatives indeed..

No wonder then that the voter must have heaved a resigned sigh and shook the ‘ Congress hand’ to guide them to a centrist path…for immediate survival and possible development…

So then , that’s how it must be… hopefully for five more years……Amid echoes of ‘Jai Ho’ and ‘Singh is King’, the ‘Queen’ preens and smiles benevolently from 7, Race Course Road…

Dare you not talk in disdain about Italy and pasta ever again…
The Queen in sari rules with an iron ‘hand’…

Selecting To Elect:

2009-04-05T11:32:00.007+05:30

The elections are upon us.. Yes, 'upon us'- sounds as if its a necessary bitter medicine forced down your throat every five years , sometimes far less than that...

Suddenly the same rusty old party functionaries and fat bellied, balding leaders are grinning at us from ear to ear from Wall posters, banners and TV screens...

Let us get one thing clear...

It is one fashionable thing for celebrities like Aamir Khan to hand out encouraging platitudes and inspiring words about the 'need to vote for future’ and or management fundas like 'be the change you want' etc...

But it’s quite another to separate the tolerable from the rotten, the solid ones from the riff raff or filter the promising ones from the hopeless stinkers that inhabit the plane called Indian politics...

The mindboggling question refuses to go away:

Whether we should vote on party principles , if you can manage to find some, that is, amid the chaos of alluring promises they make only during the elections, or… vote on individual candidates as per their integrity, character or social standing, again, if you have the time and tools to measure them….

So how easy is it to inspire the nonchalant electorate to ‘go and out to do your job’, when the whole onus always falls on his or her frail shoulders as to who to vote…
Oh, sure, its fantastic to have all these illuminating websites like jaagore.com or media campaigns like Lead India…

Even if you do walk into the designated polling booth on the said day and time , is there any guarantee that you will find your name figuring on the rolls , will you be allowed to vote or turned away, just because you did not bother to check in advance to confirm it…?

So selecting to elect your representatives still is the core of the problem…
Amid, in spite of the reports of ‘cash for votes', liquor and other ‘timely incentives’ doing their job in the background on the bulk of the ‘gullible electorate’, as they are termed…

I have an issue with that too, just because one is uneducated or poor or both, is that enough reason to be unethical, greedy and susceptible to corruption…?? Doesn’t speak much of character or integrity on the part of voters there, now , does it?

Meanwhile the Tamasha unfolds on most major TV channels..

Mother versus the Magic woman Mayavati, ‘Operation Kamala’ by which BJP will, without pangs of conscience or ethics, swallow the hardcore Cong men and burps…

One Gandhi scion , Varun ‘rains’ abuses on minority community and gets himself jailed and becomes a sort of martyr, while the other , Rahul already a crore pathi tries to woo the secular public of UP…

All aged and ageing film stars have already entered the fray making this a mega multi-starrer blockbuster…
So, ‘collections’ will surely be heavy this time….In fact, these collections will go on till the next five years, unlike the shorter shelf life of their forgettable films…

A kind of a big Political multiplex arena, this one…Which will be a ‘hit’ and which a miserable ‘flop’?
If we cannot 'hit upon' the right candidates, it will surely hit us hard!
( pun unintentional)

A Different Ball-game!

2009-03-15T15:28:00.010+05:30

A Different Ball-game!

IPL Season-2 is here. It could not have come at a worse point in these troubled times than now. Its just not about Cricket either...

It is hailed as a big extravaganza spanning two tumultuous months...The sub-continent is going through an unprecedented tense period, hardly conducive to playing host to a galaxy of International cricketing stars who will land here to taste individual success under the Corporate Sponsors and line their pockets nicely on the way out..

Economic slowdown has already painted a pall of gloom universally and money has all but disappeared from people's wallets. Must people be tempted to spend their leftover money on the tickets now?

Terrorism has cost us lives and landed us in an unenviable position of being an unsafe place to tour or do business with as far as rest of the world is concerned.

26/11 is now a wound that has hardly healed and a stigma that just can't be wished away...This time the media has doggedly made sure that it won't..

.....IPL authorities are planning to inaugurate the games in the same city now. Am I being paranoid, tell me?

The once in five year Political circus of Parliamentary elections is also here in the same period and the country will be subjected to escalating political pressures and many criminals will go into active mode across the country in this period under the aegis of various aspiring political bigwigs...

How can anyone guarantee that among the milling, yelling, flag waving spectators that there is not one unsporting character who has a hidden agenda...? A devilish package hidden among his belongings?. Cycles, Tiffin boxes have all been used as killer bomb containers before..

How many security men will be needed and what all can be checked and passed at the these venues scattered all over the country...? Some of the places are known to be notoriously vulnerable to terrorist threats before...Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad...Which city is insulated from these murderous threats?

Even if nothing more dastardly happens, you can be sure the furore from cultural police against the scantily clad young cheerleaders could ricochet again too...

But the new Team owners like Preity Zintas and Shilpa Shettys are not too worried…They issue platitudes like the insensitive Lalit Modi who has had to eat his own words no sooner he used them..

Ms Zinta says. "Even Srilankan cricketers who were attacked recently in Pak, are also ready to play..what are you afraid of etc".. 'Preity' bad example indeed...We are afraid of this, exactly, Miss Celebrity...Insensitive and greedy people like you who walk over other's graves without a pang of guilt!

We do not know whether to regret about such callous celebrities who are anxious to fill their coffers and have their hour of glory at whatever cost...or shock about the recklessness of these Cricketers who make up their minds, without ‘minding’ the perils they are walking into, when they trot out into grounds...

And we have not even started talking about Srilanka and Tamil genocide and the undercurrents of this resentment in Tamil nadu, or the Maoists and Naxals who blow up roads, bridges and train tracks in umpteen states regularly with utter disdain towards life and properties of others...Nor have we even discussed about the ever changing political -army turmoil next door in Pak or the recent horrid Army mutiny in Bangladesh...

We will have players from all these places and we should believe nothing will happen and game should go on..

Yes, Game should go on, may be. But Life..or Death..?
We are not so sure now, are we?

Slumming for fame

2009-02-24T23:29:00.013+05:30

Slumming for fame:

Amid the noise created by media hype and unending national euphoria that surrounds a film-Slumdog Millionaire ( SM for short), it is difficult to make a dissenting note heard…at the risk of being dubbed a party pooper!

But then we will have to put things in the right perspective now, don’t we?

First off, this is a film and that’s what it should stay. A Film... It's neither a certificate on Indian artistic glory nor a national indictment. I believe those are the two extreme opinions.
It is just a good British film, at that…

And it is a British film with ‘Indian artistes’ in it, who were in fact well–paid for their work ..Nothing to do with poverty as far as their paycheck was concerned!

( How we should detest this derogatory reference-“Dogs” to impoverished humans living pathetically in Indian slums! And we take offence at the slightest mention of ‘barber’ in another Indian film…Mind you in the ‘Billu’ case, they called barbers as ‘barbers’,( one would imagine there’s nothing really hurtful there..
I mean, what will I call a Bus conductor or milkman next?)

In SM, the slum dwellers were dubbed as akin to ‘dogs’… …It's crude and hurtful regardless of how they live!...BTW, its not a legit word in any known dictionary either….So there!

Speaking for the movie itself, I could not find anything hurtful or artificial in it….Oh, yes, the pain and harsh realities are bloody real and they should stay that way too…

Although some of the scenes were excessively crude, even brutal, too close to reality and sometimes yes, revolting…But then, that’s fine…. Artistic freedom and all that… Can you really blame Amitabh for dumping this movie when they have the cheek to show that he mechanically signed autograph to a faeces–covered boy during an outdoor location? Yuck!

But then sure, anyone can like or dislike any film for any reason ,at all!

We had some brush with Oscars, what with genuine Indian–made films in the past like Lagaan and TZP and we never won then..THAT was actually our loss much like this is NOT our gain!

All it got us in its sweep was a couple of Oscars to the musical genius of AR Rahman who has actually in the past decade given several superior hits in Tamil and Hindi than this oh-so-average number like “Jai Ho!”...Anyway good for him…

And good show by Pookutty too!

What however is not healthy in this entire scenario is the way they created this kind of ill-placed media hysteria and hijacked public opinion into believing as if INDIA as a nation passed muster in the eyes of global gods of art… just now, I mean…

‘India’ as a haven of artistic talent was never in question there, and nor does it need Oscars to redeem it.
It beats me to think how this one film could open floodgates of opportunities to Indian artistes to secure the ultimate prize –the Hollywood..

Precisely because they do not make these kinds of films by the dozens there…
If you read the NY times headlines, they called the Oscars-a “Slumdog kind of night” over there….Make whatever of it, if you please…

I say again , it is a good British film about India…I mean the India , the director chose to see and portray…Like it or dump it!
But it is not an ‘Indian film’ which won the award and that should be understood by the insensitive Maharashtra Govt which is now promising home to the slumdogs!

…..Oh sorry, not to every slum-dweller, only to those two or three kids who acted in the movie!
So make what you can of it, too!

Congress in a news item today claimed that it had a ‘hand’ ( pun unintended) in Oscar victory too and I saw on TV that in Bangalore , the Cong men took out a procession hailing the film’s victory claiming something ‘momentous happened in global arena today for us’… How ridiculous can we get!

The nastiest and silliest I heard on TV was that India’s presence was heightened after 26/11 and the ‘world’ felt they should honour and console India thus…So…

Can we then assume the martyrs of the Mumbai tragedy, those brave heroes will now get posthumous movie tickets to SM… ?

I rest my case…

An Odyssey in Orissa

2009-01-25T19:02:00.076+05:30

An Odyssey in Orissa

Who hasn’t heard of Orissa?

I mean we have all heard of this eastern state , once a centre of ancient architecture and culture but now unfortunately in the news for wrong reasons like frequent floods , droughts or atrocities..

Orissa also boasts of the famed Hindu pilgrimage centre of Puri ( Lord Jagannath) and the “poem- in -stone” Sun Temple at Konark.

But I was not going there for any tourist reasons although I did manage to see those spots as well.
I was on an ‘official visit’ to spread awareness about a software in 3D- Modeling in Steel structures in certain engineering Institutes across the State. For exactly six days…

There is no direct flight from Chennai to Bhubaneswar, it seems. We need to fly to Kolkata and change or choose Bangalore if you please… I did both, once each way!

My first impression about Bhubaneswar, the Capital of the State, is that it’s a city which is just waking up to the realities of modern gadgets and mall-centric life inhabited by IT Professionals. The city is now undergoing small discernible changes , shrugging off the “laid back sleepy north Indian town” ambience, if you know what I mean…

A Park opp Secretariat in Bhubaneswar:

The city by itself is clean and neat in the central planned areas with wide straight well-lit roads and avenue tree greenery. There is very less congestion of traffic, which is a relief but most vehicle drivers on the roads seem to be under a mistaken impression that they are participating in a race and trying their best to get the first prize! Quite frightening really…

The city has adequate no of 3 star and 5 star Hotel comforts for those who can afford them.
I did manage to stay in a moderate 3 –star hotel , The Presidency, which is fine if you are not too ambitious as Room service, Housekeeping, Laundry and phones and Internet are all in working order. But anything other than the breakfast was too pricy and not very tasty either.

The water supply in this City, it appears is only partial in coverage and many hotels like mine use Bore-well waters. The problem is it smells and tastes of the iron ore , which seems to be latent in this soil of this state that boasts of Rourkela and such steel plants.

Oh sure, you could get over this problem very simply, by using Mineral water to rinse your mouth every time…Like I did.
I could not complain too much about this anyway, as I had come here to talk of Steel !

I did get to taste economic Vegetarian fare dished out at the Govinda’s restaurant of ISKCON temple. And the best part- it was right next to my Hotel.

Its a small serene white beauty of a temple and I clicked away some pics of the exteriors

The colleges I visited at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack area had just basic Spartan facilities but had some keen and enthusiastic students .Most were quite disciplined unlike other City students that I had met in Chennai etc, which pleased me and made my presentations that much more enjoyable and successful.

There is a big shopping area in Bhubaneswar, the Market with small stalls selling everything from readymade dresses, Vegetables, Electronics to pirated CD’s…Then you have a wholesale dealer from Kolkata dressmakers called Bazaar Kolkata where you can get some genuine discounted dress materials and Cotton saris etc…There are some hot spicy chaat joints on the roadside here ..so this is also the place where the hep youths of the City ‘hang out’ with their friends…

I also managed to go out of the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, one new and planned, the latter older and congested.

I went to a 400 km-distant district from Bhubaneswar in the remote area of Orissa called Bolangir by Train, boarding Puri -Ahmadabad express at 8 pm with my two associates.
I got off in the wee hours of the next morning, coming out of AC-3 tier bogie to the chilly winds of 15-deg C temp. outside.

We stayed in a very basic hotel in Bolangir which just managed to remain clean, if you are not too fussy. Its a small dusty sleepy town, which seemed to wake up at near about 9.30 am.

The college was far down the countryside, and it took 20 mins by car to reach a small old polytechnic building. I was pleasantly surprised by the cordial people who run the institution who had, trying their best, arranged a Projector and a screen for my presentation. Boy students wore clean uniforms, shoes and ties!! In this rural setting , that was exotic!

The students managed to huddle inside the small hall and sat cross legged to watch the ppt. Quite touching, really…I may have to come here again.

I could get back to Bhubaneswar from here in 7 hours by a day train the same day...Whew!

Then the travelogue part…The Golden Triangle of the east as they call- Bhubaneswar- Konark and Puri.

Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneswar –

This is an ancient stone temple in the heart of the city where at the entrance itself , the pandas or the priests will mob you to hire them for the darshan tour for the day. It’s pretty exasperating to ward them off!

Once inside, we saw the Lingaraj as lord Shiva lingam was being propitiated with milk and curds etc from silver containers by many devotees and priests. There is a tall silver serpent ( nag) shielding the top of Shiva Lingam. It was on a Monday and the temple was packed with devotees being a special day.

Next, I managed to see a Peace pagoda at Dhauli which is a Buddhist Shanti stupa on a hillock. Less than a hundred steps from where your car stops to the nice new pagoda with Buddha in various positions on its side. I have managed to take in some pics there on idyllic views of the countryside below from the Stupa.

A lot has already been said and written about the famed Sun temple of Konark.
My two cents worth, as they say:

Aside from the Historic importance of the temple built by a King - Langula Narasimha deva in 13the century, its the architecture that appeals most… the main temple is in ruins but the other temples surrounding more than make up for it by their splendorous and exotic stone sculptures.

Almost everyone from school children to aged women who came in Tourist buses were seen taking in all the exhibited artistic and very erotic sculptures without a murmur…Quite strange really , considering our outwardly demonstrated reservations on Adult topics and moral policing etc…Hmmmm… See for yourselves!

The Puri Jagannath temple is also a masterpiece in Stone. It has a very high Gopuram and some interesting sculptures decorating the external walls. Lord Vishnu as Jagannath with siblings- Sister Subhadra and Brother Balabhadra are seen in a most unique vision here with bird like appearances…

The temple visitors are besieged with Pujaris and touts who claim to be priests and that they will take you around for a fancy price... If you refuse, God help you…The scene is pretty same as at Lingaraj temple.

Luckily this time around I was escorted by a local ‘Priest’ contracted by our friends in Bhubaneswar and so we were left alone .

Photography is not allowed inside, so here below is a good likeness of the original idols (not my pic, taken from net)..

The Grand old temple lives up to its reputation and the sanctum sanctorum had a long line of devotees which was bypassed by our priest and us! The insides of the Garbha Gruh was slippery with the fallen prasadam and offerings and we had to be careful while walking. The 3 lord images are pretty lovely and we felt enlivened and blessed.

After we had Lords’ darshan to heart’s content and came out, we had snacks in the form of delicious Chole Bhature on the roadside.…Tasty and affordable. There is a Puri beach and Chandrabagha beach near Konark, both neat and clean too, where the waters are calm and low. Artistes make small figurines in the sand…

Also seen on the way, a view of Paradip Port:

Orissa, I felt at one level, is an old fashioned poor state steeped in orthodoxy yet seeking modern lifestytles in its upcoming town and cities… People I met are quite charming , treat you well generally ( except at the temples ) but they confess themselves that they are a little lazy!

Good outing for a tourist , a VFM place…If you are on work like me, well, you have no choice!

(PS: I am not a big Photo-blogger, tried it for the first time...so..E &OE)

Maps to Invasions by Pak?

2008-12-14T14:32:00.020+05:30

The Picture says it all...

and there are two here..

To show the Pak wishlist of sinister designs to annex India as a whole by 2012 and 2020... Not a figment of imagination, but published in Daily Express, a Paki Newspaper..

See it to believe their audacity...

Click on the links below to see images in a new window >

http://express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1100533603&Issue=NP_LHE&Date=20081203

http://express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1100533604&Issue=NP_LHE&Date=20081203

Terror and Tears

2008-11-30T11:55:00.007+05:30

Alright, I won't say the same things, clichéd and rusted expressions we have been hearing about Mumbai Terror attack on the media in the last few days...

But I do want to say something...

The long and short of it is , 'If someone is really itching for a fight, then, heck, give him one'...

We have seen headlines screaming War on Mumbai etc…Where, pray tell, is the WAR?

Is what we saw on the live TV construe a war?...

I am very conventional, I always imagine a war and war field to be acted out on a great big maidaan and soldiers, horses,, elephants meeting head to head and fighting on equal grounds...OK, change that to present day's jet planes and ships and machine guns of BOTH the sides…

All that we saw, if at all it can be alluded to war, then it was a very ‘One-sided war’ ...On India...and not by India...

We were just trying to close the stable door after the horses had bolted...by calling in NSG Commandos...

If we imagine that NSG Commandos highly trained in warfare should be doing the Internal security acts in city Hotels, which Police in the rest of the world do routinely and we are even gloating about our heroics, it's a sad day indeed.

The Police on the other hand were reduced to Traffic controllers and bystanders, and were not even doing a good job of it, near the Nariman House…

The point is when are we going to really consider this as a war and perform it as one?

What more evidences, clinching and implied ones are needed, and how many more lives in our cities should we lose BEFORE we consider a war as one?

What are we worried about?…the World opinion, Global business perception, weakening of International ties, or reduction in Outsourcing, or petty vote bank politics or that wretched meaningless Secular image and damn-all-- behind which we mumble politically correct statements and go about our lives, feeling great about our levelheadedness?

On just an unfounded suspicion, USA decimated two countries and all but erased them from the maps…Did they care about world opinion and all that blah-blah, before they opened their Third Eye of Destruction on two hapless desert Asian nations?...

Why, in our own history, we acted without hesitation for half this provocation when we declared war on East Pakistan in ’71…and we won it too.

Is the situation any less alarming now?…

Somebody mentioned the other day on a TV channel that preemptive strikes against an enemy is a every nation’s and Individual’s birthright...

You even have Lord Krishna and Bhagvad Gita episode to back that it is fully within one’s Dharma and in fact it is a necessary act of Karma we must perform…regardless of whatever consequences…

If we cannot protect our own lives inside our borders and allow bloodshed and tears to be a way of life, we will have no grounds to call ourselves a sovereign nation with dedicated armed forces…

It’s another matter if those preferred western customers and business interests of ours, for whom we are holding back, would even touch us with a barge pole if such tragedies keep occurring at regular intervals…

Business or No Business, Secular or otherwise, we have to live for another day..

No one here wants war but if someone is itching for it, give them one…lest they forget this is a nation of heroes with tolerance as a middle name....

So, go for the kill..

****************************************

Money takes a break ?

2008-11-18T21:09:00.000+05:30

I am talking about Economic meltdown, slowdown ...'down', that’s it...that's what it's all about...Being 'down'...But Not OUT, you said?..Oh, you can afford to be optimistic. Sadly not many share that optimism though one always believed that world is round, what goes up must come down and such platitudes...

Are you asking who am I to talk about all this big economic fundas? I have never been a financial expert at any point in life, a rank amateur when come to money matters, at most. That’s also exactly it. This time it's affecting even normally unaffected technocrats .. Like me...

Why is that not many today share this optimism that things will one day be better?
That's because it seems too many people have lost too much , to be consoled with empty words...Not just money..Not even their jobs and affluent lifestyle hitherto provided by tech success..Some have lost lives too..The family killings and suicides by frustrated and defeated individuals makes one sad, one has to sit up and take notice..

Thats when you say to yourself..Oh, Money matters..

But sadly it seems money has taken a break and gone on a sabbatical away from the hustle and bustle of financial markets...and they are all searching for it...

If you find it, tell me for sure...!

Kamal’s 10 or Perumal on the Run?

2008-06-21T22:23:00.000+05:30

Kamal’s 10 or Perumal on the Run?

It is not often that I write Movie reviews on my blog, but then 'Dasavatharam' is not just another movie. Or for that matter none of Kamal's movies ever is..

It was branded as the costliest film ever made in India (Nowadays this record breaks after every new release of the superstars…), maximum no. of prints exhibited internationally, those never-before distributor rights figures and all that…

Leave the hype aside, 'Dasavatharam' is certainly a watchable movie, worth every penny of your ticket and incidental expenses on the day of the show. But magnum OOPS (Opus)… no, it isn’t…

In fact Dasavatharam is not just about one actor playing 10 roles…There are plenty of messages here serving as food for thought…In fact beneath its sheen and glam and SFX, it is even an intelligent movie... But that hits you only long after you leave the theatre…

The whole movie is all about a deadly virus escaped from the germ lab in US of A
(Some cooked up Robin Cook–like novel, this?) which after a convoluted international chase, gets inside a Perumal statue in Tamil Nadu and everyone is after it.. Will Perumal survive, will he in fact save Himself and his devotees or will the bad guys have the last laugh?

It’s like a mad wild goose chase and I felt the movie should be called Perumal on the run in its English version

But everyone wanted to know about Kamal’s perfect 10…To be frank, only half those 10 characters , have really come out ‘above average to good’, while the others fail to impress……

The reasons are not far to seek…I am one of those old fashioned guys who has been watching his meteoric rise since 70’s till date, one who loves to watch this veteran actor’s facial histrionics and those realistic expressions that have long catapulted him as one of the best emoters in the celluloid business . Thus it is when he goes overboard trying do to a record of sorts with 10 disparate characters of all sizes and hues.., he makes a sad a sacrifice there…

As one in my back row in the theatre observed, many of his avatars in both gender and different ethnicities resemble “chapaathi maavu adiccha maadiri moonji’ ( A mound of chappathi flour pasted on the face)… His face is ‘static’, like a stuffed mask and that is not what we wanted to see Kamal as… Like Fletcher, George Bush, Japanese and Khalifullah…

In roles that he really shines are the ones essentially where he plays them with his USP - wit and sensitivity like a Balaram Naidu or an Iyengar paati or even with his own face as the scientist Govind. He is excellent as usual in those roles though he has started looking a bit jaded and puffed up...at his age it is acceptable and even likeable..

The rest of the movie is also a mixture of very good to mediocre...

The initial episode about the sad end of a proud 12th Century Vaisnavaite priest Rangarajan Nambi at the hands of a cruel Shaivite Chola King, sets the ball rolling for what has been discussed widely in the media as the Chaos theory and its butterfly effect… (The latter part of the movie too is about the a Perumal statue in the renowned shiva shrine of Chidambaram..the irony could have been easily missed..)

Whether the sinking of a huge stone monolith of a sleeping Vishnu in the sea will result in a monstrous ‘nature hits back’ kind of Tsunami eight centuries hence is not rational although the scientist Govind is very much so, to the extent of being a an atheist… But whoever said Chaos and Butterfly are logical theories, they try to explain the unexplained and prove that some effects are seemingly implausible to contemplate…As a faithful Hindu, one could even call it the Karmic principle of cause and effect…

But what is not acceptable even as ‘Chaos and butterfly’ is how a throat cancer patient Avatar (Kamal) gets cured by a bullet though the diseased part…The Cancer Institute here might even think of buying guns and bullets for its surgeons after this movie!!

The storyteller tries to balance his approach too catering both to the rigid orthodox believers and callous non-believers by showing the humanistic angle of blood donation, Muslims saved in a masjid, and the Iyengar heroine Asin who justifies that even a 'Tsunami was a good thing after all, as only a few died instead of millions'..

Music by Himmesh is average with just a couple of hummable numbers, and rest of the crew (other than 10 Kamals) are OK in their roles.

If record number of roles is what Kamal wanted to prove to us that he can carry off so many of them, he could have even played the jaded looking Jayaprada or the screaming shrill Asin too himself!( Asin-who goes a little over the top with constant screams of ‘Perumaale’!)…

May be Kamal, given his penchant about disguises which started from the days of Kalyanaraman till now, will treat us to being his own heroine next time around…Villain, you asked?.. Oh, he has already played it right in this movie..!

In fact Kamal should have appeared as Lord Vishnu himself and blessed all of his 10 avatars in the last frame, instead of the Director KS Ravi Kumar dancing to ‘Ulaga naayakane’ number…
Is not Lord Vishnu, the true ‘Ulaga nayaka’ here?..

No? Again conflict between Shaivaite and Vaishnavaites, did you say?

Well...all that is left now is him playing the Trimurti- Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara…

The Lion Goddess Temple and Saibaba Ashram

2008-03-02T22:57:00.000+05:30

A rare Lion-Goddess temple and Saibaba ashram at Chennai

It has been awhile that I had explored some of the temples in and around Chennai itself.

This weekend I took some time off to go and visit a couple of wonderful temples on East Coast road close to Thiruvanmiyur with my wife and children.

Firstly, we planned to visit the Pratyankara Devi temple at Sozhiganallur off ECR. The place is about 15 kms from my home and on a Saturday evening we had an easy passage after the City limits, (which is some 4-5 km from my home on the ECR.)
The Road to Sozhiganallur is off to the right from ECR and it is under repairs right now but easily motorable. Soon it will be a wide much needed link passage from ECR to OMR (IT- corridor)

(The Temple is closed only between 2 to 4 pm daily)

The temple itself on a narrow road with a non-descript entrance next to a vast dry field, almost deceiving us into thinking ‘it can’t be much of a temple’.

You are soon taken aback and rocked back to awe-inspiring sights of several statues in this enclosure.

When you set your foot in, at the entrance is the deity Varahi’s temple, where Devi is with the relevant animal face. After praying there and collecting the vibhuti and Kumkumam, you move to the left and are immediately confronted by the rare architecture resembling Tibetan pagoda roofs.
The first one under this structure is a huge moorthi 30 to 40 ft easily of Kali, like a ‘Rundamalini’( wears a garland of monster heads) and as ‘the wild red tongued goddess’ that struck terror in the enemy Rakshasas that she did samhara.
The name plate however said veerabhadrasamy for some reason, I was told by my son who read the inscription next to the door. I was awe struck by this huge wild goddess Moorthi in glorious form blessing the devotees who flock to see such statues here.

Further, you see a homa kundam where regular Amavasya homam is performed.
There you see a standing statue at least 20 feet tall of Agni deva, with 3 legs, and seven hands. A real weird figure this and you bow in reverence.
Then you move on to the Sharabha lingeswara swamy enclosure and then on to Kalabhairava swamy and Gayatri devi’s temples housed in smaller enclosures.

Next in the central enclosure is the Main deity- Pratyankara devi, the lion headed goddess, who it seems is the female counterpart of Narasimha swamy.

The statue of Pratyankara Devi is beautifully carved with clear cut lion facial features and her female body adorned with silks and jewels.
There is a line of people thronging at all peak hours but you get to see the Moorthi the whole time you are in the queue, no matter where you are.
The Lemon and Kumkumam prasadam of the goddess is believed to be a panacea for many cures and she is believed to be a powerful goddess for the ill-fated ones. This recent temple is now on the lips of many Chennaiites and has acquired a quick fame among the Hindu devotees here.

After receiving the Lemon and Kumkumam prasadam one can visit the rest of the smaller temples of Lord Ganesh, Hanuman, Subramanya and a wall painting of Hayagrivar which are clustered around the main deity. My wife and children were very happy and felt blessed here.

Blessed by the divine darshanam of the Goddesses here, we moved out in the taxi to some 5 kms back towards Chennai, to a place called Injambakkam on the ECR, to visit the shirdi saibaba Temple set in a huge garden-like estate.

The place is set far away from the noise and traffic of the ECR and very close to the Injambakkam-Neelankarai beach stretch. It is silent , peaceful and a calm location, well-developed and maintained with the funds of several North Indian devotees as there are Hindi nameboards in front of the several temples here along with Shirdi saibaba’s. There is a Flower stall to one side the ashram like complex where you can purchase flowers for puja.

There are a lot of green tall trees all around and small concrete pathways leading from one temple to the other.
First off you see Vallabha Vinayakar and move on to Lord Dattatreya, the three headed Murthi embodiment of Brahma-Vishnu- Maheswara trio.

You can visit the vast and central Shirdi saibaba temple next and see the holy statue after climbing some 30 odd steps.

There is a benevolent Sai picture calling the devotees with a message “Why Fear when I am here?” and a marble statue decorated with silks and beautifully garlanded of Shirdi baba at the centre. You offer your prayers, garland him (There is an archakar there too) and kneel down at this lotus feet engraved in the marble next to the moorthi and pray for blessings.
After receiving the Vibhuti prasadam, you get down and can settle down for a few moments of peaceful meditation in the vast Central hall there.
Out of the mandir again, you can see the ‘uthi’ enclosure, Shirdi sai Pictures and statues in the next hall and a smaller enclosure of sai as ‘Dwaraka mai’.

You have small enclosures- full of the host of Gods and goddesses ranging from Shivji and parvati, Ram, Sita and Lakhan with Hanuman, Subramanya with Devayani and valli, Maa Durga, Radhe-shyam, Vishnu and navagrahas.

You also see the north Indian version of ‘The Lord of the Ocean’ - Jhulelal ji deity in the opposite enclosure.

It will be then time to leave this calm and serene place with its trees and chirping birds with a heavy heart. We owed to go back as many times as we can to enjoy the serenity and peace more the next times around.

Navagraha temples tour in TN

2008-01-06T22:26:00.000+05:30

Navagraha temples tour in TN

I know that this topic has been dealt with professionally in many travel blogs on the net with pics and maps and the like. I am not therefore trying to do one better here. Nor am I such a pro Travel blogger anyway!

I am simply going to relate my experiences the way they happened to me on this tour with my close friends.

It had been my long standing wish to complete the Navagraha temples tour, few of which I had visited with family a couple of years ago( Alangudi and Thirunageswaram).

I have a group of friends and relatives hailing from Bangalore who are ‘staunch devotees' and are veterans on this circuit in the last decade. I had been talking to them on joining on one of the visits and this year the plans fell into place.

The trip was two –part- a day on the Trichy-Sriranagam circuit which I did with a couple of my friends and then- a two day- tour with the rest of the group on the Navagraha temple circuit itself.

Part 1- Trichy-Srirangam lap:

Day -01

If one could reach Trichy (Full name= Tiruchirapalli) in the dawn from any of the overnight trains from Chennai or Bangalore, you can a have a vigorous one day tour of many lovely temples in the vicinity before dusk. You could for example take Mayiladuthurai Exp from Bangalore or Rock-fort express from Chennai; A second class ticket on a sleeper would not cost beyond Rs 200 as of now.

Why, a second class ticket, you ask? One ought to be austere and use simple and basic facilities on pilgrimage, they say. Besides, winters in TN do facilitate comfortable second class sleeper journeys.

We lodged at Hotel Aanand for a sojourn, close to the Bus and Train stations; completed our morning ablutions and left at the crack of the dawn, say by 6:30 am, which is always a good thing so you cover maximum number of places before night.

There are some exquisite Chola and Pallava period temples in this sector. As per Hindu beliefs one usually starts their pilgrimage praying to Vighna vinashaka, Lord Ganesh, the remover of obstacles. And what’s better than the deity who sits atop the majestic Rockfort with a fitting name Uchchi pillaiyaar. (http://www.tn.gov.in/trichytourism/temples.htm)

The imposing Rockfort from the ages of Kings and Queens who ruled this province is an awe-inspiring sight and dwarfs you when you stand in front of its shop cluttered entrance. And when I learned that you have to climb some 400 steps to see the deity, I sighed with disbelief too. Not a simple task for a man like me who has lived softly although. Though my two younger enthusiastic companions encouraged an goaded me on, I did manage to huff and puff only 200-odd steps and manage to see the rock-cut temples on the first level namely, Lord Ganesh’s parents, Lord shiva and Parvathi who go by the name of Thayumanuvaswamy and Mattuvarkuzhal Amman.

The legend of Thayumanavaswamy is a moving illustration of the "maternal" compassion of God towards His devotee, so the legend goes...That Lord Shiva acted as a midwife to a pregnant woman devotee in labour.

Then I developed cold feet (quite literally!) after the arduous climb half-way and waved my companions, Sairam and Suresh (the tough duo of brothers) onward opting to stay back and catch my breath , rest my legs and ease the ominous cramps.

The morning winds are pleasant and half way up is certainly a beautiful place where I clicked away at the misty panoramic scenery of the Trichy town spread below.

As I did not visit the Lord Ganesh atop the hill but saw only his parents, I thought wryly about the Kannada proverb- “Ganeshanna maadu andre avana appanna maaadidha”

(Meaning- When asked to make an idol of Lord Ganesh, a sculptor made one of Lord Shiva (his father), by mistake!) I made amends by praying at the Vinayakar temple at the entrance on the way down, however.

Then we broke for a Breakfast of Idlis and Dosas which are available at most restaurants early enough in Trichy like the rest of the state.

And then, ha! We all had chosen white Veshti (Dhoti in Tamil) to wear with the shirt which is again a part of the conventional pilgrimage gear! Besides you never feel out of place wearing a dhoti anywhere in TN. Talking of food, one normally follows strict vegetarian diet and keeps off alcohol during such holy trips if one is of the conventional /orthodox Hindu mould.

The next visit was to the Jala sthalam or the ‘Water place’ of Lord Shiva called Jambukeshwarar. This on the confluence of Cauvery and Kollidam rivers has Lord Shiva in the garbha grihmam bathed in water always, dripping from an unknown source from the top and there is a cool one foot of water thereabouts on the floor too, lending credence to the name. This is also called one of the Pancha bhutam temples of Shiva. (The other four elements being Fire, Earth, Space, Air)

Then we went over to the much awaited Srirangam.

Srirangam is a quiet and serene temple town located on the banks of the river Cauvery. The abode of Lord Ranganatha, who is Lord Vishnu in supine position, this temple has lovely and eye-catching sculpture from ancient days and is certainly a monument in every right. The gopuram and wall sculpture are riveting. The temple covers a vast area of about 6,31,000 Sqm. (156 Acres).

Ref http://www.srirangam.org/description.htm

We stood patiently in queue for two hours till the ‘poojas’ inside the temple were offered and doors thrown open to the public once again. Being shortly after the holy Vaikunta Ekadashi, there were some felicitations being presented right in front of us to the workers and volunteers who tirelessly serve the temple the year round.

The Lord was today excellently bedecked in ‘Vaira muthu alankaram, a vest made of diamonds and pearls covering the lying form, a special treat for the devotees who come shortly after the Vaikunta Ekadashi. By the way, if you have a sweet tooth and are not too fussy about sweets prepared in ghee, you can relish their sakkarai pongal and other delicious prasadam items at the stalls. Simply fingerlicking good!

We considered ourselves fully blessed and moved on.

There is a very beautiful and famous Devi temple, Mariamman temple in the vicinity called Samayapuram. The face of idol of Devi/ Amman is smeared red with Kumkumam (vermilion). Hundreds of devotees wearing the same red coloured dresses pay obeisance to the Goddess here. A must see place for all those who worship Shakti.( http://www.tn.gov.in/trichytourism/mariamman.htm)

In the midst of all these quick runs and stopovers, one must not ignore time.

The temples here normally open by 5 am thereabouts and stay so till 12-30 pm or so. Many temples break for afternoon between 12-30 and 4 to 4-30 pm and stay closed. They reopen from 4-30 pm and again stay open till about 8-30 pm (To keep on the safer side). But some temples make a departure on special days and/ season and keep open without break.

So, it certainly is a good idea to plan your visits in advance, consulting usually with the hotel guys and /or the local taxi driver you hire and ‘time the visits’ as far as possible to avoid disappointments on reaching a place in the afternoons.

While on the topic of taxis, haggle a lot and you will get a better deal. It could be a package deal of specific places per day or by kilometres.

We got to eat some decent ‘veggie madrasi’ meal on the road and you bet it’s affordable and palatable. Normally the driver gets to eat with you and also gets the chance of picking the places in the first place, being a ‘local’.

There is another famed local Devi temple named Vekkali amman temple nearby. The specialty here is the main Garbha griham has no roof for the Devi, who as per legend, stopped a mud rain on the residents here and stayed herself shelter less sympathising with the plight of the homeless.

The temple bears a newly painted and done-up look and is worth a visit.

At this point our taxi decided on its own to call it a day (It simply wouldn’t start) leaving us at the feet of the Vekkali amman. It was around 4 pm. The driver made some frantic phone calls and beamed at us saying ‘another taxi driven by his’ cousin' will soon be here and take us forward’.

Soon we moved on to the last visit of the day in the substitute taxi to Vayalur to see Lord Murugan. Being my home deity, it was of special interest and devotion to me. (http://vayalurmuruga.org/203_speciality.htm). There is a beautiful Surya asnd his two consorts in standing position here among the navagrahas. After this visit it was time to return to base. We quickly checked out of the Hotel paying the driver of some Rs. 750:00 for the entire day.

A plenty of buses ply between Trichy and Thanjavur, our next destination.

We took one of them paying a mere Rs 18 per head (Quite cheap according to me, who hails from Karnataka) for a 1.5 hrs journey.( Distance=65 Kms east of Tiruchi by road)

We rushed to see the evening maha mangalarathi of Lord Shiva in the Big temple of Brihadeeswarar ( ‘periya koil’) but we just missed it by a whisker and were to have the fortune only on the return journey. We lodged ourselves in the comfortable budget hotel Karthik awaiting the dawn which will see the rest of our group join us for the next lap.

Part 2- Thanjavur- Navagraha temples- Point calimer lap

Day-02:

The next dawn saw our two other companions Varadaraj and Hariram join us. Varadaraj is virtually the leader of the group and most knowledgeable of the lot, knowing a lot of puranic tales and all about temples and iconography. Hari has worn mala this time and we used to wish him throughout ‘Swami sharanam’ in memory of Lord Ayyappa of Sabarimala.

The train from Bangalore had landed them at our Thanjavur hotel by 6 am.

We had morning bath and breakfast in the same Hotel and started by 8 am.

One of you needs to be an accountant and take charge of keeping track of amounts spent on journeys, lunch and poojas. I was wielding the pen this time.

We had hired a Tata Sumo van with a driver Suresh and we set off towards the first temple, complex- Manikundram Perumal temples for Lord Vishnu. All 3 ancient well preserved temples are in one complex, back to back.

At the beginning itself I learnt the right procedure to see a temple in the traditional way fully through caracara- All about Nandi facing Shiva or Garden facing its Lord Vishnu in the respective temples. There will be smaller deities in the temples for Vandyke, Dakshinamurthy( Guru, who faces south), Vishnu Durga and Chandikeshwara as well as the right place and direction ( East or North ) to offer namaskarams in the temples.

We quickly started Navagraha circuit soon after with the first visit to Thittai where Guru (Jupiter) is worshipped. There is of course another popular Guru temple at Alangudi nearer to Kumbhakonam. Lord Guru’s colour is Yellow and many devotees come here to get rid of Dosham in their horoscopes of a weak Jupiter. The main deity is called Vasishteswar and the devi is Ulaganayaki.

At most of the Navagraha temples there will be Lord Shiva as the main deity bearing different names and the respective Planet temple in its complex.

The next stop was to see Chandran at Thingaloor. The main deity here is Lord Kailasanatha. The Colour of the moon is white.

We proceeded to Thiru Nageswaram, the abode of Rahu. Those with sarpa dosham etc induced by Rahu’s wrath worship him here, obviously the temple was quite crowded and we got to see the ‘Pal abhishekam’ of Rahu.

We all prayed earnestly for his blessings.

I think we lunched at Kumbakonam sometime at this point. It was moderate and so was the price.

The next temple to visit was Suryanar Koil for Lord Sun. It is customary to visit Thirumangalagudi temple before visiting the Surya’s temple. The main deity is Prananatheshwarar with Mangalambikai.

We had to wait till the temple to open and took a much needed nap in the van.

We also visited a decrepit temple for kali amman nearby which is said to be on the tantra pilgrimage itinerary.

The Surya temple is grand with Vinayaka worshipped first and Lord Sun blesses his devotees with his two wives- Devi Usha and Chaya. All other navagrahas are also there in this temple. I could see a group of foreigners flocking to see each deity with curiosity and gamely getting smeared with

We were into evening already and had to cover three more temples at least.

The next halt was at Kanjanur where Shukran (Venus) is worshipped. The main Shiva deity is called Agneeswarar for couples, Venus being the Lord of Love and marriage.

Lord Kethu, the other half of the serpent graham Rahu, is worshipped at an ancient Shaivite temple called Keezh Perumballam. If the name is not easy enough to pronounce, the road to the temple sure is more so... It is a little out of the way and the road condition is rough and rustic.

We proceeded to go to Budhan (Mercury) temple at Thiruvenkadu. The main deity here is Swetaranyeswarar. The lord Budha here is the ruler for Brains and Budhdhi shakti. Budhan is the son of Moon (Chandra) and Tara as per the legends.

We then decided to go to Vaideeswaran temple town as evening passed into night and spend the night there. It is near Mayiladuthurai and is a place one must never forget to visit for many reasons.

First and foremost, Lord Shiva takes the role of a Doctor here and is a sacred spot believed to cure diseases and there is a beautiful large pond in the temple where one can take a dip to receive the blessings. You may on the shorter version sprinkle the waters on your head.

It is the spot where the planet Mangala/ Sevvai/ Angaraka is worshipped. Of course, Lord Mangala has a temple here where people with Mangala dosham flock to perform austerities and receive his blessings. It is also known for a no of Nadi astrologers and I could see them at every corner of this small town.

In terms of the temple size and the ambience, it is second to none and as we did the Night darshan here at the end of a long tiring day, I felt revived and this temple impressed me the most. The temple has huge ornate stone pillars and long unending corridors.

The Devi here is Thaiyal nayaki and son Subramanya is worshipped as Selva Muthu kumaran.

When you enter the temple you can take salt, pepper and jaggery from the stall, and turn your fistful of the stuff once around your head and drop it into the sacks. This is symbolic of purging ourselves of pains and diseases.

We spent the night in one of the many moderate Lodges around the temple which had a TV too and did not really pinch the purse.

Road side eatery stalls supply some veggie snacks late into the night too.

Day -03:

The next morning saw us finish our ablutions quickly and have one more visit to the Vaideeswaran and then move on. The misty morning and pleasant temple ambience in the early hours was another memorable experience.

It was the morning before Christmas and we started off through roads adjoining green paddy fields to Thirunallar where an important navagraham –Shanishwara is worshipped. Thirunallar, I understood is near Karaikkal in Puducherry State (erstwhile Pondicherry).

It was a Monday morning and the famed temple shrine was strangely empty and luckily we had the entire temple almost to ourselves. The Lord shiva here is called Dharbarenyswarar. I had to do some archanais here for my family’s welfare and donate black cloth to a poor man. I completed all that and lit gingelly seed tied cloth wick in gingelly oil lamps near Lord Saturn.

(http://www.tamilnadu-tourism.com/tour-packages/navagraha-temple-tour.html)

(http://pondicherry.nic.in/open/regions/karaikal/shanee.htm)

We had thus covered all the nine temples in the circuit in a busy one- and- half day tour.

We had a half day for ourselves before turning back to the base- Thanjavur.

We made for Thiruvidaikazhi to see a temple which is not much popular but lovely all the same, here the Lord Murugan is worshipped as Bala subramanya and his consort Deyayani was betrothed to him here, it is said. There are separate enclosures for them here.

We also visited another ancient Vishnu temple at ThiruVazhandur which is considered Pancha krishnaranya Kshetrams and this vasihnavite temple is really lovely.

From there we proceeded down south to Vedaranyam to see the ancient Lod Shiva temple. It was a lovely sight and we had now traveled a long way into and away from Thanjavur. After prasadam at the temple we left for a rare bird sanctuary called Kodikkarai or Point Calimere right on the coast we had to toward Velankanni, the Christian shrine and beyond. The roads are under repair here and the journey was slow and arduous.

It was a warm afternoon sun we were treated to the sight of a few birds like flamingoes and kingfishers zipping above and on the backwaters in the sun. They say the ideal timings are in the early hours or at sunset when obviously it is cooler.

The journey back to Thanjavur was like 4 to 5 hours and we talked, and I sometimes listened to music on Suresh’s new iPod or on a Mobile with mp3.

We still had time to visit Brihadeeswara temple at Thanjvur, one of the most spectacular pieces of South Indian architecture, from the Pallava and Vijayanagara Kingdom days. There is a lot of written material on this temple already on the net and outside, and so I suffice to say it is an awesome and huge temple and you have to see it to believe it!

The piece de resistance of this temple is of course its imposing gopuram , a towering reminder of the past masters of architecture and human effort from those golden days’ when Indian kings dominated the land and the waters in Asia.

All good things come to an end and so did our trip on the evening of Christmas Eve. Unwilling to let go of the wonderful memories just yet, we left on our individual trains back to our homes and routine lives. All said and done, I was like a changed man having seen the best and revered holy spots in Tamil nadu with my group of educated and knowledgeable friends.

Mumbai Revisited…er… Navi Mumbai!

2007-12-12T17:14:00.000+05:30

Mumbai Revisited…er… Navi Mumbai!

Mumbai has always held a special place in my heart from my childhood.
We had our dear uncle and family living there when we were kids and had made quite a few trips in summer when we had good fun with Shashi, my cousin out there.

I loved using the Electric local trains those days having come from Bangalore which did not have any ( It does not, even now), getting to know my way on Central and Western Lines. Even beaches were nicer then, esp Versova and Juhu to some extent…
Bandra Bandstand was lovely at sunset too…

And then I got my first job in Gammon, in Mumbai. It is another matter that I had to go far away from Mumbai to a misty Meghalaya and its project sites to serve.

Mumbai (Bombay, it used to be called those days) was busy, and sultry but never lacked in energy and cosmopolitan ethos. Yes, trains were always packed and traffic jams common then too..

Well, life happened since then and I have been now all over the globe. Well, almost!
As I recall, I left visiting Mumbai some decade ago now. Till the last week I mean, a rare trip to the once favourite city. On a professional cause.

Before I visited it this time, I was now not so enamoured of the metropolis having lived all these years in Bangalore and Chennai with their equally busting lifestyle and jostling crowds.

But Navi Mumbai and Mumbai ( ‘proper’, should I call this old one?) had something in store for me this time.

While Navi Mumbai (Vashi, to be specific) still has a certain charm and calmness to attract you, its roads let you down. Mahape a famed IT sector is poorly connected, with inadequate transport and food facilities. The MIDC area which houses the renowned flagship companies of today has several buildings that look like a big earthquake shook them not so long ago. There are snakelike cracks and rough plaster repairs adorning the walls are all too glaring which at first glance cut a sorry figure.
On the other hand, it has some glittering new Malls, where one can shop till you drop.

We could grab some South Indian snacks- Idli, dosa in the Hotel where I stayed but for dinner or Lunch, I do not think you have any other choice to go in for anything other than the typical North Indian Roti- Biryani menu. Mumbai will be cooler than Chennai this time of the year, a friend had promised me. No, it wasn’t.

But it is now Mumbai City as such, which sends chills down my spine with its almost horrendous traffic conditions. The roads just seem to be bursting with vehicles and they crawl for hours, inch by inch, even on six-lane roads like the ones from Mahim to Santa Cruz. We had a definite scare that we would miss the flight home when a 2 ½ hours of cab ride from Vashi could not get us there in time. If we made it, it was only by the skin of our teeth, as they say.

I do not know if it is a daily ordeal for Mumbaikars, but it certainly cannot be lot better. Is Mumbai’s golden days over? I daresay if I am being too sceptical.
When we were wiping sweat after running into the airport and trying to catch breath, the modern airport certainly held my attention. It looks wonderful and superb after the recent modifications. To dampen my spirits, the announcer said on PA system that many flights were delayed due to ‘existing congestion over the airport’..
Was he talking about the clogged roads leading to the airport or was there a traffic jam in the Mumbai skies too? I wouldn’t wonder…

To make our miseries complete, the plane waited for a good half hour on the runway after starting almost an hour late in the first place. Traffic jams have certainly come to stay.
At midnight, when I reached Chennai, the roads looked contrastingly empty and peaceful but then it was only midnight yet…The day and Chennai’s own bustling and unruly traffic was just hours away, I reminded myself on the way home.

Making peace with terror?

2007-09-05T15:01:00.000+05:30

Making peace with terror?

Are we to live with terror now with as much disdain and nonchalance as we do with corruption, filth and dowry deaths?
Till about a decade ago, apart from the worst affected areas like Kashmir or Punjab or the volatile North east, terror per se was unknown as a major menace to the rest of India, even though other evils like bribery, chain snatching or dowry deaths were much more pervasive.
Today we hear bomb blasts by serials one day in the bustling Mumbai, a terrorist gun skirmish in salubrious Bangalore the other day and devastating explosions in the upcoming Nizami city of Hyderabad close on its heels

.
Which is why I ask the question: Are now resignedly to shrug and live with terror? Just as we accepted the earlier evils in our multiracial, multilingual social fabric?
One would argue why, America could not accept one terror act in its stride, so why should we take this kind of daily hammering of our innocent populace and cities with the all-forgiving ‘chalta hai’ attitude or a nonchalant ‘Kaliyug ka khel’ platitude?

Oh so, that is because ‘America is America and India is India’ , is it? Whatever it means?

I am neither saying we shouldn’t nor am I proposing that we should live and let die all our countrymen thus.

But I want to look at a more pertinent question... Are we all becoming more and more immune to others’ suffering and take even horrid acts of terror which claim hundreds of lives just as we take a Sanjay dutt bail or a Salman khan imprisonment?….I mean as just another news headline?
I mean, coolly sipping coffee and lounging on your favourite couch in front of the Idiot Box all the while?

If that is all we can do, have we at least been fair to the most formidable and capable Army and Air-force, not to speak of the Navy, this country proudly possesses? What about them? Have we given them a free hand and rein to curb this menace?
Are we not capable of defending our land and peoples from invasion of enemy threats now, be it from an impoverished Bangladesh or a microscopic Maldives?( One news channel claims Maldives is the new station for Anti Indian terrorists)

Should we blame it on the old bogey of ‘Vote bank politics’ and soulless politicians just as we do for everything else?

When our 'oh-so-secular' TV Channels applaud the brave Mumbaikars for not being cowed down by terror by coming out for work the very next day or congratulate Hyderabadis for their 'never say die' spirit( sic? Look at that term too!) soon after the blasts, who are we kidding?

Aren't we being heartless and even spineless by flaunting our 'Nero Was Fiddling' nonchalance when fellow countrymen are dying?
At this rate, we would never have won Independence from foreign rule 50 years ago if such uncaring and unperturbed attitude were things of virtue even in the peaceful Gandhiji's days...

Heck, One would think the TV wallahs of today would even take a 'Jallian walla bagh massacre' without batting an eyelid and their flashlights popping while hunting for newsmakers of the day.

So many questions…Galling, frustrating and even haunting…Are Indian minds now turned insensitive and immune by enduring tormenting hate acts all these years, so much so that we have neither time nor interest to look squarely at the face of the terror that stares us in the face and makes mockery of our security, time and time again?

Hot summer days and new responsibilities

2007-04-26T17:37:00.000+05:30

Hot summer days and new responsibilities…

One bright summer morning, it got done… (Sorry, James Hadley Chase for stealing your book title...).

If you did not know what I mean, you will be excused. I have not been thinking coolly for sometime now…I mean saddled with the responsibilities of finding a home for the family, getting not one but two school admissions for my children, managing office, Looking after the kids who had come her for the admissions, providing with food and entertainment all sourced from outside…whew!. It has been hectic and hard sweaty work for me last fortnight or so. The Sun god, the emblem of the Ruling DMK had throughout blessed Chennai with bright sunshine and accompanying heat in abundance and had not helped our outdoor efforts to be any more tolerable.

Which is also why you did not see my blogging for quite sometime now? Hmmm, yes…

That and still recuperating Shyamala back in Bangalore made me that much more harried and lonely. I know what missing one’s spouse means with certainty now. With God’s grace, the brave lady is fighting her impediment with fortitude and is trying to be back on her feet sooner than later. All your prayers may please be dedicated to her…

Coming back to that bright summer morning last week, my son got through the last of the school entrance tests and we heaved a collective sigh of relief. One Sankara Vidyashram in Tiruvanmiyur found him fit after a ½-day long written test.

My daughter had got through a convoluted and hard fought admission process with another big name school in Adyar only the previous week.

That culminated my school efforts which had lasted about three weeks in April.

There was much suspense, anxiety, hard work and disappointment…a mixed bag on the way but my kids came through successful and kept cheerful, which is what egged me on and be confident of success. Three cheers to them…

Children are back with their mother who had missed them as much as I had if not more.

But, there is still a lot to be done…

Miles to go before I sleep, as they say…

Home away from home? Is that what I am trying to do?

It has been two years since I moved to Chennai from Bangalore and I am still a little hazy which city to call as my home now!!…

As I sat looking at the relentless waves breaking on the Besant nagar’s Elliot’s beach with my children playing in the waters last week, I recalled the famous adage- Time and Tide wait for none…Let me end this piece on this poignant and thought provoking note and get back to house hunting…

Be back soon…

Cauvery- The River of Dispute

2007-02-19T16:10:00.000+05:30

The thorny issue of Cauvery river sharing refuses to go away.

It has taken 16 years and 600 or more sittings, but the vexing issue is nowhere near over even after its much awaited final verdict has been pronounced. The riparian states mainly Karnataka and Tamil nadu have not accepted the award yet. The smaller states of Kerala and Pondicherry have not been satisfied either.

TN citing some technical reasons as the basis wants to have review so that it can get a bigger and better deal than what it has already managed to get.

The Karnataka ‘ryots’ ( Read Farmers) have lived upto their reputation of causing riots and public disturbances and have managed to create a feeling that some kind of intentional injustice has been done to the state by the conspiratorial Central and TN Govts. The regional Kannada parties making most of it have sufficiently whipped up divisive sentiments. Efforts have been made to twist the final verdict as if it were a serious blow to the Kannada Language and culture itself rather than merely disputing against the allocated share figures. Poets and film-starts have entered the fray too giving credence to this growing ill will.

Chauvinism is on the rise again in the State and even saner figures who dared to opine on the contrary are being violently rebuked and insulted on the streets. Girish Karnad’s is a case in the point.

Coming to the brass tacks about figures themselves it seems no river water dispute anywhere has ever been solved by a tribunal, if at all.

Talks seems to be the only way out but that option has already been exhausted long back by the adamant State Govts on this dispute lasting from the days of British raj. Allegations being heaped as to how the Madras presidency authorities had set the ball rolling from its days giving always the erstwhile Madras state undeserved higher share than the upper riparian Karnataka ( or erstwhile Mysore) which it has always maintained it as an unfair political advantage.

Even now the Karnataka is sore that DMK Clout at the centre has turned the verdict completely in TN’s favour and the feeling is almost unanimous .

So far so good.

OK, we still have a River dispute. So what, you could say…

But No…

This particular issue between Karnataka and Tamil nadu has had a nasty habit of turning out into linguistic and sectarian violence between the speakers of Kannada and Tamil speaking languages themselves in the past and there have been exodus of affected people from either state whenever this issue has thus been stirred up.

Even the infamous forest bandit Veerappan had some axe to grind on this issue which unfortunately encompasses more related thorny inter-state and cultural issues than the simple technical matter of water-sharing figures decided by a judicial authority.

What is both baffling and tragic is that certain people show their mean streak publicly and cause havoc which upsets the delicate fabric of a multi-lingual society.

The Tribunal has already permitted all the affected States that they can approach it for a review of its order but such peaceful and disciplined way of handling things have never been resorted to by either state Govt.

Somehow the Govts stand mute witness as rabble-rousers and separatists with their hidden agenda openly flame the passions on the sectarian lines provoking the other party to a street tussle which is totally uncalled for.

Karnataka has much to guard for.

Its diverse multi ethnic community, Bangalore’s Brand as a bustling IT-capital and a tourist haven as well as its reputation for tolerance and hospitality. It seems so silly to throw it all away for the sake of some narrow-minded agenda of Kannada Chaluvali or a Rakshana Vedike

Tamil nadu has no fewer stakes either. It has the same credentials of a multi ethnic society and has a thriving IT and automobile Industry on its soil besides being a Tourism-major state. It has so much to lose too if it goes the way of its neighbour in a ‘tit-for-tat’ policy.

Even though it looks unlikely whether a Review by the same tribunal (given that the same facts and figures will be available to it) or even by the Supreme Court could change the complexion of the final verdict drastically, that seems to be the only way for the State Govts to adopt. Not giving vent to passion on the streets or causing losses through unnecessary bandhs and road blockades.

The smaller stake holders like Kerala and Pondy too are advised to take constitutional steps and resolve the matter either through talks or review petitions without causing hardship to people at large.

Sai Wave Sweeps Chennai

2007-02-01T12:18:00.000+05:30

SAI WAVE SWEEPS CHENNAI

Bhagawan Sri Sathya saibaba visited Chennai in Jan 2007, 10 years after his last visit in 1997.

The occasion could not have been grander. A 11 day Athi Rudra maha yagnam was performed at Thiruvanmiyur suburb of Chennai and a felicitation was held to honour Him for funding a Rs 200 Cr. massive Water supply rehabilitation works of the erstwhile Telugu Ganga Project which were in a dilapidated state now rechristened as ‘Sai ganga’, from AP reservoirs of River Krishna to the Chennai’s Poondi reservoir.

This project which was completed successfully in a record 16 month duration by L&T ECC contracted by Sathya sai Trust providing with RCC-Lined canals and up-gradation of pumping and piping facilities across the two states. Chennai, they say, now can be rest assured of regular water supply which once had became the bugbear of this City.

The occasion marked a new departure for the atheist, Brahmin bashing CM, Karunanidhi who had to chair the occasion in the Stadium along with a galaxy of Ministers and Governors including those of Karnataka, AP and Maharashtra. Baba had just the other day visited Karunanidhi at his home although it is usually the other way round where Baba is concerned, once and for all putting aside any talk of ego- clash showing He is a selfless crusader of Social upliftment and spirituality. Karunanidhi in his speech equated Baba to God despite defending that although he himself ‘may not believe in God,’ we should work in a way so that ‘God likes us’…

Coming from a die-hard atheist, this public proclamation was a small miracle in itself.

The 11 day Athi Rudra maha yagnam was conducted in a magnificent way in a massive 10 acre grounds with a beautiful and spacious mandapam with all basic facilities for the visiting thousands. And Visit they did, crowding both Morning and afternoon sessions in numbers that on one day touched even 60,000.

The days were marked with 121 Purohits chosen and specially trained to recite Rudram and chamakam continuously for 11 rounds for 11 days doing the chanting which was both elevating and enthralling. They performed a grand Homam daily in 11 Homa kundams . The rhythmic and reverberating Vedic sounds rent the air and a wave of spirituality and contentment was evident on the faces of faithfuls who had thronged there for this occasion, said to be only the second one in the known Indian history after the Aug 2006’s Puttaparthi one.

Several Artistes performed at the venue in the daily evening Musical programmes viz., Mandolin U Shrinivas, Umayalapuram Sivaraman, Vani jayaram, Ustad Rashid Khan, Malaysia Vasudevan and students of Sathya sai Educational institutions.

Of Course the renowned Sundaram Bhajan group was there as well to sing some soulful and melodious Bhajan Numbers.

For pictures of the yagnam please visit the link below:

http://www.sssbpt.org/Pages/Prasanthi_Nilayam/chennai_Photo.html

The whole area looked just like Puttaparthi or Whitefield campus with several shops selling Books, calendars, Cassettes and CDs and other spiritual wares, sprung up all along the 1 Km long spacious tree lined South avenue leading up to the Entrance Gate.

Several banners have been put up by Banks and Industries all over the City welcoming Baba and wishing the function success. Nearly 4,000 volunteers from all over TN worked tirelessly for 11 days behind the scenes for making this occasion a memorable one. Devotees came not just from TN but also from neighboring states and even abroad.

There was one positive development as a gesture from the grateful Chennaiites, this time from the Medical fraternity which came forward to announce that 62 Hospitals in Chennai will be providing One Bed free of charge and picking up the bill for the patients throughout the year whether it is simple treatment or a complicated surgery free of charge. Baba blessed the Leader of this Fraternity and provided one medical Kit free which included a stethoscope and accessories to each of those doctors who had come forward for this service.

The one facility which made everyone raise their eyebrows in astonishment was what looked like a make shift Canteen put up separately for Gents and Ladies near the venue that served the hungry thousands daily with rates of just Rs 2 per coupon for fares that included sumptuous and tasty Kichadi, Pongals and hot beverages. Even those who had not come to attend the Yagnam (entrance to which of course was for free), also made a point to partake this affordable delicious food on their way to work daily.

It was a Sai wave in Chennai and verily in TN itself where Baba’s benevolence and magnanimity shined through like nothing else could.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this post as much as I did in attending to this spiritual mela with my family in attendance.

New Year beckons...

2007-01-03T14:01:00.000+05:30

Old Order changeth yielding place to new, said Tennyson, a famous English poet on time and change.

It happens constantly, ceaselessly, all the time. I mean TIME itself.

Vedas proclaim ‘Kaalaya tasmai namaha’

A new year and one again full of new aspirations and expectations is here.

Sceptics may say it is just like the so many old years when they were new... They dismiss it as a ‘January phenomenon’.

As I return to Chennai home on Jan 2, I look at the waves breaking on the Marina Beach in the misty dawn…Reminds me that tides don’t wait either just like time…

Well, Time changes many things just as times change themselves.

It has been a full year to this December since ‘yours faithfully’ made Chennai his home and base, shifting out of a cool and comfy Bangalore home in the winter of December 2005.

Times were different then. As well as difficult.

Those who know us know well how tough it has been for me and the family. Me here alone in a bachelor pad, dear wife managing career, children and home single handedly and astutely too. She and children together did a remarkable job of it back home..

Very glad and relieved that we have survived the acid test of time and emerged more solid and stronger than ever before. They also say Time is the Best healer and it could not have been truer for me.

Then again, I was completely reassured of the truth of the statement ‘Times change…’when I heard the familiar voice of a dear friend and ex-colleague from Bangalore who had just moved in to a new career, new home… why, new life itself in Chennai on the First of January…

Here is wishing everyone happiness, health, peace and success as well as progress in the first week of the 2007.

I fondly remember and recall all those of you who have encouraged me with words of encouragement and praise on my blog that kept coming on and off on diverse topics that my mind took fancy to.

I could not have carried on with much enthusiasm and interest if the readership was not equally so.

Speaking for myself, a lot has been done but more challenges are a coming.

In the year we have decided to move into Chennai as a full family. There are various things being thought and planned by wife and me. You will all soon learn of it as the events unfold.

I am sure all of you will wish me well and be with me in all my efforts… blogs or life itself…

Thanks, friends!!

Will be back soon…. another day, another topic..

DECEMBER --IS MUSIC TO MY EARS!

2006-12-18T12:30:00.000+05:30

DECEMBER --IS MUSIC TO MY EARS!

'Come September', an old English song used to go in my childhood days to herald something enchanting in that month

Now it is December and Chennai -a combo that makes it something to look forward to for all Carnatic Music lovers, year after year.

Traditionally termed Marghazhi month in the winter, Chennai rocks to a different beat throughout December. …The melodious strains of Carnatic Music waft up from at least 10 well known Sabhas in the City.

Being a Carnatic music aficionado, it is a gala but busy time of the year flitting from one sabha to another catching the best of your favourite artistes. All the frontline artistes are seen at most venues lending credence to the hype of December- the Music season here.

The popular English daily, The Hindu said on this subject thus recently:

The December music festival in Chennai is as much about quantity as it is about quality.

With so many sabhas scattered around the city and hundreds of artistes participating in the festival, it becomes quite an exercise for rasikas to plan their schedules for the month.

I have been a Carnatic music lover too for many years and can think of nothing better than to catch a ‘piece of action’ on my evenings and weekends.

Whilst at Bangalore I was a regular on the Ramotsava beat when Bangalore celebrates Carnatic music the best.

My parents had always fostered the Classical and light music culture in us from my childhood days.We used to attend concerts etc in Malleswaram where I grew up then.
It was no different after my marriage. If anything, the love for music only blossomed further.
Music came naturally to my wife, a daughter of veteran AIR Mrudangam vidwan, Sri V.V. Ranganathan, and she grew up to be a delightful singer in family circles and popular in her office as well. Her brothers and sisters all sing exceptionally well besides being percussionists of sorts and my wife's aunt who went by the pen name of 'sharada dasi' was a rare impromptu composer of krithis in many languages. Thus my children have some musical genes running in them as well. My daughter attends classes.

Back to Chennai. Hailed as the hub of Carnatic music, Chennai can and does offer you the variety, class, grace and joy and all that this genre has to offer.

I was able to catch 3 to 4 excellent kutcheries this season already and it is only midway through the season yet.

There was Bombay Jayashree Ramnath giving a soulful rendition of saint Thaygaraja and Muthuswami dikshitar krithis the other day at a packed Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan hall in Mylapore. It was a 'free' concert to boot...Most of them in this season aren’t, you see...

Mylapore, a tradition bound area is verily the Mecca of Carnatic music . It has some five to six very popular sabhas and boasts of equally good auditoria. Many popular artistes reside here as well.

Then there was Sudha Raghunathan, a disciple of the legendary MLV, at her sublime best with able accompaniments of Mrudangam and Morching singing her heart out with ‘Rama nannu brovara’ and such popular krithis at a T Nagar auditorium last week. She has the range, the appeal and variety and she makes full use of her abilities.

The other memorable one was a double concert of Nithyasree Mahadevan and P Unnikrishnan at Narada Gana sabha in Alwarpet. Both artistes , young masters in their own right, gave brisk, energetic and melodious concerts that lasted 2 hous each. It was really an elevating experience. Nithaysree , once a child genius singer is a grand daughter of another veteran D K Pattammal. Music runs in her blood and her high pitched and fast paced numbers left everyone else breathless except herself!!

P Unnikrishnan also started his career in his childhood and has carved a niche for himself with a good medley of Telugu, Tamil Krithis and Hindi Bhajans. He is also a well known playback singer in Tamil film world. I only wish most singers would sing more Purandara dasa's songs and not just make a 'last song salute' to the great composer in their concerts.

The last evening was spent listening to another concert albeit of a different variety but entertaining equally, nevertheless.

It was the SPB , the leading playback singer of south Indian films and Hindi as well, giving an evening of enchanting film hits at Kamarajar Arangam auditorium to the orchestration of a famous band called Lakshman sruthi. The tickets were sponsored by my Company and we colleagues attended the event en masse. Mostly the hit numbers of Kamalahasan and Rajanikant movies of 80's were the mainstay.

He encouraged young female co-singers with him on the stage and lamented the present trends of vulgar films and their 'music -without- values' too!( If one movie was called 'kuththu' and the others were even called 'pokkiri' and 'Dishoom' etc) .

He did not forget to mention MSV, Ilayaraja et al for their contributions but he forgot to sing any songs from Telugu and Kannada from his 36,ooo strong repertoire...All in all, an evening well spent...

Most concerts are pricey and very few of them are free, if at all. Tickets to these December concerts don’t come cheaper than Rs 50 to 100 a piece. Many outsiders and a few foreigners also visit Chennai in this season. Such is the name and fame of this annual festival of music.

The rasikas throng to the ‘advance booking’ counters much in advance and the cheaper tickets are already sold out if you decide late and reach the venue at the last minute!

The snacks are expensive at the sabha cafeteria and you may well spend an equal amount of a ticket fare for a filling snack. You see the usual crowd of well-fed senior citizens, the Iyer ‘uncles’ and ‘Maamis’ who make up for more than 50% of all rasikas tucking into steaming Idlis, crisp dosas , bondas and of course, filter coffee busily before and after the concerts . Sometimes, good snacks get sold out much before the tickets do… …

Well, they aren’t called ‘rasikas’ for nothing, you know..;)

Most auditoria are air-conditioned in Chennai as they need to be. But that is not to say there will be sufficient air conditioning all the time in all the halls…I keep asking the organisers what’s wrong with their AC and mostly get an embarrassed smile in return.

Then there are chatters...I mean people are only ‘human’, I realize that. An occasional enquiry or confirmation of a ‘raga’ with neighbours or even to know when the ‘last bus will leave’ is acceptable enough, but one wishes it would stop at that.

But no, some are compulsory talkers and they don’t even do it in whispers.

It is so exasperating…Why don’t they put on a CD and chat away at home, if that is what they want?

Then there are guys who won’t switch off their mobile phones or even bother to put them in ‘silent mode’…The mobiles take sadistic pleasure in ringing at the most awkward times too... It is rather unfortunate if you are seated next to such insensitive nerds.

I shush them all the time, but not always successfully.

Well, it is an imperfect world, so who am I complaining with?

Few more concerts like those of Madurai TN Seshagopalan, TV Shankaranarayanan and Ramani are in the offing and I am planning to make the most of it…

Singing off on this note…sorry, 'signing' off, I mean!!

Statue, they said and… we lost!

2006-12-08T14:30:00.001+05:30

Statue, they said and… we lost!

(You know this game, the children play...One says ‘Statue’ to the other and the other loses if he makes a false move!)

No sooner than the dust settled in Maharashtra following riots of indignation and protest over the desecration of an Ambedkar statue in faraway UP, there has been one more nearer home.
This time in Srirangam, Trichy, a famed temple town in TN.

For reasons best known to vested interests in political circles, some Dravidian outfit following his school of thought felt the statue of their renowned atheist and rationalist founder Periyar EVR should be facing the Rajagopuram at the front entrance of Ranganatha swami temple in Srirangam... It was already shrouded in controversy, I hear..

No sooner had Dec 6 , the annual black day of Babri Masjid demolition had just come and gone without any major incident, than some Hindu katchi( party in Tamil) activists climbed over what they felt was a blasphemous indignity of a statue, a threat to devout Hindus and damaged it with hammers in the wee hours and the security was literally caught napping.
Soon they were caught and expectedly there was a backlash from the other group, tension in the town and so the rest is everyday news…

‘Oh, that’s all huh?’ you can smirk…
‘This has been going on since Mughal invasion’, we shrug. Of course, we damn them as iconoclastic fanatics and all that…
‘So what’s new in this incident’, you would ask …
Nothing, I should say …But that is precisely the reason I am writing this piece.

Why is this considered ‘nothing’?

Why does such vandalism and hurting sentiments of one community or the other not merit any concern or action from powers- that- be?

Neither does one group have any social responsibility and maturity for insisting on an atheist’s statue in front of a temple (What is it doing there anyway… praying, for God’s sake?), nor does the aggrieved community have any restraint or respect for the law of the land.
In fact one never knows who insulted EVR in this case, anyway… The ones who put up a statue of such an outspoken atheist in front of a temple or the ones who damaged it?

It was only the other day in another town someone smeared sandal paste and 'vibuthi' on a EVR’s statue’s forehead and rationalist group cried foul calling it ‘an insult to his ideology’ and ‘Tamil pride’. Everyone from CM Karunanidhi downwards in the Assembly jumped up and down condemning this 'atrocity'…

Should we say we are caught in a kind of fanatical time warp here, sliding back to ‘stone age’, literally by putting up and pulling down statues all over the place…?

Don’t we still remember the dastardly demolition of a stone Buddha in Afghanistan by Taliban some years ago?

I had just digested this news when I saw in today’s papers about MGR’s statue being unveiled in Parliament coinciding with DMK’s Murasoli Maran's…One for the DMK and the other for ADMK both inside the Parliament in New Delhi..
'What more would they want', you may well ask.

Well, both the parties bickered that the ‘other party’ did not attend ‘its’ leader’s statue unveiling and made familiar clichéd allegations ascribing the reasons…

So far as I know, we are yet to resolve the decade or so long disputed issue of Thiruvalluvar statue which is shrouded in cloak, yet to see the light of the day near Ulsoor Lake, Bangalore…

Oh, yes, speaking for the Kannada protagonists, their film-makers can make , sorry
‘re-make’ Tamil films lifting the original themes and tunes too, by the dozens every year but one Saint Thiruvalluvar statue would somehow give them the ulcers.
They want Kannada‘s legendary poet Sarvagna’s statue on Marina Beach in Chennai.. I am not sure I have an update on this...As far as I know, the status quo sadly remains…I am sure this sadly reflects the lack of political will on the part of both the States…

On the part of Tamils, the extreme elements amongst them unnecessarily take refuge in ‘Veerappans’ and ‘Nedumarans’ to force their hegemony in Karnataka...Demanding Tamil as a second language and promoting such funny and foolhardy demands.

Only, bad blood brews thus and sometimes spills over to the streets as well…
May be someone stands to gain by all this; I dare say, the familiar whipping boys being the politicians of course…

Well, what happens to the statues AFTER they are unveiled is even more shameful.
No one including the avowed supporters even bother to look at them or maintain the vicinity clean except on their respective anniversaries, like a drill every year! The garlands and buntings rot and fall away all around.

All the time statue stands forlorn, a mute testimony to avoidable expense and acrimony.

The other day on the Marina Beach, someone was spitting betel juice on the pedestal of a statue I did not recognise( But I am sure the idol did not deserve it, though!!) and a drunk vagrant old man slept below Gandhiji’s, unmindful of the Holiday crowds and noise..

I chuckled and moved on…

Tiruttani- a place in the Hills

2006-11-20T17:01:00.000+05:30

Tiruttani- a place in the Hills

Travel Bug or ‘temple bug’…call it whatever you like. You can’t be far wrong either way…

But I made another such trip on Sunday last.

I had heard of Tiruttani from many friends and colleagues that it was a lovely temple set amid the hills enroute to Tirupathi from Chennai. And that it was one of the ‘Six Holy Temples’( Aru padai veedu) of Lord Subramanian in TN.

I took the morning 7-15 Local to Tiruttani from Central station. Seeing a heavy crowd gathering on the platform, I purchased a First class ticket to travel in peace.

I soon found out that this was a useless exercise as many Second class travellers and even ticket less travellers freely got in and out of the coach with a nonchalance that set me thinking… Am I the only one here with a conscience?’ Or ‘is having a good conscience a ‘bad’ thing, after all’ or ‘at the least an ‘expensive’ one?’(Later, one of my colleagues, a daily commuter, clarified that it’s not so ‘on all the days esp. working days see many checkers and rounding up of defaulters’. But then ‘Sunday is not any other day, you know’, he shrugs…)

I sigh and turn my attention to the scenery passing by through the window. The areas are all either full of greenery or ‘watery’ both ostensibly due to the abundant present Monsoon.

The train goes through the northern suburbs into Tiruvallur District which is the northern most District of the State. It borders with Chittoor Dist of AP. I was told by an old co-passenger sitting next to me that Tiruttani lay on the same hill range as Tirumala- Tirupathi of the neighbouring AP.

He whispers secretively in broken English seeing through that I was not a native,
‘In fact, Tiruttani was given away to Andhra Pradesh during Re-organization of States but was vehemently fought for by some Tamil leaders like Sivagnanam that this Murugan abode had a cultural and religious heritage more important to Tamils than Telugus.’ Besides this was also ‘Dr. S. Radhakrishnan’s birthplace’, he avers.

‘Then’, he says with a smile of success, ‘‘they’ bartered Tirupathi to AP and Tiruttani was returned to TN’.

‘Why, Andhrites at one point of time even wanted to retain Madras in their State’, he reminds me. That was certainly news to me, if it was true.

I stare at him in amazement not so much for his knowledge for a semi literate old man, but on how important certain things like these are to local sentiments and movements. I remind myself of the Kannadiga clamour for Kasargod in Kerala and Maharashtra’s rhetoric on Belgaum which are on similar lines. Whether this so called ‘re-re-organization’ will be a panacea to the problems of local people or not is a moot point though.

The train crosses Arakonnam junction and soon we reach Tiruttani. It has taken 2.5 hours in all.

I alight and head straight to Autorickshaw stand. There are about ten of them and all the drivers’ demand Rs 50/- to the hill top temple in unison. I have come from Chennai and I know when I am getting a good deal. This seems like one and I board one of them.

The autorickshaw races through some ordinary and some pot holed, rain hit roads a little too fast for my liking. I warn the driver to ‘meduvaa otungaa’ (meaning ‘Drive slowly’).

He assures me that he knows best and says 'Onnoo aagaathu' or something to the effect.

There are small and medium shops and offices all over, the sights that you can see in any such town and Tiruttani is no exception. Many boards and sign posts are in Telugu too and I already know well why.

The drive is uphill now and sights are decidedly more pleasant now and air is crisp and fresh as we go higher.

I could see the Hill range stretches as far as the eye could go and there is a consistent green cover to it that makes everything endured so far worthwhile. The town grows small as we ascend to the top and I can now see small ponds and a couple of local temple ‘gopuram’s in the distance below. The autorickshaw lumbers up the hill noisily.

I also see the spacious temple complex hovering above and soon we reach its gates where there are some petty shops selling wares that are only too familiar to pilgrims and some restaurants in thatched huts and sheet roof building s and their boards claim they are ‘High Class Vegetarian’! Indeed, I see the dhoti (or should I say Veshti?) clad, vibuthi smeared faces of the cooks and grin to myself…

A separate autorickshaw stand and bus stand surprises me. One can also climb about 365 steps and come up, I learn.

The air was really cool up here and weather pleasant at this time of the year and the elevation as I head toward the entrance. I am soon besieged by vendors having some silver trinkets, idols and such wares. They urge that I can buy Silver plated subramanya and his wife ‘valli’ (The legend goes that He wedded her at this venue) with three ‘vel’s which I can drop in Hundi and obtain the Lord’s blessings for an assuredly satisfactory family life. Seeing that I was not enthusiastic about them when spoken in Tamil, one of them switched over to fluent Telugu. These guys could be bilingual but only I know that my Telugu is actually worse than my pidgin Tamil!

Somehow, I comply with them and move on to buy some flowers and a lamp ( neyi velakku).

There is a special darshan for Rs 10 and the free Darshan lines are full with Sunday crowds. I take the special darshan ticket and archanai tickets and move up into the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.

I have a few private moments in front of the well-decorated deity, pray, have the archanai over and move on. There are separate deities for Subramanyam, Valli and Bala Murugan. There are several devotees who chant ‘Haro Hara’ loudly nearby. It takes awhile to complete the ‘pradkshinam’ of the temple and I descend back in to the front of the temple. It seems there is a sacred pond at the foot of the hills where bathing is supposed to be medically and spiritually beneficial. I skip it this time. It is here that the annual Kavadi festival takes place when several thousands gather.

Also ‘sthala puranam’ goes that it was here that one of the doyens of Carnatic music, Muthuswami Dikshitar had a darshan of the Lord and sang his first composition.

Now I am outside the temple and its time to sample the goodies catering to my palate.

I select sweet ‘pongal’ and ‘Puliyodarai’ as prasadam. They are quite delicious. Then I go out and ask for ‘filter kaapi’ at one of the shanty restaurants nearby.

The return journey downhill costs me only Rs 30/- I quickly learn why. The Engine is switched off and it rolls on in ‘neutral gear’ all the way down!

The Autorickshaw driver informed me that the next Train is only by 2-30 pm and it was just 11-30 a.m. then. So we make our way to the local bus stand. There are a no of buses to Chennai, I hear. The bus stands in such pilgrim places do not make their towns proud.

There was one bus starting almost immediately.

I take this ‘PP’ service which means ‘Point To Point’ i.e., with limited stops.

The ticket is just Rs 26/- as bus charges in TN are still probably the lowest among subsidised Govt transport fares I have seen. But the less said the better about the condition of the buses too. Well, may be you cannot have the cake and eat it too.

The bus traverses through Tiruvallur, Porur and I get off at Kathipara junction after 3 hours near Guindy where a huge 3 way Flyover under construction has all but thrown both the traffic and commuters out of gear. Steady rains have only worsened the conditions.

I take a Share Auto home for one sixth of the price you would pay a full autorickshaw alone. That is another thing I have always liked about this place. Many areas in Chennai have such share autorickshaws nowadays.

It started drizzling almost immediately as I reached Adyar. So it is just another ‘normal’ Chennai day, I sigh … Quickly I grab a lunch and head home armed with an umbrella.

Cities developing.. some Off Topic ramblings

2006-11-13T17:01:00.000+05:30

Cities developing…some Off Topic ramblings

Had been to Bangalore on a private visit.

I was also not feeling too well as the wet weather in Chennai played havoc with my immune system and I took the first Train back home… I do that when things became unmanageable alone for me. Which is pretty rare, by the way..LOL..

That was last week.

Father’s annual ceremony was also to be conducted in Bangalore and a friendly ‘purohit’ would do just the thing for me for a price, cutting down on my physical participation by providing a substitute. If you think I am carrying on with this ‘Outsourcing’ thing too far, now you could be right! Mom consoled me, ‘dad, if alive would not have liked me to endure such strain when sick for his sake’. It is another matter that I could not have conducted his ceremony if he were alive…Be that as it may!!

Bangalore continues to be, ‘BengaLooru’ in all respects as I look at it from my new found status of an Outsider to my city of birth.

Big and small Potholes still embellish the roads of ‘namma rajadhani’ , all promises by new CM, and Old mayors forgotten. All deadlines and assurances remaining just on paper…

A Wet night, 10-30 Pm at City Railway station, you still see the Autorickshaw drivers have all but vanished and those who have stayed on are only trying to find dummies who can pay any exorbitant fare or else agree to come where the Driver wants to go

…Hmmm…

Roads are still chock a bloc with traffic; it is pretty exhausting to go anywhere at all now at a short notice. My poor wife continues to trudge on her Moped day in and day out…

Weather still remains the City’s long trusted friend... Cool and salubrious…..welcoming outsiders with open arms just for that sake…Then there is IT, of course...scores of BPO Jobs to be found and Pubs and malls to hang out for modern ‘Hep’ crowd…Sounds all right for ‘Young and upwardly mobile’. But where the essence of Good Old Bangalore has gone, I wonder…

Govt wants to bring in Metro. For once when they looked serious enough, we should have welcomed it without a murmur.. But No, at scores of places there are protests by Building owners.. That they want to be left alone…So when will this take off at all Or rather commission at all…No one seems to know or care…

Kannada films continue to struggle for existence in the capital of the ‘Only’ state where they are exhibited. There were some irreconcilable fights between Actors association and Producers’ Lobby too the other day while I was there… Just making things worse for themselves and the Industry…Last heard they are on strike of some sort now…

A ray of hope was that kannada Hero turned MP , Ambareesh becomes a Union minister of state and feels ecstatic and his fans go overboard. He says he will become ‘India da gandu’ from ‘mandya da gandu’…Easier said than done. People will be watchful; he should not forget…Fans can only get you so far…and then it is only work all the way..

By then it was time to head back to Chennai.

Brindavan express was only half full on a week day afternoon. Some noisy film Industry crowd with me on the AC coach were going for a shooting session .The Movie stars the hero Upendra and some scenes are being shot in Chennai with the Workers’ Strike affecting Gandhinagar and Sandalwood facilities in Bangalore, they said…

It was just as well that immediately on arrival, I had to attend a well managed workshop on Team leadership at GRT Hotel in T. Nagar..

That is a different story ( Click here) …

Then someone dear calls me and asks me ‘How come Chennai is in the news now for surging ahead in attracting new FDI and big brands setting shops here’ especially the Electronics and IT kind…

For once Chennai is in the news for right reasons this time, I thought…Otherwise the City gets its share of flak from the media on ‘Khushboo issue’ or ‘Dress code for women’ and such inane and chauvinistic topics more often..

The same someone also told me that there is now a lobby working in Delhi led by aggressive go-getter Dayanidhi Maran hailing from TN spreading falsehood on Hyderabad and Bangalore and getting even with these two cities unfairly to attract new Businesses to open in Chennai instead.. May be he is right or he would like to believe so, but that is not the point…

This is nothing new; Hyderabad did it to Bangalore in the days of SM Krishna and Chandrababu Naidu and the duo was normally behaving more like local chieftains of their Cities out on a warpath with each other than sane and mature CMs of two neighboring states…What goes round , comes around, isn’t it…

Besides, Chennai has its share of IT and Corporate crowd too. It is believed that about 50 000 people are staffed in the IT/ BPO sector and the numbers are going up all the time. TCS headquarters has always been here, so has Infosys and Wipro offices albeit smaller than the Bangalore counterparts…

Now it is the turn of Nokia, Samsungs, Saint Gobain, Hyundai and Fords…In IT, they say TN has now gone from No 3 to No 2 position in software exports…many versions to this of course, pro and anti…Anyway…

In all, one can safely say, Technology and Progress are irreversible phenomena in today’s world and all Cities will eventually get benefited. It is just a matter of time.

Signing off on this note...C'ya..

PS. I attended some superlative Bhajan sessions at Sundaram sathya sai mandir last week too.Read all about it here...

Nagesh

When it rains, it pours in Chennai

2006-10-30T10:30:00.000+05:30

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS IN CHENNAI

Well, it is close to 4 days since Rain Gods started visiting Chennai on a daily basis. Even as I write these lines, it thundered rather ominously creating ripples of vibration that shook the window panes.

I have been seeing the City simply reel under the waves of swirling waters that are pouring down continuously in the last 3 days. Water logging, inundated subways galore. Some unfortunate souls living in shanties and low-lying areas have had their homes and lives shattered. News and Print Media has been showing pictures saying as much.

Many areas have been submerged with more than 3 ft of water and office goers and school children living there are having forced holidays, stuck with hardly any help from Corporation authorities vested with rescue efforts coming forth.

Well, to be fair, they say the problem is much less this time around, compared to last year, but that is little consolation to those who are suffering this time around. Citizens in the low-lying areas in Southern marshes at Velachery and nearby Madipakkam are living nightmares from the last 3 days.

The notoriously old and dilapidated North Chennai drains are full of water too. My place in Adyar in South Chennai is one of the more fortunate ones not to have had too much of water logging this time. Touch wood!

The City’s people and the infrastructure have been given a reality check more like an Endurance test in the face of natural adversities!! People have scraped through showing grit and resilience or even plain nonchalance but the infrastructure and the authorities have a lot to catch up…Some console me saying that it is same in every city nowadays. Look at Mumbai, they say...

But on the plus side, The Corporation trucks with pumps mounted are working round the clock clearing the water bottle necks but they are facing an uphill task.
Also on the positive side, the power supply is quite stable through the rains except for a few hours when the thunder and lightning in the night was very aggressive and probably the power was switched off more as a precaution. There have been some tree falls across the roads at some places and some accidents by drowning too.
The weather by the way has become quite pleasant too as a result of torrential rains. For the first time in the year, I did not need an A.C. in the night for comfort.

They say this time north-east Monsoon is riding on a depression in the Bay of Bengal. That is said to be the reason for such heavy and consistent downpours.

Some local pundits say that these rains now assure a full year of trouble free water supply as the City reservoirs at Red Hills and Poondi are fast filling up to their brims

All in all,
The life goes on for most of the City…,

Been to Bangalore for Diwali and back...

2006-10-25T14:27:00.000+05:30

I went over to Bangalore and celebrated Diwali with my family of Mother, Wife and children there. My aunt accompanied my mother too and it was real fun to be back at home with everyone.
Tired though I was, I took time out with my Children and enjoyed helping them burst crackers, which I had carried with me from Chennai.

There were, lots of sweets too, a couple of packets which again, I had taken there myself.
But sharing sweets and enjoying family coziness really helped. Plus, the Bangalore is now at its pleasant best with just a shade of chill…

We spent one day visiting Malleswaram, the good old locality where wife and I grew up. The temples, the Restaurants, the works…Its all there just the way it always was..

I do feel the sounds from crackers in the city were on the decline this year, a welcome thought as far sound and smoke pollution is concerned, but it set me thinking if children had lost the zeal and enthusiasm which we had exhibited in our days. No early morning rude awakening by familiar cracker bursts at all…In fact, none till as late as 8 am on the festival day.

May be this Computer generation had become couch potatoes after all.

Everyone says that Consumerism is on the upswing, the buying power had increased etc...May be they don’t necessarily spend on as much on Crackers as on DVDs and Video games?
Or have the crackers and fireworks started getting exorbitant year after year?

Any way, back in Chennai, right after alighting in the wee hours at the Central Station I was pleasantly surprised that the vicious heat that had teamed up with acute humidity till now was replaced by rainy and cool weather. The papers say the Northeast Monsoon, the main rain-bearer to the City is around the corner.

Just as well. Thank heavens, I mean literally!!

Kancheepuram Revisited- The last Lap

2006-10-17T17:58:00.000+05:30

It is not very common to get opportunities to revisit temple towns in short intervals but then it happened for me this time.
After finishing the Temple lap at Kumbakonam, we had to leave to Kancheepuram the same day as we just had two days at our disposal as my family was scheduled to return to Bangalore from Chennai by then.
We faced a minor problem here as Kancheepuram and Kumbakonam while not too distant from each other , are located on two different routes and are not connected by a train either.

We had to take the Chennai bus from here and get off at a town called Chengalapattu.

We took a bus from Kancheepuram, a modest Hi-tech Bus in the evening at 5 PM and the bus rolled on labouriously in the ‘roads under repairs’ slowly, (mentioned earlier), till we hit the four track Highway once again.

Then onwards it was a smooth ride as far as the roads were concerned but the earlier delay had taken its toll on time. We reached the so-called ‘diversion point’ at Chengalpattu only by night 9-30PM. We alighted from the bus into a dark corner with the big Highway passing above as a fly-over.

The place was dark, just a bare road -side, no shops, no shelter and no one else was around. ‘They must have some shelters and put street lights at such transit points,’ I was thinking. I could see some anxiety in my wife’s eyes and the children were tired after a 5 hour travel too.

A North Indian student, who had travelled with us on the bus and also a fellow passenger till Walajabad (where he studies Engineering) on this diversion, kept assuring us that the ‘buses are there’ and that I need not worry.

Not more than ten difficult minutes had thus passed, when a Bus to Kancheepuram rolled into a stop before us. We were greatly relieved to board this bus at a late hour of 10 PM and at an isolated spot like this one. The journey was supposed to be just 45 minutes on this spartan ordinary State Transport bus and the fare was a ridiculously low Rs 11/-

We alighted at Kancheepuram bus stand and even an otherwise bustling ‘Temple and Silks town’, needs to sleep at 10-30 PM and so it had.

But we quickly got into an Autorickshaw without much argument on fares and proceeded to try our luck for accommodation at the decent MM Hotel where I had stayed over the last time around.

Our luck held and it was a relived and tired family of ours that sank into the cushions of the bed in the Air-conditioned Triple Bed-room at 11 pm. The Hotel arranged an extra bed for the fourth member for Rs 100/- per night and one night was all we were going to stay here anyway.

The next day we woke up a little late and finished our breakfast at the Saravana Bhavan Restaurant in the ground floor. Let me tell you one thing about this famous Veggie chain restaurant here. They have more than 15 branches in Chennai alone and some more all over TN, and have gone international with outlets in UK, USA and Dubai as well.

The food is quite tasty but expensive. The regular Idli -Vada / Dosa Coffee tiffin can relieve your wallet by about 50 bucks per head. The South Indian Meals are available in two varieties costing anywhere between 50 to 80 bucks.
But then it enjoys patronage as the Leading Vegetarian caterer and you do not have too much choice in TN if you want to strike a balance between hygiene, quality and price.

We proceeded to the famous Kamakshi Amman temple which was a 10 minute autorickshaw ride from our lodge.

We purchased the regular pooja items and it was an encore of what we had been doing at other temples earlier.

The Interiors of Kamakshi temples bear testimony to the famous Dravidian architecture of the Cholas and Pallavas period as well as the later Vijayanagar Kingdom.

The name Kancheepuam also struck a chord in me as the Capital city of yesteryears steeped in Indian History which the legendary Kannada king, Mayura Varma of Kadamba dynasty won back from the Pallavas in the 4th Century. Later the City passes through many hands of royal dynasties earning greater fame all along.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/kadambas)

Remember Dr Rajkumar’s excellent performance in the role of the king in Kannada movie Mayura of yesteryears, as that of a prince who grows up in exile and who later comes back to Kancheepuram to claim back what was rightfully his throne…
Hmmm…!! Some sweet memories, that!!

There is long corridor, surrounded with sculpted stone pillars all along leading to the artificially lit sanctum sanctorum ( Garbha gudi) .
The decoration was tastefully done with flower garlands and we had an eyeful of the idol before we sat down in the Dhyana hall facing the Goddess for a few minutes of peace. One can see the austere devotees do meditation , japam , or recite Lalitha sahasra namam to their heart’s content in the holy sannidhi.

Then , we had to pay a visit to the Nadi astrologer and donate some items and pay fees etc. My wife selected all the items with care and interest.
We then went over to the Nadi jyothisyar and the rest is too personal to recount here.

Suffice to say, the trip came to a fruitful end and we returned by an evening bus to Chennai.

The Bus journey took 2 hours and we reached my room, a tired but satisfied lot, having completed the Temple circuit in an eventful 48 hours.

Treading the temple paths at Kumbakonam

2006-10-11T18:08:00.000+05:30

Treading the Temple paths at Kumbakonam

Just as the Astrologer had advised me to undertake certain visits to the Temples with ruling deities as 9 planets famously called ‘Navagraha’ temples in this part of the world, my family and I took the opportunity this weekend to have a holy trip as well as have a blast anyway. Indeed, it had been far too long that I had taken my family on any kind of tour because of my relocating to Chennai last year and all that, so I was keen to make amends for it now.

So here is how it all went:

I made a quick survey of Tamil nadu map and learnt that Kumbakonam is another ‘Temple town’ in the Rice basket of Tamil Nadu, Thanjavur District.
Due thanks must be given to my friends Sai and Varadaraj , who have travelled on this circuit many times before and were able to give me precise info on how to go about, within minutes of mailing a request..

We started off in a High Tech, Non AC Bus named Rathi Meena from Chennai (boarding at Guindy) on a typical sweltering afternoon 2-30 PM to Kumbakonam.
They charge you Rs 210/- per head.

The Bus takes the NH 45 highway which is an excellent four track stretch now without any bottlenecks or crossings. Once in a way, the Indian roads do surprise you these days, well, in one way or the other. Traffic moves smoothly, flat smooth stretch for nearly 150 Kms (it is all the way to Madurai, I am told) till Tindivanam and then takes a diversion off the highway towards our destination.

This road initially was not bad either, as our roads go.
The evening cooled down a bit as we hit the greener countryside and everything looked absolutely fine for some time.
But then the bad roads start from about 2 hours ahead of Kumbakonam and it’s quite dusty as well. We noticed that some repairs were going on because of breaching of canals and flooding ostensibly from last year’s incidents.
Pot holes and barricades galore as the bus labours forth, we brace and hold on tight.
In the falling dusk light we did enjoy the sight of green and well irrigated lush paddy fields, though.

It took seven hours to reach Kumbakonam and the town looked sleepy and peaceful at 9-30 PM as we wearily trudged our way to a Hotel called Raya’s, hailed by locals as their best hotel.
A Double bed suite with two extra beds to accommodate the four of us would cost 900/- and we could hardly mind the fare at that hour.
Besides, the room was well furnished, air conditioned and the bath room was clean. That was all it mattered then.

After a refreshing wash, we managed to grab a snack of Idlis and dosas from a nearby restaurant. That formed our dinner for the day.

You don’t get full meals at night in most restaurants in Tamil Nadu. So ‘Be a Roman in Rome’, we mused and relented.

We made enquiries at the Reception regarding the transport for the next days’ road trip to the three temples nearby.

It transpired that the trip would last for about half a day and cost Rs 650/- for a Non AC Ambassador taxi. The Hotel made the taxi booking and promised to send the driver the first thing in the morning at 6-30 AM. We were told by a the knowledgeable Hotel receptionist that if we can start at 6-30 to 7 am , we could visit all the three temples before they close at noon and be back by lunch time. The temples, it seems, keep closed from 12 to 4 in the afternoon to reopen from 4 and would close for the day by around 8 PM.

The morning started early and we managed to leave the hotel by 7 AM.
The driver was ready and we started off, halting first for breakfast. A neat and small Veggie joint calling itself, Meenakshi Bhavan satiated our palate with steaming Idli- vadas and good strong Coffee.
‘Kumbakonam degree coffee’, the locals pride themselves on. Suffice to say, it was what were used to as fresh ‘filter Kafi’ back home.

The first visit was to Swamimalai, Lord Murugan’s fourth abode among the famed six such venues in Tamil nadu, together called ‘aaru padai veedu’.

We take a winding strip of road bathed in bright early morning light and hemmed in by green fields. We get to see farmers starting off their days with bullocks and tractors, quite a sight for my city-bred children. We cross small bridges and culverts constructed across near full Cauvery canals irrigating large tracts of paddy and sugar cane farm-lands. White birds flit across the blue sky above.

Looking at the gushing Cauvery waters, my mind can’t but wander to the annual tiff about River Cauvery between my home state of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu here.

I see the large areas well irrigated by pump sets all around.
‘Ah ha!’ I gather, ‘so they have so much of fields to irrigate and that is the bone of contention as to how much would be a fair share between the two states’.
No ready-made answers flash to my mind. I quickly dismiss the thoughts to enjoy the sights and sounds instead.

Soon we are stopping in front of a row of shops selling flowers, coconut and sundry and so this has to be it, we reckon.
We get out and are urged by the clamouring vendors to buy flowers first. We relent and climb nearly 60 steps to the Swamimalai temple, with its Gopuram beckoning us from above.
We light lamps, offer flower garland and watch the ‘Paal abhishekam’ followed by a fragrant ‘sandal paste abhishekam’.( chandanam) being performed on the smiling faced statue of Swaminathan.

My wife is all agog about the beautiful sight and concludes that ‘we are indeed blessed to see the daily spectacle’. I can’t disagree either.
It was a sight lovely enough to warm the cockles of a believer’s heart.

We stay there for about half an hour and leave with Prasadam.

The Driver advises us that he can stop the taxi at a locally famous Devi temple, at a place called Patteswaram enroute. ‘We are on schedule, don’t worry,’ he reassures us.

True to his word, the temple is neat, compact and being early (8-30AM) quite empty as well. The goddess is decorated with flowers and lemons.
We pray and leave.

The next halt was supposed to be a temple dedicated to Guru (rightly or wrongly translated to English as ‘Jupiter’!). I think, the nomenclature needs more clarity here, as the astronomical 9 planets do not have too much to do with astrological 9 planets. If so, when we dropped Pluto from its exalted position recently, there has been no change in astrological balance as Pluto, or even Neptune for that matter had not figured in the scheme anyway.
Nor do the ‘Chaaya grahas ‘, or shadow planets- Rahu and Kethu have any equivalent in Western astronomy either.
I could relate to Guru as the benefactor of Knowledge and wisdom and that which represents the auspicious time for some prominent milestones in our lives and this belief was enough for me to pay obeisance to the ‘Divine Teacher’ at this little town called Alangudi.

A benevolent looking vadhyaar (Priest) here advises my children to make 24 pradakshinas around the temple for reaping Guru’s grace. So they do, along with my wife. I got tired after there fourths of the count and rested!!

After the regular archana and Prasadam, we leave through the special queue lines through which we came in paying Rs 30/- per head.
The next halt will be at Thiru nageshwaram as per our schedule.
The ruling deity of this temple is the Shadow planet, Rahu, often believed malevolent in certain horoscopes.
The legend goes that Rahu and Kethu are the two parts of a serpent god, representing the head and the tail. They are also believed to be the ascending and descending nodes of the moon in astrology.

We were able to witness the pal abhishekam for a ticket of Rs 65/- and get Prasadam after the floral decoration was over along with archana etc as required by us.

It is said that ‘rahu kaalam’ puja is very popular in this temple and there are rare and wonderful sights to see at the time. However we did not get the benefit of the same this time around.

All along my son starts reading Tamil words on boards aloud, something he has learnt very recently.
He says they have written ‘Raaghu’ for ‘Raahu’ and ‘Kedhu’ for ‘Ketu’ though there are ‘Ha’ and ‘Ga’ letters separately in Tamil, but ‘tha’ and ‘dha’ are interchangeable!
We have heard, they call ‘maha lakshmi’ as ‘maga lakshmi’ meaning ‘Son Lakshmi’ in Kannada. My daughter gurgles with amusement when I say so.

And then my son claims they have the same letter for ‘Cha’ and ‘Sa’, quite a departure from his mother-tongue or even Hindi. That’s why they pronounce ‘Chappathi’ as ‘Sappathi’, he avers. I do not know much about it yet, so I just look on him proudly.

I smile at the ‘vaathiyaar’ when he comes over and manage to learn a couple of mantras from him to recite. They garland you with the same one which had adorned the Lord and that’s quite a privilege!

We this headed back, a contented lot back to the Hotel to partake a full veggie meal for an affordable Rs 30/-/.
The meal was quite tasty and worthy at Meenakshi Bhavan here.
We were back exactly at 12-45 Pm, just as we had planned and the driver had promised.

We were to start the second lap of the tour by visiting Kancheepuram the next day before reaching Chennai.
We planned to start by the early evening taking a Bus from Kumbakonam heading towards Chennai and have a change of buses at Chengleput for the same.

But then, that forms the content of my next post…..So, till then..

Kancheepuram- Part 2- Nadi astrologers’ revelations

2006-09-27T17:40:00.003+05:30

Part 2- Nadi astrologers’ revelations

( Disclaimer:
I have only given my experience here. I neither recommend nor dissuade you to go or not to go,its up to you. Please do not ask me personal questions on whether this is true, etc. I cannot guarantee for your visits...I have been flooded with unnecessary personal mails probing my personal and family details...sorry, I will not answer beyond this blog---Author)

Address:

Sri Agathiyar Nadi Jothida nilayam
( D balasubramaniam)
189, Periyar Nagar,
Kanchipuram,
Tamil Nadu - 631501
landline: 044-27269283
mobile:94436 89363 ( S. kumar)

It was quite early in the day for the place, I guess, when I stepped into the small verandah of the Nadi centre and was greeted by a Dhoti-clad Receptionist wearing sandal paste and vibhuti ( Holy ash) on his forehead. He spoke in a mix of chaste Tamil and broken English which worked just fine for me, because I have fluent English but halting Tamil. A sort of equalizer, that one!

I was asked to wait for five minutes till they got the ink pad and paper ready to collect my thumb impression, which is about the only input they require from you to decipher your past, present and future from the readings of olai leaves written in cryptic and poetic Tamil by great sages of yore like Agashtya . ‘Nadi’ in Tamil means ‘to search’, I was told by a fellow customer who waited with me and not ‘pulse’ as a kannadiga like me would immediately conclude wrongly.

They brought an ink pad and took my right thumb impression and wrote my initials on it.
They did not ask me for any other details like age, place of birth or whatever. When I volunteered to inform them, the guy who collected my thumb print held up his hand and said, that is not required as they would ‘come to know’ all my ‘details’ shortly, smiled at me mysteriously and went away. I was sort of baffled as to how any person’s complete details could be available on some preserved ancient palm leaf leaves supposed to be centuries old. But that was what had brought me here and there are no easy answers.
The guy next to me says. ‘This place is ‘romba pramathama’ etc ( meaning its great, fantastic ! ), “why, even Americans and Japanese come and get their predictions done too” he tells me wonderingly. I nod my head with all amazement as I am expected to.

I was shortly escorted to the thatched roof terrace, which I noticed has small cubicles with doors for individual consultations. The palm leaf manuscripts are supposedly stored at a secluded corner away from prying eyes of the visitors.
The fair vibhuti donning astrologer who asked me to be seated on the visitor’s chair introduced himself as Jayakumar.
He had a roll of manuscripts with him bound with wooden covers and he proceeded to open them in front of me. He asked me where I had come from. I was all eyes and ears now.
He told me that there are two or more such rolls matching my thumb print and he would go through them asking me short personal questions and I should answer them only Yes or No and nothing more. He would get to the correct manuscript by elimination method.
I nodded enthusiastically urging him to get going.
He started off reading short cryptic Tamil poems on the first roll and lift his head and start firing questions at me in English. It went like this, answers in brackets mine:-

Your father’ name is Govinda ( No), Your mother’s name shankari( No)
You are a Brahmin (Yes), You are married (yes), This is your second marriage (Certainly Not!), you have two degrees in education ( Yes). You are a business man ( No) etc etc.

He closed this roll saying, ‘this one does not belong to you’ as most of the answers are ‘negative’. ‘Wait,’ he says, ‘I will get the next one’ and goes away. He was back in a few minutes carrying a similar one . The first question he asked me after reading the first poem or line or whatever in it was- your father’s name is Srinivasa Murthy ( Bingo, Yes), then he goes on more assuredly-Your mothers name is Leela and she is alive ( Yes again…heart thumping!!), your father is no more( Yep! I croak), you have one brother and a sister, both married ( Correct). Your name is Nagesh Kumar ( Yes..thats it!!)., wife’s name is Shyamala ( Whew!!)
I was stumped. He had done it!...

‘How you’..’this one’..’really’ I blubbered in a dazed state.

‘Happens all the time’, he says smiling at my predicament knowingly.

“I had told that my name was Nagesh Kumar in the reception, so you got it from there….” I was trying to rationalize weakly.

“Whether you tell us or not, we can always get the right palm leaf containing all your family details correctly”, he assures me good naturedly, “But ha!… Some investigations may take hours and some even a couple of days, But we don’t go wrong”, he exudes confidence and asks me whether I have brought my horoscope with me.

Now, I am all for co-operation and try to take it out of my bag. But he smiles away the necessity and says “I will cast your horoscope without the panchangam (Hindu calendars are called panchangams) now, you can verify with yours”

He reads the next paragraph from the leaves and says, ‘you were born on 13th march ‘61 and your age is 46’. Of Course, he is right!!

Then amazingly without having a 1961 year Hindu calendar, he quickly wrote out the position of the nine planets on the twelve houses of zodiac signs of my horoscope, out of the blue. I have been to astrologers for such tasks before and I know that such exercises consume time and involve essentially some mathematical computations as well.

Well, none of that here. It was over in as much time as it took to write.

He showed me his version of my horoscope and asked me to compare with my copy now.
I did and found only Saturn from his version in a house preceding that in mine . he says that is because “ Yours is computer generated and when the time falls in the grey area between the two planets , we ( manually) take the earlier whereas softwares are programmed to take the latter, he explains knowingly.
‘Ah, ha!’ I said brightening up to the idea! ‘Software glitches’, I surmise, not the first time anyway…
Wow, I look at him in admiration…. Personal details correctly predicted without my help and then horoscopes thus matched… Well, he has another satisfied customer in me there.

‘Now sir, your work is over here’…He says. “You can wait downstairs in the reception”
I had not done much work since coming there anyway except blurt ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in monosyllable answers like in an oral objective type test!!

‘I will write the details in Tamil and someone will take record the same in an audio cassette for you translating to English’, he says as I get up and go out.
‘Sure, perfectly OK’, I mutter and take a break.

I sip coffee from a petty shop near by and start making any sense out of what had happened or how. Like how a sage like Agasthya could have known about a certain Nagesh Kumar or his family ages ago..I had come to understand how this works but I was going to go away none the wiser...

But was it ‘paisa vasool’? Sure.

The ‘nadi’ predictions are contained in 12 chapters and each one costs Rs 300 or thereabouts for English ones. Tamil Predictions are cheaper by a hundred rupee.

I will skip the rest of the details as they are very personal and can be shared only with my family members privately. Suffice to say he told me all he could from the first chapter and would be taking up the reading of the other chapters of my choice later as I was supposed to pay a visit to a Murugan temple and perform archanai on a Tuesday and only then…’I could call him on his mobile from Chennai and let him know to start,’ you see. The rest of the reading will be couriered to me soon after…

With a cassette of the recording in my pocket, I left from the shop, a satisfied customer like many others.

As it was around 12 noon by then, I had my vegetarian lunch at Saravanas at the Hotel and availed the luxury of a moderate sista during the hot afternoon.

In the early evening I visited the ‘vamana murthy ‘ temple described as ulagalanda perumal wherein the deity stands tall with two legs akimbo, one encompassing the entire universe ostensibly and the other on the head of mythological King Bali.

Then there is a Kumarakottam temple dedicated to Lord Murugan nearby. Nothing great but a small old regular kind of place again hailing with some sage having written skanda puranam at the very premises ages ago.

With that, time had come to bid farewell to the ‘temple town’ of Kancheepuram this time around.

I checked out of the Hotel and made my way to the Bus stand nearby.
It had cost me less than a thousand rupees for one day’s accommodation and food and travel. That should give you some dope on how the expenses are. Excluding the ‘Olai’ leaves ‘Nadi’ reading charges, of course.
The short autorickshaw ride cost me just ten bucks to reach the Town Bus stand.

The Bus stand at Kancheepuram needs a lot of work done to be able to garner anyone’s respect, is all I can say, as I don’t like to queer the pitch or spoil the mood after having had a memorable trip.

The sun was setting on the horizon after another oppressively hot day but I was smiling my way home wondering about it all.

( Disclaimer:

I have only given my experience here. I neither recommend nor dissuade you to go or not to go,its up to you. Please do not ask me personal questions on whether this is true, etc. I cannot guarantee for your visits...I have been flooded with unnecessary personal mails probing my personal and family details...sorry, I will not answer beyond this blog.---Author)

Kancheepuram- Temples and nadi astrologers---Part I

2006-09-26T18:27:00.004+05:30

Kancheepuram: Temples and Nadi astrologers

( Disclaimer:
I have only given my experience here. I neither recommend nor dissuade you to go or not to go,its up to you. Please do not ask me personal questions on whether this is true, etc.
I cannot guarantee for your visits...I have been flooded with unnecessary personal mails probing my personal and family details...sorry, I will not answer beyond this blog---Author)

I know that almost everyone in India who believe in astrology esp. in the South belt have heard about the mysteriously successful Nadi Jyothishyam astrological predictions at one time or the other.

This blog entry is about my personal experiences three days ago at Kancheepuram’s famed astrologer and all about reaching and staying in the famous ‘temples town’ as a tourist.

I started off armed with an appointment made over phone with one Agathiyar Nadi Jyothisyam place on the outskirts of the town at a place called Periyar nagar.

Here is the address:

Sri Agathiyar Nadi Jothida nilayam
( D balasubramaniam)
189, Periyar Nagar,
Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu - 631501

landline: 044-27269283
mobile:
94436 89363 ( S. kumar)

I left Chennai for Kancheepuram on an evening bus from CMBT , Koyambedu, the much hyped ISO 9001certified Asia’s largest Bus station on the outskirts of the City at around evening 7-45 PM on the previous evening to the appointed day, The astrologer had specifically asked me to be at his place before 8-30 AM , you see. The journey from Chennai to Kancheepuram takes about 2.5 hours and the buses are anything but great on this route. Dirt cheap though (Rs 20/- per head) and that explains the condition of the State Govt run buses. I have no complaints on the frequency of buses though. It is just that the buses are ordinary expresses and there isn’t any luxury Volvo Buses or such on this route unlike in Bangalore and its KSRTC services there normally provided to any district HQ such as this.

The autorickshaws in Chennai make merry on such customers who have to travel to this distant bus stand by charging well over what they deserve. But then meter less autorickshaws have always been Chennai’s bugbear. It was no different for me either. With so much humidity and temperature in the City who would dare to travel in some ramshackle City Buses at evening peak hours? Whew!

The bus station is a gem though, as bus stands go. Well, it is not for nothing that there is so much talk on its size and facilities bragged about by the Govt media. But it can do with more of refreshment centres and clearer Destination boards. It is an extremely busy one too, alright.

There are two road routes to reach Kancheepuram, the next of the district headquarters to Chennai. Apart from a Spartan passenger train one each way daily from the Beach station.

The best way out of the city is of course via the Highway to Bangalore which is now well laid out in 4 lanes without intervening junctions. One could zip ahead like an aircraft on a runway on a stretch like this. But the State Govt bus drivers are neither that adventurous nor do their old machines give them such unbridled freedom. But then buses do keep up a steady 50 KMPH speed throughout and for an 86 km or so distance that should do just fine. Not bad at all for a 90 minute drive. The road is fast turning into an Automobile & MNC unit hub what with the running Hyundai and Ford factories, BMW’s new plant coming up and telephone giant Nokia establishing its huge campus enroute. One can see Rajiv Gandhi memorial as we pass by Sriperumbudur where he was assassinated.

The second route is a little longer and takes more time too, say 45 minutes more. I traveled once each way so I know. This one goes through the small little towns and outskirts that dot the route like Chromepet, Tambaram and Sriperumbudur etc.

When I reached Kancheepuram it was close to 9-30 PM and as usual autorickshaw drivers fight to get your attention even as you loosen your limbs on getting down. I was taken to a decent centrally located Hotel called MM Hotel. Thankfully a good vegetarian restaurant chain Saravana Bhavan is located on the ground floor.
A clean Air-conditioned single room with shower, Closet and TV with cable connection….Hmm, not bad at all for a 450 rupee tariff on 24 hour check out.

I had already seen most of the famed temples on an earlier visit a month ago. Some info on that:
Kancheepuram is best known for a bevy of Dravidian temples dating back to the glorious periods of Pallavas and Cholas that cluster around the two part town called Shiva Kanchi and Vishnu kanchi. Kamakshi temple and Ekambaranathar Temple are worth visiting for the austere in Shiva part while Varadaraja perumal temple and Ulagalanda ‘vamana morthy’ temple in Vishnu kanchi part. There are others like Kumara kottam for Lord Murugan and Chitra gupta temples too, while kailasanatha temple is an archeological monument and I have not visited them all yet.

These are great, big ancient temples that come with their own long myths ( puranas) and place histories attached to them and are meant both for connoisseurs of architecture as well as the devoted Hindus. The Mutt belonging to Kanchi kamakoti peetham of Shankaracharya is well worth a visit too. It is right there in the heart of the town and I have seen the junior swamiji conducting the poojas on the previous visit.

The other important thing that Kanchi claims for its fame is the Silk Industry and the variety of high quality silk saree shopping available for the discerning women folk. A plenty of silk showrooms dot every available bazaar space on this bustling town.

Neither temple visits nor silk shops for me this time around though as I was supposed to be at the astrologer at 8-30 A.M the next morning.

I am sure this town is located almost at the same elevation as Chennai as the weather shows no difference from the capital. I had good sustaining breakfast as something told me that I would be in or a long wait at the Nadi Jothidam centre. I took an autorickshaw ride to the astrologer located some 4 Km or so from the hotel. Costed me Rs.40/-.That’s the way it goes, I am told. ‘Petrol saar… Petrol’ cry the drivers when you question their yardstick for such fares.

The place called ‘Agathiyar Jothidam’ on the Chengalpattu road is a very unassuming single storey house with Coconut leaves’ pandal on top to provide some naturally cool cubicles meant for consultation.
It is here in the next few hours I was to have a thrilling and memorable revelation unfold before me.

More in Next.....!!!
( Disclaimer:

I have only given my experience here. I neither recommend nor dissuade you to go or not to go,its up to you. Please do not ask me personal questions on whether this is true, etc.
I cannot guarantee for your visits...I have been flooded with unnecessary personal mails probing my personal and family details...sorry, I will not answer beyond this blog---Author)