This was my third trip to Tiruvannamalai since I moved to Bangalore. Bangalore to T.malai route is excellent till Krishnagiri. From there, regular and shortest route is a nightmare. To avoid that people take a detour which is 100km. I desperately wanted to avoid that Krishnagiri-Vellore-TMalai route. After some research  found that karimanagalam-harur-t.malai route is equally good but thru villages. I kind of decide this is what I will try even if it means a little bit of risk :-) Guess what the journey was real fun and It was shorter by atleast 70-80 kms. The above pic is on the way to Karimangalam from  Krishnagiri. This road leads to Salem and is a lovely drive. You will see lot of lagoons, coconut groves and mountains. It was too bright a day.. so not great for photography. Here is a shot from the road. (Notice the depth of field. shrubs on divider/palms behind the fields/hill)

At Karimangalam high way ends and you enter into village roads. On one hand, I was $hit scared about what if there is a puncture. On the other hand, the adventurer in me was mocking for getting scared :-) It turned out to be really nice drive. There was barely any traffic and road was decent enough that I could manage a 80kmph thru out. It took me 2.30hrs out leisure drive to reach T.malai. I would recommend this as an alternative. not as the best alternative.

On the way from teerthamalai to tiruvannamalai. No village is complete with a cricket team of it own :-) Around 11AM in the morning, bunch of kids were playing cricket. The mountain behind was too big and awesome. But, it was extremely bright and I did nt shoot a great pic. Kids realized some roadie was taking a shot of them and started waving at them.

The route was really scenic. With paddy fields and old grown trees it reminded me of my trips in childhood to my native place. This shot was taken while driving :-) Ya, ya dont give me lectures. I really really slowed down for this. Did nt want to miss the canopy on the road. At the sametime was too bored of stopping at every nook and corner.

Every trip should have a funny story. This guy will be a memory of the trip :-) In a small town called Harur, police baricaded and block the main route. I was like what the @#$%$#. I had to rely on locals. I asked a bystander about the road to teerthamalai. "teerthamalai road enge irukka?" as authentic as I could be. Suddenly that guy asked if I can drop some one on the way. Mind you this was a 20something guy. I obliged with out much thought. Immediately this guy pops in. Opened the passender door, saw that its cluttered with CDs and camera bag. Chose to sit in the back seat. Ha ha..There I was. In the middle of no where in Tamilnadu playing cab driver to a toddy tapper. It was fun conversing with him in my broken tamil for 15 minutes.

Due to an hour delay at the stupid attibele toll booth for no reason, I arrived at sri ramanashram after 6 hours. Finally, I got an accommodation in the ashram premises. This was my accommodation for two days. This might look modest from outside but I would nt trade it for anything in the world. It was a very sufficient and extremely clean inside. Small verandah, followed by a room and a bathroom. For some reason, this kept reminding me of H.D.thoreau's walden hut. Loved the whole experience. Imagine a simple place like this in a garden at foothills of Arunachala. could n't ask for more.

View of sunrise from my cottage. One beautiful thing about this place is...there are no rules in ashram. Anybody can come and do what the way they like to do. do your meditation/chant/read books/hike around hills/take circumabmbulation around the mountain...do whatever as long as it does nt bother others and ofcourse  you need to wear decent cloths. no sleevless/shorts etc.. just cover yourself decently.

My early morning visitors :-) Peacocks are regular fixtures at this ashram. When Ramanamaharshi was alive, he used to pet a lot of animals. monkeys/dogs/deer/cow/peacock/squirrels. They still maintain the tradidion. If dog walks in silently into the prayer hall and sits beside you, dont get alarmed :-) pet it or ignore it. For such a pretty bird, peacock/peahens shouts are annoying. But the like the famous telugu lyric writer said, "Koti raagaala koyilammaku nalla rangu nalamina vaaninEmi kOredi?

This was another close up shot of peacock. This one was about to jump from the wall and was measuring the how bad the jump is going to be. I wish I caught this on video.

The mountain of Arunachala. Geologists and researchers found that Arunachala mountain formed 4 billion years ago and is much much older than Himalayas.  Legend goes that this is a like axle to the earth and otherside of the earth is macchupiccu. I need to verify this fact as I just read this while I was browsing the library at the ashram.

Ramanamaharshi built a temple for his mother. This is a shot from outer door. This is called 'Matrubhooteshwaralayam'.

This is where bhagwan ramana maharshi's body was laid to rest. Over that they put a shiva linga and perform pujas everyday. Setting is very akin to Shirdi but there aren nt as many crowds (thankfully) as bhagawan was against any kind of phony ritualism and what he preached (jnana marga) is not for everybody (including me :-)) but the beauty of this place is that bhagwan made sure no rules are imposed on people. Everybody can choose to follow their method.

Picture of one of the pictures in the hall. This was young Ramana when he was 16. He suddenly decided to renounce the world and came to Arunachala and he never left the place afterwards. For years together, he did harsh tapasya and eventually attained what he set out to do.

This was Ramana maharshi when he was in twenties. I don't know the story behind this picture. But, I just love it for some reason. Just took a shot of this picture for my own records.

Statue of Ramana maharshi. This is where he stood and chatted with visitors/devotees for six months. I will post some more if I have enthu. But this was the last shot in my trip. Return journey was uneventful. No more adventures. I took the longer detour with on a typical highway. I was back home in five hours. That was the end of my trip. So long folks...