Trip to Tirupati

My last visit to Tirupati was back in 2002. I was coming to India after my education and subsequent employment in US. I travelled with my extended family. We booked kalyanam ticket and had a good darshan. But, the crowds were annoying to say the least. shoving/pushing and all the bad things that one associates with a typical darshan. I told God, do I need to come Tirupati to go through all this? Can't I visit you in Birla temple in Hyderabad or elsewhere.

Move ahead by 12 years. I moved back to India for good. Visited many temples all over but I never made a genuine attempt to visit Tirupati. I don't know any VIP and do not like to hassle one even if I know one. Somehow, I shut that thought. Once in a while, I used to wonder if I will go to Tirupati ever.

Last weekend was different. A close friend of mine decided to get married in Tirupati and this is a friend whose wedding I would attend even if he did not invite :-). Since accommodation is so tough to get on the hill, I was planning to do a drop-in, spend few hours and return to town of Tirupati for overnight stay. A week before the wedding I came to know the wedding was at 11.30 in the night...oops. I had to plan an overnight stay on the hill now. However, my friend took care of it. Saturday morning, I started driving to Tirupati, with two buddies of the groom who were also attending the wedding like me and who turned out to be thorough gentlemen. One of these guys somehow pulled strings and got a suprabhata darshan for two. Both of them were regular visitors to Tirupati and started discussing how Lord Venkatesa would tease and test before giving darshan. Somehow I firmly believed, since I never made a sincere effort to get darshan, I would n't even get it.

By Saturday evening, we reached the tirumala hill and I realized the 300/- darshan ticket was only available online. So, its either sarvadarshan or no darshan for me. After participating in my friend's wedding till late at 1.30, I went to bed with the plan that as soon as my friends returned from suprabhata darshan, we can start driving back to Bangalore. Meanwhile, JEO in Tirupati, who is a family friend of groom's family came and visited them. My friend's mom asked if I had darshan for which answer was no. At 1.30, before going to bed, I kind of cursed my own apathy in figuring out all these things and making arrangements for darshan. Even though, I had no reason to complain, part of me was disappointed.

At 4.15 there was a knock on my door. When I opened it was not my friends returning from suprabhatam. Someone in groom's family were dropping out of VIP break darshan tickets they had, owing to ill health and they asked me, if I can get ready in 10 mintes, I can join them for Break darshan. Whoa...I could n't believe it. There was barely any time. I took a cold shower, got ready in 10 minutes and rushed to meet the folks waiting outside. Squeezed into an already crowded car, accompanied them to JEO office and got the tickets and 5.30 I was in break darshan queue. I did not have an ounce of idea on what was waiting for me. After walking through the queue and waiting in the hall for 10 minutes, we were ushered into main mandapa. I was drowned in my own thoughts. What a beautiful way for the Lord to give me a darshan. I was immersed in my own Japa. I was n't expecting any pushing and shoving as I knew it was a VIP darshan. walked peacefully into bangaru vakili. few feet away form the garbhagudi. All of us were lead to the room in front of garbhagudi. There he was...in all his glory. I was waiting for my turn. groups of 20 were asked to form 2 queues. After Arati, teertham and sathagopam, they were let go. my previous group ended right in front of me. After their service was over, I was the first man standing right infront of garbhagudi. I stood there for full two minutes. Mesmerized with the darshan and overwhelmed with the opportunity I had. It was surreal. Till 2 hours ago, I did not have an iota of hope about having a darshan. There I was standing right infront of lord for full two minutes. Strange are the ways of God. Whatever it is that I did to owe this blessing from God, I wish I did more of that :-)

For next two hours, I practically was floating in air with joy. At around 8.30 we had breakfast and started out return journey to Bengaluru. I still marvel at the leela of God and I wonder if I will ever get such an opportunity. But thank your Lord. thank you for making my day.

 

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...

A Trip to Srirangam

Let me tell you two stories today.

Once upon a time there was a young girl who was full of love for lord ranganatha (her love was matched only by meeras love to krishna). She was supposed to be found under a tulasi plant and raised by a temple priest. One of her daily activities was to prepare garlands for the lord ranganatha. She wanted to make sure everything is so perfect for the lord that, she would wear the garland once to test and see everything is perfect before sending it to temple. One fine day her father, who is a devout priest found this and was shell shocked. He immediately reprimanded her and asked her send freshly prepared garlands. The next day when garlands were offered to the Lord, Lord found something was missing. Where is the scent of the girl, who would be his future wife, in the garland? Lord had to step in and take some action. He appeared in the fathers dream and requested him to bring garlands only after andal(the girl) wears it. What a beautiful and mesmerizing story. Is n't it..
Now let me tell the second story. The sultan of Delhi invaded a temple. As is the custom in Hindu temples, all the main idols have fortunes buried under. The sultans army looted the fortune and for some reason took idol safely to Delhi. That idol happens to be heart and soul of vaishnavas. They had to get it back. Some of them boldly ventured to Delhi and pleased the sultan with their acts and requested that the idol be sent back. Sultan in his good mood said, "its ok. take it back". What happened meanwhile? Sultan's daughter, the eye of his apple, fell in love with idol and she followed him all the way from Delhi to Srirangam though she was a muslim :-) Eventually she attained moksha merged in to the idol. The sultan got angry and suspected some foul play. He attacked Srirangam again. But, the priests this time pre-empted his move by moving the idol to around south India. Rest you can read in history books.

How can you not fall in love with all these stories and not be curious to see the idol yourself..hmm thats how the seed of visiting Srirangam got sowed in my head. Ever since I moved to Bangalore, I wanted to visit this place. After my elaborate plans got botched up couple of times, my desperation only grew further. The more I read about it, the more I fell in love with it. Srirangam is an island on the river Kaveri. Can there be a better incentive for water lover :-)

So this weekend suddenly my friend D (lets call him Danny) said "shall we go to Srirangam?". I immeidately signed up. Because of the last minute planning we had to take a bus (Ac 2x2 sleeper but back breaking nevertheless). We arrived in Srirangam at 4.30 AM and immediately took a bus to Kaveri. Due to the draught in Karnataka there was barely any water in Kaveri. boohoo..I was extremely disappointed. Early in the morning weather was pleasant and Danny insisted we walk to the temple. After a nice 2km walk, we arrived at the Rajagopuram. Our plan was to take a bath in Kaveri visit the two temples and leave back to Bangalore. So, we never did any research about where to stay and what to do. I was completely relying on Danny who knew the local language and visited the place couple of times. After some contemplation, I remembered about jeeyar swami math near temple and we went there to seek temporary accomodation (I would recommend this if you are looking for clean accommodation in modest price near temple).
We took a quick shower and left to temple. According to temple rituals, the visitors are not allowed from 7.30-9.00AM. We just made in time had a darshan at 7.30. It was beautiful. There were three small idols
and no artificial lighting was used in "garbha gruha".. After a minute or so, we were promptly asked to leave the inner shrine. Any time of the year, there are huge queues here. There is a 50/- and 250/ special darshan which can save the day.

After the darshan, we spent some time sitting in contemplation near the inner shrine. Danny took shots of golden inner gopuram and told me stories that historians somehow missed documenting about the temple :-) When you are with Danny, these stories are added benefits and believe me you would want to pay to listen to these. There is more to say about this but I will save it for some other time.

The Srirangam temple is a huuuuuge temple with 7 outer prakarams(walls). The length of outermost prakaram is close to 2km. So, you can image how big the temple is. After the morning darshan, we visited lof of smaller shrines in the temple. There is the tomb of Sri Ramanujacharya, who wrote(??) the doctrine of vishistadwaita. There is temple of goddess goda devi, mahalakshmi. there was also another small shrine where you can see idols of sri rangantha with 3 goddesses. It was too beautiful to describe.
Going around the temple is like visiting a living fort. It is that huge. After an hour or so, I got really tired with lack of proper sleep and all the walk. We went back to room to take a 10 minute break. That turned out to be a good 2 hr nap :-p. Now, Srirangam is also famous as a shaiva kshetra. There are 5 shrines of panchabhooteswara in TN/AP. Kanchi, Kalahasti, chidambaram, srirangam and tiruvannamalai. I visited all of them except chidambaram and srirangam. So we went to visit the shiva temple. This temple was equally grand in size and stature. We were really lucky to have a very close darshan thanks to some random stranger who let the two of us in after doors were closed for general public. We spent good 30 minutes in the inner shrine.

After that, we had a nice lunch at the math (Did n't meet Danny's quality bar as usual). By then, it was really hot and we decided to take another nap instead of venturing into town again. Next was a trip to 'taayumaanavar temple'. This is a ganesha temple located on a hill in the middle of the Trichy town. It was a bit of trek but was well worth the effort. You can get panoramic views of Srirangam island and Trichy town. We had some TN famous "Jigar thanda". its an icecream fload in almond flavored milk and is a delicacy from madurai it seems. Well worth it. You should definitely try it.

I was really tired by then and just wanted to go to room and simply crash till the night bus. But real blooper was yet to be unearthed. Somewhere in my mind, there was this lingering doubt. Every time they mention Srirangam, they see Lord ranganatha in a sleeping posture on sesha saayi. How come that idol was not in the temple. When I mentioned this to Danny..he flipped out. "What? what did you see in there? There is the huge idol in inner shrine". I was like..@#$%@$#?? It turns out for four months, from July ot October, Lord Ranganatha is hidden behind a curtain. Only face is shown. Because of crowd, darkness, lack of awareness..I did not bother to look besides the curtain. I just saw the three small bronze statues in foreground and thought that was it and came out. whoa..now I had to go and visit the temple again.

(There was a curtain in front of the black statue covering the statue from shoulder to feet).
I was cursing my stupidity as we were running out of time for the last darshan and I was worried I would leave the place with out actually seeing the real idol about whom I read all the stories. We rushed like crazy to the temple only to find serpentine queues. I was really disheartened. Suddenly some guy emerged out of nowhere. This guy is some temple worker who maintains queues..I ended up tipping him for some reason in the morning. This guy saw us..bypassed  all the queues and took us to right infront of 'garbha gruha'. Don't ask me how. I would like to believe in miracles and God's grace :-) Finally, I saw the real idol. It was really majestic. I am going there sometime after Diwali to see the full statue but loved every second I spent in that inner shrine. After that we came out, had dinner and bought Tamil traditional lungi :-) and stepped on to bus for return journey. Phew...that was a long story.

Thanks to my friend, had one of the memorable trips and I woud love to go there again sometime. May be not such an elaborate trip but to visit the ranganatha in his full ornate glory.

Kids say the darndest things

Kids say the darndest things.

I know I know. I copied the title from bill cosby. (Sorry old man, btw, loved ur show).

This blogis about Vibhu. He is such a sweet kid. Time just whizzes away when you are with him. Vibhu is quite a creative and naughty kid but he does seem to understand his boundaries well. Rarely he pushes them which make him the sweetest kid around :) He is 2.5yrs old now but has the vocabulary of a 4 yr old. So, naturally, he catches us off guard almost every day.

That he Vibhu is creative was evident for us early on here are couple of glimpses. Knowing V-dad's aversion to movies, I decided to introduce him to concept of movie. The first movie he saw was 'Wednesday' (good hindi movie). five minutes into the movie, he asked me "lilote edi babai?". (Where is the remote babai?) I was like wwhaattt?? slowly it dawned me that, he thought that he was watching a big TV. lol. can you imagine the kids mind.
Another instance : the term for peeing in vibhu-speak is "chi chi povadam". One day we were in hometown karimnagar. our house is 30 years old with open ventilators just below the ceiling , you know the kind. It was raining heavily and there was small leak thru ventilators. Suddenly, Vibhu shouts at his lungs off.. "Kitikeelu chi chi potunnayi. adigo adigo.. kitikeelu chichi potunnayi". We had laugh of life. This is when he was 1.5 yrs old.

An year has passed. Vibhu is like a non-stop talking machine. He has atleast 6 adults around him to pamper and learn various stuff from and then there is the floating population of another 10 people. Everyday he learns something really new and surprises us. Other day he spilled glass full of milk on bed. following day, his mom put a glass full of milk on the floor and asked him to go have it as she knew I was supervising. She called out saying "Vibhu..Jaagratta". pat comes the reply from him "aa..jaagartane" :) unbelievable how and where he learnt to apply this. Everyday he picks up a new word from somewhere and uses it so perfectly that we are left zapped. He taught himself stuff like "already", "tappakunda". dont ask me where does a 2.5yrs old use these things.. He has a way with words.

Lets come to the main story of the blog. Vibhu loves stories. He is not a shy kid. After hearing to a story 2-3 times, he adds his own masala and narrates the story where he becomes the hero. One of his favorite stories is fight between vali and sugreeva and how Lord Rama hid behind a tree to kill Vali. (Dont gasp. I found it impossible to find a mythology story with out mentioning death. So, I said to heck with it. Credit to the kid, he takes it well too). This story sessions have been on for close to an year. He is matured from re-telling the story to doing role-plays. for ex: suddenly he comes to me and says, "babai, nenu surasa..nuvvu hanuman.. ninnu mingutunnaa.." or he takes his toy mace and says "orey duryodhana, nenu bheemunni ra, nee todalu viraggodataara.." and "babai, nenu nee meeda agneyastram vestunnaa, nuvvu sudarshana chakram veyyi" etcc.

Off late, he started this new thing. Whatever story I tell him in the night, he wakes up and tells with his own masala. Other day, I told him the story of Hanuman not finding the sanjeevani creeper and lifting the whole mountaint to lanka. Following day, he woke up and immediately started telling me, "babai, jai hanuman sanjeevani edi edi ani illanta vetikaadu. nenu mancham kinda daachipetta ani cheppagaane, akkadiki vacchi teesukupoinaadu."

Typically he wakes up around 6:30 and I around 8:30. After lot of careful explaining, he stopped waking me up for those two hours. Even if he tries to wake me up by poking his fingers in eyes I feign deep sleep and he leaves in 1-2 minutes. But last week it was different. After trying to wake me up for 2 minutes, he took his toy mace and started hitting me on the chest "Kumbhakarna, Le.. Le.. orey Kumbhakarna Le..Le.., Raavanuniki haayi ayindi. Kumbhakarna Le.." Needless to say, I woke up laughing my heart out. Finally, I started investigating who told him this story. Apparently, Dad had showed him a graphic picture of sainiks waking Kumbhakarna in Chandamama July edition.

So, thats vibhu for you. bye for now.

Driving around Hyderabad : Part 1

Returning to blog after a long time. One of the reasons is to blog about my trip to Medak.
Very first I ever heard of Medak was when I was a kid and started taking interest in assembly elections. The name Medak stuck in my mind as it is neither Urdu nor Telugu word nor English. The linguist in me could never figure out the genesis. Then I heard of Medak in some text book lesson "medaku patnam churchni choodu". I heard of Medak and its church couple of times later on wanted to visit when I got a chance. This weeekend that chance came. My good friend R's in laws are from Medak and its just 80km from Hyderabad. He was going for a day trip. So, we tagged along.
The party consisted of 7 adults and 2 kids. R, J, Uncle, aunty and the cute little sniggy in one car. My bro, sil, me and Vibhu in another car. We started at 8:30am unusually punctual for the 2 couples in picture. First stop was 'mallanna gutta'. A nice, not-so-famous village temple where deity resides in a cave on a small water pond. It was interesting. pleasant place only marred by the hot burning sun. I enclosed a pic of sniggy and vibhu. They had a great time playing in the temple and its 5-storeyed chariot.


After spending an hour, we moved on to next pit stop. Ramayapalli was the next stop. We got to see uncle's native place and the house where he grew up. It was a simple but resourceful village. Nice place to own a farmhouse (not a far-fetch as its 80Km from city, with enough water and fertile soil to grow all kinds of trees). We had an awesome lunch thanks to uncle's brother and family. We also got to meet cute and bright Lavan Kumar. 3.5 years kid who travels 30kms in auto to go to a decent school. Made me wonder if we were going back or ahead in time. It was paddy and sugarcane season, so checked their fields. After a nice lunch, we went to Medak. From there we went to a place where the much celebrated local fare 'edupayala jatara' happens.
Frankly, it was so hot, this was a part which I would nt have minded skipping. Moreover, the temple, with some live chicken cutting was pretty gory. Glad I averted my gaze in time. I dont want to remember any other things there. So, lets skip it. This is a place for hard core bhaktas or geologists who are interested in Deccan plateau's rocky terrain. Rest can avoid.

Thats a glimpse of Deccan plateau and unusual rock formation for you. Unfortunately, with the crazy painting, u cant seem them in natural forms.

Then we went to to the famous church. Cathedral is second tallest in Asia with gothic architecture. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed it was nt as I great I was imagining it to be. I have seen better churches in the west. But, once you enter inside, there are three stained glass walls which are really worth all the effort that we put in. Church is a stone structure with out much ornation. about 175 feet tall. After that we met uncle's good old friend who showed us what good hosting is about. In about 3hrs of span, I ate a samosa, kaju katli, dry fruit laddu, ice-cream with fruits and drank some frooty. Talk about obliging the host :-) It turned out, today was Easter. Nice place to go on easter. My reflections on Medak -- Take a peek at it if you are on the way. Otherwise its a small remote town with hardly any development in the past 40 years.
A pic of Medak church



So long folks...
-v
PS: Btw, I finally figured out how Medak's name came. Way back in 1100-1300AD when kakatiyas ruled from Warangal, there was a femine and Medak was the only place where they could grew rice. So, this came to be known as 'metuku seema' (The land of the rice grain). Metuku eventually became Medak.

LuckByChance

Wow, its been really really long time since I wrote anything on blog. Have been to Rajasthan during this period and had a lot of stuff to write about. But, never got the mood. Hopefully, oneday I will update it with pics et al.

What brings me to my blog today. A hindi movie called 'LuckByChance'. Farhan Akhtar has become a cult nowadays. More so for the multiplex going IT kind of folks. The dude is talented and multifaceted. After 'Rock On' brand akhtar value seems to have gone up. But alas, he is no good actor. I could nt connect to his character either in RockOn or in LuckByChance.

Surprisingly, the movie got glorious reviews and pulled me to the theater. What happens when I go there. Well, the Akthars are no different from YashRaj banner. Yashraj inspires from the chickflix of hollywood. Akthars are doing the same from drama movies of hollywood. Luckbychance is the story of upcoming actor who is talented and clever. Movies shows the underbelly of bollywood and story is pretty realistic. But if you are a veteran of hollywood dramas, you have seen it all.
One street smart guy with hunger in his belly comes to town, makes it big, loses his friends with success and then realization and redumption. Wheter its a mafia dealer, investment banker, of Priyanks Chopra in Fashio, story is same. Just that this movie exposes bollywood and typical stereotypes of bollywood.

Movie is watchable on DVD. otherwise its too slow and long for what it wants to portray. Likeable are the characters of konkona sen-sharma and isha sharvani(this lady is new shabana azmi, although not there yet completely).

Director Zoya did a great job though. Technically, this is a well made movie. 'Raahi Re' song is toooo good. one of the best I heard off late.

My reco: Buy the audio CD and DVD. No need to rush to theaters.

My trip to Shirdi

Howdy folks? Have nt updated my blog in a long time. Though I've read so many books during this time and watched a ton of movies, nothing was worth writing a review here. ( I take that back, I was a bit lazy :) ). So, how have you been doing? Remember my post in March. I went to Shirdi to visit Baba and could neither find an accomodation nor the darshan. Well, I really felt snubbed by the Lord and badly wanted to go again. Last weekend, I went there along with my friend R. R apparently was a frequent visitor to Shirdi as a child and knows the place in and out. He adviced me to read Baba's biography before the trip to enjoy the trip better. (Believe me, it was an advice worth following). He also pulled some connections to get acco and premium darshan.
So, there we were on Ajanta express on Friday evening. We had packed some delicious meal and journey was fun. We got off the train at Nagarsol and took a cab to Shirdi. Nagarsol is a small village. I mean really really small like say Gunjapadugu. Technically, trains do not stop there. But Railway authorities realized that, it is the nearest train stop to Shirdi for folks coming from Hyderabad and created a stop. So, you can imagine the commotion in such a small place the moment a train arrives. In any civilized place, you would imagine, the bus authorities would tie this train arrival time to send some buses to Shirdi. But this is India. No such luck. So, private taxies like qwalis, maruti vans rightfully cash the opportunity. we squeezed into a Maruti van paying 50/- for 40km journey. 2 of us along with the driver squeezed in the front. God knows how many were there in the back. (something like 6 adults and 3 children..whoa). We arrived in Shirdi had breakfast at a place which was 1 on a scale of 10. Then set out to meet the temple PRO and R got us some clean but nothing fancy kind of accomodation for dirt cheap price. Saturday happened to be "Gudi Padwa" in Maharashtra which was a big day for them. You can imagine the crowd. I was wondering if Baba was again getting ready to show his ire on me. PRO told it was one of the busiest days for them and he was not sure if he could provide a previlege darshan we were hoping for. Anyways, general darshan Q was taking 3-4 hrs. So, we decided to visit 'Dwarakamayi' and 'Chawadi'. The two places where Baba used to sleep for his sixty years of stay in Shirdi. R said, that should nt be a popular place and we can spend some quality time in the masjid(dwarakamayi) where Baba used to stay. We were in for a rude shock. R's knowledge was 10 years out of date. There was a 1.5hrs Q to enter the masjid and we had no choice but stand in the line. While standing in the Q, I finished most of the Baba's bio that I got along. In the masjid you can find places like the 'dhuni' where baba started a fire a 100+ years ago and it is burning non-stop since then. (Ashes from the dhuni is what you see on devotees forehead). There is also a pillar to which baba used to lean and stone on which he used to sit while talking to devotees. It was a great feeling to see those places after reading about them in the book. From there we went to Chawadi. Baba used to alternately sleep in these places. After that were a bit exhausted and had a lunch in some AP tourism place, punnami. I did nt like it at all. R gave an OK rating. Then, we tried to see if we could manage a general darshan but realized its gonna be a long wait in the queue and ditched the idea.
In the afternoon, we visited places in the samsthan like the book stall, gurusthan (the neem tree where baba was first spotted)., lendy baag (a garden which was planted by baba) and were idling the in the temple complex). At around 4, we again contacted the PRO to get a pass for the evening aarati darshan. we were asked to meet at the main entrance at around 5:30 for the evening aarati. We were just biding that time near temple. Finally at around 6 we were let in. and at 6:30 the aarati started. It was GREAT. I was standing just 3 feet away from Baba's Idol and samadhi for good 30-40 minutes. thouroughly enjoyed the whole experience. After that, we went back to our room, after evening ablutions, set out for dinner. Since we were standing for most part of the day (roughly 7-8 hours), we were dead tired and really wanted to sleep. (dinner at woodlands was good. I ordered bisibelebath since it was a kannada place, it was good). After a long day, we slept like deadlogs. The plan was to wake up by 5 and stand in the Q for a general darshan by 6pm. That way we can avoid the crowd that gets accumulated for morning aarati. It was a perfect plan. we had darshan within 40 minutes. It was also peaceful. No pushing and shoving. After spending good 10 minutes infront of baba, we spent some time in mukhdarshan hall. R was meditating, I tried but dozed off :). After breakfast, R wanted to do 108 parikramas around guru samsthan. I was nt sure if I was upto the task, but could nt imagine sitting alone waiting for him. So, joined him. Because of the crowd, it took us 90 minutes for such a small distance. Imagine doing that after spending an entire day standing. But, surprisingly it was nt that bad. we had fun. Then we collected some 'oodi' (ashes from dhuni) which are distributed freely. Bought some posters and books, donated some money to samsthan for poor feeding. It was around 10 by then. We again came back to room and tried to eat at the prasadalaya. But the Q was serpentine and I discouraged the whole idea. Then we went to Khandoba temple. sat there for the aarati. After lunch, we happily came to room for a nap. Boy, we desperately needed that :)) lol.
At around 4pm, we went out to shopping. I bought some toy for Vibhu and some printed kurta for myself with lots of Om symbols on it. The kinds you see on sanyasi's.. lol.
Typical tradition in the Shirdi was to see Baba as soon as you arrive and take leave from him before you leave. R wanted to do the same and we stood once more in the Q for dwarakamai. It was raining and pretty chaotic. The trip was so much fun till that point. I somehow lost my patience got into fight with people were cutting lines. urghh.. how could I not .. lol. In the whole process, we realized, we were getting delayed and had to take a call whether to stand in the line and risk missing the train. Baba finally let us in time. When we came back, we realized R lost his 3000/- worth nike sandals right infront of Baba's humble abode. It was a bit shocking. Urgh..first the fight..then this.. I was like hmm...looks like some one is trying to teach us a lesson. We did nt have much time anyway to contemplate. We rushed to the room, checked out, got dinner packed and were againing bargaining with Maruti Van walahs to transport us back to Nagarsol. Return trip was nt eventless journey. Over all, it was except for the tailpiece. Thanks to R for the company and his aunt whose knowledge abt the place, contacts with samsthan made our trip so memorable.
Oh yea forgot to mention, we also visited Baba's famous devotee houses some of which are still preserved. R's aunt translated many books about baba from marathi to telugu and gave the returns on the books to samsthan. So, all her knowledge about the place added much more meaning to our trip. My advice to future travellers, read Sai's bio before you go. That way you can explore and feel the place better.
My laments, I wish the previleged aarati passes were available for a price like in Tirupati for a price. That would have been fair to everyone. I wanted to give feedback to samsthan but totally forgot abt it.

ufff... what a long post. I will take leave.

some more movies and books..

Babel : Finally I got to watch the acclaimed movie. And it deserves all the praise in the world. I am a fan of Latino poetry and literature. Now I am slowly loving their movies too. If you have n't seen this yet, put it in your list. As a practice, I wont go in to the details of story and be a kill joy. But this is a great watch. Definitely not one of those feel good movies. So watch if you dont mind going to bed in a sombre mood. Background music, Screenplay and some amazing action are one great thing in the movie. Watch out for that.

Sarkar Raj: After RGV's 'aag' debacle, anyone should have guts to go to theaters. But I for one believe form is temporary and class is permanent. So, I dared watching it. It was nt that bad after all. Few things you like about this movie are it has a good story to tell, not one of those bollywoord flix which make you wonder whats the point after three long hours. It is crisp. There are no stupid songs and you hardly get bored. Casting, technicalities are all signature RGV. Couple of things I don't like is the way Aishwarya's character is underdeveloped and suddenly thurst in to the audience at the end. There is also a joker Industrialists role, which was so filmy.
My recommendation is to watch it on dvd if you have time to kill or if you are an RGV fan (which by the way is a vice now).

Almost Single : Thats the new chic-lit book in the Indian market. After reading some good reviews and also the fact that Harper Collins offered huge chunk of money to debutant author for american edition, I got tempted to read this. While the idea of reading Indian chic-lit (chic literature) sounds novel, this book is a big disappointment. To cut short, replace carrie in Sex and the city with Bridget Jones and you have Almost Single. Nevertheless, you can read in flights where you have absolutely nothing to do. (first one to ask me, will get this book from me.)

Joker in the Pack : Student Lit. is the in thing now. There are books by IITians and IIM grads. This was also received with much applause since an year. Frankly, this reads like a blog of an IIM student. There is hardly any drama or good writing. There are too many cliche characters. If you want to take a peek into life of an IIM student, this probably works for you, otherwise its just another flight book. Offer valid for this book too :) first one to ask me will get it.

Above Average: This is another IITian's book. But this one is good. It is good writing and it has a good story to tell with all the humane drama. I would recommend this to folks, who want to take a peek into new age Indian literature. No offers on this book. you have to get your own copy :-) This is definitely a better book than the pot boilers dished out by Chetan Bhagat.

ciao more later..

Another book - Three mistakes of my life

Ha ha, I am not talking abt my life. Thats the title of new book by Chetan Bhagat. Chetan Bhagat is a phenomenon in India. In the history of Indian writers, he is highest sold Indian writers. His first two books "Five point some one", "One night at call center" together sold a million yes MILLION copies. His third book was titled as a pun. If you don't knot him, Chetan is alumni of IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad. So, what is it which makes him tick?
First among them is, his writing is very contemporary. His writing includes the many experiences which you can relate to. Growing up in any metro, any small town is more common than you can imagine. Second thing is, he strategically priced the books at 95/- cost of which is less than a movie ticket in IMAX.
And most important is his lucid and readable prose. For those, scoffing at his success he is no Rushdie. I have no comments. Atleast he makes people buy books and make them read.

His first book, Five point some one is a very interesting and funny read. His second book is worth giving a miss. But this one is definitely worthy read. worth each paise of those ninty five rupees :). I wont go much into details but next time u want to read something on the flight or a quick read to take a break from something of Rushdie's this is the book to pick.

I will sign off with a vibhu pic. Have a good day everyone.

howdy

hi all,
its been a long time i came to this forum. There were couple of things worth blogging but I could hardly find time. Vibhu, my 1.5yrs nephew is here. He has a magic wand which makes time run in fast foward mode :) Every available minute spent in his company, it is natural not to log. Ok. ok..let me write the bunch of things that I wanted to write.

Vibhu :) He is such a cutie pie. He is in the mocking bird phase right now. repeats after everything you say. for a 16months old his vocabulary is roughly around 200-250 words. you can imagine how much fun it is to spend time with him. He is a hyper-active busy bee and does n't like eating and sleeping much :) Here is a pic from my collection.



Books : I read two interesting books in the past one month. "Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri. She is the queen of melancholy and ofcourse queen of ABCD lifes. If you are looking for some happy read this is not for you. If you dont mind realistic and often depressive narrations, go get your copy. btw, in India, I bought a hard-cover edition for 300/- :-p
Another one I read is "Above Average" by Amitabha Bagchi. This is a debut novel from an IIT prof. At the outset, I thought this is just another IIT book like "five point some one" but this has a story and characters are real. Good time pass book and this is a very easy read.

Movie : Finally, I got to watch "There will be blood". Daniel Day-Louis. Boy, what an actor he is. I was hoping he would get an oscar for "gangs of new york". "der aayi durust aayi" :). This movie is an art flick. So, I wont recommend it to typical Indian movie lover. But, I loved the movie. Notably, the back ground music and cast of the movie. Amaaaaaaaaazing.

There is so much to write, I will wait for another post.

You have fun and take care of near and dears.

Movies movies..

Howdy folks. Past two weeks have been pretty uneventful. So, let me review some books/movies that I was (un)fortunate to view.

1) U, me aur Hum: Whatever.

Thats it. Yup. you have seen world's shortest movie review :) With that review I have not only saved 3 hrs of movie time for you but also 10 mins of junk reading the crap about why that movie is bad. I rarely watch Hindi movies. Somehow they neither have original plots like some hollywood movies nor good comedy like telugu movies. I can literally count the number of Hindi movies I watched in last two years on myt finter tips. However, occasionally I fall prey to a third rate movie reviewer and end up going to movies like that. It was supposed to Ajay Devgans debut directorial venture. Ajay, sorry dude. Your direction is on par with your acting. God bless you.

2) Jalsa : Now a days, every telugu movie gets released with unbelievable hype. This was no exception. Trivikram, known for his good writing skills, donned the directorial cap and tried to do his best. I have n't watched a pavan kalyans movie in theater since Khushi. So, I thought why not give it a shot. Yaar Trivikram, please stop creating these super-human, all encompassing Hero characters. Seriously, audience are really really sick of watching these kind of characters.
There were times when Hero and Heroine used to carry the movie on their shoulders. Rest of the characters did not matter much to the movie. These could have been done by any one. But, because of these super-human hero characters, now a days, main characters are replacable. Whether its chiru, bk, mahesh, ntr, pk all hero characters are same. They are super human. All side-actors are irreplacable. For ex: Characters done by Ali and Brahmanandam in this movie, can be done only by them. My suggestion : 'watch the movie on cassette if you are a telugu movie buff otherwise thank me for saving your three hours.'

3) Gamyam: When I was told by my dear friend S that this movie was good, I had to watch it. About 2-3 years ago, I took couple of my friends to 'Motorcycle diaries' in US where we were the only three audience. It was an awesome movie. Both my friends were happy to watch inspite of it being labelled as art movie. Gamyam is inspired by Motorcycle diaries. But, the debut director cum script writer was adept at adapting it to Telugu commercial movie. This is definitely one of the good movies that I watched in the recent past. I would nt rate it among all time best. But, this is worth the 1:30 hrs you spend watching the movie. I wont talk much about story here as there are lot of sites which do that. My recommendation: "Watch it even if you are not a telugu movie buff".
If I were a reviewer I would give it a 4/5. If I were a critique, I would give it a 2.5/5 (To give you an idea of my scale, many desi movies do not cross 1/5 on my critique scale :-) )

The week that was...

This blog is going to be different from the rest. I am going to share a few snippets instead of writing one big bore essay/rant.

1) Race: When I was a kid, I grew up in a village on the banks of Godavari for few years. After a long play cum bath in the river, we used to hold the hand woven cotton towels on both ends and twist in opposite directions till the last drop of water was squeezed out. Like many silly things boys do, we used to be hyper competitive in making sure we have the driest towel. That, extreme twisting used to spoil the towel is anybody's guess. I could n't help but remember this incident as I was watching hindi movie, Race. The movie is slickly made. Production values in high-budget bollywood flicks have definitely improved. Unlike many Hindi movies, editing is also very crisp. Twenty minutes into the movie, twists in the story start. They never seem to end. They keep introducing a new twist every fifteen minutes. So many that, even after the movie was really over, I was wondering "is this really over? or are they going to come back with a twist?". To give you an example, there are two brothers A and B. C and D are introduced as prospective girlfriends of A. A somehow leases his girlfriend C to B. D is in love with A. then B and C kill A. D says she married A. Then we realize B and D are wife and husband who hatch a plan to kill C and then A comes alive to save C though he is married to B. If you are still clear abt the story, E and F are introduced who in cop and bimbo asst. E exposes B and then colludes with B. In the end, A and E are showns as friends anyways, you get the gist. Overall slickly made time pass. Get a dvd and watch in ff mode if you are hindi movie buff.

2) Ad wars: Remember the time when world cup was held in India and Coke introduced themselves as official drink. Pepsi came out with this new campaign "nothing official about it" and stole the fizz out of Coke. Well, ever since, the fight is on it seems. Deepika Padukone (daughter of erstwhile badminton player, Prakash padukone) and Ranbir Kapoor (son Rishi Kapoor) are hottest stars in India right now. So, pepsi comes with this funny theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SI8LzqIdvU

Sprite soon warms upto the idea and spoofs it up. Its quite funny. Check out the videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_N-FVryV1I

3) Pulitzers: Alright, Pulitzers for 2008 are announced. A friend of mine forwarded the winning piece by pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten. Beaufiul article. Take a print out and read in your leisure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

happy ugadi

Dear Friends, Family and blog readers,

Wish you a very very happy telugu new year.

"Sarvadhaari naama samvatsara Subhakankshalu".

-v

A day out at stadium

Alright, The story from last post continued for another day. Just at the right moment, when an Indian player is about to play biggest match of his life, DD sports switched to showing beach volleyball between kazakstan and some other stupid team. (I am surprised womens lib has nt spoken out yet about bikin clad women playing games right in the middle of the city. Did the organizers catch culture police sleeping? hehe) On Friday, Chetan Anand beat world no.4 Chen Yu from China in quarters. Saturday was a rare occasion for India. A lowly ranked (no.70) player was in semi-final of a grand prix. For the badminton uninitiated, this is equivalent to an Indian playing in a semi-final of a grand slam :). Competition are being held Gacchibowli. Kashi and I decided to go to stadium all the way to Gacchibowli and watch the match live. Boy, that was worth all the trouble.

We arrived at the stadium around 5pm, all the while doubting if the match was already over. As I mentioned earlier, Organizers are doing a great job. They scheduled Chetan's match at 7pm. Inspite of the big occasion stadium was half-full. The stadium is awesome, built with international standards. We found seats with a good view and settled in. Womens singles semifinals was going on. Chetan was sitting in the arena talking to Jwala Gutta (his wife, India's no.1 doubles player) and other friends. Lot of people think, whats the big deal in going to a stadium when you can watch the match in TV. Folks, believe me, going to stadium is worth every penny. After the women's singles, it was mens doubles semi-finals between 2 teams both of which were ranked top 5 in the world. You get to see what kind of warm-up routine players use before the match. Shadow practice et al. The doubles semi-finals was AWESOME. If you are a keen observer, you can watch all the mind games, strategies so clearly in a stadium. (Somehow, badminton is not covered live in our parts of the world and those who cover show some silly commentary with out adding much value.)

Jwala started distributing inflated sticks just before Chetans match. Chetan started his detailed warm-up routine. Stupid me, I did nt carry my camcorder :(. Crowd started shouting Chetaaaan..Chetan and noise was reaching its highest level. Finally the big moment came. Chetans opponent was Andrew Smith, an English player. He was like a deer in the headlights. Totally out of place, right from the go. Crowd was behind Chetan for every point. Chetan anand won the match in 20 mins with 21-16, 21-9. You really get to know what is home advantage. It was a tame surrender from the brit. Anyways, we were really happy. Crowds, media did not let Chetan do his cool down routine for 30 mins. After everything was over, Chetan walked to the galleries and greeted almost every one. We congratulated him as he was passing us by and took autograph on the half-torn ticket stub. It was really worth every penny. Quality badminton (not in the Chetans match though), gotta see Gopichand and many Indian players, got an autograph. Seriously folks, next time there is a match in your town, go to stadium and watch it live. It is really a worthy experience. More so, if you have a child. They will have a great memory for rest of their lives.

We ended the day with a dinner at chutneys, Himayatnagar. I had to mention this as the food was sooooo good. Folks, next time you are in town, go order a south indian thali in Chutneys. I wont go into details but this thali does not have a match in twin cities :)

ciao.

Lords of Doordarshan

First let me present a picture to people who missed it. This is a spoof on rising vegetable prices. Lady in the picture is wife of comedian Jaspal Bhatti. That guy has some sense of humour :)




There is an explosion of television channels in India. Today, bunch of villagers killed a Leopard in a remote village called Matusangam in Nizamabad District. TV9 is presentwith a live camera. So, what is our good old Doordarshan upto? You have to see it to believe it.

So, there is Indian Badminton Open going on in Hyderabad in a swanky stadium. It has a huge prize money and best of the best are here as a warm up to Olympics. It also provides opportunities to lot of upcoming Indian players. Fortunately, organizers are smart and scheduled all the players involving Indian players on court no.1 in a sequence. DD Sports starts telecasting them. Chetan Anand, one of Indian players expected to go deep into the draw is playing, he is one game down and leading 11-7 in second game. Suddenly, an anchor turns up and says, "alright, you watched it enough. Now lets go to Asia beach volleyball tournament Opening ceremony " (by the way, beach volleyball in Hyderabad? Don't get shocked. They put some sand courts by Hussain Sagar. ) OK, I thought, that sounds crazy enough, let me come back and watch the match for a minute. After 15 minutes, I tune into that channel to watch most ghastly opening ceremony I have ever seen. There five people dancing on the stage for tune "Kajra re". I could not detemine the sex of atleast one of them with their dresses and movements and that is telecasted live in DD Sports Channel. What do you say for that?

Guess we need some good "babu"s in DD too. OK I had to vent my frustation somewhere :) you all have a good weekend.

Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani

Early in the morning I opened the newspaper to read three news items which evoked varying emotions in me.

1) A mand and his niece were thrown out of the train by inebrieted hooligans near Kanpur. It is shocking really. In the era of cell phones, you expect the hooligans to be reported immediately and caught, but that did not happen. Anyways, this news item only re-asserts what I earlier mentioned in blog. If I am travelling in north India, I am going to use only AC-3 tier. I know, I know. As a citizen, I am supposed to fight for my rights and not choose escapism, but, if I am on vacation, I guess I am allowed some lee way. And the same advice goes to you too. If you are a rule abiding southee simpleton, believe me, you will be more comfy in ac3t.

2) Mumbai and Delhi are rated among the 25 dirtiest cities in the world. That piece of news is not at all surprising to folks who lived or travelled abroad. (Just for the record, I consider Chicago and New York dirty cities too). So today in the ToI editorial, Dipankar Gupta, a socielogy professor (university not listed) writes a big essay saying, meaning of dirt differs in sub-continental perspective to worldly perspective. We, Hindus, gag the heck out of us every morning too keep our sinuses and bronchial stuff clean and take a shower every day at any cost. We are supposed to be the cleanest people. But, we dont mind filth in our surroundings. Whats the genesis of irony? We keep our kitchens clean, rows of steel kitchen wareshining their way to glory but our bathrooms are assaults on senses. I still cant fathom the point of article but the filth that I was complaining about in my tour now gets an official recognition. The main reason, to me, seems to be the way we are raised. We are always told to keep ourselves, our rooms and our house clean. We dish our all the dirt early in the morning and we dont mind throwing all that just beside our compound wall. When we design a process, we dont seem to think through the problem and design a complete solution. For ex: In the above case, we are supposed to take an extra step or two and take the dirt from home all the way to nearest trash collection (finding which in itself is another challenge). Folks, changes like these do not happen in a day or two. I think we should start inculcating the new generation with good habits and hope to see the day when we dont find a place in top-100. To end this, I will tell a short story. Five years ago, I was travelling to Kerala with my extended family in train. Folks in my family were throwing trash right out of window as is the habit in India. Few of us said no to this and met with answers like "this is not your america" bah blah..anyway we took out couple of polythene bags and started collecting trash. When we stopped in a station, I took the trash bag out to dispose in a trash can. Jeez, it was my turn to say "this is not america". I had to run along the length of the station to find a trash can. Finally, when I found one and disposed train started moving. I nearly missed my train and took the nearest coach and found my way to my berth. After all the anxiety subsided, you can imagine how much I was heckled for the adventure. Not that, it has discouraged me to use trash bag. What I am trying to say is, authorities do not necessarily co-operate with us. But, where there is a will, there is way. Lets keep our India clean.

3) That brings me to the third story of the day. When Lalu announced that Railways are going to use green toilets from now onwards, I was really happy. For once, the
railway stations are not going to be filthy and we need not avert our gaze from tracks as if we are looking at a malayali movie poster. So, all the toilets in Pinakini express were converted to green toilets today. Do you know what exactly does that mean? Instead of instant disposal of crap, toilets will hold it and dispose it as soon as train catches a speed of more than 30kmph. Wah Huzoor Wah. I want to strangle the neck of the person whoever designed this system. Considering that every train picks up a speed of 30kmph in the range of 5-10kms away from the station, There will be a cesspool in that range from every station. Why cant they integrate pumping with cleaning of the toilets? Talk about not thinking through the process and coming up with a complete solution. I wonder how the western trains are designed.

ciao..

few pics from the trip

Alright folks, I am uploading 5 best pix from the trip on to net. Feel free to rate them on a scale of five.



1) Buddha at Saranath Sthupa (10km Varanasi). This is located in a beautiful hall built with a collabaration of 10 buddhist nations. The hall is decorated with the interpretation of buddha's life by a Japanese artist. There was an absolutely beautiful painting of Angulimal coming face to face with Buddha. Sadly, I could nt capture it well on picture.



2) Sun rise in Benarus is absolutely beautiful. You get to stand on west side of Ganga river and wait for Sun to arrive. Beauty of sunrise made someone like me wake up at 5AM everyday and rush to bathing ghats. I have so many pics of it that, I could nt judge which one to put there.



3) Kaushik ~ Kashi. My cousin. That he is a good sport is obvious from the blog. To have him on the trip was an absolute joy. He was standing 30 feet away from me, in front of Madan Malviya statue in Benarus Hindu University, a bit tired after spending a long day in the sun.



4) Bibi Ka Maqbara An imitation of Taj Mahal built by Aurangzeb's son Azam Shah in memory his mother. While Taj Mahal is built with Marbles, this one is built from grind sea shells except for dome (which was built with white marble). This picture is a reflection of BKM in water rotated by 180 degrees.



5) Chand Minar A mute witness of history seen from the dilapidated walls of daulatabad fort. Daulatabad was the capital of India for a brief period of time.

There is one last pic that I want to put here. Let me introduce you to my grandpa. Eighty-five years young. Active, Witty, Fun to hang out with and very independent. This picture was taken before sunrise when he offered a diya to Ganga mai and was performing morning pujas.



Ciao folks, I am going to sign off now. You have a great day.

-v

Home..sweet home

We are back home today. safe and sound. Wiser by experience and lighter by pocket :). I had to finish last post in a hurry as I had to catch the train. Pune railway station was a delight. There were ATMs of 4-5 banks. 2 competing internet kiosk providers and some very modern food cafe. I wonder how long it would take for rest of the places to catch up. Our train was supposed to stop at 5AM in kopargaon (nearest RS to shirdi). People started making nosie/packing from 3:30AM. yuck..I was planning to catch some good sleep that night but there were too many culprits to blame someone.

The ordeal began the moment we landed in Kopargaon. Kopargaon bus station is 2km away from kopargaon RS. For some wise reasons, authorities decided not to run any busses to RS. Whats the alternative? you have to haggle with greedy autowallahs (they try to place 6 ppl in one auto for 20-30min journey) or greedier 7-seaters (who pack 10 ppl). I was so mad I just wanted to walk those 2km if not for grandpa. Anyways, by then, I was a battle veteren :) We picked the worst day to enter Shirdi. Last weekend was a four day weekend in India and there were people pouring from every nook and corner of India. After 2 hours of frantic searching I could not find a room. I was promised a room after 2 hours if I paid 1500 bucks. It was 8AM by then. No water, No shower, I knew I could nt wait that long. So, I hired a maruti van which supposed to take us to "Shani Singanapur" (a recent development in pilgrimage), provide a clean shower, darshan, followed by darshan at Shirdi, followed by dropping us in Aurangabad(to see ellora, grishneshwar). I thought this whole plan was a stroke of genius considering the rush over there. 2 hrs later, I knew it was the worst day of the trip and lowest of the lows. After standing for 3 hrs in a serpentine queues I was wondering whether I was religious or a sycophant. Yuck, I can vent all my frustation here but I will spare guys. After a big ordeal, we were back in Shirdi. Crowds have nt subsided yet. To get a mandir darshan, one had to stand in another queue for four hours. There was all kind of pushing happening in those cramped, barely able to breath rooms. Taking grandpa in was out of question. After pondering for a while, we called it off. I was extremely disappointed for that fiasco. Two places I was looking forward to in the trip were Benarus and Shirdi. After so much effort, I was leaving Shirdi with out having a darshan. There was a mukhadarshan (watching the idol from 100ftaway but my spects were broken :-( and from that far, I was as good as blind). Being the eternal optimist I am, I took that as a message from GOD saying "dont come here to see God. Find the God in yourself :)". We moved to Aurangabad overnight.

Aurangabad was a delight. It was my second time. I have nt explored Ellora caves well in my earlier trip. So, that was on my agenda apart from grishneshwar jyotirling. First we visited "daulatabad fort". Remember Tuglaq who shifted capital from Delhi to daulatabad. This was the place. This fort had amazing history. It was ruled by Yadavas -> Allauddin Khiljee -> Tuglaq -> bahmani sultans-> Aurangabad->British in that order. Aurangabad is a photographers heaven. So many shots to capture. Daulatabad fort, Ellora caves, Bibi ka maqbara (An imitation of Tajmahal, built by Azam Shah (s/o Aurangazeb, in memory of his mother). We were roaming there all thru the day. We also visited Aurangazeb's tomb. (There is a big story which I will write later). Khwaza Zainuddin's dargah. (My first brush with muslim place. Our driver who was a muslim explained that though non-muslims are not allowed in Masjids,they are allowed in dargah's. Do you know the difference between dargah and masjid? read my PPS). Ellora was too good. Needless to say that. I took some 2-300 hundred pictures. Bought some Aurangabadi special stuff and took the train back home. The trip was lot of fun. Grandpa maintained good health all thru out. Apart from minor hiccups and some firefighting it was an experience worth every minute/penny. Folks who visit Hyderabad, I tell you. Aurangabad is a great weekend get-away. Take a train to Aurangabad, arrive on Saturday morning. Visit Ajanta caves.
Next day, visit Ellora caves and daulatabad fort and some other historic places in city. And dont forget your cameras :).

Thanks for reading my blog along. I will continute to post stuff may be switch this to telugu blog at some point of time. Now, I need to take a good nap.

ciao,
v


PS: One of these days, I will write a tips list travel in India. I have learnt a good travel lesson. "When you go to a new place, look out for what it has to offer. Not what it does not offer." Guess this applies universally, not just in India.

PPS: A masjid is a praying place for mohammad. A dargah is a tomb of saint. If you heard the beautiful sufi song "Khwaza mere Khwaza" from Jodha akbar, that is about a dargah in Ajmer/Nellore. Apparently, few sufi saints spread themselves across the world. Dargahs were built for those who died in India.

Pit stop in Pune

Howdy Folks? Glad to see so many of you reading the blog. Let me continue from where I left off.

So, as was required, I woke up at 3am, wore a dhoti and went to see "Chitabhasma aarati" for Lord Mahakaleswar in Ujjain. I was so irritated with the temple folks for having that aarati at 3am but when I went there, it was quite some sight to see. Till 6am, only folks with dhotis are allowed inside. So, the dhoti was worth wearing too. Anyways, coming to the aarati, First they elaborately wash the huge sivalingam with water,milk,honey,curd etc. Then, they decorate it with turmeric paste, flowers and carve a face with silver eyes and lips stuck to the lingam. Then comes the most curious part. An aghori from local graveyard brings the chitabhasmam (ashes from funeral pyre) which will be spread all over the sivalingam. Then again the huge percussion exercise with breathtaking tempo. Wow, that was quite some sight. Apparently, Ujjain has historically been attracting practitioners of aghori and other tantric practices. So, this is the only place where such exercise is done. I was a bit curious and asked what if there are no deadbodies on a given day. Local folks took pride in mentioning that bhasmam was always available etc..??? I had nothing to say. It was a bit gory.

In Ujjain temple is completely managed by govt. police authorities. Boy, they do such a great job. Kudos. I took pains to ask if there was a feedback box as I wanted to appreciate but unfortunately the guy I asked was not sure. From there, we headed to Omkareswar which is on Narmada river. It was a really really hot day and unfortunately even grandpa had to walk/hike those 2-3kms in hot sun. There was nothing extraordinary about Omkareshwar temple. It was jyotirlinga#7 for me. Omkareswar is located on an island which is shaped in OM. Narmada and another river (sorry, I forgot the river) surrounded it. Since past 1 year, a new dam became operational and all the water is now preserved. So, you can literally see layers of rocks and stale water infront of the temple which makes the experience even more unpleasant. (I will upload the pics once I go home). The guide and locals I spoke to are extremely unhappy about the dam (dam is visible from temple) as it had pretty much dented their livelihood. I was discussing how many people were dislodged from the catchment areas. (Only 4 villages). I was trying to convince them that a DAM is good in long term for the greater good of the district folks. There were some arguments and they did nt seem convinced. Sad thing is, there were 2 historic cave monuments (satmatrika temples, kajal rani caves). Now they are happily submerged in the water. If AP could relocate bouddhik remains in nagarjuna sagar 40 years ago, I could nt see why such thing was not thought about. More details later.

In my earlier blog, I said people in Ujjain were nice. They really were. Except for my hotel manager. He was trying to swindle money out of me which was doubly confirmed by the car driver. On the way back to Ujjain from Omkareswar, humne aisa shadyantr rachaaya, when he will know the details, he wil come hunting for me in hyderabad lol....I had a heated argument with hotel manager infront of the whole staff with threats of calling police etc., Finally he had budged and I stuck there for one more day. Ujjain is famous for its namkeen (not my interest really :) ), mehendi and hing (asafoetida). The shopkeepers who realized we were travellers, were sooooo nice to us. (One surprising thing about hing is, it is not made in India. folks from Kazhakstan, afghanistan etc., bring it to ujjain during their winter migration, a practice which dates from 300AD. Well, if you know my dad, I had no choice but to buy that hing. (God save my clothes). Do you know that a good quality hing (called blue diamond) costs 4800per kg?? second quality called kazhakstan costs 3200/-? hmm I should start investing in Hing and such commodities..lol.

Now, lets come to the history of Ujjain which was our agenda on the third day. As you all know, Ujjain was the capital of Vikramaditya (from the vikram-bhetal stories). There are so many historic spots in the city for ex: caves where bhartrahari did his tapass, gadkalika temple(goddess who blessed kalidas), siddhavat (the famous tree from which vikram picked betaal in his stories)..I was mighty excited in anticipation of watching these. Sadly, due to many fights among Hindu rulers and Mughals, These spots got dismantled and rebuilt over so many times that there is nothing ancient about these. yuck.. Someway to preserve history. It was interesting to see these historic spots and disheartening to see them in modern structures. (atleast the Idols I assume are old enough).

Now lets take a detour to Kashi's story :). Those who know Kashi, know his association with Bhetaal. Guess what, on his 21st birthday, Kashi was right under the same tree that Bhetaal used to hand on and taking the blessings lol. Do you call this a mere coincidence, daiva leela or bhetaala leela..We had a great time. Unfortunately my camera batteries died on me and I could nt take any pics of bhetaal tree. I will upload the video sometime. Jokes apart, the bhetaal tree stands on the banks of shipra (another sad environmental disaster :-( ). It is called siddhavat. Apparently Aurangazeb chopped it off to roots and put iron sheets to prevent it from growing. But, it still stands tall. (So does the local folklore goes).

Then we bid a bye to Ujjain. AC3T was totally booked :-((. It was a horribly hot day and we had a rough journey to Pune via Baroda (what an industrial development :-? ), godhra. At Pune, the plan was simple. We had to visit Bhimasankar jyotirling in western ghats. It was more like a patel shot trip. The only reason was to tick another item off the list. Surprisingly, it is located in beautiful locales and it would have been great if we came before fall. Now, we are boarding the train back to Shirdi on the way Ellora. From there I will be heading to Hyderabad. So, next update will be from home. Pune seems to be a rapidly developing city. I have no comments to offer as I barely saw anything here. Wanted visit agakhan palace etc..but, this was not in our itinerary. May be some other time.

Can't believe this trip is already about to end. It all seems so quick. I want to document a lot of tips/things for future travellers once I reach home. So, do watch out for the column. I hope these things did not deter you from travelling to north India :)

OK, I gotta sign off. apologies for another first draft posting. bear with typos and the blah.. And Sri..tumhaari nazar lagi aur humhe do din se theek ka khana nahi milaa. youuuuuuuuuuu...j/k.

ciao,
bye.

Out of Benarus and some taata-isms.

Howdy, folks? One comment after writing that long post with such a big story. hmm..you have disappointed me. But, I won't disappoint you guys. We have entered the second leg of our journey. Left Benarus yesterday afternoon and arrived in Ujjain today. Inspite of all the crowd, filthy streets, Benarus is an experience you should not miss. There are four good reasons you should not miss Benarus.
1) Ganga
2) Lord Viswanath Shrine
3) Poori kachodi breakfast followed by jilebi in dahi :)
4) Benarus paan and for ladies Benarus sarees. (I have to apologize folks for not buying even one saree. There were too many things to be done in too little time and I did nt want to bargain in hurry. So, Benarus and your sarees will have to wait :) )

My first post seemed to be too negative and full of gripe :( but after that we had great time. Roaming in benarus gullies is a funny experience. In benarus, they give too much respect to cows. So, they take equal stake in walking those same streets and even crapping. Me and Kashi just missed cow-attacks in two separate instances..lol. The first two days we stayed there, we could nt have banarsi special breakfast as by the time we took bath, visited temple on empty stomach and came back, it was 12 and breakfast was not served. On the final day, we were determind to have a banarsi breakfast(item#3). That day turned out to be a Monday and some special occasion in UP :-(. Its called Rangbhari Ekadasi (ekadasi before holi). Man it took soooooooo long finish darshan. After few parting words with dear lord viswanath, we were hunting for breakfast. After some long searching, we found a remote place, something akin to gokul chat in hyderabad and went in. We were ordered some puri with a gravy potato curry (as if there was anything available :p ). Then as the ritual goes we bought some jilebi. This was some special jilebi and tasted awesome not the one we make in our homes. While eating, I looked at the menu which had three items. Puri , Kachodi & Jilebi. "humne socha why not order the third item."

me: Bhayya, yaha kachodi bhi milti hai kya?
shopkeeper: (Looks at me from top to bottom and goes on to deal with other customer)
me : (louder) bhayya yaha kachodi bhi milti hai kya?
shopkeeper: aap puri ke saath wohi to khaa rahe hai.
(now everyone is staring at me..lol)
me : what??.. lekin kachodi matlab andhar sabzi bhar ke dete hai na?
shopkeeper: banaras me isi ko poori kachodi bolte hai.
me: (paid the bill immediately and rushed out of the shop :)) )

Then we went to a sweet shop in Benarus. I tried Rabdi (awesome), Rasagulla (even more awesome - i am never going to eat canned rasagulla again), kesari lassi. I asked for some rasmalai but it had nt yet arrived. (it was all wow. sweetlovers..Benarus should be on your travel map. Deeps, I cant get any sweets home, as they wont last that long.) After that we boarded the train to Indore fortunately, we managed berths in AC-3tier which was heaven. Got some nice travel company..played lots of Clearance with tata and kashi. Train was late by 4 hours so, we changed plans and got down in Ujjain.

It almost feels like we are back in civilization :) people are really nice in Ujjain. This has a small town feeling to it. We already visited the Ujjain Mahakaleswar jyotirlinga. When we went in, It was aarti time and any week heart would faint with noise of aarti. They use dhamarukam and cymbals with increasing tempo and reaching a devastating crescendo. Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed so i cant show you anything. We are supposed wake up and 3am tomorow to visit another aarti in dhotis. (no pants and shirts :-( ). We are headed for Omkareshwar tomorrow. If I am not too tired by the heat at this place, I will give you guys another update.

taata-isms.
------------

1) This one should join the all time top 5 list.
The train was about to arrive in Ujjain. Kashi was getting ready to disembark the train. He packed all the bags. He wored a red-t with blue&white stripes. A black capri (3/4 in indian lingo) with yellow lining. Tied up his sandals. Put his red wipro baseball cap on the head in reverse. Looked at tataiah. (as if he said, iam ready). Tataiah looks at him from top to bottom and says
"oka gada okkati takkuva unnadi"....lol. oh well, I was lauging till it hury my tummy.

2) We took a city tour in Benarus on second day. It was a long and hot day and grandpa was already tired. We entered a fort where grandpa suddenly realized he has no interest in watching this as it had no spiritual connotation to it. I told "tata, opika lekunte ikkada koorchondi. memu tirigi vastaam".
tataiah: (looking at kashi..very sarcastically) "anni manchiga chooskoraa..mallee mee jayanthganiki appacheppaale.

3) There is another beautiful story about kashi and dhuryodhana kavacham. But its a bit too long and I will share at a later day.

4) We were playing clearance in train. The game was a tense game. I was on 28. Tata on 27 and Kashi on 27. I was to deal the next hand. There was a 10 on the table. In the first round Tataiah takes the 10 with a diamond 10 and seals the game. Kashi, who was next, shows his spade-2 and says.."abbaa..taata choodu"
tataiah: "koora veskoni, aankaku tinduvu gaani"...lol

OK, There were too many to write, so I will stop now. Kashi is already getting angry at me :) Sorry Kashi. But, I know you are a good sport.

Ciao folks, Next report will be anytime between 1-3 days.

-v

Ps: This is a first draft. So, live with the typos and bad grammar.