Thekkady Idukki Trip

Places : Madurai , Thekkady , Idukki , Kambam
People : Mega, Balasundar

Jeeva Marriage :

It was time for attending yet another marriage and this time it was my friend Jeeva getting married.



After the marriage , we were free to roam around anywhere . We had planned to visit Thekkady .

Madurai :

Any trip to Madurai is not complete without going to Madurai Meenakshiamman Temple and also the Halwa Stall on the way :-)





A Vinayaka Statue inside the Museum .



Thekkady :

Thekkady is one of South India's most popular tourist destination . The main attractions in Thekkady are the Boat house and the Periyar Tiger Reserve.
If you are lucky , you will be able to see wild animals from the boat. We werent very lucky though . We were to be satisfied just with the greenery.



Inside the boat.









Elephant ride at thekkady :

I dont remember when I last sat on a elephant and travelled on it. But this time we did not want to miss the chance and hence made ourselves comfortable on top of an elephant.



There was a lakehouse at thekkady which looked very good.

Though we would have liked to stay in this bungalow , we did not stay here and were just satisfied to take a photo in front of this.



Charans Caves :

Charans Caves was not in our itinary at all. We stumbled upon it by chance on our way.
As the name suggests there was a cave with a very little opening , and unfortunately we were not able to go very far into it.
The view from Charans caves was also breathtaking.





ChellarKovil:

We went from Thekkady to Chellarkovil by bus.The region is also known as Malanadu and throughout the journey many women were vomitting from the bus.

Chellarkovil is a small little village in idukki. It is the place from which we would be able to have a look at the Chellarkovil waterfalls.
The specialty of this waterfall is that the place from where the water starts falling belongs to Kerala and the place where the water touches the land belongs to Tamilnadu.

From this high point we were able to see the plains of Kambam District of Tamilnadu.




Idukki:

Idukki dam is a rare type of dam known to be as the Arch dam . And when all other dams are a plain wall , these arch dams are in Arch shape.



The Arch like thing you see at the center of the below photo is the Idukki Arch dam . The above photo was taken from the point below the arch dam.





A Tree house :



We had a small boating place on the view point , in which we spent some time.
There was nobody in that place except us and the caretakers of the place. what a solitary place it was.



Kuchanoor :

We crossed the border from Kerala to Tamilnadu and took a room in Kambam district. The lodge was a newly constructed one and the owners were very hesitant to

give the rooms to us . After some persuasion and much promising , we were able to get a room. But it was worth it. The rooms cannot get more cleaner than that.

After looking around for places to visit in we settled for kuchanoor which is famous for a temple for Sani Bhagavan.

We went through Uthama palaiyam and chinna manur and then to kuchanoor.The temple is a very small one , but regarded as a old one.
After this we went to another temple at Uthama palaiyam and then proceeded back home.

Cheers
Megarajan

Halebid Belur Trip

Plainly Speaking ,

The world can be divided into two sets of people.

Those who have visited the temples in Halebid and Belur and
Those who have not visited it.

Lots have been said about other monuments in India , especially Taj Mahal.
But everything will become false when compared with the temples in Halebid.

To compare , most of what you find in Taj Mahal are engravings , meaning its twodimensional.
But in Halebid and Belur you have a additional dimension .
All sculptures are Three dimensional , meaning that all sculptures , from the smallest one to the biggest one are as perfect in the back side as they are in the front.

If you have never heard of the Hoysalas , it is time that you heard about them.
The Hoysalas were Hindu kings who ruled over parts of karnataka for some centuries .
The Hoysalas were talented enough to grab a place for them in history due to their various contributions to art and architecture .
They perfected a distinct style of temple architecture that is clearly different from anything you would have seen till now.

Their temples had no super structure , means the temple itself was flat on the roof , there are no gopurams.
Most of their temples are star shaped and the entire temple itself was placed on a high surface.

The temples I had gone were

1. Hoysaleswara Temple , Halebeedu
2. Kesave Temple , Halebeedu
3. Jain Basadihalli , Halebeedu
4. Chenna Kesava Swamy Temple , Belur

The entrance to the Old city. Halebeedu means Old city in Kannada .



The Hoysaleswara temple as the name signifies is a temple dedicated to shiva.

Front view



Left Side view



As with all shiva temples , before the deity you have to go thru the vahanam .and it will be Nandi for Shiva.
This temple also has a Nandi statue , to say correctly 3 Nandis,.
We will look at the Nandi statues in this temple .

Nandi -1
This Nandi statue is the most polished Nandi of all. In its good times ,it must have been fit to serve as a mirror.



Nandi - 2



Nandi - 3



Dwarpalaka

All Hindu temples , if you have noticed properly , will have dwarapalakas , on either side of the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum or the garba griham.



Hoysalaeswara , Halebeedu

Usually in Hindu temples the deities are not allowed to be photographed , but since this temple is not being worshipped now , we can have a photo of the deity.



Interior





After having a look at the interiors of the temple , we will look at whats on the outside.

Dancing ganesha



Lone Ganesha



Brahma , Shiva , Vishnu , Paarvathi



Shiva Paarvathi



Vishnu , Lakshmi



Shiva inside a Elephants belly

This sculpture depicts shiva as inside the belly of an elephant.




krishna



Narasimha



Lady with the Mirror



Lady with the Drum

The temple had many statues of ladies , apsaras , sundaris , maids , whatever you call them .
And all of them are said to display a different "bhavam" in their face.



Elephant Chariot



Archer



Men fighting an elephant



Crocodile-Elephant
This is a mystical animal with the jaws of a crocodile fitted to the body of an elephant.



Most of the people leave Halebeedu after visiting the Hoysaleswara Temple, but there are more ruins in Halebeedu .
You have to take the road on the left of the temple and go some distance and you will reach a pair of small temples .

Kesava Temple , Halebeedu



Jain Basadihalli , Halebeedu

The Jain Basadihallis were supposed to contain Pillars that were so polished , that they could serve as mirrors.
But now they are damaged due to vagaries of time. But I was able to see a shadow of myself in the pillar.




Belur :

Belur is the home to Chenna Kesava Swamy (vishnu) temple, another fine example of Hoysala Architecture.
The Original temple consisted only of the main temple and the walls surrounging the temple and the gopuram were built later .
The gopurams have been built in the dravidial style of architecture.

Belur Temple Gopuram



The Vahanam for Vishnu would be Garuda .



Chennak Kesava Swamy , Belur



Maid in the Pillar



Base of Temple





As was the norm in those days each empire had a royal emblem and for the hoysalas it was the lion.

Lion



Exterior



Mysore

Mysore was our next stop enroute to Bangalore.

The places we visited in Mysore were

1. Mysore Palace
2. Lalita Mahal Palace

Mysore Palace :

The Mysore palace was at its best when we visited it.It was Dussehra and Dussehra festival was the most celebrated one in Mysore.



The palace was built on a huge piece of land , had lots of rooms filled with treasured items , had a golden throne displayed in it.
But all of these was NOTHING compared to what we had seen in Halebid and Belur.

Places I Missed out on this tour.

1. Sravanabelagola.
2. Somnathpur
3. Chamundeeswari temple.


Cheers
Megarajan

Guntur Trip

Date : 24,25,26 Jan 2004
Places : Guntur , Narasaraopet , Kotappakonda , Kondaveedu ,Vijayawada

You people need to know Kota. He joined with us in HCL as an already experienced person. He had worked in the IISC lab where PARAM is kept , where Abdul Kalam had worked. He even showed us a photo that he had taken with Abdul Kalam . He was a very innocent character but very much talkative.

I still remember how Kota used to say to us that "Mama , I am getting old , but my parents are not at all worried" :-). We wished him that he would get married soon. soon our wish became true and Our beloved Kota was getting married. He was getting married in his hometown in Guntur District.

We had made big plans to attend his marriage and then do a short trip of the surrounding places. As the in-house guide , I prepared a list of all the places near Guntur to see and we were all set. The person who booked the train tickets for the journey dropped out in the last minute and he has been missing ever since. He was Sandesh Singh Sodhi .

The trip started with we starting from Chennai and landing in a obscure railway station , the name I dont remember . From there we travelled by bus for 3 hrs to reach Narasaropet . We passed many villages and one of them , we were told was the birthplace of many of Andhras politicians.

Guntur:

The town of Guntur was the headquarters of the Guntur district and the Guntur town wore a very clean and neat look .

Marriage :

The marriage was a regular Telugu Marriage and the only thing I remember now is that we were offered food in round paper plates and not in Banana leaves. I never seen it any other marriage.



1. KotappaKonda

Kotappakonda was a small hillock with a shiva temple in it.



On top of Kotappakonda



There was also a small collection of animals housed near Kotappakonda . It included a large variety of birds .

Love Birds in KotappaKonda :

The Photo credits for this goes to Senthilraja .



View of the Plains from Kotppakonda :



2. Varsham - Telugu Film:

Our goal was to effectively spend a evening in Narasaropet , the hometown of Kota . So the thought of seeing a film came . Thiyagu was the person who staunchly voted for seeing a Telugu fim and that too Varsham. I believe , To really enjoy the culture of any state , you need to see a local film in that state. So we decided to see Varsham in Andhra .



It was just then released and we didnt have any Reviews in favour of it. but we went in and at the end did not have a big grudge against it. The HERO looked like a villain is a different matter. But all of it was erased by the fact that the film starred Trisha and had used her beauty fully to its advantage.The film had good melodious songs , good picturisation and a cute heroine to top it .


3. Kondaveedu :

Kondaveedu was supposed to be one of Aurangazebs forts. As soon as we descended at the bottom of the mountain one question raised in everybodys mind. Do we need to do this. And Some barve soul started it by walking towards the mountain .Everybody was sure by the looks of it that this was going to be one hell of a trekking seesion . The fort had a small village at its bottom , where Aurangazeb's soldiers descendants have settled now. We got the company of an old man who told that he would act our guides if we agree to pay him 100 RS .After deciding its ok , we started the climb guided by the old man who trekked like he was a teenager.

I really lost count of how many times we had stopped during the climb, with many people begging to be left .Maadesh was the worst affected ,but was helped by Srijith who carried his bag and Maadesh's bag throughout the climb.



4. Amaravathi Temple :

Amaravathi was nice little town on the banks of Krishna river .It has a special importance in Hindu Mythology being home to one of the Shiva temples where the lingam is one among the 5 lingams which represent the five forces of Nature . It is said to have one of the tallest lingams in india that is still being worshipped.



5. Managalagiri Temple :

Mangalagiri has a old and interesting legend attached to it. The deity here is the Narasimha and the specialty is that whatever the quantity of panaga theertham the devotee offer to the god, he will drink only half ... You give a glass full , he will drink only half glass , u give him a "kudam" full , he will drink only half of that.



On Top of Mangalagiri



Another temple in Vijayawada



6. Kanaga durga Temple :

Kanaga Durga temple is one of the most popular Durga temples in Andhra .It was situated in a small hill in Vijayawada .



6. Prakasam Barrage :

Prakasam Barrage is a dam constructed across the Krishna River in Vijayawada . It was nice picnic spot in Vijayawada.

Krishna River :



It was a tiresome 3 days of travel and enjoyment.

All tired , On the banks of Krishna River .



The guy who missed all the fun in this was Bala , who had to return to Chennai immediately for handling a customer case. I am glad that I was not in the "MOST WANTED" lists.

Places I wished I could have seen in this trip

1. Guthikonda caves : These are natural caves which are thousands of years old and our plans to go to it were destroyed by the fact that heavy fighting was going between Naxalites and CRPF in the caves that time .

2. Amaravathi Buddhist Stupa :

During the last part of our trip we were left with nobody speaking telugu and hence we could not find the way to this and missed this . I regret very much for this. I have never seen a buddhist stupa till now .

3. Amaravathi Museum :

The Museuem is supposed to contain good buddhist relics , but as fate would have it , we reached the town of Amaravathi after 5.00 and by that time the Museum was closed.

Content : Megarajan
Photo Credits : Senthilraja

Cheers
Megarajan