ನೆನಪಿನ ಸಂಚಿಯಿಂದ: A whirlwind trip to Chennai & Mahabalipuram

When Dr. Ram Ramarathnam of Chennai invited us over to have a 'dekko' at eco friendly e-cycle he had designed we grabbed this opportunity to turn this visit into official cum pleasure trip. It had been a long time since we all four had travelled together. Hence we decided on chennai and mahabalipuram. Our association with Gayathri Travels , Rajajinagar has been from the past 9 years.We have a favorite driver Ravi. Ravi is from chennai, but he is been in bangalore for many years. he speaks kannada and tamil very well , with splattering of Hindi and English too. what more could we ask??

We left early at 5.45 am. It was cold and i had the window rolled down getting my ears, nose and cheek ice cold, until Srikanth ordered me to close the window. Oh!! how i love winter....

good morning Bengalooru...and the sun comes to see us off

Not much traffic. Niha shot this from the moving vehicle. She is quite good na?

Muddu Ganapa on the dashboard and Ravi in the rearview mirror...:-)

a view through the windshield (all above photos by Niha)

Just on a whim we got to discussing about the famous golden temple of vellore and he said if take a short detour we can include it in our itinerary....

So he took us golden temple, Siripuram, Vellore. The temple is named Shakti amma Laxmi Narayani . since we purchased the Special darshanam pass we could watch the deity up close. the temple is made of solid gold plates with intricate designs. though it was not much to my liking , i loved its reflection in the water.The temple is located on 100 acres of land on a natural landscaping lush with greenery and resting places for devotees for the trudge to the main temple is quite a distance away. The pathway to the temple is star-shaped designed to calm the nerves (so it says) (photography prohibited)

Sri Sakti Amma with the deity Laxmi Narayani (my girls were curious why the founder was called Shakti amma instead of appa)

Whenever we were hungry (which happens a lot whenever we travel ;-))Ravi stopped at the road side eateries, where the ambience was so- so but the food was good and cheap. we had quite a generous amount of pongal in Chennai at the famous Saravana Bhavan. Ravi is warehouse of information. politics is his favorite subject. He talked about all his former employers from politician to people in the film line. Its a pleasure to hear him talk. there is never a dull moment. But above all he is a very careful driver.

Next stop was the Jalakanteshwara temple at Vellore fort nearby

.Some details on the temple

YES!!!! I am frowning cos he is ALWAYS on the phone!! Hrrrmmmp!!

Jalakanteshwara Temple

father -daughter

An act of valour etched on the pillar

Malavika posing besides a pillar

Muruga

the rearing horse

After the fort temple we had lunch in a hotel and proceeded to meet Dr. Ram Ramarathnam at his office cum workshop in Chennai. Dr Ram is a wonder. with like minded youngsters he is on to many new eco-friendly inventions. He showed us the e-bicycle and Ravi had a test drive on it..he was quite impressed by the geared cycle which ran on battery.

with Dr Ram and the e cycle

We stayed at a hotel , the name i forgot.( i will check the bill and enter it at a later date).and early next morning with a grand breakfast at Hotel Saravana Bhavan we left for Mahabalipuram. on the way we cruised slowly along the marina beach where the beach was rife with early morning walkers, exercisers, strollers etc :-)

malathi-the water bottle carrier

the main deity of mamallapuram

Shot by a westerner. she was a fun lady :-)

The beach in the morning.. not many tourists

Westerners feeling and studying the sand stormed temple walls

Srikanth in his comfort attire 'the mundu' and me in my favorite colour 'BLACK' :-)

this was very exciting..waking up Lord Nataraja in the wee hours of morning with classical morning raga...Chidamabaram

Rangamatapa at the Nataraja Temple. fell in love

Srikanths favorite form of Photography - silhoutte

Next stop was the famous Kamakashi temple at Kanchipuram before returning to Bangalore. There was some religious celebration with homa etc...hundreds of devotees thronged the temple. Ravi was very keen on helping us buy Kanchi Sarees, saying he knew where we could purchase Kanchipuram Sarees at discounted rates..but i was not interested and he was surprised and dejected at how can one say no to saree, hehehe...

On the way to Kancheepuram, Srikanth was interested in the round tiled roofs so got down to make enquiries but could not get much info..

spire (Gopuram) of the Kamakshi Temple

There we some more pictures in Srikanths mobile which he lost before i could download the photos ,owing to my laziness :-(. Sant Kabir das is right in saying 'kal karo so aaj karo..aaj karo so ab'....The most memorable spot was the IIT-Chennai where the deers were roaming about freely. Its one of the loveliest IIT campus according to me. Fell in love with it..We also made a quick visit to the crocodile and snake park.