A trip to Tiruvannamalai

Like all things in my life, it started as a whim and slowly progressed to almost a fanatic desire. I wanted to go to Tiruvannamalai and right now at that. When I put forth my idea to hubby dear, he was enthusiasm personified. Obviously! Considering how he likes driving his new toy every opportunity he gets. I was more than happy to indulge him (indulge, you ask? Ya ;) ). So we started planning. I “researched” for hours and hours together on the Web – read blogs on others’ trip to Tiruvannamalai, zoomed in and out of Live Maps and Google maps a million times, assembled a big map of the Bangalore – Tiruvannamalai route in Photoshop, and lived and breathed Tiruvannamalai half of my non-sleep hours! After our initial plan to go on last Saturday failed, I was crestfallen. But I quickly gathered my spirits and we decided to drive down on Christmas day.

It turned out to be a fantastic trip that all of us immensely enjoyed. We started at 5:30 in the morning and took the NH7 - NH66 route. Reached Tiruvannamalai at around 11 AM with a half an hour break in between for breakfast. It was a smooth ride until Krishnagiri where NH7 branches off into 2. And there came the first hurdle of the day. Which road to take? After asking the highway patrol police, who seemed to be placed there by divine grace just to give us directions, and ignoring their advice (blame me!), we continued on NH7 a few kilometers. Doubts starting assailing me – I was not sure if the research and the subsequent route I had chartered out had been correct enough! The road seemed to be leading to Dharmapuri!! Finally, I found the courage to tell my by-now-glowering hubby that we got to turn back and go the way the cop pointed out! Oh, the atmosphere inside the car would have melted glaciers, believe me! I decided to keep my mouth shut after that! At least about the route! So after coming back on the NH7 Krishnagiri outpost, we turned on to the Chennai/Pondicherry route. This is the road that turns left from NH7 near the Krishnagiri flyover – you have to take the left road that goes below it. Continue on for a km or so and there are clear signs that indicate the route to Tiruvannamalai/Pondicherry – a right diversion from the Chennai route.

From this point on, the roads are both heaven and hell. Heaven because they are so scenic surrounded as they are by ripe green trees and plants. Hell because the roads are so bad that they don’t let you take your eyes off them to enjoy the scenery! It’s sure bad for the driver at least, as hubby put it. The rest of us were happy enough clicking away to glory save for the jumpy ride now and then. Oh, ya, I almost forgot to mention - though there isn’t much traffic, you have to watch out for the country-buses which believe the entire road to be their property. We saw an Alto that was almost pushed to the extreme side of the road by a speeding bus! And watch out for those I-can-give-the amusement-parks-a ride-for-their-money-potholes! The road doesn’t improve much until Chengam though there were freshly laid stretches of tar in-between. We stopped at a nice deserted spot for breakfast and then continued on to Tiruvannamalai. Found a decent parking place adjacent to the temple wall and we were happy! I, for one, had thought it will be difficult to get a parking space near temple and was feeling blessed. Least did I know what was in store for us at the end of the day. More about that later.

As soon as we entered the temple, we were awestruck by the grandeur of the gopurams. Man, there were so many of them.

After standing in the queue for what seemed like over 2 hours (being a holiday), we finally had our darshan and came out both tired and elated. Kid was happy having seen Monkeys and their babies. We were happy to find a Sweet Lime Soda pushcart waiting to serve the exhausted devotees right inside the temple!! After having our fill, off we went to the next item on our agenda. The Girivalam - Circumambulation of the Arunachala hill. Usually it’s done by feet but considering that we planned it to be a one day trip and having a kiddo in tow, we decided to do it on four wheels!

We reached our car and were dreading getting inside it what with the sun having been directly blazing over it, when we got an even more rude shock. Our front tire had gone flat! Hubby almost fainted. His new toy and god how can this happen to us? When we pulled in to park, everything was perfect. So what would have gone wrong? We had no time to waste and luckily found a tire shop very close by. We were thanking our stars that there was one so close by when the owner of another parked car in the same line came over and said that even his tire had gone flat. Ha! hold on now, do we smell a rat here? even his tires were in good condition when he pulled in and by the time he came back it had gone flat. Now, it can happen to one car, but to both? And both of them being the only KA (Karnataka) vehicles in that line…. ha, something fishy indeed! This was almost proved when the mechanic pronounced that nothing has happened to the tire – somebody has just let the air out. Hmm, somebody was playing some bad pranks. Very bad. Maybe even the mechanic shop people. Who knows? It would definitely be a good business model. Coincidentally, on our way back after Girivalam to the temple, we saw another KA Mercedes noisily sledging the road with a flat back tire!

We did not want to dwell on it too much. But I did think about alerting somebody – but who? As tourists usually do, we continued on way to Girivalam. We found all the 7 lingams easily except for the Indira Lingam – which seemed to be off the main roads. We even took a nice lunch break at a wayside bull temple.

It had become almost 6:30 by the time we reached back to the temple from where we planned to retrace our steps to NH66 to Chengam. Since Thirukovilur, the next item on our agenda is a good 35 km away and it wouldn’t have been possible to return back the same day if we had gone ahead, we dropped that part of the plan and headed back home to Bangalore.

The trip back to Bangalore seemed to be the longest one we had. All of us were tired and sleepy. More so, hubby dear who did not have a back-up driver in any of us. Imagine! We had got up at 3:30 in the morning to cook/pack our breakfast and lunch! Just the stretch between Krishanagiri –Hosur- Bangalore took us over 3 hours! Seems hubby almost fell asleep lulled by the hypnotic highway lane lights. So he decided to play safe and keep the average speed to 50 at the cost reaching home faster with a possibly nasty experience on the way. We reached home dot 12 in the night. Ha, it did not turn out to be a one day trip after all :)

We were a happy lot. And I cannot be more contented that my whim has been satisfied. Ha, the pleasure of seeing your desires come true. :)

The route we took:
Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Uttangarai – Chengam - Tiruvannamalai

What we planned to do:
We had planned to visit Tiruvannamalai, do the Girivalam, then drive down further South 35 km to Thirukovilur to see two more ancient temples and wrap up the trip with a short visit to Manalurpet (another temple) on the way back to Bangalore via Tiruvannamalai,. That was the plan. But unfortunately, we couldn’t go to Thirukovilur or Manalurpet. Perhaps next time!

Other sources that will help if you are planning to trip to this place:
Ravi’s account of his trip to Tiruvannamalai
Team-BHP forum discussion on possible routes
Wiki on Tiruvannamalai
“Official Website” of the temple
Another nice Website for information on this place that also provides the temple events calendar, info on nearby places, etc
Girivalam route map

The pictures from the trip are in the sidebar including the map I made from Microsoft Virtual Earth. Enjoy!

Stop failing us, you morons!

I've always felt that exams and rankings are way too over-rated. For heaven's sake, how does it matter if you get the first rank or the last rank? Most often than not, being evaluated, compared and ranked lower than their friends make kids more depressed and at times even reluctant to try competing anymore.

I was fortunate enough to have parents who did not care much about me getting the first rank in class. Yes, they did praise the first-rankers and gave me not so subtle hints that they would have liked a child who came first in class but they never pressurized me really. Or maybe it was just my attitude of not giving anything too much of a damn. So I grew up a happy child who never minded being ranked 10 or in the worst case 16 in a class of 40. But there were others who were not so fortunate. They were taunted and ridiculed by parents, teachers, and friends alike for not studying as well as they should. Never mind they were good at something else. Slowly, these guys who were "average" to begin with became "dull" and even "failed" and were retained in the same classes while the friends of the same age progressed to higher classes.

Not anymore. There is now hope. A new Right to Education bill has been introduced in the parliament that forbids schools to fail children under class 8. What a fantastic way to ensure children get enough time to gear up and get on par with their peers without the impending axe of failure. I hope the bill gets passed!

You can read more about the bill here.

Readying for take off!

I have been thinking about doing my own thing for quiet sometime now. It started around one and half years into my first job after MBA. I quit with just one offer in hand. I joined the next company, worked for a day, and literally ran out of the place in the evening with no intention of returning back ever. Maybe I was hasty but I sure wanted to heed my intuition when it said get out right now. I called up the guy who hired me the next day morning and gave him a cock and bull story about shifting my base to Paris because my husband got transferred! Ha! Ha! Ha! I don’t think he really believed me. No one would have! But he let me go easily enough. Thank god! And then I realized because of my own impulsive compulsive need to quit my first employer fast and then my “intuition” with the second one, I was now stranded with no job or offer in sight. Jeez, did regret my decisions or what? I sat at home the next three months, unemployed, newly married in a new house, with a busy husband, and slowly went out of my mind. Thankfully, I got a job before I went completely mad!

The next one and half years went blissfully. Well almost. And then, boom! I started getting itchy again. Woa! What is this with me? The same story repeated! Yes, believe me you. The same fast paced resignation, cajoling my manager to relieve me fast…. and the entire works. But unlike last time, I stuck to the next company I joined and did not pay heed to any voices. You see, now I am a little more experienced at sorting out the voices of my head. So here I am, few months into a new job and already feeling the itch  For heaven’s sake, none of these jobs seem to fit me properly! Either the managers lie about the job description or I get disillusioned with my own role! So I got thinking………..

What is the remedy for my itch? Quit working, stay at home, take up gardening, some community work if possible, and have a blast! Yes? No! Unfortunately, I don’t think that will work. In fact, even if it works, am not sure I will be happy with it. I got to work. But at my own terms, in my own time, as my own manager. Yeppe! That will sure make me happy. So here goes my attempt at being self-employed. I am wary to use the “E” word just yet. Maybe I will muster up enough courage and strengthen my idea enough by next year but not right now. I am content to have a goal to become self-employed first before going all the way to being an “E”.

So here I have the plane (idea), the website (runway), and the fuel (energy and time) ………….. now I just got to figure out how to get my plane to take off! Wish me safe travels!

Oh btw if you are interested, u can maybe take a look at my idea here? And let me know what you think of course.

A fresh start

Yep, thats what's this is going to be. I've got all the right reasons - new year, birthday, idle time in hand...

So what better way than to get back to my first blog and start blogging all over again? Hopefully, this time around I will muster up enough enthusiam to keep it going regularly. And obviously since am older and wiser now, this blog shall serve it's true purpose of being just my writing pad and nothing else. No frills, no false make-overs, no preening, no PR. No siree, absolutely not :) I hope.

All the old content of this blog has been moved to my other blog which I have choosen not to link from here for obvious reasons. While that will be my "non sense" version, this one here will be the "sense" version!

Even after death

It was dark. But not so dark that you can’t see. He gets up from his bed and moves towards the window and lifts the curtain to peek around. Slowly. Very slowly.

Would she be here today? Will she dance like she did the other time? wondered Rue.

It was totally accidental. There was a power cut and Rue couldn’t sleep that night. The hot air combined with the musky smell that lingers long after the cleaning lady leaves makes the room unimaginable without the constant drone of the ceiling fan. He had got up to open the windows and let the sea breeze in. Little had he known what awaited him the other side of the window. And he was hooked after that.

It became a ritual, power cut or otherwise. He would wake up at 12 every night and move towards the window. Slowly lift the pretty hand stitched curtains that were once his mom’s pride and gaze down at the garden. Some days she is there and some others she is not. On the days that he finds her, she usually dances around the bushes picking the flowers or fruits that had fallen on the ground and stacks them in the corner.

Papa always thinks it’s the work of the musk-scented lady and uses it as an opportunity to talk to her, thank her and of course touch her. He thinks Rue does not notice but Rue does. Rue can very well see that his papa’s damp hands on the cleaning lady’s shoulders actually wish they were a little lower. He had seen Papa staring at the lady’s chest on many occasions. Even when mom was around. Mom had not minded. Rue had. He does. He hates the cleaning lady.

On this particular night, she is not there. In fact, Rue had almost given up hoping to see her again ever since last month’s incident. On that day, Rue had been foolish enough to call out to her. One look at Rue and she just vanished. Vanished into thin air. Rue wished he hadn’t done that. But he had been so sad and so delighted - both at the same time. He had wanted to feel her arms around him once again. Have her kiss him one last time. Snuggle against her breasts and feel like a baby again. Oh, if only…

Stepping up his courage, Rue moves away from the window towards the door. Should he go down to the garden? Maybe she is hiding somewhere waiting for him to find her. That had been their favorite game after all. Playing hide & seek around the banyan trees.

The garden at this hour does not seem to be a friendly place. It hardly resembles the bright cheerful place of his memories. There are dark corners that seem to be arbouring evil things. The wind moving in and out of the banyan roots create a strange symphony almost like distant human whispers.

Rue picks up his nerve and steps into the middle of the yard. He calls out. Once, twice more. Nobody responds. He turns away dejectedly. He better go to sleep – he has a maths test to give tomorrow morning.

Wait. Was that his name? Is somebody calling his name? Nah. Imagination. He climbs the final steps into the house and closes the door quietly. After reaching his room, all he is able to do is fall on the bed and sleep which is weird. One would have expected him to cry. Cry like only a ten year old can. For his mom. But strangely Rue feels good. He nods off with a silly smile on his face.

Below, unseen by Rue, she dances. She smiles and she knows that she will always be there for Rue. Even if he can’t see her. Moms have an intense love towards their children and a fierce need to protect them at all times. Sometimes even after death.

Six months down the lane....

I am going to quit regular work.
Setup an office for myself at home complete with broadband, hi-fi laptop, refreshments, and such.
Start my own freelance sales support services business to be named "blah blah services" (am kidding! about the name!)
Browse the Internet all day long without any restrictions.
Participate more actively in social events (including photowalks, unconferences, barcamps, etc, etc.)
Live life my way which means sleep when I want, go out when I want, play with kid when I want. Like right in the middle of a Monday.

Period.

And the reason am articulating it here is obvious - I want to commit it to myself. I want to crystallize the thoughts and give them the energy that only belongs to the written word.

"Oh, ye Intention of mine
Written you are now
No escapes, no blaming lunacy
Like it or not, you are stuck
So you better materialize"