Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Karnataka Pilgrimage Day 2: An Incessant Rain of Blessings all the way



            After all the strain of Day 1, we made it a point to wake up only after having been sufficiently blessed by the Goddess of Sleep and we followed it to the dot.  The Goddess was also kind enough in not testing us on this issue.

          Even as the others got ready, I sneaked into the verandah attached to our room in the Lalithambika Guest House of the Kollur Devasthana to catch a glimpse of the nature around us. And I was not disappointed at all.  I stared at the clouds hitting the hills at a distance and descending.
The clouds on the Western Ghats- Kollur, Karnataka

What a colour combination!

What a bliss to be here!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Reality is not so Scary



                   The presence of the moon around us is a source of happiness, isn’t it? Padma was a big fan of both the Sea and the Moon.

                   In her childhood, it was fairly common for her to watch the moonlight  fall on the Bay of Bengal and think of moonlight songs like  ‘Lahiri lahiri lahirilo’.

Does this pic not remind us about songs on the Moon? I remember 'Lahiri  lahiri' and the legendary cinematographer Marcus Bartley

                  

Friday, September 21, 2012

Making a choice




    Padma’s progressive parents allowed her to make decisions.  Right from a tender age, they made her a part of financial decision- making in the family, listened to her with rapt attention, discussed her point of view and she, Soma and Shakti took unanimous decisions later.

     Padma was a bright girl.  She was good at all subjects, but had a special interest in History.  She was also exceptionally fond of mathematics, but loathed Science, mainly because of non-inspiring teachers, both at home and in school.  This was a contradiction of sorts, because traditionally the best teachers in schools belonged to the Science or Mathematics or Literature streams, whereas it was commonly opined that people whose career options were closed ended up as teachers of humanities.  Then how did Padma nurture her fondness for History?  She found the social studies teacher more boring than those who taught Science.  That was because of her aunt Lakshmi, who made stories out of Asoka’s renouncement of war post- Kalinga, the crusade of Rajah Ram Mohan Roy against Sati, the efforts of Iswara Chandra Vidyasagar towards women’s education and widow remarriage, Mahatma Gandhi’s weapon of non-violence, so on and so forth.  Plus, Padma was herself a voracious reader of the Amar Chitra Katha.  She had read enough of them to fall in love with History. 

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Karnataka Pilgrimage Day 1 : All’s well that ends well (including two ‘pots’ of ‘gold’) Part- II


           After a point, we entered into the Kudremukh National Park, home for the cheetah, spotted deer, bison and other animals.  Dilip alerted us to look around the surroundings to spot some wildlife.  It rained consistently and mist greeted us after a certain point.  Alas, time was too insufficient to even think of photography. We downed the window-glass and let the bliss overtake us.  Wow!  After a while we spotted a tail.  Whose could it be?  Of a fox? Or a wolf?  Oh no, it is a dog’s!  Suddenly Dilip found a small snake crossing the road (I could not see it, to my dismay).  The forest was dense and pleasant.  Memories of my trip to Darjeeling four years ago came to my mind.  Suddenly I looked at the watch: 4.30 p.m.  At inopportune times, we remember unpleasant things. 

Karnataka Pilgrimage Day 1 : All’s well that ends well (including two ‘pots’ of ‘gold’)- Part I




          After two successive sleepless train-borne nights, if one had to wake up so early that one is ready to be road-borne by 5.30 a.m., it is a tough start, to say the least.  If one was ready and eager to leave by the designated time and had to find another vehicle and a driver as the one supposed to turn up, did not, one knew what kind of day was in store.  This was the beginning of the Day 1 of our Karnataka Pilgrimage recently.

          We wanted to cover two places and pray at the temples and reach another temple town by the evening.  The one who planned it out for us had spent a decade in the Western Ghats, and specifically told me that the course of the journey and the serenity in the temples would compete with each other for the resultant peace of mind and the bliss of the soul.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Ullala Beach and Netravati : Sagara Teeram, Nadi Samuttaranam, Suryastamayadarsanam




          One evening in Mangalore, we decided to visit the seashore.  We reached the Ullala beach (the place Ullala being famous for a dargah) and walked around.  May be I was not in my elements, I only greeted my friend Samudra from a distance and not by touch.  I noticed that there was a slope in the landscape.  Even if the waves seemed to be low, one could never accurately gauge the depth of water so it appeared improper to venture into deep water (not that it was a valid enough excuse to keep away from Samudra).  A true friend understood silence, it was said.  Samudra did just that.

Monday, September 17, 2012

The Visit to the Malampuzha Dam- An Adventure-in- the- Waiting


      

On my maiden visit to Palakkad (the Gateway to Kerala, literally translated as ‘The Milk Forest’), we planned a trip to the Malampuzha Dam (about 6 km from the Railway station). 

 This dam was meant to collect the rain water and the natives of the city, I was told, would get jittery if it were not filled in the monsoon.  

Friday, September 7, 2012

Faith in Upbringing



          Soma & Sakti were an understanding couple and blessed with two daughters,  Padmasana and Lalitha.  They were content with one child till their daughter began to miss the love of a sibling.  Lalitha was born a good ten years later.  Eventhough theirs was an arranged marriage and despite the fact that they did not converse with each other before their marriage,  they understood each other well, mainly because both of them believed in the same set of ideals.  Since they believed in realizing their ideals, they took great care in bringing up their children in the way they wanted to.  The couple feared God, spoke the truth (even if it were bitter), respected elders and treated others kindly.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Sea+ Me= We (in Visakhapatnam)




I took a nostalgic trip on the beach road ......thanx to the cyclonic weather, my friend, Samudra, was rough and very nice to look at. Somewhere en route, the auto passed by what we always refer to as our 'old house'- a staff quarter of an autonomous body. I stared at the window sill I used to climb up and sit on, just to stare at the sea. That also took me back to all the love Samudra showered on me from when I was a kid and some random memories....

This was the Bay of Bengal in Dec. 2010

....................to the Banks of Godari Ganga


Hmm, come summer, come mangoes!
                             Early on Tuesday morning, we headed for Bhadrachalam. We reached Vijayawada to pick up Uncle’s elder brother who was eager to have the blessings of Lord Rama. On his suggestion of a ‘shorter route’, we got stuck on narrow village roads for nearly an hour and a half, but I got the chance of clicking a tree full of tender mangoes and a flock of sheep.  I also saw a standing crop of corn- I just loved it, even if our ‘Driver Mama’ got annoyed.

The flock of sheep that excited me but annoyed my uncle
                To reach Bhadrachalam, we crossed the Godavari bridge beyond which we spotted the temple tower. Excitedly I began to sing, “Adigo Bhadradri, Gouthami Idigo Choodandi” (Yonder, we can see the  Bhadradri and here, we can see the Godavari).

Sunday, September 2, 2012

.....to the Depths of Patala Ganga .........

Now I'm back to my travelogue- the second of the April 2009 triology.

The first view of Patala Ganga a. k. a River Krishna in Srisailam,        
Andhra Pradesh


Shortly after our return from Tirumala, I had a routine conversation with an aunt of mine, during which she tried to ensure my presence in Guntur for the forthcoming weekend. Finding me not too interested in a two- day trip, she offered to take me around a lot of places, including Hamsala Deevi (literally translated as ‘the Isle of the Swans’), where the River Krishna joined the sea. In normal circumstances, I would have jumped at the offer but the summer heat still made me uninterested. My unrelenting aunt thought of something BIG- she told me that we could visit two temple towns if I were to take leave for a couple of days and suffix it with a holiday on Wednesday. 

Saturday, September 1, 2012

The Challenge within



                   Time: Fag end of December 2004, in the aftermath of the Tsunami.
Place: Visakhapatnam.

                   Padma flipped through the newspaper, her first activity of the day; it was full of reports and photographs detailing the death and devastation caused by the recent Tsunami. Sensitive as she was, tears filled her eyes but she did not give up reading. One of the pictures showed the devastation caused by the disaster in Kanya Kumari. She did not go further than that. She took a closer look at the photographs- the broken country boats on the sea shore rang a bell in her heart.