Gods that I had never seen! (2009)

Confession: I have never been to more than 2 temples in a day until now. I never knew what is to be done in the temple, but now I know. I dont like going in crowded places; if it is a crowded temple, I stay far far away, I had to break this rule this time.

Early in December 2008, one of our aunts (Nayana Pai - Nayanachhi) put forward an idea of visiting various temples in Tamilnadu and Andhra as a part of various temple visits and poojas that we had to do. The objective - All the family members get together and visit all places together :). Every one agreed and the date was fixed - 20th April to 25th April 2009. Our Uncle (Nandakumar Nayak - Nandu mama) is a busy man and rarely gets so many holidays.... But everything was pre planned and we were all set to go.

Fig 1: The route that we followed

Hmmm.... April... It is hot! Why did we choose April? "All schools have a holiday then" and hence our Aunts ( Meenakshi Nayak - Meenachhi, Maya Nayak - Maya Maami), Aayi, Pappa, cute cousins ( Anuradha and Abhay) and our grand mother (Lakshmibai - Amma) would all be available, so April is the right time! Nayanachhi had done the background research :) on the places to visit and the time needed at each place and had prepared the itenarary. We had one more person - Ayyaru Chandru, who knew Tamil and guided us through the entire tour.

April 20, Monday
Everyone, except Chandru came to our home at Bangalore. We had to take the Train (Tutocorin Express) to Madurai in the evening. We grouped together, had good food, talked, did the preparations for the trip and took some rest :)
We did miss our uncle, Dinesh Pai - Dinesh mama, who could not come along due to work...

Special mention needs to be done about Amma's cooking. One word to describe it - Fabulous :). She, along with Meenachhi and Nayanachhi had prepared many dishes while coming, but the best among them was the Holige with sweet-rava stuffing. It was perfect. Aayi too had prepared avalakki which was good.

By 7 in the evening, all of us were ready to leave - bags packed, all ready :). We got two cabs to transport 9 people and the considerable amount of luggage that we had and Aayi, pappa took the bus to railway station. Rain greeted us while departing :) and by 9.20, we were in the train. All of us had dinner in the train (it was previously prepared and packed in the evening) and went to sleep.

Our Itinerary:

Date	Place	Location	God	Navagraha	Pancha Bhoota	Extra
4/21/2009	Madurai	Thirupparankundram	Muruga
		Pazhamuthircholai	Muruga
		Madurai	Meenakshi
Halt	Tirichirapalli
4/22/2009	Tirichirapalli	Tiruvannakkaaval	Jambukeshwar		1	Water
	Tanjavoor	Tingaloor	Chandra	1
		Swamimalai	Muruga
		Papanashini	Shiva
Halt	Kumbakonam
4/23/2009	Kumbakonam	Alangudi	Guru	2
		Tirunaageshwaram	Rahu	3
		Suryanarkoil	Ravi	4
		Kanjanoor	Shukra	5
	Tirunallar	Tirunallar	Shani	6
		Kizhaperumballam	Ketu	7
		Thiruvennkadu	Budha	8
		Poompuhar	Shiva			Vinu and mama snaana
		Vaithiswarankovil	Mangala	9
Halt	Chidambaram
4/24/2009	Chidambaram	Chidambaram	Nataraja		2	Space
	Thiruvannamalai	Thiruvannamalai	Arunachaleshwar		3	Fire
	Kanchipuram	Kanchipuram	Kamakshi Temple
Halt	Kanchipuram
4/25/2009	Kanchipuram	Kanchipuram	Ekambarnathar		4	Earth
	Sri Kalahasti	Sri Kalahasti	Sri Kalhastishwar		5	wind

Day 1
April 21, Tuesday

Reached Madurai at 7 in the morning and booked retiring rooms in the Railway station. Chandru joined us there in Madurai, and we hired a mini-bus. We visited three places in the day
1. Thirupparankundram Muruga
2. Pazhamuthircholai Muruga
3. Madurai Meenakshi

Family photo :)

After the tiring climb on the super hot rocks

It was too hot (temp > 40 degree Celsius) and was very tiring, but the fact that all of us were together, talking, and seeing places overshadowed the tiredness. Nandumama, Anu, Meenachhi, Nayanachhi, Vinu, me and Chandru along with a guide climbed up to the Garbha gudi at (1. Thirupparankundram Muruga). It was 1 pm and too hot and draining. A good trek to do, but wrong time to trek :). After 40 min, we reached the garbha gudi and rested there... There is a small temple and water stored in a crevice in the rocks which is cold as compared to the extremely hot barren rocks around. Coming down was a bit easier and every body was tired. Now we know the importance of water!

We dont get proper dinner in most parts of Tamilnadu. No meal at night time, you have to make do with the dosas ans snacks. One of the moat irritating things in Tamilnadu is that most of the people dont speak any language other than Tamil, sometimes they dont speak even if they know! All boards ( Shop names, Traffic direction signs, city bus routes, and everything is in Tamil - Not even a hint of English/Hindi). We managed to have some light snacks, said adieu to the mini bus and boarded a nice A/C bus to Trichy.

Day 2
April 22, Wednesday

Reached Trichy at 12.15 AM. The bus frequency was good even at 12 in the night. We hired two large rooms at a nearby Lodge and by the time we had bath and slept, it was 1.30 AM. We had a new 12 seater mini bus for the rest of our journey. By 7.30 in the morning, everyone was ready and we visited the following temples.
1. Tiruvannakkaaval Jambukeshwar
2. Tingaloor Chandra
3. Swamimalai Muruga
4. Papanashini Shiva

A shop near the temple

There was nothing much that day. We visited temples, and while travelling, most of the people slept :)
It was hot, something that I am not used to staying in Bangalore for the last 2 years... By the time we reached Kumbakonam, it was around 9pm. We took 4 medium sized rooms and slept after having dosas... (I was missing dinner- rice and curries) :)

Day 3
April 23, Thursday

There was a bandh called on this day and it worked to our advantage. All the temples that we visited were empty, roads were free of traffic, and we covered a lot of temples. We started at 6 am and covered these temples.
1. Alangudi Guru
2. Tirunaageshwaram Rahu
3. Suryanarkoil Ravi
4. Kanjanoor Shukra
5 .Tirunallar Shani
6. Kizhaperumballam Ketu
7 .Thiruvennkadu Budha
8. Poompuhar Shiva
9. Vaithiswarankovil Mangala

This is the standard hundi in all the temples.

At Poompuhar

The strain of travel was not felt much as it was cloudy and did rain a few times on the way, but it was a restless day for me especially. Going 9 rounds around massive temples is not an easy job, more so when you have to walk on scorching hot - sun tempered granite stones. My soles were literally roasted!
Poompuhar was another place that we visited. The river Cauvery meets the Bay of Bengal at this place. There is a Shiva temple here, a small temple, but there is a cat in the temple that is really cute :). Vinay and Nandumama had a bath in the sea :)
We reached Chidam at about 10 pm and I was expecting some hotels to be open at the time, but to my surprise, all hotels close at 10!
We managed to get one hotel and had some food before that too closed :). Here again, we took 2 big rooms and slept for the night.

Day 4
April 24, Friday

Early in the morning, we visited the Chidambaram temple. All the temples we visited in the tour were mostly Shiva temples and the temples here are enormously big. When I say temple, I mean a temple complex. More than 200 idols per temple, more than 10 different gods in one complex and at least 100 eeshwara lingas... :)
These are the temples built by the Chola kings and the architecture is pleasing. All main gods have two body guards at the entrance of the shrine and male gods have male guards, females have female guards :). Most of the temples are built on single-rock pillars with artisric carvings. The only downside that I observed was that the maintenance of the temples in Tamilnadu is not good. There is oil spilt on the floor everywhere, suffocating temple shrines, and money sucking pujaris ;). We visited these temples -
1. Chidambaram Nataraja
2. Thiruvannamalai Arunachaleshwar
3. Kanchipuram Kamakshi Temple

Although everyone was tired, we had fun all the way. Engineers dont seem to get enough of tinkering - Vinay and Nandumama, along with Nayanachhi prepared Lemon juice and Lime soda in the movig vehicle, that was an adventure in itself! Making funnel out of used water bottles, making pieces of the coconut with a knife on the moving vehicle was another instance of what engineers do when there is no work to do ;)

We stayed in the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Yatri Nivas which was one of the best maintained lodges I got to see in the trip. Also, for a chage, we got to eat proper dinner here :)

Day 5
April 25, Saturday

We started a bit late (7am) on the last day of the tour and visited only 2 temples.
1. Kanchipuram Ekambarnathar
2. Sri Kalahasti Sri Kalhastishwar (Andhra Pradesh)

The last stop near Kamakshi Temple

The last temple is by far the most well maintained. It seems that the Andhra government has spent quite a bit of money on the security, cleanliness and the air conditioning of the Sri Kalahasti temple. :). All along the visit we had done mant anna daana, vastra daana, etc. I dont remember what all we did as the itenarary and planning was Nayanachhi's department.

After finishing the visit to all temples, we were relieved :)
We got on to a bus to Tirupati and reached Tirupati by 5.30 pm. From here, everybody except me and Vinay got on to the train to Belgaum ( Rayalseema Express) at 7pm. Vinay and me boarded the train to Bangalore (Tatanagar YPR) at 10pm. I was tired, so was vinay, we slept all through the night only to wake up at 5am the next day in Bangalore!

Now, I visited so many temples and people go to temples when they have something to ask for themselves :). I asked for the happiness and prosperity of all and the strength to face any situation. I hope to get both of them from god.

Lessons Learnt:
---------------
1. Know some Tamil when you go to Tamilnadu, because people here dont even try to understand what you speak.
2. Do not go in the summer, it is very very hot.
3. Have the itenarary ready before travel, and have adequate allowance in time allocated to each temple as the time taken in each temple varies.
4. Temples are closed from 1pm to 4pm
5. Dont climb hills after 10am and before 5pm
6. Take lots of water, ORS or soft drinks along with you.