Travelogue 2

In the order of Latest-first (going back in order, w.r.t the latest trip), this is the 2nd tour that I went before my Kerala Trip(for which I've written a separate post ,the first part of the Travelogue series). Lord of Guruvayoor gave us chance to have his darshan in this tour. This tour has a nice prologue to be talked about.

I had been to a marriage of my engineering classmate where I met my Mechanical Branch classmates after a gap of 7 years! Ride down the memory lane kick-started and continued during dinner too where I was sitting beside this Adarsh (if I get a chance, I shall blog about this wonderful guy sometime) who was one among top 10 scorers of our batch. I got to know that he along with a bunch of machas (guys) do climb up the stairs of the Chamundi hills every Saturday early morning! Though I excitedly committed to join the group for this weekly-trek without fail, so far I’ve been able to make it only once. During the climb they were refining a tour plan which they had started to conceive some couples of weeks back. Ok, there is another coincidence as well. I had applied for leave on 25^th and 28^th of July 2014 to make it a long weekend as 29^th was marked as public holiday in our company. I sometimes do that – applying leave in advance, so that I can plan something suitably later. This time though, I didn’t have to plan as well. All I did was packing the luggage a day before the trip.

Trip route summary: Kanyakumari – Suchindram (aka suseendram) – Trivandrum – Guruvayoor

No. Of Days: 3 Days 2 Nights

Mode of Travel: Train and Bus.

This was a unique trip in many ways. The machas had planned this trip with one main aim – to take the parents along. There were 7 machas in the group. Some had got both parents, some only one and some came sans parents. Some even got their cousins, siblings and friends (I got my friend Manoj pothkar apart from my mom). The team size kept on adding up on daily basis. This prompted the core committee to say “Done. No more seats” when finally the numbers touched the 20-mark.

Since the planning was done perfectly well before, there were not any hiccups in the trip. Rooms for stay were booked at Kanyakumari for night#1 and at Guruvayoor for night#2. Train tickets too were booked well in advance.

Trip was fairly simple. Day 1 Saturday we reached Nagercoil (train will not go to Kanyakumari as marketed by Railways. Nagercoil is the last stop) early morning by train from Bangalore. We then reached Kanyakumari by hiring 2 taxis. The day was spent at Kanyakumari. Since it was Amavaysa that day, we took bath in the ocean as it is considered very auspicious. We then took Darshan of Kanyakumari Devi at the temple near the beach and then came back to hotel. After having bath and lunch we left for Rock Memorial-Thiruvallavur statue islands. After coming back in evening, we went to Suchindram by hiring a mini bus. Spent good amount of time there. The temple is famous for the tall status of Lord Hanuman. This temple is very huge and has temples dedicated to many Gods and goddess. Out of them, the Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwar god is very beautiful.  We had the Dinner at a hotel beside the temple and came back to Kanyakumari.

Day2 Sunday: Reached Trivandrum, capital city of Kerala by train from Nagercoil. Visited the Huge AnantaPadmanabhaSwamy Temple. As it was Sunday, there was a bit of crowd. Otherwise, we were told that there won’t be any rush or queues. Security is too tight. Male devotees should compulsorily wear Dhotis. No shirt/banians. Not even a towel should be there on top! Needless to say that mobiles and other electronic gadgets too will not be let to accompany with you inside. Female devotees should be in sarees. If wearing any other dress, they should wrap a dhoti kind of material just like how males wear the dhotis. No purse or baggage allowed. There will be lunch available for good amount of time. But you should wash the plates yourself afterwards. Don’t think you can just hold it under the tap water and put it back. There will be a quality supervisor sitting who collects the plate and checks it for cleanliness. If he finds it not clean, you need to go back and wash it again!

3 of my friends left for Bangalore from here by 4pm train. The rest of us travelled towards the abode of Supreme head of God – Lord Krishna. The Guruvayoor. The Jan Shatabdi express goes up to Thrissur. From here, we travelled by a local private bus to Guruvayoor which is 25KM from Thrissur. It was late night by the time we reached. We hardly slept for 2-3 hours. The next day being public holiday, we were warned by the Temple Guest house staff to expect serpentine queue. In worst case, we will have to spend the whole day in queue they said.

Day3 Monday: Not to take any chances, we resolved to make it to the queue by 4 am. Though we indeed reached there by that time, the queue had already grown by significant length but thankfully not as big as to consume the whole day. When we had almost come near the gate, doors were closed for an hour for the puja purpose (around 6-7am).  Once it opened the queue movement pace picked up and we had the darshan of lord by almost one hour.

The team split into 2 halves. One half travelled towards Bangalore by 10.30AM train (which they were able to catch by god’s grace, given the delay in Darshan). The other half, which included me, travelled towards Mysore by bus. We first travelled till Calicut from Guruvayoor. It was around 2pm when we reached Calicut, where we had the lunch at Saravan Bhavan near Bus stand(suspect it to be original saravana bhavan hotel. But nevertheless the food was good). Post lunch, we got direct bus (Kerala RTC) to Mysore from here.

Reached Mysore @9PM. I guess the blore group also reached their destination around same time. Everyone was happy with the planning and success of the trip. And as I say always, lord himself called all of us to his abode to give us blessings. Hari OM Tatsat.

 

Khushboo Gujarat Ki - Mother of all Tours

You may think that you have come here for a trip, but let me tell you that it is because god gave you the permission to visit his home. That’s the reason why you are all here today, taking the blessings from lord himself. – as said by a pandit at Bhet Dwaraka.

Every strand of hair on my two hands was standing straight as I heard those words. The fact that the tour was successful stands testimonial to what the pandit said above and I strongly believe that anyone who reads this post will also agree to that.

It all started when the news about upcoming long weekend – the first weekend of month of October 2014, was floating around in office. The part of my brain that takes care of weekend/holiday planning got into action and started gathering the data –

1. No. Of holidays
2. Places being covered so far.
3.  what place comes next in priority
4.  who all may join

Let me discuss only point#3, rest being personal stuff which no reader of my blog will be interested in. In my Kanyakumari tour (I will shortly put a post on that), Manoj had made one point that he wants to explore more of North India from now since it is easy to do so when we are still young and can afford some extended leaves in office. This statement had settled down in some corner of my brain. When my brain kick-started planning, this remark came up for processing and I thought I should give it a try. But where north? Mumbai is the max point in north I’ve been to, on my own planning (have been to Delhi with parents when I was kid). Amitabh bachan surely is most charismatic person. His “Khushboo Gujarat ki”ad immediately flashed on my mind. Can I make it to Gujarat?? Seemed a bit difficult. But as pandit said, what happened in the last 2 weeks of August (I had smelled the October long weekend only in mid aug) still seems to be miracle for me. Lot of sleepless nights went into the planning. Let me present a short and crisp version of it –

1. No. Of days of General holiday = 2 + 2(weekend) = 4 days – 2^nd to 5^th of October 2014
2. No. Of days of leaves applied = 4 days – 30^th of sept and 6^th to 8^th of October 2014
3. Total holidays at disposal = 8 days.
4. Onward journey –
   1. 30^th of sept night – Mysore to Mangalore
   2. 1^st of Oct 1pm – Mangalore to Mumbai.
   3. 2^nd Oct 2pm – Mumbai to Ahmedabad (reached @ 9 PM)
5. Return Journey –
   1. 7^th Oct mrng 1a.m – Ahmedabad to Mumbai
   2. 7^th Oct 5 PM – Mumbai to Mangalore
   3. 8^th Oct – Mangalore to Mysore

I had to split the journey in the above fashion just because there were no tickets available for direct trains. I stayed at my relative’s place in Mumbai and at Guest house of LIC in Mangalore during transit. The above travel iternary itself is the first proof of how God made it possible for us to visit him. A few months before, I had fractured my Left toe finger due to some injury (yet to recover from it). There was a terrible pain when I had reached Mumbai on 1^st Oct. But thanks to my family doc, I remembered one of the drug he had prescribed in case of severe pain. It worked for me.  Point #5b above – a reason for even an atheist to believe in god. I've underlined it since I've lot of memories with this journey. A goods train which had left before ours in the same route (not sure how long before) had got derailed! Thus our train was diverted to some other route and thus we passed thru Dudhsagar falls in Goa and all that before we reached Mangalore with full 7 hours delay!! Not just this. Another incidence happened related to this journey itself which I don’t want to write here as I want to forget it.

 

Coming back to the tour, I had booked the package tour – Saurashtra Darshan, of Gujarat tourism (govt). Details –

1. 4 days 3 nights – 3^rd Oct 2014 to 6^th October
2. 7500 INR per head
3. Package includes Guide, AC bus and AC Accommodation.
4. Imp places covered – Rajkot, Jamnagar,Porbandar,Dwarka,Nageswar,Somnath,Virpur.

I was writing down all the information about each day in my phone so that I don’t forget anything when I reach home. I will paste them as it is here (without editing the grammar also). The package was decent enough. The accommodation was pretty good as well as the bus. Guide was very helpful and gave good info about many things. Since it was a long weekend, the bus was fully booked. The trip started from Ahmedabad (in front of Sabarmati ashram, 6 am) and also ended at same place @ 8pm.

Before I paste the daily details let me thank the Almighty for making this tour possible without any hardships – Hari OM Tatsat.

 

Day1
Bf at Limdi,surendranagar dist. 8.30am. Start of saurashtra.
About guj:
Ahmedabad aka amdavad aka karnavati nagari was part of Mumbai till 1960.

Saurashtra also known as kathiawad. Ruled by krishna and ashoka. Holy part of guj.

Porbandar is famous for sudama and gandhi.

Kutch is divided into two. Greater rann of Kutch-white desert which looks like moon at night. Post monsoon when water dries sand looks like salt.
Little rann of Kutch-where wild ass is found.
Over1600 km of coastal line with 42 ports.kandla is major.
Ajanta clocks,reliance petrochemical ind,nano suzuki honda and several major industry. Cotton and peanut major crops.
Total 13airports highest in India.
2 jyotirling and one dham out of 4.
Only one hill station. Associated with lord ram vanvas.
Biggest network of roads. Even on borders.
Statue of unity is getting constructed near sardar vp dam which generates elec and provide water for agri.

When ahmed shah went in search of place to build new capital,he saw a rabbit threatening dog near sabarmati river. Decided to build city there after admiring power of sabarmati.
Gnagar is a newly formed capital of guj. Well planned and lots of greenery.

11.30 am Rajkot- alfred high school bldg. Rajkumar college.  Rk ashram.

1 pm lunch.

3.30 pm jamnagar. Darshan of lord hanuman at bal hanuman mandir where ram dhun (bhajan) is played by ppl non stop since 1964 thus entering Guinness book.
Raja jam ranjit singh famous for introducing cricket to india ruled

4.30 pm passed by reliance petrochemical refineries and then essar oil refinery

 7pm halt at Porbandar. Had darshan at sudama temple and dinner at nilesh parota house. Couldn't make it to chowpatty and khadi bandar.

End of day 1.

Day 2:

 Started from hotel at 7.30am. Scores of ppl soaked in pale red color were going towards Porbandar in all sorts of vehicles.

 

8.30 am- had darshan at harshad matha temple. Huge rush. Had bf and left at 9am.

1.30 pm finished darshan at bhet dwaraka. Place where sudama met lord krishna with a handful of beaten rice. Considered as home of lord. The other dwaraka which we say main one is actually office of lord known as gomati dwaraka. Lord's idol is 5000 years old and has golden pillars around. Temple outer structure is made of pale pink granite with beautiful carving which depicts life of lord Krishna. Bhet dwaraka is located on an island and one needs to take boat to reach there. Inaccessible during monsoon due to heavy waves. Place will be taken out of list by tourism dept from 15th July to 15th October. Luckily by Lord's grace we were able to get the darshan on this day of 4th October. Okha port- where we catch boat to go to bhet dwaraka is last stop of western railway.

 Left for nageshwar jyotirling from here.

 3pm - left nageshwar after having darshan. Lots of ppl due to holiday.

 Didn't had lunch yet.

 3pm - finally lunched at dwaraka.

 4.30 pm- Rukmini temple.

 5.30 pm - checked into hotel and left for night arati darshan at temple.

10.30 pm- back to hotel. A sense of fulfillment flowing inside having seen the lord during aarati. Guide explained everything beautiful. Had dinner too. A local lassi shop was serving tasty lassi at 15rs. I had 2.

End of day 2

Day 3 :

 Checked out of hotel @ 6am.

8.30am reached Porbandar. Visited kirti mandir-Gandhi's birth place. His home is maintained as is without any alteration. 3floor bldg with 19 rooms. Another bldg has been constructed newly, connected with home, for museum. Together the place is called as kirti mandir. Ironically,surrounding place is very dirty as cattle & dogs have made roads as their loo and paan spitting bins by humans.

10.30 am - crossed madhavpur town. This s the place where lord Krishna had married Rukmini. Goddess Rukmini is from a village near Amaravati in maharashtra(called as Vidharbha back then).when her parents decided to marry her off to Shishupal,she writes a letter to lord to rescue her. Lord kidnaps her and brings her to dwaraka where he marries her at madhavpur.

 Lord then vists his guru Durvasa rishi for blessing and asks him to come to dwaraka for function (I guess).sage asks lord to take him in a cart pulled by the couple as he is a sage with no carts or horses to travel. Lord agrees. On the way Rukmini mata feels thirsty and requests lord to provide water. Lord just knocks the ground with toe and water springs out. Both of them quench their thirst but forget to offer water to sage. Out of anger the sage cursed them that they will live separate for 12yrs,dwaraka will not have sweet water for drinking and their temple shall get constructed at far from each other. That's why goddess Rukmini temple is located at outskirts while Lord's temple is inside.(We visited Rukmini temple on day 2) 

12.10 pm- crossed chorwad - birth place of Dhirubhai Ambani.
Moving towards Bhalka Teerth. Bhalka is arrow. This is the place where lord was shot by an arrow fired by hunter.
As per research,lord was born on midnight od 21st June 3228 B.C and lived till 2pm of 18th feb 3102 B.C. 125 years.  At the time of mahabharath he was 89 years old.
Lord was cursed by kunti that like the way he destroyed kuru clan,yadavs clan will also meet its end  36 years after the war.
Yadavs were super knowledge ppl.once while playing,a group of children tried to test the power of a sage who was passing by. They made a boy look like a girl by magical power and asked the sage whether she gives birth to a boy or girl. The sage cursed them that he'll not give birth to anybody but will be responsible for extinction of yadavs by one iron piece. So in order to ensure safety of the clan yadavs throw all iron things into sea except for one small piece which was similar to arrow head. This gets into a fish which finally falls into the lap of the hunter who uses it to shoot lord.
When the hunter cries in grief realising his mistake,lord consoles hin by telling him about their previous births. Hunter-Vali and Lord Krishna-as lord Rama. When Vali asked Rama why he killed from hiding when the fight was going on between him and his brother sugreeva, lord Rama is believed to have consoled him by saying that. He (Rama)will be killed in his next avatar by vali.

1.30 pm bhalka Teerth.

 2 pm -Geetha mandir- This is the place where lord balaram got back into his real form of Sesh Nag and went back to patal (under the ground).

 Triveni - Sangam (confluence) of harini (or hiranya not sure) Saswati as gupta gamini (flowing under the ground) and one more river.

 Many ppl believe that sarswati river has dried up. But a lot of research has now supported what majority of hindus believe-flowing under the ground. There is a interesting story behind thus belief. When Lord Ganapathi was writing Mahabharath as per the oral recital by Lord Vedavyas beside the River Sarswati, lord Ganapathi was loosing concentration due to the flowing sound of river. Thus upon request by lord Ganapathi,lord Vedavyas asked river for help and she immediately agreed and started to flow under the ground. This is the river beside which Goud Saraswat Brahmins used to live long time ago. I will cover this story in another post.

 Somnath - The another major attention of tour. There are 2 temples here now. New one built by Sardar Vallabhai Patel which is just marvellous and the old one built by Rani ahalya devi some 800years ago.

 There was this great King called Daksha who had 27 daughters had married them all to Lord Moon. Moon aka Chandra Devata used ti love Rohini out of his 27 wives. Daksha cursed him to become ugly when Chandra Devata didn't mend his way even after request by Daksha. Thus having realised his folly Of Being pride about his beauty,Chandra Devata decided to do penance to invoke blessings of lord Shiva. When Lord shiva appears,he says that he can't nullify the curse but can relax it to a extent. Thus Chandra Devata will become bright for 15 days and get dull for 15 days in a month. Som =Moon and Nath = Shiva. This place is also known as Prabhas Pathan and is the most holiest and first Jyotirling.

 The original temple which was looted more than 17times was believed to have the Jyotirling floating in air a little above the ground which was destroyed and plundered by Muslim invader ghazni. So much so that nothing remained in its place.

 One night, Rani Ahalya Devi got a dream that she should get a spot near the plundered site excavated and build a temple with the Ling idol that she will find during excavations. This temple which is more than 800 years old is now known as old temple after the Iron Man of India,the first home minister of independent India,built the new temple in the original spot.

 Security is very stringent and one cannot even wear a belt while entering. Free cloakroom facilities are provided to deposit our stuffs. The chowpatty behind the temple is excellent and provides a magnificent view of sea. Shri Patel's statue is placed right in front of the temple maha dwar. 

 5pm- pit stop at roadside tea stop. Proceeding towards Junagad now.

7.30 pm checked into Toran hotel at Junagad. Toran is chain of hotels maintained by Gujarat  tourism dept. Avg cost is 2000. Hotel is pretty old but decent and well maintained. Only problem I found is lack of lift facility. The other 2 nights we were made to stay in pvt hotels. They were also good. Avg cost in those hotels were 1500 to 2000.

 Food is not included in the package. Hence we had to go out on our for dinner. But rhe Toran hotel at Junagad is located at sone corner with no street lights on rhe roads outside. So here they arranged for food in hotel itself.

End of day 3.

Day 4 - Final day

8am -checked out of hotel.

Junagad celebrates independence day on 9th of November. It was on this day of year 1947 that the last nawab of Junagad escaped to Pakistan after a stern warning by Sardar Vallabhai Patel to stop his tricks to add Junagad to pak. Thus this place got it's independence 85 days after india got.

 The state of Junagad was supposed to be 2nd prosperous after state of Baroda. This place is famous for Kesar mango. Also the most hily hill - Ginar parvat is located here. There are 4 Tirthadham of jains located atop this hill and also it's believed that lot of holy Sadhu do their penance here. 10k steps-one needs to take to reach top. State's effort to get a ropeway built is met with stern protest by Jain folks.

 There is a fort here inside which Junagad was located earlier before the nawabs developed outer city. This fort is built in 11th century and still very strong. There was a queen named Ranak devi whi used to live here once and was famous for her beauty. A raja of gujarat wanted to take her away with him but failed to enter the fort and waited outside for 12yrs.

9.30am - reached Radha Damodar temple. There is a cave here where lord Krishna got Rakshas Kalyavan killed. When Lord was coming from Mathura,Kalyavan followed hum thinking that the Lord is running being afraid of him. Lord cannot kill him directly due to some reason which I'm not clear. Thus he gets him to this cave by trick. A king who had renounced the world was sleeping Here and gets woken up by this demon. The demon gets burnt up when the King's sight falls on him. The king had a boon rhat whoever disturbs him from sleep would die by getting burnt up.

 10am - reached Mrigi kund(pond). A temple similar to one atop Girinar hills is constructed here for benefit of those who can't climb the hills. During Mahashivrathri highly supernatural sadhus who do penance in hills come here to take bath in pond and it is believed that on an avg 1 sadhu out of 100 will not come out. He will disappear or attain moksh. More than 12 lakh ppl gather here on that day.

11am- reached Virpur. This small town 1km off highway is famous for Jalaram Bapu temple.

Jalaram Bapu was born on 9th of November 1799 and was famous for generosity. Once a sadhu came to his house and told him that he has heard a lot about him and wants to know whether he will fulfill his wish too? Bapu agreed and the sadhu asked give him his wife. Bapu was a little sad and discussed the matter with his wife. His wife thinks for a while and tells him that she doesn't want to tarnish his name and thus will go with the sadhu.

 The sadhu rhen leaves the place along with Bapu's wife and upon reaching outskirts of the place hands over a danda and jholi (bag) to her and asks her to go back to home by saying that they don't have to beg and eat anymore.

 When she comes back and narrates the story to her husband, Bapu immediately understands that the sadhu is no ordinary person but lord Rama himself In disguise. Bapu being a big follower if lord Rama immediately runs to the spot where his wife had left him but doesn't find anyone there. Upon reaching home he gets a pleasant surprise. A swayambhu (self evolved) idol of Lord Hanuman would be there at the spot where they had left the bag and Danda.

In the temple you can see the danda and Jholi as well as real photo of Bapu taken by some londoner.

Food is available 24hrs all day and not a single rupee is accepted as donation here now since already so many people have done so much of donation.

We did sime saree shopping here and then left for lunch.

1.30 pm - had lunch at Toran hotel on highway and started to ahmedabad where the tour will end officially.

7pm - back to Toran hitek opposite Sabarmati Ashram Ahmedabad. Tour ends here officially. Everyone was overcome with emotions. Thanks to gujarat tourism.

 

The Travelogue - part 1

Any trip should not be marked as complete, until one documents the trip details. Yesterday, I came back from Kerala trip and I’ve 4 trips (including the Kerala) pending to be documented!

Let me start with Latest one first, since it is very fresh in my memory.

2 days Kerala –GSB- temples trip.

Day1: Reached Ernakulam early morning by bus from Mysore. Made a quick change in my plan and decided to catch the train to Alleppey where we have our Kashi Mutt branch with accommodation facility.

Reached Alleppey or Alappuzha at 11. In Kerala, all temples open early in morning say 3a.m or so and closes at 12PM. In some temples (including Guruvayoor I guess), there is a short break of say 1 hour or so in between this 3 am to 12pm. The temple will then open at 5 PM and closes by 8-9PM. So we decided to start our temple visit in the evening. Had a quick bath and went to our GSB temple nearby which is couple of centuries old! Had lunch (Prasad) at this temple. In Kerala, all GSB temples are called Tirumala Devaswom or TD in short. Oh yeah, b.t.w GSB stands for Goud Sarswat Brahmins, a sect of Sarswat Brahmins with affiliation to both Vaishavism and Shivaism.

1.30PM – Left Alleppey and reached Vaikom at 3PM. Since there was 2 hrs to go for the temple to open, we slept there inside the temple complex. This is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and supposed to be one of the oldest. Temple is as huge as one cricket stadium.

5.30P.M – Left Vaikom and reached Alleppey back at 6.45 PM. We quickly hired a taxi and started off to the next place – Ambalapuzha Sree Krishna Temple – the Dwaraka of South. This is another famous temple of Krishna in Kerala. When Tippu attacked Guruvayoor, Lord Krishna’s idol was kept safely here in this temple. We were lucky to see the Lord decorated in the form of Narasimha.

8.15P.M – Reached TD temple at Parkad. This is supposed to be the oldest GSB temple dating back to 400 years! Had Prasad here and left for Alleppey where we had the dinner at Mutt’s Manager Home. The Manager’s mother, who is very aged, is a huge cricket fan. Though deaf due to age, she has not lost the love for cricket and Mallu serials. And not just that, she speaks so nicely to anybody as such that I was just listening to her with full smile and was totally carried away by her warmth and affection. Got her blessings before we left after the dinner.

Day 2:

Left Alleppey early morning by bus and reached Thoppupady (Ernakulam) at 8 am, on the way to Cochin. The plan to visit Cochin got inserted while having lunch at Alleppey. People over there were praising the Cochin TD temple very much and wanted us to visit it at any cost. So thus we decided that we will pit stop at Cochin TD temple enroute to Ambalamedu.

 There was little bit of confusion at this junction, which turned out to be good at the end. Though we had planned to arrive at Cochin by train, we changed the plan and took a bus as per the suggestion of the Alleppey Kashi mutt manager and his friends. We were asked to get down at Thoppupadi (Ernakulam) and then catch a bus to Fort Kochi. We were then supposed to get down at a stop called Pandikudy from where the Cochin TD temple is at a walkable distance.

But the almighty had planned the scheme of things differently J In the bus that we were travelling from Alleppey to Cochin, a elderly man who was standing, fell flat on his face on the floor of the bus when the driver  applied the brakes very hardly(which is very common in Kerala. Driving is real harsh over there and all vehicles generally will be over speeding). The sound of his falling was so loud that for a split second I thought that he might have got seriously injured. But the very next minute the man was given water and was helped to get down. There was hardly any commotion and neither the man nor other passengers had any altercation with the bus crew!!!! The bus moved from the spot as if nothing had happened. Had if the same thing happened here in Mysore-Bangalore, there would have been a flash strike and the road would have been blocked for at least an hour.

This incident shocked me like anything as the sound of the man hitting the floor while falling resonated continuously in my mind for next 1 hour. I was still feeling bad for him even after getting down at the Thoppupady stop. This made me to forget about the next bus to be boarded, the stop name etc!! I decided that I won’t travel again in bus in Kerala (an emotional decision which fizzed out later)! So instead, I stopped an auto and asked him to take us to TD temple. He spoke something in Malayalam which I couldn’t understand. I asked him the fare and he said 130/- I agreed and got into the auto with my mom. It didn’t register in my mind then that this Thoppupady place where we are currently, is in Ernakulam and not Cochin! There is TD temple each at both the cities (twin city). The driver might have tried to explain the same to me which I hardly bothered to care. So he took us to the Ernakulam TD temple (logical) which we had not planned to visit. This clearly proves that everything is decided by the Lord above. If he wants us to get a chance to visit him, he will provide us that even without our asking! I feel divine as I write this.  We had breakfast at nearby Bharat Hotel – a decent, well maintained veg restaur with excellent ambience. For the first time ever I used rest room in a hotel to unload myself. And full credits to the hotel with regards to the maintenance of the rest room. After the breakfast, we visited the Ernakulam TD temple. We had real quick darshan of the Lakshmi venkateshwara and left.

10.30 AM: Reached the Cochin TD. A Konkani speaking elderly man (whom the lord sent to help us reach the Cochin TD temple) helped us a lot at the bus stop behind Ernakulam TD temple. Luckily, even he had to go to Cochin TD temple and helped us board the right bus. We boarded the bus going to Fort Kochi and got down at the Matanjali stop (or may be Pandikudy stop, don’t remember properly as the two names were used interchangeably) from where the temple is at walkable distance. The temple is very huge with gates at all 4 directions. The architecture is very similar to any other old Kerala temple that I saw.

In the temple we enquired about the means to reach the most important place – Ambalamedu Kuladevata complex, which was the only place that I had planned to visit originally as part of the trip, but which later got this much bigger by God’s grace. After discussing with couple of people there, we decided to hire a Auto, even though the cost was on higher side, since we had to reach there before the temple complex closes by 12P.M. If we were to take bus, we had to change minimum 2 buses to get there. Language problem coupled with time made us to think logically and opt for the auto.

12P.M: Reached Ambalamedu. Our Kashi Mutt Swamiji has got this complex constructed where there are more than 6-7 temples dedicated to all the different kuladevathas of GSB community. We had 5-6 mins to cover all of them before the temple shuts for the noon! Thankfully we did get the darshan of all the deities. Had lunch (prasadam) at the temple and left for the next stop – Chottinakkara, at 2PM.

3P.M: Reached Chottinakkara. We took a bus to Hill Palace stop from Ambalamedu. All through the entire route, I saw the refineries, LPG bottling plants of Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil. From Hill palace stop we took another bus to reach Chottinakkara. There is a Bhagavati temple over here which is as huge as any old temples of Kerala. The goddess is worshipped in 3 different avatars here every day! The temple opened at 4.30 PM. We had a quick darshan and left for Ernakulam at 5.30PM by bus.

6.30PM: Reached Ernakulam. We roamed around nearby the bus stand and M.G road, in search of a place to buy the famous Kerala banana chips. Luckily we managed to locate one store where we purchased huge quantity of chips (which I’m munching on while writing this post), had dinner and waited for our 9.15 Bus. If you happen to book tickets in Kerala RTC bus, here is a tip for you (if you are not Mallu). If the time in the ticket is mentioned as 9.15 P.M, don’t think it is the departure time of the bus. It is the time at which the bus will arrive at the stand, the first boarding point! I had tough time dealing with people at the stand to know why the bus hasn’t come even if it’s almost time. Language problem just intensified the tension rapidly.

Bottom Note: On the face of it, the trip looks like a well planned and executed by us. But while I was writing, I realized how wrong it is to assume it that way. Several points crossed my mind which registered this fact in my mind –

1. Apart from Kannada, the only south language I can understand is Telugu. Malayalam ranks last in the hierarchy of the languages I can grasp. Still, I dared to visit the state.

2. We had planned to stay put at Ambalamedu thinking that we will be close to Ernakulam which may help us in moving around easily to cover all the places that we planned to visit. But as we got down from the bus and enquired with few people as well as the Mutt manager, the reality was known – nobody (excluding the mutt manager) really knew where the place is located. By God’s grace, I had made risk mitigation plan (almost without my conscious effort, as if driven by external powers) just the previous day as per which I had decided that we can stay in Alleppey if situation demands. But never had I had a smallest hint in my mind at that time that this could really happen.  Looking at the reaction on the face of the people in the bus station, we quickly decided to execute the Plan B – catch immediate next train to Alleppey. Luckily the railway station is located very close to the Ernakulam bus stand. In fact, just behind the stand the railway tracks pass. Time was 7.30 when we reached the station. There was a passenger train going to Alleppey still in station. But again by lord’s wish, the lady at the counter didn’t give us the ticket for that train and instead handed over the ticket for the next train which was at 9am. We had good 1 and half hour to spend now. On a quick glance at the station, I was assured about its cleanliness (no, I’m not sarcastic). We brushed the teeth and then had a breakfast at the food plaza in the station. The food was really decent as well as the hygiene at the place. Once we completed the 80% of the morning chores, we were bit relaxed and waited for the train for next 30 mins. Later on day 2, when we went on hunt for banana chips at evening in Ernakulam, we were looking out for a good Kerala cuisine restaur too for dinner, but couldn’t locate one anywhere nearby. So the same food plaza at the station came to our rescue finally.

A few tips for Kerala travellers –

1. Buses – govt or pvt, are very rash in driving. Do take care when you are standing inside the bus. It’s very difficult to manage if the driver applies brakes hardly and suddenly.
2. In general, driving is very rash. So be cautious in crossing the roads.
3. Train connectivity is excellent. Especially the Jan-Shatabdi express. Have a train route reckoner on your smart gadget and make good use of the train network for your travel.
4. People do respond in Hindi/English. So no need to worry about language prob much. Also all important boards will be in English too.
5. Auto drivers don’t fleece much (unlike in Bangalore or Chennai). So hop on the auto if needed without much worries. But do make it a point to enquire the price before you board the auto.
6. Don’t shout around or make noises if you are in big groups. They don’t take it positively.
7. Food.
   1. Keralites like the red-rice (aka boiled rice) and prefer it over the normal white rice. So do make it a point to ask for white rice when you order your meal.
   2. Water served in any hotel will be pale pink in colour. No it is not dirty water. They soak the kokum (Garcinia indica) in the water before serving. This is excellent anti-oxidant with great medicinal values. So don’t worry about the colour when you sip the water in hotels. But yeah if you are the SRK type-guy (of swades movie), you can go for mineral water bottles.
   3. Coconut and coconut oil/by-product will be extensively used in food preparation.
   4. Food will be ultra-non-spicy (almost bland I can say). I recommend the Andhra guys to carry a pack of chilli powder or fried chillies when they travel to Kerala.
   5. For strict-vegans. Don’t ever pass by any non-veg hotel there. If you are starving, better to survive on grass rather than giving the non-veg hotels a try. Reason – most non-veg hotels will serve Beef!!!

All In All a nice trip.

Hari OM Tatsat.

Beware ! You are being watched

“You are under the watch of our CCTV cameras” read the boards hanging on the ceiling of the shopping malls.

There was a huge uproar in Bangalore recently, when the worshipful Mayor of the BBMP went ahead with his ambitious plan of CCTVing the lush green parks of the hi-tech city.

I was getting a bit uncomfortable these days when this realization hit me. And so I’m back here, to let my floating thoughts spill over on my blog.

The trigger for this thought process was none of the above two events. The ones listed above are physical security apparatus being used to keep an eye on the crowd in a defined boundary. The capacities of such devices are limited to its area of focus. If you stay away from that area, you are nobody.

What concerned me was the news item that flashed the newspapers a couple of weeks back which said that Facebook has decided to follow the footsteps of its rival/competitor Google, to infringe on the privacy of the netizens!

For the uninitiated, tracking the netizens means accessing the web cache in your “Smart devices”- such as Lappy, Tabs etc to get to know the seemingly-unharmful data about you such as, the sites that you visited, the ads that you clicked etc. The monstrous algorithms of the tracking company will then analyze you (I hate to admit this). It creates a “virtual you” in its database using which it can uniquely identify you, your tastes, your interests etc. (I’m no computer whiz kid, so cannot put in more details here. Nor I claim that this is exactly how they track). This data will then be used by the tracking sites to “deliver the relevant Ads for you”.

Google was the first one to declare it publicly that they will start tracking the people. This is precisely the reason why they implemented single sign on for all of their products – Gmail, G+, YouTube, BlogSpot etc. (you thought it was to increase your comfortability?) Thus, based on the type of videos you see, you will get similar ads when you next open the Gmail inbox or Googling for something. The news created huge noise in the social media and other forums. People cried about losing their privacy. But the all-powerful corporate lobby prevailed in the US. Silicon Valley maintained its silence on the breach of ethics by software.

I was using technology for bare minimum during then. I wouldn’t have recounted this incident at all if not for the recent incident of similar kind. This time the company to do so was the most popular social media networking platform– Facebook. What surprised me this time was not the news but the silence of the same set of people who had raised their voice during Google’s case. One thing was clear now. Breach of online privacy has now got no immunity. People are so hooked to the smart gadgets that virtually we have become slaves in its hand and may find it next to impossible to think anything about breaking free from them!

I am not the kind of person who blames the technological advancements by referring only to their flip side. But what I’m concerned is about the fading of the line that demarcates the good and bad uses of it. The above incidence proves that with time, the bad uses gets legitimized and the state of mind of people thus gets changed – people who protested at first instance of breach of ethics get now silenced out of confusion. We lose the wisdom to think between the good and bad.

When I take a look at the various apps out there in Android OS, I see that most of them try to help us get the work done online. Bank transactions, e-commerce etc are hot cake apps. My concern is, down the line when I ask my son/daughter to get my work done in the bank, I don’t want them to fiddle with their smart gadget and tell me with an expression less face that it is done. Not that it is wrong to do it thru smart device. The fact that they become more and more confined to the home, with no interaction with people from various walks to life, is what my concern is. That definitely brings up an obvious question - what if the kid is extra-ordinarily talented and walking out to places like banks/offices and talking to people is like walking on a cake for him? This is definitely a possibility. That is the reason why I feel that one should stop debating on what is wrong and what is not. Instead let’s look at what is the best way to do the things. If I’ve the luxury of a chauffeur driven car and, if I have nothing productive work to be done, why not go out myself and do my shopping? Or contrastingly, if I’m hard pressed for time (which is with most of the people) and has lots of other work that requires my attention, why not use the smart technology and get the work done in easier way? One laments at the fact that due to mobile phones, one doesn’t remember at least a couple of phone numbers also these days. But the other side of the fact is that due to mobile phones, you are able to carry around so many phone numbers that you don’t cry at the time of emergency that you remember only 2 numbers.

Going out to places, meeting various people, talking to them, learning one new thing a year like new form of art or if you are tech savvy then learning new platform or programming language, getting along with relatives etc. keeps the mind active and open for fresh ideas. If you know how to do the things without the help of your smart devices then, you don’t panic when your device fails at the time of emergency. Otherwise a disaster will happen due to your own folly. As the device gets more and more smarter, human’s IQ gets lower and lower. So be smart. Decide for yourself how much you want to depend on the technology. Think what is good for you – using the IQ of your phone’s smartness or develop the IQ of God given grey cells in your brain? Stay out of snooping from the digital terrorists. Give power to your own physical form and become strong instead of creating a weaker virtual “you” in the digital world who surrenders himself dumbly to the D-Terrorists.

Gowda Sarswath Brahmins, We the People of India

When the routine life was getting totally stereotypic and mundane, life called me to be part of a brahmopadesham of my distaaaaaant cousin. I literally meant what I wrote. By “To be part of…” means, to be one important person for the event and not just a mere spectator sitting in the chairs meant for audience and stare at the people(mostly women) wearing what-not-types of jewellery and top-of-the-brand-list clothes.

 

My uncle wanted us(our family of me, my bro and parents) to be part of the function, especially with me, as I was required to get the Guy – who was getting the sacred thread put across his left shoulders thus marking his initiation into Vedic studies – to the mantap (the stage) by holding him up in my arms (like how one holds a child). This ritual has to be done by a person who is related to the guy in a certain way (brother I guess). I loved the lime light, the red carpet welcome, the sense of being given so much of importance – all of which fizzed out once the ritual was over :D

 

But nevertheless, it was a welcome change to my life which was otherwise not even least exciting on any count. On positive side, this function helped me to get closer to that fraction of my relatives which I knew existed, but never got chance to interact with – thanks to some age-old issue between the various families. It even gave me access to several facts and data, which my mind started processing and became busy with(a change for it too, it must have felt). The one which it constantly shooted to my conscious part of brain was this – I could be the only few fortunate guys in my community of GSB, where I have cousins from the own siblings of my dad as well as his half-siblings. Too much of a puzzle for your grey cells to decode? Well to put it plainly, my grandfather had married twice in his life time. Don’t be shocked, he didn’t break the Hindu marriage law. When his first better-half said bye to this material world after giving birth to their fifth progeny, My grandfather, not happy with his contribution to the Human resource asset of our nation, decided to go ahead and tie the knot once again and keep his good work going. Thanks to his good work, otherwise you wouldn’t have been reading this blog. You are right, I’m younger son of the eldest son of my grandfather’s second wife!!! Too much to decipher? Well that was precisely how I was feeling when my mind was cooking up all these stats for me in that function.

 

It was all a mixed bag of learning experience for me. I was interacting with my relative back here in Mysore after we returned. He was particularly disappointed about how this tradition of Upanayana (aka Brahmopadesham) has got transformed into a mere customary function. I got to know from him that actually one is supposed to visit the priest’s home (who performed the ritual for the guy) or any such elderly scholar (could be grandfather or priest of any community temple of ours) for at least couple of days and get to learn all the things from him – basics of our vedas, how to do sandhyavandhana etc properly. This is because there is so much to learn and it is impossible to do that in that short time available during the official function. More than anything, this step denotes that one has attained adulthood (not from biological sense) and is now responsible enough in life to stand up on his own and view all the things religiously – which includes the transformation of baby love to your mom into ardent respect to her as god.

 

Alas, the changing time changes everything and makes only the change as constant in this changing universe!! Modi recently informed the people of this country that to rule a State, the ruler has to be optimistic always and also wished that everyone in this country to be optimistic as well. I think I was a little pessimistic of sort in the previous paragraph talking about thinning up of the traditions and customs in people with time. So Let me see if I, in my capacity as author of this blog, can be optimistic here and see the other side of the things. In the town of puttur, where this function happened, I visited  our GSB community-maintained Lord Lakshmi venkateswara temple which is located in the heart of the town in main road.  The Temple was closed when I went there. But that didn’t stop me from glancing at the notice board put up at the entrance. It was put up to announce the scholarship schemes to the needy students  who are doing professional courses. I was overwhelmed with pride at once. I can list down numerous such charity events that our community trusts, organizations, temple boards, Mutts etc does in benefit of the people of community. This will have dual benefit of keeping up the pride of the people to stay loyal to our community values and traditions as well as community services.

 

Like anywhere, within our community also there are people who just love to sit behind and complain about anything under sun. But what makes me happy and proud is that there are equal number of people who don’t care for such things and come forward to serve the community. Either it is matrimonial services or educational support, you name them and we have it in our community. That drives home a very important point. To keep up with time, one has to ensure that they cater to the changing needs of the time. You cannot expect one to give his everything just in the name of religion. Sustainability comes with give and take policy and that is what our community has learnt so early in the time-curve graph.

 

Today, the IT city has not just bangalored the jobs of US to India. It has had one more effect within the country– migration of people to IT city on account of getting jobs. I call this bangalored too, in context of within our country. But in spite of this, come car festival of lord venkatramana temple of Mangalore, you can see the entire Gen-X standing in the front volunteering for the 5-day festival. Its sheer visual delight to watch them taking part in this with so much of enthu and dedication. We may have either cut short on few traditions or may be given a miss for few of them, but the mere fact that the crowd size keeps swelling year on year is a proof for the pride of our people about our community, our god and our religious heads.

 

So, to close this thread on an optimistic note, it makes me feel happy that we still do follow the rituals such a Brahmopadesham tradition, even in its compact form. It is nothing but these get-togethers which brings all the people of the families settled at different hooks and corners of the country, to meet each other and re-bond, either full siblings or half! And I am happy that I wrote this piece of blog precisely when the historic swearing-in ceremony of the 15^th PM of 16^th Lok Sabha is going on!!

 

Swamiye Sarnam Ayyappa - A memorable trip to Sabarimala

There cannot be a better example than this to show how God gives us an opportunity for his devotees to have his darshan. Never in my dreams had I thought that I would get to see the Lord Ayyappa at his sannidhanam in Sabarimala. I'm writing this blog cum travelogue out of a sub-conscious promise that I made when I was overwhelmed to see the Lord.

After the success of our Trek to the abode of Lord of Spathagiri Hills - Tirumala, My friends planned another similar but more challenging trek to seek the darshan of Lord of Pattanamthitta Hills - Swami Ayyappa in Sabarimalai, Kerala. Since the temple is opened only for a couple of days every month, after the pilgrimage season of Nov to Jan end every year, we made the plan in a hurry. One of the friend got info from his parents that the temple will be opened in the month of Feb. 2014 from 15 to 17th (approx). And thus we chalked out our plan to visit the temple on 15th of Feb 2014. Tickets were booked to travel from Mysore to Kottayam on 14th.

14th Feb:

Bus left Mysore at designated time of 6pm. Thankfully, the highway was smooth throughout the journey due to which I was able to catch up with sleep for at least a couple of hours in that 14hours long journey. Dinner stop was @ Sulthan Battery at 9.30PM, after which there were only a few quick stops for nature calls.

15th Feb:

7.45 AM. Welcome to the "God's Own Country" - Kerala. We reached Kottayam with full 1.5 hrs delay. Kerala's humid climate made us oily and sticky all over the face. I felt the immediate need to find a decent accommodation to freshen up. At the exit of the Bus station, we took left turn heeding to the group's majority vote and by god's grace got accommodation at a decent tourist home for 675/- for a double bed room. As we were 4 people, he insisted that we should take 2 rooms and we reluctantly agreed after a failed argument to negotiate for one room.

9.00 AM. We got ready and left the room. Reached the Kottayam Bus stand and had a quick breakfast. The Language difficulty starts now. We were under impression that Sabarimalai is close by with good connectivity from here. But with the expression and explanation of the people at bus stand, we understood that we were wrong. Apparently the only direct bus is only at around 1pm or so. The other alternative was of course cut journey. We had a great difficulty to understand the name of place where the people were asking us to go by catching one bus. All I could hear was "Patham..." One good fellow pointed out the bus and without thinking further we got into it. Now the next challenge, how to pronounce the place name so as to buy the ticket? I quickly googled for the info and got to know the name - Pattanamthitta. After 2 hours of journey we reached the place.

12PM. It didn't take us long to find out which bus we need to take from here. We were well informed beforehand that the last stop where we need to get down en route to Sabarimalai is - Pampa (aka Pamba) river. There is no road further from here and one need to go by walk to reach the holy Sannidhanam.

The bus stopped in between for lunch. It was not a restaur or hotel but just a hut kind of place which you can call as mini dhaba. They served only two items - Ganji or the Gruel and Meals. It didn't take us long to decide. One guy among us sat down and ordered for Ganji. Another one ordered for Meals. The remaining two of us (Including me) opted for wait and watch technique. Once they were served, we sat down as well, after being assured of the quality. The fun started here.

2P.M. Destination reached. Holy Pampa River was flowing in a canal kind of structure. Like in any holy place, the river was polluted over and above one's imagination level. Democracy offers freedom in most of the things. But we chose to lose it by abusing it. Today, there are boards all over the place, requesting us not to pollute the river. Tomorrow, there won't be any boards, but the security folks, stopping us from taking bath.

After spending an hour to complete the chores like attending to nature call, stepping into the holy river to spray water over head, safe keeping the foot wears in cloak room etc etc, we finally started to ascend.

3.15 PM. Amid the loud cheers of "Swamiye Sarnam Ayyappa", we started to ascend the hill. Let me make one point clear here. Unlike the Holy Tirumala where we have both Road as well as foot steps to reach the top, here there is only one option here - foot steps. The path is also not smooth like in Tirumala. At same stretches, it is neither cemented path nor the mud path, instead it's just smooth stones (huge ones) path. But thanks to the recent development works undertaken here, the path is much better than how it used to be half a decade back (as told to me by my friends).

There are Dholis available for those who cannot climb the steep hill. Dholi is nothing but a bamboo chair or light wooden chair to which long wooden logs are tied to both sides and 4 men will carry a person who is seated on the chair. Price may range between 3k to 4k depending upon how you negotiate.

I saw lot of people carrying Glucose powder with them. At regular intervals they mix water and consume it. There are water points along the path. Bio toilets are also available. Since women pilgrims are less compared to men, Gents toilets are more in number.

Also, lot of cardio hospitals are also present at regular intervals. But when we went, not many of them were open. I guess it functions only during the regular pilgrimage season of Nov-Jan.

5.30 PM (approx). We were at the top. The words "Sarnam Ayyappa" Written boldly on the wall of the temple complex made me overwhelmed with emotions. Though we were not allowed to climb the holy 18 steps, as we were not carrying the traditional Irumudi, we felt blessed just by looking at it. Huge serpentine queue of devotees waiting to climb the 18 holy steps had formed at my left side. We turned Right and asked for the direction for darshan of the lord.

There was no queue for darshan for normal visitors like us. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the sanctum sanctorum was just a small room sans the huge temple enclosure. We just had to pass along a line taking the darshan of the lord from outside. Felt really blessed after taking the darshan. The Lord's idol is very unique in so many ways. Unlike the idol of gods in other Hindu temples, here the Lord is sitting on a platform with right hand held in blessing position and left hand rested on the left knee. The Gold plated Idol of Lord was sight to behold. Since there was no queue as such, we decided to come back for another round of darshan.

6.00 PM. After spending some time around the temple premises, we started our journey back to the shore of Holy Pampa. It was getting dark already and we had to ensure that we reached the base quickly.

7.30 PM. We were at the base. Walking downhill is as difficult as climbing up. Legs need to keep the pace under control as the path is full of tiny stones. Once at the base, we got  back our foot wears and after roaming a bit(the sheer joy of wearing the chappal made us so happy that we were wandering a bit in spite of being tired!!), we reached the Bus station at 8PM. There was no bus in sight. A taxi walla (who we later discovered that he is actually an auto walla), was pestering us with the offer to drop us to Kottayam for 1500/-. But we unanimously decided that we will not opt for his service owing to security concerns. After a bit of enquiry, we found out that a bus will go to Chenganoor city around 8.30 PM.

8.15 PM. The bus indeed came to the stand and we all got inside. One of us enquired with the driver/conductor about the timings. Not sure what the crew told, but we took it this way - that the bus will not leave until it's full. So we sat down hoping that it will get filled up soon and we will reach the town quickly. But not a single soul came in for another 10mins. A dhaba was there right in front of the bus stand. Hunger, coupled with the gut feeling that the bus may take another 15mins to move; we decided to have quick-dinner and got down without informing the crew(who were standing at a distance from the bus). We were sure that we will have real quick dinner and be back in 10mins. But the moment we took our seats in the dhaba and the rice was served, the bus just zoomed off and we kept staring at it with mouth wide open and hands paused on its way to our mouth carrying food. I was quick to recover from the shocker and assure my friends that we may get another bus and there is no need to worry as such. We finished our dinner peacefully after my assurance.

9.00 PM. True to the words of one shopkeeper, another bus - supposed to be the last one that night - which goes to Chenganoor, came to the stand. This time, we didn't showcase our daredevil trait. In spite of feeling thirsty, not one of us dared to get down to buy a water bottle also! The bus left Pamba at close to 9.45PM.

16th Feb - Sunday

12.30 AM. The bus reached Chenganoor Bus Station. A couple of roadside shops were open and a few autos were there. After a bit of struggle, we understood that there is no bus starting from here but buses which pass via this town to Kottayam may give a stop at this place and we need to catch that to reach Kottayam. Though it was not an assurance as such, but we were too sleepy and tired to worry also. But by God's grace, soon a bus came and we all got into it. We reached Kottayam by travelling in that bus standing for 1 hour!

1.30 AM. Reached Kottayam. Everyone of us, half-minded, agreed to check out if there is any bus bound to Calicut in short while(as we had to gather our luggage from the lodge, buses leaving immediately at that moment were of no help to us). But to everyone's relief, we found that there are buses to only Trivandrum and some closer towns and the bus to Calicut will start only after 5am or so.

So we decided to head to the lodge and rest for a while and then come back after getting ready by taking bath and completing other work (read nature calls). All 4 of us promised each other that we will be up and ready by 6am. I went to bed only after answering all calls from nature and taking a refreshing cold water shower. Rest of the people were in deep trance (even if someone stole their kidneys also, they wouldn't have woken up I guess).

7.30 AM. Yes. Full 1.5 hrs delay from our promised time of getting ready. We were in Kottayam Bus Station. There was no direct bus either to Calicut or to Mysore. So we decided to take a bus to Thrissur (which is on the way to Calicut). At around 10 AM, we reached Thrissur where we had a quick breakfast and boarded a bus going to Calicut at 10.30 AM. We had the lunch in Calicut where we reached around 1.30PM. On my suggestion, the gang decided to venture out and try out the food in a decent restaur instead of having in the hotel in Bus Station. But the non-spicy veg biryani didn't meet the expectation of any of the 4 guys. Came back to bus station and boarded a bus to Mysore at 3PM.

9PM. Back to Mysore. We made it. A sense of achievement was overflowing inside me. Out of 60 hrs, we were travelling for 50(plus) hours - which includes the trek to the temple by foot also. When I had called up my mom after having Darshan, she sounded "Good Lord, you did it. I'm Happy". She is not the one who displays such emotions easily, at least to me. That made me to wonder why she sounded like that. Only after arrival, when I spoke to her about hardships we faced during the trek, she confided in me that she was worried all along those 2 days about my safety. Her prayers alone helped me and my friends to accomplish this without any major hardships.  Swamiye Sarnam Ayyappa.