1st April 2009, 23:30
| #1 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| 'Xing'ing around ! - Ahoy! Chennai ahead... There was a wedding in the family and plans were made for a trip to Chennai. Not being much of a crowd person, I did have second thoughts about joining in for the trip... but the temptation of a long drive on the GQ was too irresistible and I opted in. We left on the morning of 21st March and returned back to Bangalore late evening on 23rd March 09. Route planning was not a problem, just head to Hosur road and drive to Chennai! Road taken: Hosur Road (GQ) Total distance on the ODO: 814kms Start to Stop. (Blr-Chn-Kanchi-Blr & some driving inside Bangalore, Chennai & Kanchipuram)  Not much of a sight-seeing was planned or done during the trip, just a brief visit to the Kapaleeshwara temple in Chennai and a stop over at the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kanchipuram on the way back. Started from Airport road at around 6.00am on 21st March...  Picked up my in-laws from Malleshwaram and stopped over at NKB (New Krishna Bhavan) for a quick breakfast. This is one of the oldest restaurants in Malleshwaram and probably serves the best button idli's I have ever tasted...  You should also try the NKB 'Unusuals'! Especially the Mandya Ragi Dosa, the Mangalore Neer Dosa etc...  NH-7 (Hosur road) is in a bad condition on a few stretches after the Infosys campus, but eventually you hit the out-skirts of the city and it is a pleasure to drive after that...  Pit-stop for a bio-break and coffee after Hosur. There is a Adyar Anand Bhavan outlet in this gas station...  The Krishnagiri fort. Added this to my to-do list; must visit this place sometime in the future to explore the fort. This fort was originally constructed by the Vijayanagara kings and was once under the control of Tipu Sultan. Need to find out if there are any significant monuments, 'must see' places in and around the fort.  'The Rose Mobile' [As written on the bus :-)], you can also see a 'key-pad' below the round window...  A sight that you might see quite so often on our highways...  Goods carrier rickshaws!  Reached Chennai in around 6 hours, freshened up and headed towards the Kapaleeshwara temple in the evening. The street next to the temple...  The temple pushkarini...  The Kapaleeshwara temple. The Kapaleeshwara Temple in Mylapore, Chennai has very ancient origins, apparently the original temple was submerged under the sea & the current temple structure was a later construction. There are several smaller temples inside the complex…  Painted gopuram...  Finished darshan, had the prasadam which is served in very generous quantities at this temple. There was also a Bharatnatyam performance going on in the mandapam in the complex. Spent some time there and headed out. A night-shot of the pushkarini...  This shop is apparently famous as a one-stop-shop for all your pooja needs...  Another shop on the street in front of the temple. We picked up a brass Ganesha here...  They also had a good collection of Tanjore paintings...  Reached the wedding hall a little early the next morning. Saw these interesting posters on the walls. Sorry, cant tell you what they mean since I cannot read Tamil. I suppose they talk about the rituals that are part of a typical south Indian wedding...          Contd... |
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1st April 2009, 23:51
| #2 | |
| Senior - BHPian  | Quote:
 That is news for me! As far as I know, there's no fort on any mountain in Krishnagiri! There's only one mountain which has stairs and it only has a dargah! (accessible from Old-Pet!) Where exactly did you spot this? | |
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1st April 2009, 23:52
| #3 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
Posts: 368
Thanked: 120 Times
| Chennai ahead... The groom arrived and there were several rituals throughout the day...  There was a cultural program in the evening, which slowly evolved into a talent show. Several kids and some ladies went up onto to the stage to sing classical / semi-classical songs...  The actual wedding muhurtam was early next morning, finished the function and headed back towards Bangalore. On the way we took a diversion towards Kanchipuram to make a quick visit to the Varadaraja perumal temple. First view of Kanchipuram...  The Varadaraja perumal temple gopuram. It is an ancient temple complex spread over an area of more than 20 acres, originally built by the Cholas in 1053 and subsequent additions were made by others.  We spent about an hour inside the temple...  This is a 100 pillared mandapam with some elaborate carvings...   View of the pushkarini from the mandapam. I read somewhere that a special wooden idol is kept underwater in this pushkarini and is taken out once every 40 years for darshan. The next viewing will be in 2019...  More pics...     Remnants of some old paintings on the ceiling of one of the structures inside the temple. The natural colors do not fade so easily and can last for centuries with some basic maintenance...  An intricately carved pillar...  The stairs that lead up to the golden and silver lizards on the ceiling of the temple. Touching the lizards is supposed to wash away all your sins... and they charge Rs.2/- to let you touch them. Quite a cheap deal I must say ;-)  More pics from inside the temple courtyard...   Got stuck behind this traffic jam in Kanchi for around 15 mins. The truck on the right got stuck on some roofing sheets sticking out of the house and the driver attempted to ease out the truck without pulling down the sheets...  The home stretch! It was around 10.00pm by the time we reached Blr, dropped off my in-laws and returned home.  On the whole, it was a great drive and a nice trip! ------------------------------------------------------------------ Where to next ? Last edited by hotstuff : 2nd April 2009 at 00:03. |
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2nd April 2009, 00:18
| #4 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
Posts: 368
Thanked: 120 Times
| Krishnagiri fort... Quote:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...agiri-dam.html (There also seems to be another fort called 'Krishnagiri' in Gingee) Last edited by hotstuff : 2nd April 2009 at 00:24. | |
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2nd April 2009, 09:13
| #5 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Melbourne
Posts: 396
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2nd April 2009, 09:48
| #6 |
| BHPian  | Nice report and well written with pictures. I also spotted 'The Rose Mobile' while coming from Chennai to Hosur last week. I thought it was a campaign by Vijay TV at first sight!!  |
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2nd April 2009, 09:52
| #7 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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2nd April 2009, 10:19
| #8 | |
| Senior - BHPian | Quote:
In a typical Tambram (Tamil Brahmin) wedding you go through all these rituals and the slokas are basically sanscrit slokas which are recited by the purohit and repeated by the groom (in most cases with only a murmur which faintly resembles the slokas). What the marraige hall has done is to put up the slokas in tamil and also explain what the slokas mean so that the entire set of rituals are understood and undertaken by the groom. In my case the Purohit not only ensured that I repeated correctly what ever he recited and explained me what is the significance for all the rituals (though I may not remember all now) he also appealed to the entire gathering who had come to see the wedding not to shake hands with the bride & groom immediately after mangalsutra because thats the time when the groom holds the bride's hands for the first time and its not fair to leave it immediately. If my memory serves correct I had to shake hands with my left hand because my right hand was holding my wife's hand... ditto for her as well. It was only after a good 15 minutes of ritual (I think after Saptapadhi) did I leave her hand | |
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2nd April 2009, 12:25
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3rd April 2009, 13:23
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| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
Posts: 368
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| Thanks! Quote:
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 , because I did that too!Quote:
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3rd April 2009, 13:42
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| Senior - BHPian  | |
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3rd April 2009, 13:44
| #12 | |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: MH42
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| @hotstuff, pics are nice. at kanchi, you had mentioned the temple. i also visited kanchi many times. visited temple of vishnu-vishnukanchi, shiva-shivkanchi, godess kamakshi temple. out of those three, which temple you mentioned? Quote:
 Last edited by ASHISHPALLOD : 3rd April 2009 at 13:46. | |
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3rd April 2009, 14:49
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| Senior - BHPian  | |
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14th December 2009, 22:14
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15th December 2009, 21:22
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