After a long time....

Owing to reasons that I'm busy with work these days and a bit lazy :P, couldn't post any new stuff here. To wrap up, work as a researcher is rocking. Pretty happy to get into this line as my career. Seriously considering for studying further for a PhD.

In May, I have taken my aged parents to Chardham yatra pilgrimage in Uttarakhand. These are Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. Apart from these also visited Haridwar, Rishikesh, Pancha Prayaga. Had a great sense of satisfaction taking my parents to all these places as this yatra is considered to be toughest next only to Amarnath & Kailash Manasarovar. It was a terrific experience in the lap of Himalayas for 10 days. Will post in detail soon....

Enchanting TamilNadu

Having turned habitual to pilgrimages during my masters in Bangalore, I planned to visit great temples in central TamilNadu. Unlike other trips which I usually go alone or friends, I went with my Mother. She wanted to visit these for long time now.

It was a 4-day trip and places included:

SriRangam, Trichy, Jambukeswaram, Thanjavur, Thiruvayuir, Thirunallar, Kumbhakonam, Vaitheeswaran Koil, Chidambaram

We started by taking Chennai exp from Hyderabad on sept 11th and a connecting train from Chennai Egmore, Guruvayur exp and reached SriRangam on the next day around 1pm.

SriRangam:

World’s largest temple (until recently where Delhi’s SwamiNarayan temple broke this record) covering some hundreds of acres of land where most of the town resides in the walls (Prakarams ). Even the hotel where we stayed is inside 5^th prakaram out of 7 (??). After refreshing we proceeded to the temple. What a big temple it was, truly amazing. The temple tower (gaali gopuram) is the world’s largest and can be seen directly from RockFort hill, Trichy about 20kms away. SriRangam is most sacred place specially for Vaishnavites and tops the list of 108 Divya Desams (prominent places) where Tirupati lies somewhere between 2^nd and 4^th place.

This is abode of Sri RanganathaSwamy, Lord Vishnu in a sleeping position on AdiSesha, giant serpent. Auspicious Thread ceremony (upanayanam) was being performed to the deity on the day we went. So it was heavily crowded. However we got a splendid darshan of Him. Later, we proceeded to Sri Ranganayaki ammavari temple and thousand pillar mantapa.

Next destination was Jambukeswaram, around 10kms from SriRangam.

Jambukeswaram:

This is one of the Panchabhoota sthalas of Lord Shiva, signifying Water. Other being Kanchi-Earth, Tiruvannamali-Fire, SriKalahasti-Air, Chidambaram-Sky. In this trip, after visiting this & Chidambaram, I’ve covered all five in the list. J

Evening palanquin seva was going on when we entered the temple. The architecture was amazing with a direct view of sanctum sanctorum from a long distance. The Shiva Linga lies in water here. Later visited Sri Akhilandeswari devi temple. They say, this avatar of Devi is as powerful as Kamakshi of Kanchi, Meenakshi of Madurai, Visalaakshi of Varanasi.

Trichy:

Reached here as early as 5.30am. Infact SriRangam and Jambukeswaram are considered outskirts of Trichy city rather than nearby towns. Trichy is a wonderful city and I liked it better than Madurai. The Rockfort temple of Lord Ganesha is the most striking place here. After climbing around 500 steps we reached the peak and had nice darshan. View of the city is awesome from this peak. One can see the temple towers of SriRangam and Jambukeswaram from this place.

Later in the day, we moved to Thanjavur (Tanjore) around 100 kms from here. We passed through NIT campus on the way.

Thanjavur:

One of UNESCO’s world Heritage sites from India, Thanjavur’s Sri Brihadeeswara temple is distinctly splendid. The architecture of the temple is amazing. It is known that the shadow of the Gopuram never falls on the land.

Built by Chola dynasty emperors in around 12^th century,

this temple stands distinguishes itself as masterpiece of the works of great Indian kings. The Shiva Linga is too big and fills up the entire sanctum-sanctorum. Priests perform Abhishekam standing on the top a ladder. The bull (Nandi) is very huge here.

We missed visiting Saraswati mahal library, where digitization of ancient tamil and Sanskrit literature is going on, one of few such centers in India. Hope pictures speak more than my words for this temple.

Next destination, Thiruvayuir is around 12kms from Thanjavur.

Thiruvayuir:

This not-so-famous village has ancient temple of Lord Shiva and Saint Thyagaraja, the great carnatic classical singer’s Samadhi. I definitely did want to visit this temple for its significance. Temple of Sri Thyagaraja is very small with His Deity, lying on the banks of river Kaveri. Original idols of Lord Rama worshipped by Sri Thyagaraja in those days are still present there. We were told by the priest that Sri Thyagaraja’s Samadhi is present 100 feet directly under his idol and also 5^th generation of his family still resides in that village. Wanted to visit them to but couldn’t due to time constraints. Then we moved to Lord Shiva temple. I was shocked to see the state of this temple unlike Thanjavur temple just 15kms away. I didn’t understand why the Govt. officials didn’t develop this temple. There was a board outside asking for donations for providing day-long electricity to the temple as it has the same just for 2hrs in a day.

This temple is mentioned in the movie Aparichitudu / Anniyan where the actor and his family go for group concert on thyagaraja classics.

Then we proceeded to Thirunallar.

Thirunallar:

One of the famous sites for Lord Saneeswara temple, known for removing all sins of King Nala. This village is located around 10kms from Karaikal (Pondicherry UT). We planned accordingly so that we visit this shrine on Saturday evening. Milk & oil abhishekam was being performed when we visited the temple. Lord Shiva here is worshipped as Sri Dharbaranyeswara swamy.

This temple is shown in the Tamil/Telugu movie Shivaji too, where the actress is shown interrogated by the CBI.

After staying there that night, next day we proceeded to Kumbhakonam

Kumbhakonam:

This is world famous as “City of temples” consisting some hundreds of temples. We visited Rahu temple, Sri Saarangapani temple, Sri Kumbheswarar temple, Sri KodandaRama swamy temple etc. People say that it takes two days to visit all important temples here. I guess half of the city is covered by temples only. This city is base ground for important pilgrimage circuit called NavaGraha koil darshanam. Huge temples were constructed by emperors, one for each planet. So nine temples in all, where all are located in radius of 10-40kms from Kumbhakonam.

After lunch, we moved to our next destination Vaitheeswaran koil

Vaitheeswaran koil:

Lord Shiva here is considered as doctor that he cures all diseases. Hence the name. Unlike in any other temples in India, Lord is worshipped by salt and pepper. I’m unaware of reason behind this practice. This place is very much known for Nadi Jyothishyam, a form of horoscope reading where the astrologer asks only for our name and takes two thumb impressions. He then searches few old palm leaves (Taala patralu) and reads one by one and asks few questions. We should only answer yes/no. after few matches he finds the script which belongs to our horoscope. He then reads out the content in Tamil and explains us our horoscope. It was around 70% correct in my case.

Next, we moved to Chidambaram around 20kms from here.

Chidambaram:

One of the pancha bhoota sthalas, Lord Shiva is worshipped here in form of Akasam (Space). This temple has got many unique practices. Unlike any other Shiva temple in the world, there is no Linga here. He is worshipped as Lord Nataraja, the God of dance. His consort is Lordess SivaKami. So this place is world famous for south Indian classical dance Bharatanatyam. Also beside the idol of Nataraja, there is curtain which priests unveil. We find few gold leaves on the wall. They say Lord Shiva resides there in the form of space; signifying eternity and NOTHING.

They say there is a yantra on the wall that is worshipped. Another distinct feature is that abhishekam is not performed here to Lord Shiva, except for 6 times called MahaAbhisheka that is performed of idol of Nataraja, in the whole year one being on Maha Shivaratri. He is known as abhisheka-priya but its reverse case here. Luckily, we went on one of those six days where the priests were performing Maha Abhisheka with Vibhuti, some hundreds of litres of milk. Then the idols were beautifully decorated followed by Maha Mangala Harati. The whole event took about 4 hours from 8pm onwards.

Temple of Lord Vishnu in form of Sri Govindaraja Perumal, is situated just beside Lord Natarajar temple. This feature is very rare in Hindu temples. One can view the replica of this idol, if they watched Dasavataaram movie.

The priests here are from Deekshitar family who are few in number. Their dressing is very distinct. Until recently there was a protest for not allowing people to say their prayers (reciting some scripture) in Tamil where only Sanskrit was allowed.

Next day morning we started back to Chennai around 5 hours from here. Later boarded Chennai exp and returned to Hyderabad.

My picks from this trip: SRIRANGAM, THANJAVUR, CHIDAMBARAM.

MOZHI (Language)

The words spoken by the sky come as rain.
The words spoken by the rainbow come as colours.

The language of the wind , is it the sound or music.
The language of flower, is it the color or scent.
The language of sea, is it the waves or bubbles.
The language of love, is it the eyes or the essence of it.

Understand the language of heart, after all it doesn't need any words
- MOZHI

Trip To Madurai & Rameswaram - Part 1

This is the most unexpected journey of mine to date. Having decided during dinner at 9pm on Thursday 17 April '08, I packed my luggage and started alone by 10pm. I planned to visit famous pilgrimage sites Madurai and Rameswaram.


Luckily I got into an AC bus run by TN govt directly upto Madurai. This newly introduced bus was built by Prakash, probably to give competition to Volvo in Indian market. Most of the features of the coach was a mimic to its competitor except for air suspension which it loses to the latter.



Reached Madurai at around 8.30am. City is pretty ok. Also called temple City, this is world famous for Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple.

This temple believed to be built around 2500 yrs ago, was a nominee for new 7 wonders of the world owing to its great architecture. The symbol of the gopuram here is even used as logo for TN Govt. Checked-in a hotel nearby temple.





Unexpectedly there was annual festival called "ThiruKalyanam" going on that day. Its actually a 11 day fest held every year with the auspicious Kalyanam (marriage of Meenakshi amman and Sundareswarar swamy) on the 9th day. I felt lucky to be present there at this fest.




The temple was heavily crowded with head count of visitors crossing some lakhs. I wondered how much time it would take for me to have darshan. After an hour or so, I managed to get inside. What a huge temple it was !!! It is one of the biggest temples in India(along with Srirangam, Tiruvannamalai). First visited shrine of Sri Sundareswarar. Very much in accordance to the name, the deity was a pleasant sight.

Then moved to Sri Meenakshi amman shrine located next to this. The deity was too marvelous. Presence of parrot on right hand of the deity adds to its glory. Took special darshan ticket for 100 bucks and went ahead than the regular free darshan. After visting both the shrines, I made a point not to miss the famous Golden lotus pond located in the temple. It was too good.





After lunch, I proceeded to next destination Rameswaram around 165kms from Madurai.

Trip to Madurai & Rameswaram - Part 2

Started from Madurai at 2.30pm to Rameswaram. I was excited while we were approaching the famous Pamban bridge that connects Rameswaram island to Indian peninsula. This is a chain of the Palk Strait that separates India and SriLanka. Rail n road bridges were parallel but the one for rail is considered to be one of the best engineering marvels today in the world. The rail bridge has a section in between the length which can be lifted up for ships to pass beneath. But as I was going on bus, I couldn't feel that thrill. So I decided to return in a train.

Rameswaram is a small town mostly filled with sand :) Reached at 6.30pm. It took me more than an hour to take a room in a hotel. It seems they have order from Govt. not to allow single person for hotel accommodation. After producing my college ID card, I somehow managed to get one room in a hotel nearby the temple.

Rushed for darshan as it was temple closing time. It was very less crowded unlike Madurai. Had a very nice darshan of Sri Ramanathaswamy (one of the 12 jyothirlingas)and Parvatavardhini ammavaru. I was there about half n hour infront of the main deity while 1008 kalasa abhishekam was being performed. wat a splendid sight!!!

Brief history of the temple goes like this. Upon advice of Agastya maharshi to become free from Brahma hatya patakam, SriRama after killing Ravana, as the latter was a brahmin.This Siva lingam was made out of sand by Sita devi while Hanuman was sent to Kailasam for getting Linga from Lord Siva and he couldn't return on time. So this temple is famous for those who worship Siva or Vishnu. Next day morning I had another visit the temple at 5am where Mani darshanam is performed. It lasts only for an hour in the whole day. Pooja would be performed to a big Spatika Lingam, very rarely found.




After that I rushed to the sea to observe the sunrise. It takes 5min to reach the sea shore from the temple.Awesome sight.






Another important ritual at this place is bath at 108 thirthas/wells (currently around 22-25 operational). The guides there would draw water from the thirthas in small buckets and pour on you. This process is believed to relieve human from all sins. After this, I purchased Ganga water and presented there for abhishekam.






This temple architecture is also noteworthy. It houses India's longest
corridor with huge pillars on both sides.







Next destination was Dhanushkodi, native place of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. This area had peculiar geography. Land was present length wise, both left & right sides was nothing but sea.It was as very small village. Only sources of livelihood are fishing and sale of shells. From this place, one can view Jaffna peninsula of SriLanka.

So started back to Madurai at 4.30pm in Sethu express that runs till Madras. Till pamban, it was as if the train was moving on sand :P. The journey on Pamban bridge is the highlight exp in my whole journey. Train was moving dead slow. There were no supporting beams either side. It was awesome..

Reached Madurai by 8.30pm n boarded again TN AC bus to Bangalore at around 10.30pm that was coming from Kanyakumari which dropped me here by 9am.


Finally, readers kindly comment on these posts as I would be able to judge their quality and further improve.

List of favorite music tracks

Music is one of the ways I enjoy,as everyone else does, to get relaxed. Main constituents viz. lyrics and composition are very important to any one as such. Even if any of these is good, that bit becomes a hit. There are many who can't work literally without playing music in their machines. In countries like ours where plethora of languages exist, songs have different flavor varying on the language. Even then there are many common strings existing amongst them.

In my stay @ IIITB, I was exposed to songs and music of most of the languages. Recently, owing to the popular radio fm channels in Bengaluru, I made interest in few Kannada songs. They are truly awesome.

I list out here few of my favorite movie music tracks here (not an exhaustive list though :P) in the order Language (Song, Movie/Album) apart from Telugu, my native language which I would update later.

Tamizh:
Uyirin Uyire - Khakka Khakka
Aasai Aasai - Dhool
Lesa Lesa - Lesa Lesa
Malare Malare - S5 album
Vennilave - Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu

Kannada:
Ninnindale - Milana (terrific one)
Mungaru Maleye - Mungaru Male
O Gunavantha - Jothi Jothiyele
Minchagi - Gaalipata
Nee Amritadhare - Amrithadhare

Malayalam:
Oru murai - Manichitratazhu
Parayathe - Udayananu Tharam
Symphony - Devadhoodan
Ente Khalbile - Classmates

Hopefully I'l keep this post updating frequeuntly populating each category. Possibly I'll provide links so anyone can listen them online.

Meanwhile, enjoy maadi

Hell with this Bengaluru traffic

Yes, I mean it. Infact anyone who stays in Bengaluru agrees to it in a blink of an eye. I spend more than 3-4hrs daily for commuting between my college and office. Wish I could use this precious time for some other productive work. Non-regularized Traffic is very common issue in many other cities too these days.

Today I witnessed (rather I've been a victim) of yet another worst traffic jam. I boarded BMTC city bus from Marathalli to ITPL which I do usually, that stretches around 7kms. It took me total of 1.10 hrs to cover this distance !!! This was disgusting. The reason for this traffic jam was that people from one lane, having noticed no vehicles coming in opposite direction in adjacent lane, just jumped to that lane. This stream of vehicles included BMTC buses, company buses too apart from usual commuters. So at the next junction, there was a deadlock. No vehicle could move anywhere. Funniest thing at that moment was that few cab drivers were arguing on who went wrong. There was some foreigner who was happily shooting all this jam & fighting in his funky camcorder. I wonder they find everything interesting here. Somehow after a long gap of 1/2hr, some traffic was cleared and finally we resumed our journey.



Its foolish on our part when we forget basic traffic rules (infact common sense) for the sake of reaching our destination early. We are not only getting ourselves to trouble but creating havoc to others too. Just earning huge amounts and moving in posh vehicles doesn't have to make one a rule-breaker. Its responsibility of each one of us to ensure that we follow proper traffic guidelines and reach our place happily & most important SAFELY.

another new blog

I've started blogging in my "Telugu" language very recently. For all those who can read [and understand too :)] please check
www.eemani.wordpress.com

Life as intern

My observation in recent days is that interns / project trainees, though constitute minute percent of people working in any company, they do some really good stuff. There is lots of learning in this duration of internship either technical, professional ethics, social networking etc., That is the reason why most students try for internships companies today. Moreover companies too try to absorb interns as full-time employees after the internship duration. Its a symbiotic process where the company has the advantage of recruiting people without much input and flip side the student needn't search for vacancies elsewhere.

I already had the experience of interning at IIT Bombay for 2 months in 2005. Later now in MTech, I joined in IBM-ISL as intern starting this Jan for a period of 6 months as part of curriculum. I, Ashutosh, Preeti all from same college are in the same group. Our Project Manager Dr.Manish Gupta is very well known for his research work in System software, JVM. He is on assignment in India from his regular work place IBM TJ Watson Research center. He made some significant contribution in IBM's BlueGene supercomputer.

Its been 2.5 months now working with IBM. Don't know how time just passed by. Its faster than what it was in student life.

I was so excited on the very first day when all joining formalities were made. I also opened a citibank account where my stipend [the only source that makes us work when both company and project sucks :) ] would be credited. Later we reported to our PM when he briefed the project named "Vamana". More details about the project in later posts.

Due to lack of space in EGL campus that is located near to our college, we were assigned work desks at FTP campus at ITPL. Project members are good and fundoo too. Having great time working there. Only problem is traveling in the well-known Bangalore traffic between places that are about 30kms apart.

Few of the things I liked here are - brainstorming sessions in weekly meetings. They are awesome. All people involved in this project get interlocked in this meeting. I liked the way ideas churning out from the discussions. Other is no strict yes to formal dress which I rarely do wear.

Tirupati trip

Yet another pilgrimage to the heaven on earth Tirumala for the darshan of Lord Venkateswara, the Lord of Seven Hills. I frequently visit this temple but this time I have planned to reach Tirumala by walk, as is done by many pilgrims every day. The walk through the 7 hills covers a distance of about 14-16kms starting from Alipiri, Tirupati.

4 of us booked our darshan tickets and took the tokens (Rs 50 per head) in advance from the TTD office near Sadashivanagar, Bangalore. This is the best way to avoid delay in getting darshan in view of heavy rush at the temple. We reached Tirupati at 4am and put all our luggage in our friend's house. For others, there is a facility of free transport of luggage to Tirumala from Alipiri. Note that they accept only locked baggages. We started our walk from Alipiri at about 6am. It is a must that we walk barefoot all the journey as all the 7 hills are sacred. At the foot of the hills, there is small temple where the feet of Lord are present. This is the starting point for the walk.

It was bit difficult, not expected though, boarding the hills on the steep steps. There are plenty of refreshing stalls throughout the journey where one can get coffee, tea, snacks etc., That day was too cold and foggy. It was even raining. In the midway there comes a deer park. We feeded them with fruits that are sold out side on the pavement. Finally we reached Tirumala at 10am, a total of 4hr walk across the hills.

Got a room in Sri Hathiramji mutt that was very close to the temple. Our darshan time was given at 4pm so we started at 3pm and visited Sri Varaahaswamy temple near Srivari Pushkarini. It is customary to visit this temple prior to the main temple. Then we entered the darshan queue. The token system is modernized that no breach can occur. We were chanting " Govinda, Govindaa" along with fellow pilgrims. After 2hrs in the queue, we finally entered the temple. It being Thursday, the deity was in minimal alankaara (called Nijaroopa darshanam).
Then we had chakrapongali prasadam and got 2 laddoos from counter outside the temple. Stayed there for the day.

Next day we started our journey down the hill to Tirupati and this time we took a bus. Then we proceeded to Sri Kalahasti, the famous Lord Shiva temple, located on the banks of river Swarnamukhi. It was long back that I visited this temple. It was about an hour journey from Tirupati. We had very good darshan of Sri Kalahasteeswara and Gnaana Prasoona Ammavaru.
For people with problems in their horoscope (called Kalasarpa dosham) related to Rahu & Kethu, special poojas are performed in this temple. This adds to the uniqueness to this temple.


While on return journey to Tirupati, we visited Sri Padmavati Ammavaru temple at Tiruchanuru. Brahmotsavams were going on then. We were lucky to visit the temple during that festival. The temple was surprisingly so less crowded that we had the darshan in just few minutes.

In the evening, we started our journey to Hyderabad.

Tips to travelers:

• Book your darshan and seva tickets well in advance either online or by visiting TTD office nearby.
• Book for accommodation as early as possible.
• If you are planning to walk to Tirumala, start either early in the morning or in the evening. It is advised to walk in groups.
• Plan to visit Tiruchanur, Sri Govindarajaswamy temple, Sri Kalahasti, Kanipakam that are nearby Tirupati.
  

Thiruvannamalai trip

I was awaiting a chance to visit the world famous Arunachaleswarar temple in Thiruvannamalai, TamilNadu which is about 200kms from Bangalore. Coincidentally even my friends were planning for a short one day pilgrimage. So we all started to this place on auspicious day of last monday of Kaarthika month.

6 of us started at 4.30am and caught a direct bus to Thiruvannamalai. There are plenty of buses from Bangalore with a frequency of about 15-20min. We reached the place at 9am. The first sight about the temple was amazing. It was a huge temple with very tall Gopurams one on each direction. There are many Praakaarams (walls) surrounding the temple.




This temple is 2nd largest in India sprawling about 25 acres. It is situated at the foot of a hill called "Arunaachalam" that means Aruna (fire) + achalam (hill). Also called as "Annaamalai" , it is believed that many sages perform penance in the forest on this hill even today. On every full moon day, pilgrims perform Giri Pradakshina i.e holy walk around the hill, measuring 14km stretch.

The deity of Lord Shiva called Arunachaleswarar signifies Fire, which is one of the five elements of life. Those five elements and corresponding Shiva temples are :

1. Fire - Thiruvannamalai
   
2. Sky - Chidambaram
   
3. Air - Sri Kalahasti
4. Water - Thiruvanaikoil
   
5. Earth - Kanchipuram
   

Many pilgrims were present because of the auspicious day. Luckily by the time we entered the sanctum sanctorium , milk abhishekam was being performed to the Lord. It was a moment of delight. We were allowed to view the lingam for hardly 2mins. Later we went to Unnamulaiyaal
(Lordess Parvati) temple adjacent to the main temple.


Both these are very old temples with great sculpture work. Having planned for a second darshan, we managed to get into special darshan queue and we were allowed to sit just before the sanctum sanctorium. The Shiva lingam was then beautifully decorated. Later, we all lit ghee lamps near the dhwajasthamba. It is considered very good to lite ghee lamps in the month of Kaarthika to Lord Shiva.

Then we proceeded to the famous Sri Ramana Maharshi Ashram, located about 2kms from the temple. The place was so serene, a perfect place for meditation. There were plenty of peacocks moving freelyin the ashram. This ashram is visited by many foreigners apart from Indians.

Finally we started our return journey at 2pm and were back in Bangalore at 6.30pm.

Tips for travelers:

• The temple is closed from around 1-4pm. So be there on time.
• Visit the Ramana maharshi ashram without fail.
• If you happen to visit the temple on a full moon day, try to do Giri pradakshinam.
  

Placement Mela...

Mela depicts a typical Indian market place where lots of goods are displayed and people buy stuff after a big bargain. Fun and enjoyment are integral to any mela. Huge mass of people seem to be striking feature.

In current IT trend, there was a similar mela in my college too, this time its of companies that came to recruit students for internships. The strange correlation between the placement process and that of a mela was coined aptly by my Prof. Rao. The mela was scheduled for 4 days where almost my entire batch got intern offers in start ups and branded companies. Few friends have been part of the placement committee and saw through that the process went smoothly. Three cheers to them.

The atmosphere was of mixed reactions, few screaming happily as they got selected and few sobbing as they couldn't make into that company who where surrounded by bunch of friends giving them moral support and encouragement to do better in the interviews.

Finally, it was near 100% placement that we had. Everyone is happy that every other person is through. We all are being reminded that
"We reached the end of most happy days of life and the beginning of the most purposeful ".

Short n Sweet trip - Part 2- SRINGERI & HORANADU

Started from Udupi at 10am for Sringeri. I have heard a lot of the route, it being adventurous. Only mini-buses and cars would go in that way. The entire journey was amidst dense forests covering some wildlife sanctuary. After 2 hours of journey, I found that our bus was exactly below a huge hill and we were ascending it. Hell lot of hair pin bends and narrow roads made that journey really terrifying and thrilling. Next destination was Agumbe, a small village that receives 2nd heaviest rainfall in India after Cherrapunji. It also boasts of being home to largest number of King Cobras in the world. But I couldn't find any hehe... In this village, the famous 'Malgudi days' serial was shot. There is also a sunset point from where one can see the sunset, the sun dipping into the Arabian sea. Proceeded to Sringeri. Reached the place by 12.30pm.

Sringeri is one of the four holy places in India where Sri AdiShankaraacharya establised four mathas (other 3 being Puri, Dwarka, Badrinath) around 1200 years ago. Had great darshanam of Goddess Saaradamba, and Lord Vidyashankara. The deities were gracefully decorated. The temple architecture is similar to that of traditional Andhrite style. The temple is on the banks of river Tunga. There was also a meditation hall on the opposite bank of the river.




Sri Vidyashankara temple, Sringeri --->





Had my lunch there in the temple. A modern, large dining hall was constructed for Annadaanam to the devotees. What made me amazing is that the temple was so clean unlike remaining temples elsewhere. Since I learnt that the temple would be closed from 2-5pm, I started to my next destination, Horanadu.

This journey was also so thrilling. The 3 hrs journey was breath-taking. Our bus passed through hills of western ghats covered with bamboo trees and coffee plantations. Tata coffee and Cafe coffee day had some contractors there for supply of coffee seeds and their name boards were present everywhere there. Also called as the Silent valley, Horanadu is a small village where temple of Goddess Annapurneshwari is well known. Had a nice darshan of the deity. The main attraction was that the temple is located in serene place with hills surrounded and clouds passing through them.







Picturesque location in Horanadu -->







Finally, got a bus from Horanadu to Bangalore at 9pm and thanks to less traffic on the ghat section, I reached Blore by 5am.

Really, this was one of the exciting journeys I ever had. I would recommend people to plan for these places on some weekends where they want to escape from this concrete jungle.


Tips for travelers:

• Plan to spend a whole day either in Sringeri or Horanadu as both are excellent places.
• From Horanadu, last bus to Sringeri is at 6pm and after that only 3 buses leave to Bangalore at around 9pm. So hardly you find any public transport after evening. So plan carefully.
• Kudremukh, a famous hill station is about 30kms from Horanadu. So your trip could include that too.

For more pictures visit www.picasaweb.google.com/murali132
I'll be uploading pics soon there.

Short n Sweet trip - Part 1 - UDUPI & KOLLUR

After a long period of 2 months of work in my college, I was planning to go out on a trip for a break. I was longing to go on pilgrimage. I planned accordingly as:
Bangalore - Udupi - Kollur- Agumbe- Sringeri - Horanadu- Bangalore.

So packed my baggage and started to Udupi, abode of Lord Krishna, all alone on saturday nite (29 Sept'07).

Luckily managed to get a last seat in Rajahamsa service to Kundapur that takes me to Udupi and it started at 9pm. The bus has to pass through the horrifying Shiradi ghats where the road was badly damaged and there was a traffic jam in the ghat section for about 2 hours. Finally reached Udupi at 9.30am.





<--- Main entrance of Sri Krishna Mutt, Udupi

Immediatley went to the world famous Sri Krishna Mutt, the temple after refreshing in a hotel room very closeby to the mutt. All gents are supposed to enter the sanctum-sanctorium bare chested. It was the time when they were performing the Maha Mangala pooja to the lord that I had His darshan. We have to see the deity through a small in window having 9 slots, called the 'navagraha kidiki'. The deity, Lord Krishna was just great with his divine presence there. The idol was black, small and was adored with lots of jewelery. I was so lucky that there was no rush in the temple even though it was sunday.

Lord Krishna deity at Udupi --->






This temple has keralite architecture that resembles the one in Guruvayur. I then had my lunch in the temple itself where they feed thousands of devotees daily at no cost. The traditional Udupi cuisine is world famous and the taste was awesome. Nothing to compare it with. We were provided Swamy's prasadam, plain rice with rasam, sambar, buttermilk all in a clean plaintain leaf. After long time, I had completely satisfying meal.

Next program was to go to Kollur, which is famous for Sri Mookambika ammal temple, about 80kms from Udupi.






<--- Kollur Mookambika temple




I started at 2pm from Udupi and reached there at 5pm or so. The road was horrible inspite of being a national highway. The location of the temple was great with mountains surrounded everywhere. Had a very nice darshan of the Goddess. This temple is visited by large number of Keralites apart from Kannadigas. I was told that the deity was installed by Sri Adishankaraacharya. Started return journey and reached Udupi by 8pm. Having read in many blogs about the famous Diana restaurant in Udupi, I had Puri-kurma there which was amazing. Great taste.Now proceeded to the mutt at 9pm. This time the temple had hardly any people, guess about 10-15. Mutt's head priest came and performed some pooja there. Finally I again had a chance to have my dinner in the mutt itself and then came back to room and slept happily. Next day I went to the Mutt at 7am when some pooja was being performed to the Moola Virat (idol without any alankaaram). I was lucky to have His Nijaroopa darshanam too. Haarati was being given there. I sat there in the temple premises before the Lord for half an hour. Don't remember how many times I stood in the queue and had His darshanam. It was raining heavily then. I managed to visit another mutt nearby and then proceeded to 'Mitra Samaj', the birth place of world famous Masala dosa, located in the temple premises. I had one and it was delicious. I packed my baggage and started to Sringeri.

Tips for travelers:

• Plan your program well in advance and start from Bangalore to Udupi in late evening so that you reach early there. There are plenty of buses (directly to Kundapur or Mangalore from where Udupi is about 50kms).
• Do carry umbrella as it rains frequently there.
• Have your meals in Swamy's Mutt. It shall be opportunity for a life time.
• Dont forget to have some snacks in Diana restaurant and Masala dosa in Mitra samaj

Busy, yusB

Yes, this is our status these days in gtalk, the life of iiitb. No time to sit and chat with dosts happily. Everyone is stuck up with his work. Ayyoooo, Pareto optimality principle here too(work vs enjoyment).

Haha but even then we surely play pranks on others and have fun.
Every now and then ma undergrad frnds ping me in gtalk. I really miss them and all the fun.

Oops back to BUSY status now. Mast Maja Maadi

Trip to Hogenakkal water falls

We got a notice on Satday that there would be no class next day when we usually have some extra classes. Hurray So what next?? My gang then decided that nite to go for a trip to Hogenakkal water falls in Tamilnadu.

This place is abt 150km frm Bangalore. We started at 7.30am from electronics city and took a bus to Dharmapuri. That took us abt 3 hrs. Nxt destination was to Hogenakkal, 1hr frm there. The first sight of the river Kaveri, in its full flow due to the rains was awesome n bit terrifying too. Few interesting things that are specific to this place are fried fishes(as a whole) and oil massaging. First we had to cross a way abt 1/2km to get first view of a waterfall (there are plenty of them each one in its own beauty). It was a concrete passage but river flowing across it. The water was really chill.



Here we were approached by local boatmen for a ride in the river. We bargained a lottt and finally booked 2 boats each costing Rs 450. Total of 9 members got into these 2 boats. Boarded the boat where the river was in smooth pace. Then crossed the river to get to the opp side. We had to trek a small mountain to reach the nxt point. Now comes the most adventurous part. The main falls was at the center of the river. The boat could go only to certain distance into the river. From there, we had to reach the place by jumping across few rocks. Few of ppl fell over them n got bruised. Finally v managed to reach the most awaited spot of all. It was a gigantic waterfall making huge noise. V reached a place that was THE deadend there. One more step and v plunge into it



Then after returning to the bank, v all bathed for abt 1/2 an hour and moved back. Next dest was crossing a hanging bridge wer v cud see many of the falls. Splendid vieww. not to be missed at all. Later went to cine falls by crossing a narrow passage across the river.



After njoying the place till 6pm, v startd bck and reached Blore by 12 nite.

Sun Tech Days '07

I've been recently to Sun Tech Days @ Hyderabad, a 3 day workshop on SUN's technologies (now many being open-sourced) and their applications and advancements. It was a pretty gud session. The main focus was on 3 streams -

1) JavaME - my favourite tech stuff. Most interesting stuff was that there wer a couple of demos that were done from the scratch and those applications were ported on the mobile devices and whoooop they were perfectly done and yup there z great applause from the audience.
2) NetBeans - hmmm it was great to see this IDE do many of d tasks so simple especially the visual designer. I suggest to have a look at this too.
3) OpenSolaris - Think now Solaris Vs Linux seems to be a favorite topic amongst the "OPEN" developers.


Adrenalin due to technology - most important event was that there were 2 teams of 3 professionals each. Every one had 5 min to demo a unusual project for which they worked. We audience had a great rush of adrenalin as what that application would do after those nail-biting 5 min. It was perfect and these demos are mind-blowing. eg., One person demoed an appln using Image processing, AJAX where visual objects were manipulated, made to dance etc using voice commands. Perfect one to have seen there live.

Other highlights included giving away ipods, cool shirts n caps to people selected from a lucky draw. Phew I couldnt get any :(

But I got some pretty stuffs viz., bag, Java cup, key chain etc.,,

The enthusiasm with which people, from acads & industry, moved there was amazing. Surely I can say this is one of the best conferences I've ever attended.

Overall, Enlightened by Sun Tech Days.....