Grahapravesam

On Feb 16th 2011, between Morning 5:30 to 9.00, we had our Grahapravesam at Doshi Etopia-2, Perungudi. well, the function never had a lot of planning because about a fortnight back it was all guided by Parents and Papa Chithapah. In fact the dates were not finalised because of non-availability of travel tickets. The entire function was kept at small scale not because of Cost constraint but owing to the amount that we owe the Bank to claim the ownership. So why fret? Many advised hasnt the bank loaned money based on the earning capacity.. well.. we all know those parameters are flimsy..Even I felt a bit odd to have a function for the first time without the usual crowd.. but in the earlier functions the title of ownership was Clear ! :-)

 As the Mantras starting to roll out, the preparation for Milk Boiling ceremony was done by anointing the Gas stove. Here, the presentation from Parents side was an Induction stove and for a back up we had a Gas Stove(without the cylinder of course !). Finally the Induction stove was used. This was deserving presentation because of the fact that I was planning to spend and buy one !

Then started the Presentation Ceremony. The gifts were blessings, Tupperware kind of crockery, torch light, milk cooker etc, Then we were heading for breakfast (it ended up as brunch, sorry folks) and it was nice with a select and simple age friendly menu. 

Wipe the Eyes

Watch the Homam

Breakdance

Swimming pool view from our Flat

Ouside View of flat

Meet you soon folks

Road Less Travelled

Mind gets widened while traveling...A travel essentially gets the best out of oneself. A Pleasant travel puts one with their own self thus discovering a sense of pleasure and revisit to childhood kept shoved under the slamming pressures of life.


The best travel would be an unplanned one. I still remember fumbling to switch my car wiper on for my first long trip to Tiruvannmalai along with friends family. Vigorously opened the Owner manual and flipped through pages find a way out..with a sneer and grin of wife and friends hovering around.. at last...twas done...


Here is the latest..


Tourney : Chennai- Pondicherry - Chidambaram - Thirunallar - Pondicherry - Chennai ( 539 Kms)


Day 1 : (To Pondy)


We started around 6 pm to touch GST road. The aim was to reach Pondy by Bedtime(Ah.. by 10 pm). This time vinodha wanted to sit in the front seat. We were convincing Tejas and Samanvitha about never existing Police patrol cars and rude policemen who at random checks the car on highways and punishes kids sitting in front seat. It worked. 

The road was fantastic and we started chatting. Planned to finish dinner at Mamandur. Vinodha had packed rotis and curd rice. Now I have to tell this... Vinodha never tires to prepare curd rice. Ask her to do for 50 people.. no faces.. she will religiously do it. Well.. pulled the car at a desired place and had our food. Reached Pondy by 10pm and hit our beds.

Day 2 : (Chidambaram-Pichavaram-Sirkazhi)

Started from Pondy by 8 am and cruised towards Chidambaram, enroute Cuddalore. Crossed the Gedilam river by bridge. This river gets mentioned in Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki. Vanthiyathevan should have crossed it by Horse.  Also en route crossed Parangipettai where I stayed with Ramani Maama and Grandparents for some time. I could not resist recalling the visit organized by him to Saamiyar Beach. But could not stop to peek in.

Main Gopuram of Chidambaram

Went to temple and lucky enough to see an abhishekam for Rathinasabapathi, which happens once in a day. A rathina lingam is offered all abhishekams and if a camphor is waved behind, it appears red. Then spent around half an hour at the main sanctum sanctorum enjoying Nataraja. Chidambaram temple is subtly constructed to resemble human body. The Golden roof has approx 25000 tiles to represent the breaths per day and it is fixed to a wooden roof with 72000 nails to represent the Nadis. This place is felt as auspicious by people who choose Yogasadhana to better themselves. Tejas and Sam were overwhelmed to see the huge double bells ringing during pooja kalam.

A Dance Sequence

Posing in front designed wall

Tejas running in Chidambaram Temple Courtyard

No this one is not by PC sriram

Well it was past 1 noon so had food at a Hotel and went to Pichavaram. The trip was intended to travel in backwater of Indian Ocean. Vinodha corrected me that it was Bay of Bengal.
We opted a Row boat and the Rowboat driver was a very knowledgeable man and threw in biological words for plants and stuff like repiratory roots. The Pichavaram mangroves are considered among the healthiest mangrove occurrence in the world. Pichavaram consists of a number of islands interspersing a vast expanse of water covered with green trees. We watched the fisherwomen surfing neckdeep to

A Cool View

catch Yeral fish. Tejas and Samanvitha started to say yuck and ouch about fishes ! They started to catch the hanging roots above their head. If roots were not there they would dip hands and toes underneath the boat. We travelled under fully hooded trees and it was different experience to travel in tunnels of forest whilst hot sun is finding its way tough to touch us.

Having a Nice Time

Reach out to Stars..

Then we hopped back into car and proceeded to Sirkazhi. We crossed the Kollidam river which again gets mentioned in Ponniyin Selvan. This is again a temple city most reverred by kanchi maha periyaval. He says there is a sivalingam buried in every foot of the ground here !. We all entered into the temple tank and kids started playing by dipping hands and legs and I was actually about to slip in tank, not heavily but enough to incur the wrath of Vinodha. 

The temple was quite different in the sense like our three tier Rakiappa street house. The Bhramapureeswarar shrine is housed in the lower level. The second level houses Periyanakar with Periyanayaki on a 'Thoni', hence the name Thoniappar. Sattainathar/Vatukanathar is also housed here. From the steps leading to the Toniappar and the Vatukanathar shrine, one can see the entire vast temple and its gopurams and mandapams. The route to this place was quite bumpy but still we enjoyed.


We proceeded to Vaitheeswaran Koil and the entrance mandapam is the very same when I visited during childhood. After making arrangements for the next day temple visit  we went to bed.


Day 3: (Vaitheeswaran Koil - Thiruvenngadu - Thirukadayoor - Karaikal - Thirunallar)

Cmon Ya its all Yours..

 The main event of the day was is mottai adhichifying for Tejas and Samanvitha. Tejas submitted himself willingly while Sam was running covering the top of the head shouting "mottai vaanam.. mottai vaanam". 


However the cunning barber tonsured her from behind and he was really smart. Then both of them were running up and down after this.

Mottai Vaanam.. Mottai Vaanam

To vinodha's dismay the archakars were on strike and so they wont do any archanai.  But this was a blessing because  I did it myself and we could atleast faintly see the idols in
sanctum sanctorum. This temple is meant for Sevvai Sthalam.

Aadra maata aadi karakkanum

Lily Ponds

Then we proceeded to Thiruvengadu but on a wrong and bumpy route. But this was compensated by  watching rare-to-see lily ponds and different flowers. The scenery was also beautiful and the entire route was smelling with pounded haystack. 

Thiruvengaadu Courtyard

Then we reached Thiruvengaadu temple. It is a really Huge temple with sprawling courtyard and it was really well maintained. The temple once opened the Eyes for Sage Pattinathar who was hell bent to make money. He renounced all riches later to attain to Siva. Some say he is a reincarnation of Lord Kubera, who came to understand the fickleness of Wealth.

Hmm.. Lets play

All through the temple Sam and Tejas were enjoying a lot of things like Ponds, Elephants. Tejas had a lot of fear for the Elephant but Sam was shivering to give her tonsured head to rough trunk of the Pachyderm.

Tejas and Sam watching 
Woodwork for Temple Chariot

Later they visited a shed where wood carving for the Temple chariot was being done. They had a nice time there to see a raw wood coming to shape. The folks enjoyed their presence too.

On the Job Training

Knowledge transfer

Some Exhibits

We could have gone to Poompuhar Beach but had not time for it. It was on a deviating way and we wanted to reach Thirukadyoor faster.


We proceeded to Thirukadayoor. It struck me to do a archanai for father and mother as they have completed their 70th and 60th birthday. Done and we had a nice tea at a normal shop and proceeded to Thirunallar.




Enroute we saw kaaraikaal and Tejas knows the story of Kaaraikaal ammaiyar, a lady devoted to shiva. We planned to visit while coming back from Thirunallar. To our luck the sanctum sanctorum of Shaniswara is open all day because it was a saturday. We again went to divine tank and proceeded for darshan. The only thing is we didnt sit on the idol's lap. It was so close a darshan. 

Karaikkal Ammayar Temple Tank

We then returned to kaaraikaal and visited the Karaikaal ammayar temple. The temple tank is very very well maintained. We enjoyed a lot there. Tejas and Sam were clapping hands and enjoying their own echoes. 

We then made our way to Pondy. We reached by 10 pm and hit the matress immediately.





Day 4: Manakula Vinayagar - Panchavati.


Others were tired. Myself and Tejas went to Manakula vinayagar in Pondy. This is very famous temple and to our luck we saw the huge elephant doing pradakshina around the Main Ganesha Idol. Tejas was dumbstruck to see the elephant passing him away by centimeters.


We all packed then and took Vinodha's Grandparents and their luggages to Chennai. En route we got down at Panchavati and had a nice darshan of Anchaneya. 


Zoomed back to chennai and I went to Kapaleeswarar temple. The Rest took rest..

Bye Bye Folks.