Sita Mardi

On the way back from Allahabad, the driver strongly recommended a stop at Sita Mardi.

There are signs to this place from the time you leave Allahabad and a lot of hype. What beat us was that we had never heard of this place before as an important historic place in connection to the Ramayana. Ayodhya yes! Panchavati, yes! etc. etc. Sita Mardi. . not really.

Still curiosity and the fact that we had exceeded the daily limit of 200 km and were paying extra anyways made us say "okay. it is on the way and a small detour.. so take us there"

Amazing artwork on the dome!

Was told by driver that the wall work was done by Japanese artists. Do not know if it is true..

Some really nice bas relief murals on the walls..

Shiva with the ganges from his head flowing on steps into a pond. Nicely done!
The place definitely had some unique artistry compared to typical temples.. There was almost a feeling that a FengShui expert had designed the whole premises!

Shopping for trinkets. What would any trip be without it?

Flit like a butterfly, sting like a bee?
Jr. boxes flies like Mohammad Ali!

It was so funny to watch her being so mad and angry and trying to box the flies away with her fists!

The Giant Hanuman was nice but there was no place to stand in a shade and admire it. Lot of concrete around the statue, that was too hot to step on barefoot. No footwear and lot of heat with no shade was difficult for me to walk around and take photos, and it was impossible for the kids. So it was a one minute trip around this statue.

We went through a one lane mud road for 9 km and finally reached a market. There was a beautiful temple there (built by Birla is what we were told but could not see any signs there) in what was a gorgeous setting. A small river, temple on the river and a bunch of shops around it. Apparently the small temple has been built over many times and the later attractions like the Giant Hanuman statue were built by Japanese architects. The Hanuman for some reason looked more like a Japanese Hanuman than an Indian Hanuman!

The kids were not impressed what with the heat and the flies in the place. We stopped there for an hour and enjoyed the temple. On a cooler day with some breeze, this would have been a great outing.

Definitely recommend a visit if you are going on the Varanasi - Allahabad route!

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Flexibility as we age..

All of you know that Bikram Yoga has become a part of the routine for me and the MIL and we are now regulars to a point where our laundry cycles are synchronized with the number of Yoga clothes we own!

The three week hiatus in Bikram Yoga during the India trip was interesting. My logic was that Chennai temperatures were 98 to 100 F during the time we were there and the lows were in the 88 to 90 F range. Chennai is on the coast and is usually humid and so doing Yoga in the living room should be the same as doing Bikram Yoga in the studio here.

Have never been so wrong. The first day after landing there, tried to do the exercises starting with the breathing. Usually we sweat a lot after the very first breathing exercise. There was no sweating. Forget profuse sweating.. there was simply no sweat. It was a very bad clammy feeling. Still went through the routine in a little over an hour. The timing was a little off but did finish it. The rest of the day was a bad headache. It was possibly accelerated by the Jet lag but after having missed headaches for 100+ days, it was a rude shock!

The next day tried to go through the routine again and no sweating. Then decided to stop the attempts. My body was saying "enough. go back to a hot room" and my skin was clogging up. The rest of the trip saw no yoga, only a careful watching of the diet and before we knew it, we were back home in Cupertino.

Instinct was to go do Yoga on day one, but the body was jet lagged and we decided to wait for two days. The first day of Yoga was stressful. The mind knew how far to push because of previous experience but the body did not respond. A funny thing happened. There was a lot less sweating and felt like peeling off my skin and throwing it out. That same clammy feeling. A feeling you get just before it rains after an extreme bout of heat in Chennai summers! (what we call Puzhukkam in Tamil). Would come home, take a shower and the minute I dried myself with a towel and walked to the kitchen to make tea, my vest, shirt and pants would be drenched in sweat as if I had just finished the yoga session.

Obviously something was wrong with my skin and the pores were clogging up because of the weather change. Do not know if the water change and soap change added to the weather change, but it is a possibility. After the third day of Yoga, things came back to normal.

Did have another small snag with a TdP vaccine giving me side effects that made me miss Yoga for another three days this week, but so far so good.

The kids are having fun watching try hard to get back in track..

They have a lot more flexibility because they are young! Wish they retain this as they grow old.

One thing that has been brought to my attention recently that has to be shared. Doing Bikram Yoga seems to be like a test of the body in itself. If something is wrong or about to fail the Yoga seems to bring it out. The recent health check up showed a severe Vitamin D deficiency which is being corrected. Do not know to what extent this is true but we know of three cases where an underlying health problem has been highlighted by doing Yoga. There is always a question of "did the Yoga cause the problem or help bring the symptoms to the foreground?". Google searches suggest the latter.

If you have any such experience, do share in the comment section.

Meanwhile, the Yoga experience continues...

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From Lanka Gate to Visvesvarayya...

As far as trips down the nostalgic memory lanes go, this is the biggest for me!

After almost two decades, visiting the place where this boy became man, or at least half a man if my classmates would agree..

The video says it all, but here are some pictures as well of the brief ride into the past!

Oh, what a trip!

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Guindy " National Park" - aka Childrens Park and Zoo

The Children Park and Zoo in Guindy is a 5 minute bus ride from my brothers place. It was a favorite hang out for us as kids and it is still a favorite for my nephew.

Have taken Jr. to this park when she was a baby but she did not remember it. This time we had an afternoon where yours truly was responsible for engaging the kids (add to that a power outage at home) and off we went to Guindy Park.

It is a neatly arranged park with a lot of animals, birds and reptiles for such a small park. The look and feel of it is very clean and the maintenance is excellent.

There is a kids play area where the kids just enjoyed the slides, swings and merry go rounds. They even have 4 folks sweeping the sands on a regular basis to clear out the leaves that fall in the sand.

It was a hot and very humid day and it was about to drizzle any minute. So the three male peacocks (two normal and one albino) all decided to dance. It was spectacular! Because of having to deal with three kids with two hands, decided to leave the camera bag at home.. Luckily had the iPhone with me to capture a few videos and pictures. Could not zoom past the wire fences, still the videos have come out nice.

Here are some pictures..

There are nice display boards for every enclosure!

There was a "roadrunner" bird. The one that comes in the Warner brothers cartoons and happens to be the mascot for our kids school! They were so thrilled to see a real roadrunner bird!

and here is the video collage of the trip..

The kids loved the 90 minutes we spent in the park. We had to rush back because of the drizzle. One can easily spend 3-4 hours in this park and have fun.

Totally recommended if you are in Chennai and want some shade on a sunny day and engage the kids..

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Beach fun...

We did go visit the beach once during this trip and managed to spend a little under two hours. The added bonus was the presence of the cousins.

Previous beach post from same beach here and another beach here..

This trip in pictures and video..

It was a good place to practice panning shots of the kids on the "raatnams"!

What is a beach post without a video?

We had good fun the first few days in Chennai and this beach trip was a big part of it. We were also strongly discouraged by family from going to the Marina beach. Apparently it is in bad shape compared to our last trip in 2008. We will check it out on our next trip..

Talking of trips, my MIL told the girls

"daddy is thinking of selling everything here and going to Chennai. I am going to go live in Seattle.. You girls can come visit me for summer vacation here"

Jr. : So where will we be when daddy goes to Chennai?

MIL : he will take you all with him. he is not planning to go alone

Jr. : No way! I am not going..

LO : Jumps up and runs to me and says "I WILL GO!".. then gives me a hug and says "I will go with you but first you should make sure you kill all the mosquitoes in Madras and then I will come!"

All of us laughed out loud. So my going and living in Chennai is in the hands of the Madras Corporation who are incharge of eradicating mosquitoes and the rest of Chennaivasis who have to get rid of stagnant water!

Who knows? Maybe someone will invent an eradicator and I get to convince the little one?

Top ten items that are needed to convince <10 year old girls to relocate :

1- dry bathroom floors
2- western toilets
3- toilet paper
4- central air conditioning
5- inverters that keep fan running during powercuts
6- AC cars
7- no insects (ants, flies, mosquitoes, roaches etc.)
8- clean public restrooms
9- no stench (from roadside dumps, garbage trucks stuck in traffic etc.)
10-no street dogs

There are more items on the list but this is their priority list..

Easy, no?

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