The wells of Rameshwaram temple

My parents had visited Rameshwaram and I was not a part of that trip. There was this constant reminder for me to go visit with my wife, especially given we had both visited Kashi before.

So a big part of this India trip (previous post here..) was to go to Rameshwaram temple and get.a bath from waters of the 21 wells in the temple. The history and reasoning behind these wells is well documented and will not explain it here. 

The logistics of accomplishing this on the other hand, will get a mention. Currently the train that goes from Chennai does not go into the island. It stops at Mandapam station. Supposed to reach at 4:30 AM but is usually late by 30 mins to 45 minutes. That should factor into calculations for a one day trip!

We had a car pick us up and take us straight to the temple gate. Thanks to my chitti's friend, we were connected to one of the. priests at the temple who gave us a contact for a person named Lokesh.

His official title should be Technical Program Manager, Well bathing, Rameshwaram. He asked San, myself and my FIL to walk, after realizing my MIL couldn't walk that far. He took her on his bike to the side gate. Once there, he gave us precise instructions, took us to each well and got us drenched with water from every well within a span of 35 minutes with extreme planning and precision. After that we got to go change at the entrance and visit the main shrines. Within a 2 1/2 hour period we had done what we came to do and one of the main temple visits was checked off. (the other was Gunaseelam... not sure how many days it will take me to get to that post!)

This temple is a marvel !! just look at the pillars as far as the eye can see on every main corridor.

Saw the Sankara mutt on the way out and was reminded of the mutt in Varanasi in Hanuman Ghat! lots of memories..

We said bye to Lokesh and thanked him for pictures from his phone (we were not allowed a phone) and went to get something to eat.

After a quick brunch at a local vegetarian place (Hotel New Saravana Bhavan.. not in anyways related to Hotel Saravana Bhavan!!! but actually better..) we decided to cover the rest of the sights there in this sequence, thanks to our driver (who was from Madurai) who had done this tour many a time. However he said in his experience he had not seen anyone cram this much into a day!

First stop was Ramar paadhukai..(three of us climbed the hill and saw the sights while MIL stayed in the car.. it was a wise move. She was clearly told by our driver where there was flat nice terrain and where things would be difficult)

Then the Panchamukha Hanumaan temple with a demonstration of the floating rocks that were used by the monkeys to build the bridge to Lanka..(sadly my phone died and have no pictures or videos of that) followed by a visit to Lakshmana's temple and pond (there is a story or segment from the Ramayana that is there for each of these locations and you can read up on it if interested)

My FIL had his SLR for pics. I had to stay content with the iPhone.

Then we had finished with this area and were off to see Prof. Kalam's house. It was inspiring in its own way!

After visiting his house, we left for Dhanushkodi area. On the way we got to see the Kodhandaramar temple. Thanks to Modiji, the roads were nice and we also had access to go all the way to the end of the road to see the ocean. We had some ice cream and coconut water at the temple, then stopped by the light house. 

The lighthouse has a small elevator that simply cannot handle the tourist volume. So it was difficult to wait there, but after 30 minutes we did make it to the top for some spectacular views. (The restrooms behind the lighthouse are extremely well maintained !! )

After this we got to put our feet in the ocean water where two oceans meet.

There was crazy traffic at the end of the road to make U turns and get back. Our driver had told us to keep walking to find him. The three of us walked close to a mile to catch up with the van and were out of the area.. but we did stop for chai at a roadside stall.. it was pretty good!

A short video compilation of the few clips I took..

There were two more stops to go before we were to reach our hotel in Madurai that night.. 

will share that in the next post!

A day and a half in Chennai

The last post on this trip is here...

Have to start becoming a live blogger to catch up on travels these days. New sights, new people.. 

So tend to forget things with a photo/video overload.

We landed in Chennai late on Thursday night and left Chennai Saturday afternoon. 

Within that time frame, we managed to spend a few hours with my parents, San's 95 year old grandma, visit three temples, eat out twice and meet a lot of relatives (leaving out the blog shy ones in the post)

The most special relative we met was the latest addition to the extended family. It has been a long time since I held a baby in my hands. We showed the picture to someone later in the trip and were asked why we decided to have a baby so late.

My father who is not his usual self saw us fall at his feet for blessings and wished us a boy child. We said something about our 25th wedding anniversary and maybe he heard things partly and automatically blessed. Somehow in his mind, us not having a boy is still a "lacking" thing, at least he used to keep telling me that according to my horoscope I am supposed to have female and male children. He would keep asking me how that horoscope could be wrong? We know the time and age he is from where male children are considered the representation of the gene pool. He always means well. 

My dad turned 85 that morning and he was not aware of his birthday. I seem to be the best at playing dumb charades with him and sadly am not close by. We both realized that, in the hour we communicated. He said bye to me as though he was losing his translator or least that was my perception. My only thought was "If by some karma, I end up in this same state with parkinson's, need to train San and some folks around me to play dumb charades regularly, starting now!"

If only Tantra shastra was spread to the masses, things would be different on this boy child business.. that is multiple topics all colliding in my head right now. So that discussion will be sidebared. When my dad finished his blessing in bits and pieces, we just thanked him for it. Told my mom that we are almost ready to have grandkids in a few years.. one topic led to another and we fished out the kids horoscope which my mom had saved all these years! 

Given the short time in Chennai, did I mention how my mom told me to go sit and do parayanam at the local Saradhambaal temple? She prioritized my praying for two out of the three hours! In any case, the goal was to make her happy, so I just went and met with all the familiar folks in the recitation group. They were all happy to see me. Many of them have seen me as a teenager. One thing I miss is this recitation group. Seriously thinking of starting one in Cupertino every Saturday morning. One of the folks even took a photo and sent it to my mom! The mama's are better insta bloggers than me.. and my mom was beaming with happiness that they had good things to say about me. Mamas happy, Mom happy, me happy..

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The nights food at Geetham was still backed up with Upma my mom made me in the morning and still had to eat at Kamakshi mess... India trips are an exercise in stretching your stomach muscles way past what you think you can. 

then there was the first train ride of the trip.. on Rameshwaram express.. brought back so many memories of long train journeys in India.

"Kamalahasanukku porai eri irukkum!" was the thought as we saw this while standing at the door

we were going to see Ramanadhaswamy.. One picture from my aunt's place that stayed with me.. loved this .. all the stores in Mylapore which did framing were still not open when we went to the area.. so could not find it. Maybe on the next trip, will get a print of this!

Will continue the write up of Rameshwaram in a day, the next chance I get..

A different Mumbai after many years..

This is the first detailed post on the rushed India trip..

We had landed almost two hours late in the morning.

The last time I visited Mumbai and spent time here was 2017! After reaching Chembur, we had less than an hour to get ready to visit temples! It was all planned by MIL. There was some chai and fresh pav for us to gobble up before leaving the apartment.

We visited Mahalakshmi first. Was drooling thinking of fresh hot kunukkus behind the temple at Laxmi Bajiya house.. was told that things have changed. No more shops in the back.. No way to go to back either to see the ocean because of constuction. There is a freeway coming that has totally changed the ocean view.. 

Then went to Siddhi Vinayak. In spite of the crowd that pushes relentlessly, there is some peace that comes to me when visiting this place. Do not know why! We walked out and decided to eat right outside the temple. First rava dosa in Mumbai was amazing.. everything we ordered was amazing. Cannot beat food in India!

We spent the rest of the evening visiting San's cousins with her uncle. Her baby cousin (who incidentally was the oonjal kid in our wedding) has been married for years, but I never got to meet her hubby and in laws. Managed to meet him finally! 

We spent the next morning at the Chembur Murugan temple with San's uncle. Got to recite Rudram with him and watch abhishegam. Got to meet my collegemates and chat without realizing how time passed. 

we tried to recreate our first portrait but both of us were laughing and it did not come out as planned.. 

Ate at a few places like Arya Bhavan (which is okay given the hype) and Mani's which lived up to the hype on this instance(where we ate tiffin items) and did some shopping! 

we had to wait to be seated practically every place we went to eat.. every place is crowded! I came to the conclusion that Mumbai doesn't have enough restaurants for the local crowd.

Got to sample food at Sadhguru which was amazing and GuruKripa in Sion with my classmates and both places were good. However, there was no Chai at GuruKripa.. I was in shock. The samosas were amazing!

Was so happy chatting with my buddies. Was glad to see we are all doing good and are in decent health!

I also met a cat that does yoga in Mumbai..

and another cool cat that is happiest when in Mumbai..chillin.. this one misses the beauty parlours a lot when in the US. If San is sad and needs to cheer up, all she has to do is go to Mumbai, eat pani puris and vada pav and get some henna, facial , handial, leggial etc. and voila.. we have happy San again!

Just like that three days gone and it was time to fly to Chennai ...