2 day stay at India's Emerging Planned City - Raipur

        To put in only one line, Raipur is going to be best city in India for living/Industries/Investments. After getting the status of "State Capital" of Chattisgarh, Raipur got enough grants for bringing it to the status of a state capital and got those funds into good hands (not necessarily into 100% pure hands, but looks better to me - if not best).

         The planned city - Naya Raipur - looks very promising from the infrastructure point of view. The new city with 5.5KM radius and 8000 Hectars, it got best of the class roads laid already. Though my stay was only for two days, I got the opportunity to roam around the widest roads with only my vehicle going on the road at a given instance. :)


Places of interest:

• A unique Sindhi's Temple (one among famous temples across the world)
• A unique Sikh temple
• Naya Raipur - Secretariat (Mantralayam)
• Rajiv Lochan Rajim - an old temple with idols made during 1175AD - 60KM from Raipur
• Champaran
• Gangrel Dam (on Mahanadi river)  90KM from Raipur

Rainbow formed at the Gangrel Dam

Near the check-dam at Rajim

 Dew at Dam

 About Rajim

A snap on way to Gangrel. The entire area I travelled there was green....

Near Gangrel Dam - there's a Police camp. Near that...

On way to Rajim

From train - Hyd, in the morning...

Other places to visit there: Chitrakoot waterfalls - biggest in India. We missed it out.

Visiting Sri Paada Srivallabha Temple... ------ Return Lo

Annayya messaged me - Tomorrow is off... I said where shall we go, he said Maktal... Thats it..

Annayya brought bike from his friend Naagaraju for journey.. we decided to go by bike.. Thanks to Naagaraju - it was a nice bike (Honda Shine) - so was the ride..

 We didn't know the actual distance of the place from Hyderabad to Maktal when we started but as we travelled through we realized that its slightly more than what we can actually enjoy.. (nearly 180 KM) ..

The route is -- Hyderabad--> Shamsabad --> Jadcherla (by Banglore Highway - 82KM) --> Mehboobnagar (100KM)--> Marikal--> Maktal(160KM)--> Sri Paada Srivallabha puram(180KM).

We started off from home at 9AM (6AM would have been ideal time to start). We had delicious second breakfast (had pulihora at home - prepared by mom) at DP Dhaba where Dileep Kumar prepared two Alu parota and dal for us. 

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There on our way, we found a nice pond and I asked annayya that we will take a snap - he said "return lo" (in the return journey)

We saw a big mob of sheep and the landscape was absolutely awesome. I asked annayya that we will take a snap there, he said "return lo"

We saw the flowers of "palaasa". I said we will take a snap and also pluck few flowers from it. Annayya said "return lo".

We saw a half damaged rock mountain with only two trees on it. I said we shall take a pic of it. Annayya said "return lo"

This list continued and I said we will have tea at a tea stall who told us the route to Maktal and I myself said this time "return lo"

But when we were actually returning, it was already 6 in the evening and annayya stopped bike near one of the ponds we saw earlier. I said "return lo"..

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We reached Maktal by 12.30 or so... and immediately got (into Teppa) to cross the river Krishna. We all were chanting :"Digambaraa Digambaraa Sri Paada Vallabha Digambaraa" till we reach the Island...
It was a beautiful and peaceful place.. And I thought it was ideal for Tapas..


About Sri Paada Sri vallabha Swami : HE is believed to be the first Human Incarnation of Lord Dattaatreya. Second is Nrusimha Saraswati Swami and third is Swami Samartha.

Govind Deekshitulu had done the research and found the actual details of Sri Paada Sri Vallabha and passed it on to us through his writings. After which, he stayed in the same island and did tapas in a cave which can be seen now also.

Once we were done with our Puja, we started back and had our lunch at  3.30 in the Ashram of Vittal Balaji Swami. We started off by five and managed to reach Hyd by 9.30PM.

The Previous journey I had was more breaks and less driving (180KM in total) while this was a 370KM journey with 8 hour journey time and four hour breaks and darshan time..


Throughout the journey, we had fun provided by Posani Krishna Murali garu. :) Annayya and myself were imitating him for every situation and had fun with his style of dialogues.

When we were in our onward journey, we saw so many beautiful things, but since our first objective was to reach Maktal on time - we postponed everything to the return journey. This also had been a part of the fun we had - "Return Lo" :).

NOTE:

Every day - there will be Nija roopa darshanam (without ornaments) at 5am. We may go and stay the night in island and take that darsham. Accomodation and food are available there.

Lunch in island will be available from 12 to 1.30PM.

Link to Picasa pix : click here

A Pleasant bike ride to Ananthgiri-Vikarabad

All these pictures convey one emotion through them... its JOY!!! And That will be the outcome when you have everything in place the way you want them to be.

             For the last five years I never focused on my weekends, not even the long weekends. I never tried to spend in the best way. But, these five years told me that we need to focus only on fun during weekends.. And This is my way of fun - To drive, travel and explore new places. AND take some good snaps which convert those moments into memories!!!

                 This time around, I decided to go to Ananthagiri (Vikarabad) on bike (initially wanted to go by train, but changed to bike - which made the journey an unforgettable one). Thanks To Suneel - he gave his Bangaram (Karizma) for my ride. Friday - Bhogi. For My Friend Muthu its not a holiday, its a working day. So, my order to him was to have a planned sick leave. :).

                 Muthu Hardly sees the sun rise and probably 13 Jan 2012 was just a miracle. He woke up by 5.40AM - rather I woke him up with five missed calls (he missed them intentionally). I thought THIS probably was the reason that 2012 - world is going to END. But, we still have 11 more months to enjoy :). After a big battle for 15min he had in choosing one between a shirt and a t-shirt, I declared it to be a tie. He wore both of them. We started off from his room at 7.30AM (I started from my home at 6.20AM and reached his room by 6.50AM - it took me those 40min to push him for the travel.)

                 Then, on our way, we had a photoshoot :) near chevella. The first pic in this post was one of the pix at photoshoot :). Such a beautiful morning it was and I started to feel the beauty in Telangaana region of Andhra Pradesh. After the photoshoot, we started again and stopped at UDUPI hotel in Chevella for our breakfast. After that, the next stop was only at Ananthagiri. It took us some three hours or so for the bike ride but the time we spent in temple for darshan and eating prasadam was hardly 20min :):).

We played around near Pushkarini of the temple for few min before the darshan and had another photoshoot in which Muthu showed some glimpses from mannerisms of PSPK's Panjaa:). From there, we started off to Bugga Rameswaram - temple of Lord Shiva(Water pops out from ground near the Siva Lingam in Temple and flows out. The place around was completely dry but don't know how its possible) . But on the way, Muthu was telling a Thriller story which reciprocates the feel of that location we were in. Its a deserted, dry area but can inspire us to write so many horror and thriller stories.

From Bugga Rameswaram temple, we started off to Naaga Samudram and Kotepalli Vagu project(Kotepalli dam). Below pic was in wait of our dearest leader Jagan to come and do Odaarpu yaatra for Me - since I was a victim of fuel price hike :).

This was a beautiful flower and can be seen there on the way to Kotepalli Dam. Its a dense forest with most of the trees without leaves. This place was also a deserted area. We can hardly find a human there.

This was near the Kotepalli Dam. It was a huge water storage dam and they say that there are crocodiles in the Dam. So, when you visit, be cautious.

On our way back to Hyderabad, we stopped at a place. I have no words to say about the place.

Below video was taken - in-promptu concept and .....

Note:
Route: Hyderabad --> APPA Junction --> Chevella--> Vikaarabad(73KM) --> Ananthagiri(80KM)

-->Bugga Rameswaram --> Kotepalli Dam --> Ananthagiri -->Vikaarabad--> Chevella

--> Hyderabad(210KM)

Accomodation and food available at Ananthagiri temple.

Nothing other than the temple was there in Bugga Rameswaram.(except cool drinks, biscuit packets, etc in a small pan shop)

Absolutely no food or facility available near the Kotepalli Dam.

For more photos: Click here