4 day trip to Kanchi & Thiruvannamalai (Arunachalam)

Sudden plan. Thanks to a good friend of mine and Srinivas garu for providing all the needed background information.
it was all fantastic.

Took tickets for to n fro between kachiguda and Chittor


Spl points:
Try Sri Vishnu bhavan hotel food in chittoor - tea is very nice as well.
we have train to arunachalam from chittoor thrice a week. it takes only 3hours by train. if we want to go by bus, we need to go to Vellore first and from there to Arunachalam.

Shirdi trip

unplanned trip, sudden plan
started but bus ticket cancelled
but started to shirdi. got down at nagarsol at 7
stayed there to get tatkal ticket at the station for return journey on sunday
till that time spent sometime in the morning in the surroundings of nagarsol
had "sabjidan kichidi" and a good tea. both r delicious
waited for an hour in sleeper class waiting room
surprised to see pandu with his wife.
once ticket taken, started to Shirdi with three new friends - bharat, sai, xyz in a cab - they took 80 per head for it. Nano car first time journey in it.
reached shirdi and then with nandini's help got a contact nubmer for accommodation. Mohan Rao garu guided us to a newly opened lodge/satram. it was good and since its when Devi navaratrulu started, near to our stay - there was goddess idol placed and they played dandia too in the night.
We ensured we have visited Sani sanganapur on day 1 - so that we can give our whole day two for shirdi. day 1 - started to shani singanapur by 1.30. it was a five hour journey - to n fro. offered oil and other things at Shani temple and returned. on our way - had Sugarcane juice- made using wodden machinery with a bull rotating the wodden crushers. it was a good place to have a nice break in the two hour long journey.
once we were back, we had our dinner at the free food facility provided by lodge. we went to sleep early at 8 or so since we wanted to attend early morning harati. So, we got up by 1 and started by 2 to temple. bought chaddar and sweet and flowers for baba. but the sweets are not allowed during the harati time. we kept at a shop and went back to queue for harati darhsan. sat for two hours in the Hall nuumber 6 and I had my Sandhyavandanam in my heart while waiting there and also had my gayatri japam done there. at four thirty - we went inside and had harati darshan by sitting exactly straight to baba's idol but at the other end of the hall. it was fantastic to witness it and the hall was full and quiet once the harati started. Felt very happy to be in the middle of number of devotees and infront of baba.
after that - we spent sometime inside the temple and returned to room. we had freshed up ourselves and then Harish went to attend afternoon harati and I couldnt attend that. I went inside temple and bought new edition of baba sacharitra, purchased prasadam, collected oodi prasadam, contacted for blood donation camp near temple. they told to go and give at hospital near khandoba temple. I went to khandoba temple and stayed there for sometime - a place where baba first been called as "Sai Baba". At hospital, the doctor softly rejected my interest to donate blood since they have abundant o+ve sachets with them and I already donated SDP platelets two weeks prior to my shirdi visit.
From there, I returned and went to temple through mukh darshan - this i loved a lot. There, we can sit in the main hall of temple and see baba from distance and sit there.
once harish back from harati darshan (he somehow misssed harati, but took darshan).
we both had our lunch and went to mukhdarshan again and stayed there till it was time for us to leave shirdi to catch train. on a whole, it was a satisfying and devotional journey

bhajan chance
one superb husband
one ideal mom - taking care of challenged daughter

A pleasant morning at Sai Brindavanam, Desmukhi village.

              Just like any other week, this week also had its weekend time giving me sometime to visit a near-by place and have a refreshing memory of the same. I had plans to visit Anantagiri one more time with my cousin but somehow, it didn't realize. Friday night I made a call to Naresh if he's free for Saturday to visit Sai Brindavanam near Desmuhki village, on outskirts of Hyderabad. "Yes" was his reply. So, next morning he started to Sanjeevayya park MMTS station where I picked him up(Saturday early hours).

              Given the pollution we have to drive through when we pass by LB Nagar, I wanted to start early so that we can avoid the polluted air on our way (at least one way, we cannot escape during return journey). It was after crossing  Ramoji Film City, we stopped for a break to have a tea and enjoy the morning sun-rise and the cold breeze coming from hills and rocks near-by which looked like tonsured heads from where we were (most of the hillocks near to Hyderabad wouldn't have much of greenery around them and they look like so.. ). After the sweet tea break, we started again towards Sai Brindavanam. As we cross through each village on our way, I was recollecting my previous visit to the same temple with my brother which was couple of years ago. As we reached Baatasingaaram village on highway, a Kamaan we saw on our left hand side which takes us to the Sai Brindavanam. The morning bike ride when the Sun showing his face on us at 15 degrees angle on road, it was like the warmth of Sun being shown onto his Sons(Children) on earth.

               As we reached the temple, it was so beautiful and the environment resembles so much to my old time memories of my village. A small pond with couple of lotus flowers in it welcomed us to the parking area to park my bike. My bike then knows it was going to be a two hour break for its tiring one hour ride. The Gijigaadu Goodu reminded me of the telugu lesson we learnt when I was in my high school.

                 As we entered the premises of temple, my heart was very light - be it for the beauty of the place or for the positive energy spread by the prayers offered to God there. (It has been 13 years - an uninterrupted chanting of Sai baba's name was going on and on by old persons staying at the oldage home there.) The flowers in garden on either sides of the path towards temple, Dhuni, prayer hall - it was all fantastic and words will fall short to describe the peace of mind one gets there. We spent time to see all the paintings of baba in the prayer hall, took darshan at temple and headed to Dhuni. We offered our pradakshinam to dhuni and offered our prayers as well. Then we sat in the prayer hall and felt the holy chanting of baba and his presence around.

               As we came out from the temple, we spotted a person painting a Baba idol and I too had my hands on with painting there to paint one hand of baba's idol. Adjacent to the pond near temple, there were paddy fields which attracted our attention by large. Before we went towards the fields, we went towards Datta Sannidhi. There a nice Dattatreya idol was there and it was all green there. Also, a small goshala was there adjacent to datta sannidhi. Being a beautiful morning, when we went there, a Calf was having its share of milk from her mom as the mother giving her kid much of love along with milk. My camera could take the picture of that but only my eyes caught the emotion and expressed their happiness through a couple tears. The place around Dattatreya idol was happily shared by Hens and Peacocks to feed themselves. Its the beauty that you could see and harmony you could feel when no human intervention is there - any place, anywhere.

                  From there, we headed towards the fields where we played like kids with the flowers and dragon flies. Took snaps of the green bed and the small stream of water. As we return, we spotted about six Peacocks happily roaming in a paddy field and as they noticed our presence, they went off into the hillock. As a human I felt bad about myself that we have been disturbing ourselves along with disturbing their living too with our living styles and for being indifference to the ecological balance.

                  It is certainly a wonderful place to visit and feel the nature's beauty. On our return, we also had been to the top of a big hillock and from there, we could see a small water reservoir and the road along its bank. Along the return path, there was also an Ayappa temple. It was built in Kerala style. The peaceful surroundings give it more beauty. Overall - It was just the right choice to visit this place to have a peaceful break.

                  As we reached near Ramoji film city, we had 1000ml of coconut water which passed through our dried throat and while the visit to the temple filled our dried hearts with happiness pouring the pious holy waters of Sai Naamam. 

Another Day-Trip to Vemulawada Rajanna

             

                  Friday evening, my bava called me up and told me to plan for weekend - any drive away destination nearby Hyderabad and his priority was for "Ananthagiri". I had been to that place twice earlier and both times it offered superb variety of expereinces. I was ready for another visit. But, there was a twist to our plan when my brother said about visiting Vemulawada on Sunday(more than double the distance of Ananthagiri). We couldn't think of going by bikes for the weather factor(Rain forcast). We swung between Ananthagiri and Vemulawada for hours and Sunday morning we started at about 8AM with so many twists and turns in our plan - whether to go by bike or car and where to start from (my home or my cousin's home) and when to start.

 

 

Greenery on either sides of road and a nice road to drive on!!

 

Colorful creations of THE Creator!!! 

 

 

                    Finally, we(my annayya, my bava Mammu, other bava Naresh and myself) crossed Hyderabad city limits by 8.30AM Sunday and entered Karimnagar Highway in our Santro Xing XO. As we were moving away from Hyderabad limits, I was shocked & surprised to see the GREENERY on either sides of the roads - so beautifully grown trees in farms, Corn plantation, Rice fields and many more. It was all streched and looked like lush green layer with a nice road to ride. It reminded me of my recent trip to Shimoga and Murudeswar where I witnessed a wonderful monsoon of my life time. I was shocked to know that Telangana Region has this kind of beautiful locations and was surprised to see the nice monsoon within my own State.

                   We stopped in the middle of journey to have Tea and it was a good break as well. As always, the weather added taste to a tasty tea. Puri was also so good there. After the break, we resumed the journey and from there it was not a hightway but still the road was good and there's no change in the company road has on either sides. As we were reaching Vemulawada, we saw many temples of goddesses (local dieties) on our way. And once we reached Vemulawada, it was the lunch time and there's lunch break for darshan too. So, we too had our lunch at my friend's wedding and returned for darshan to temple after completing formalities at his wedding. It was being a Sunday, the temple had a good number of Devotees and could see a big queue for darshan. We waited for a local reporter who took us in shortcut to a small queue by-passing the actual queue. It took half an hour from then on to have our darshan and it was a fantastic darshan there that day. 

                   While we were coming out of the temple, my brother asked me about the goddess placed at the outgate of main temple (Garbhagudi) and I said with a question mark in my face that its Sri Raja Rajeswari Ammavaaru (and the god at main temple was Raajanna). I went inside the temple to confirm from the preist about the goddess and I was right about Goddess. Luckily for me, the preist gave me four cloth pieces which were adorned at the feet of Sri Raja Rajeswari ammavaru. I felt it was a symbol of blessing from Goddess and returned with a big smile on my face and passed the information to my brother. We couldn't see all the other temple at Vemulawada owing to the time factor. So, we started our return journey by evening time and reached Hyd by 8PM.

 

                  All in all, it was another good short travel experience. Best part of the journey was, the complete day was cloudy and drizzled here and there which set all of us in a pleasant mood. I came to know that Karimnagar, Siddhipet, Sirisilla were places of lush green during Monsoon. I want to see the same places during Summer to see the other colors of Nature. 

 

A refreshing 4 day break - Karnataka - One state Many worlds!!

          As the tagline of Karntaka tourism says, "One State - Many Worlds". Its been not so long for me to take a break from daily routine life. But its been certainly a long time to visit a place as refreshing as a cool breeze of a winter morning and as bright & soothing as the Full Moon light. The entire place looked as if the mother earth wearing a Green Tivaachi.

 

 

           All these are very small comparisons to describe about the beauty of Shimoga and the route to Murudeswar & Murudeswar itself. It was our choice of our trip for the long weekend with Eid on Friday – 9^th August, 2013. Abhibus offered best deal and SRE Travels was the only option to go to Shimoga from Hyderabad. It takes about 12hours for the journey as per schedule and it took 13 hours but that was a good bus and a smooth journey.

Day 1 – 9^th August 2013

      We reached Shimoga (Rakesh and I) by 8AM and my other cousins (Mammu and Megha) reached couple of hours before we could. They booked accommodation at Surya Complex – two double rooms. We got ourselves fresh there and started directly to Jog Falls after a delicious breakfast at Jewel Rock Restaurant. From Shimoga, it was a 3 hour journey to reach Jog Falls and we boarded a bus from Shimoga at around 11AM and we reached Jog Falls by 2 or so. Its 105 KM journey and throughout all that we could see on either sides of road was only green trees, paddy fields and streams of water. Needless to say – we didn’t get tired of that journey.

      It was a fantastic location. We took entry ticket and reached to different viewpoints to witness four delightful water streams embracing the hill from top to bottom and reaching out to their old valentine at the bottom of the valley. They were making a loud noise, as if they were warning everyone else not to come in their way - preventing their journey to reach their valentine. It sounded like one of those four streams – they called it ”Rocket” is furious on someone. As the name suggests, it’s the fastest of the four to reach the bottom of valley for the slant path it took. Unlike regular waterfalls, it was not falling from top of the hill, instead its flowing from top towards the base. Once in every five minutes or so, that place gets filled with fog blocking the entire view and just in minutes again it settles and that moment when all the fog gets cleared, again the waterfall was uncovered and that moments – it gives Goosebumps to any nature lover. Its like the most beautiful lady of the universe unveiling the veil on her face.

    After spending a few minutes on one end (where the bus drops us) we headed towards the other end of the waterfall by walk. We had to walk for about 2KM to reach there and on our way, we saw a stream passing through the paddy fields. That was a fantastic view and attracted us so much that we stopped there and played in the paddy field mud like small kids, walked through the stream and drenched in the drizzle, submerged ourselves in that stream - what not, played like anything. After an hour or so, we started off from there to reach to the other end of the waterfall and reached there.

      OMG!! what a beautiful sight that was. The Rocket was not visible earlier but from this angle it was so clear and its dangerous yet beautiful. We reached to the safest possible edge on the hill top where one of the four streams fall from and spent some time there - witnessing the fog cover and uncovering the waterfall. Then, it was our return journey time to Shimoga by bus. This return journey was not smooth. Bus headlights failed and its a night journey in Ghat road. So, the bus was stopped on a bridge and another bus came in for our rescue within 20min. We were all excited about the experiences we had that day and reached our hotel room by 11PM.

Points to note: We missed going down to the base of waterfall which was restricted at the time of our visit, otherwise its open. Food was a little expensive near Jog Falls. An Egg omlet costed 35 rupees!!

Day 2 – 10^th August 2013

        With all the refreshing and rejuvunating experiences, our souls started the next day afresh like never before to explore even more exciting places and the day didn't disappoint us. We started off to Gajanur Dam from Shimoga and had tasted "BUNS" - a delicious food item similar to Ariselu. From there, we headed towards "Sakkare Bayalu" Elephants training camp. On our way to the elephant camp, we had to walk for 2KM - yet another fantastic walking experience amidst full of lush green fields. At the elephant camp, we fed elephants and learnt to communicate with them :). Aagattu - to come forward. Dalai - To put its trunk on one's head(to bless). From there, we started back to Jewel Rock in Shimoga where we had our food and started to Murudeswar by bus. Its 109KM from Shimoga.  We had to again go via Jog Falls route only. Shimoga -- Sagara -- Jog Falls -- Hannovar -- Murudeswar. On our way, we saw many streams of water on either sides road and a good number of waterfalls. Notable among them was three waterfalls - similar to Jog Falls - in height and width comparable with Jog falls. Just seeing flow of such waterfalls itself fills much happiness and makes heart very light. We were very happy and I was thankful to God that I was able to witness something like that. After a long - yet not so tiring - journey for about 5 hours, we reached Murudeswar and the very first sight of this place was refreshing!!. We got down at main road and from there took an auto who charged Rs.40 to get us to the actual Murudeswar. When we were getting down at RNS Guest house reception, the first thing that took our attention was the Beach and the 120+feet high statue of lord shiva on the hilltop. Such a fantastic view to see during sunset time!!! We reached our rooms and got freshed up there and just roamed around and had our food at Naveen Restaurant. This restaurant has its pillars in sea waters on sea shore. We could see tides coming and kissing the pillars of the building we were in. Having food there was an unforgettale experience. We can see people playing in beach, fisherman getting into sea. We were all happy for all that the day had offered us.

 

Day 3 – 11^th August 2013

       The day started off with a beautiful sunrise witnessed from the balcony of our room with a cup of tea in my hands. Though its not the best of the teas I have tasted, the time and location added the needed flavors to my experience. Our rooms in Murudeswar were just on the shore of sea. Literally, if we jump from the balcony, we will be in sea (rocks are there, otherwise I may have tried it :P).

       We started off to temple for darshan of Lord Shiva at the temple and went to the 20 storeyed gopuram of the temple. There was a lift operating to take us to the 20th floor from where you can see amazing view of Lord shiva statue and beach. There are four view points in four directions but the two mentioned (Lord Shiva and Beach) are absolutley fabulous to watch. From there, headed to have our breakfast at Naveen Restaurant. After having a decently heavy breakfast, we returned to our rooms to change our clothes for playing in sea water. But we decided against it since we might get affected by the sun and salty winds at sea coast. So, we stayed back and played cards - Judgement game. Rakesh, a serious debutant to the game, outplayed everyone else in his third game. But, we had great fun playing cards in the balcony with the sea view.

        At 3PM, we started to roam on beach and walked for about 2 to 3  KM to reach to a small temple (can be seen in below picture of beach). While the water of sea tasted very salty, there is a small stream adjacent to that temple and its water tasted very sweet (Report courtesy: Rakesh :) ). We assummed that stream to be a part of the Sharavati River. This trip also taught us a new lesson that not only two rivers in India flow towards west to enter into sea but Sharavati also travels to west and merges into Arabian sea. Best part about this beach was - we went about 100 meters into the water and still the water was just about 2-3 feet deep only. While I had taken my way to shore, my other companions had some good fun there in the water for sometime there. Sand of this beach - I felt - was so soft when compared to other beaches I visited. Its so soft that it acted like a mirror to reflect the sky when the sand it just wet. (Diary milk Silk) After walking, exploring, playing so long the evening, we returned to rooms and got afresh. We had another good dinner and with all these loads of fun, excitement, the day concluded.

 

 

Day 4 – 12^th August 2013

As per the plan, we will be leaving to Shimoga from where I had to start back to Hyderabad by evening. And we started by 8AM from Murudeswar - we got into a mini bus / tempo to reach to Hannovar. (25 Rupees was the fare) From Hannovar, we got direct bus to Shimoga (bus to Mysore will go via shimoga) at 9.50AM. We got down at Tyaverakoppa Wildlife Sanctuary at around 2PM. There we went for Tiger-Lion Safari (50 rupees per head and 50 rupees for camera). Since its rainy season, there is a danger of bus getting stuck in middle of safari with Tigers around, so they kept tigers in a cage and it was a normal saffari only. Deers, Samba were spotted and the bus stopped near the cages of Tigers & Lions. Tigers were calm and they were giving poses to camera. Lion - the king of forests, was lazy and dull - as expected while Lioness was playing around and giving poses for snaps. We were able to see them so closely from couple of feet distance - though they were in cage. But Bannergatta national park (Bangalore) safari was so cool (which I went couple of years ago) where the tigers walk freely around and we pass by them on road. After we were done with the safari, we returned to see the regular zoo animals and the exciting part in it was with Cheetas. While I was capturing a video of a cheeta by resting mobile camera on the fencing and the cheeta jumped onto me. It was a shocking experience. Overall, it was fun and good. From there, we started back to Shimoga and had a heavy lunch at 4PM to conclude our stay at Shimoga. We boarded the bus to Hyderabad by 6PM. It was all good in the end.


 

Yet another visit to Srisailam

Another unplanned visit to Srisailam but yet again successful with the blessings of Mallikarjuna Swami. I had been planning for going to Srisailam for a two day stay and most of it I wanted to dedicate for Dhyanam after darshan at the temple. No sightseeing I was interested in that trip. On Thursday, I decided that I would go on that weekend and checked for tickets availability and asked if Raghu wants to join me. We both were happy with plan & executed, so we boarded bus to Srisailam on Friday at 11.30PM. Saturday early hours bus stopped at checkpost and I explored in detail about the cottages available there. By 8.45 Saturday morning, we reached Srisailam but we lost about 30min in identifying the accommodation for us. Finally we landed into a room and we started immediately for darshan after fresh up.  

How lucky we were – Raghu and I. That day there was no darshan tickets, the temple officials decided not to have any special Pujas on that day and they were performing Maha Kumbhabhishekam for the well-being of the world and for timely rains. While about 25 or more Brahmin boys reciting the matras and performing homam in a hall adjacent to main temple, they allowed every devotee to pour the sacred waters from Mallika Kundam (adjacent to mail temple - believed to be Saraswati river water) as part of Abhishekam.  Though there was big queue with people having pots in their hands, God blessed us with an easy darshan (we somehow made it into the temple through the exit gate instead of regular entry queue) and opportunity to perform that Abhishekam. Luckily we both got a pot and we shared the water from pot and offered that holy water to Lord Shiva. A funny thought struck my mind then – we feel so great about offering Him His own things. What else could be a better example than this for the Maya. 

We were not greedy to try again and offer more water to god again there given the fact that we have to do that at the cost of someone not doing it, since this seva of offering water by devotees would be closed by 11AM that day and there were more than 100 people standing in queue for their turn. So, we thanked the Lord Shiva for blessing us and we walked to Bhramaraamba temple. We took the darshan and came out to collect prasadam which was the breakfast we had that day.  

Then we returned to the room and took rest to clear off the journey stress. After lunch (at the Satram we stayed in), we decided to take rest for some more time and we wanted to offer Arghyam at Paataala Ganga in the evening time. It was Sani Trayodasi that day and offering Arghyam in evenings of Saturday is said that it’s very pious act. We got up at around six and got freshen up and started off to Paataala Ganga. On our way, we bought flowers and Turmeric to offer to Krishnamma. (We have to thank every water body for their tolerance and kindness to the creatures – as per our Vedic scriptures). There were too many steps we had to walk down to reach to Paataala Ganga. (with limited money in hand and ATMs not working, we couldn’t go for Rope-way option). At Sani Pradosha Kalam, on Sani Trayodasi – we could offer the Arghyam to Sun God with holy waters of Krishna River at a sacred land of Srisailam. We stood there for some time thinking about God and our Ignorance. 

Whileeby the steps, we stopped at a few places on our way since it was too difficult for both of us to climb steps at one go sharing our previous travel experiences. On our way back, I found “Tella Jilledu” flowers. So, I collected couple of them and brought to main temple to offer to lord Shiva. We again took darshan through exit door and offered the flowers to Lord Shiva and returned to room after that darshan. The next morning we got up early to have a first darshan and unfortunately we couldn’t take special darshan tickets, had we taken the tickets – we could have touched the Lingam (first half hour darshan they allow devotees to touch Lingam). This time we had to go in queue and It took four hours for it.

 Post the darshan, we left to Hatakeswaram for Dhyanam and on that way we visited Phaladhara and Panchadhara. There we tasted a new fruit(forgot the name of it J). Then spent an hour or so in Hatakeswaram temples and had our lunch at an Annadanasatram along with some sadhu’s there. Practiced Dhyanam for some time and started our return journey.  

Though we were lucky to have a good Darshan and chance to offer the water to Lord Shiva in temple, the other important wish I had – to meditate uninterruptedly for hours, is still a wish for my next visit.