Friday, December 29, 2017

In pursuit of Siva !

Travelling is a never ending excitement particularly in a country like India and more so if the travel is in search of specific ideals and goals. While 2017 has almost kept my travelling kit ready through the year crisscrossing more of down south, when the bugle call from Sree Janaki Tours (SJT) for a short trip to Madhya Pradesh was blown , it was too irresistible an offer to ignore. The unexplored lands of MP jotted with some rare Jyotirlingas was beckoning and the spot decision to grab the opportunity is one of my quickest.

Due to the crowded calendar , the schedule and the places of visit shared by the Tour managers were never given deep thoughts and when the Indigo flight with a thirty member touring party soared into the evening skies towards Indore , a look at the schedule more for wanting to do something after devouring the mouth watering tomato chutney with soft idlies than for an analysis, it was surprising how much could be covered in such a short time.

When the flight landed blissfully before the scheduled arrival time, the gleaming Devi Ahalyabhai Holker Airport at Indore was a sight to behold with its clean environ and the entourage hurried into the waiting luxury bus, trying to take cover from the chill breeze of the place !

Indore Airport
The hour long drive to Ujjain was pleasant and the illuminated sight of 'Shanthi Clarks Inn Suite' was irresistible. A quick look into the suites confirmed the penchant of SJT to offer the best facility for their clients. The room was spacious, linen clean and wash room spotless. The steaming soup with a higher tinge of pepper and salt was soothing for the dropping temperature and as usual SJT bent backwards to specially summon curd rice for the guests from south India !

Ujjain Hotel
Day-2 (19-Dec-2017)

After a comfortable overnight sleep and a decent breakfast, the group headed to the Mahakaleshwar temple, one of the Jyotirlingas, situated in Madhya Pradhesh , hardly few minutes drive from our hotel. The unique temple Gopuram of this area was everywhere to see and the gigantic statue of King Vikramaditya was an overpowering structure welcoming the guests to the holy city ! Though the Chief Minister of MP was scheduled to visit the temple on that day , it is to the credit of the authorities that the visiting pilgrims were rarely put any hardships due to the visit of the high profile dignitary.

Near Mahakaleshwar Temple
The security checks were not that stringent though people were advised not to carry mobile phones  and even leather bags but the dress code of women  as 'only with saris' was insisted upon , though not much was said about for men. The spacious and somewhat clean environment of the waiting hall, ushered into, was a comforting factor and before long we were close to the big Shiva Linga and as is the wont in North Indian temples, devotees were allowed to pour milk and also embrace the Linga and pray ! The vibrations at the sanctum sanctorum was palpable and one should only visit to realize and feel the same.

It is surprising as to how professional photographers were allowed inside the temple and make quick bucks, while tourists were not even allowed to carry the mobile phones ! While group photos were being taken, there was a woman group of around 20 or so with the dolak performing real foot tapping bajan numbers and no one missed to stop by the Hanuman Sannidi to get immersed in the religious fervour being generated.
Mahakaleshwar Temple
The Badey Ganapathy temple , outside the Omkareshwar temple is rightly named after its huge size. The redeeming feature of this temple is the Pancha Muka Anjaneya with Lord Narasimha as one of the five faces.

The Har Siddhi Maa temple , a Sakthi peedam , is believed to be the abode of many Goddesses . The attraction of this temple is the structure which is made up of a rock smeared with turmeric paste  and vermilion, which makes the temple magnificent when the lamps are lit during Navrathri.

Har Siddhi Maa Temple
The Maa Ghadkalika Devi temple that we visited next is the place that houses Goddess Kaali which the great poet Mahakavi Kalidas worshiped, as displayed in the stone inscription there . I could not stop reminiscing the sequence of events in Kalidas's life beautifully depicted in the Tamil film 'Mahakavi Kalidas' , which I would have seen over a dozen times.

Maa Gatkalika Temple
Maa Gatkalika Temple Inscription




















The Sri Kaala Bhairav Temple, our next stop, gave an ancient look and was dominated by hordes of monkeys deeply involved in a hide and seek game while the devotees respectfully avoided their field of play !

Kaala Bairava Mandir
By then the entourage was sagging with hunger but the cook at the hotel seemed to have a liking for the famous Andhra Chilly in that all the items were so hot that people even approached curd cups with trepidation !

Post lunch first visit was to Sree Mangalnath Mandir , a temple for  Mars,  and the temple structure reminded one of  New Delhi planetarium. The winding arm of river Kshipra behind the temple was a sight not to be missed and it is a photographer's delight to exercise the photographic skills in the fading sunlight !

Mangal Nath Mandir

Kshipra river behind Mangal Nath Mandir










 Sandipani Ashram near the Mangalnath Mandir is the place where Krishna was supposed to have learnt the skills along with his friend Sudhama under the guidance of Guru Sandipani and there were enough pictures and artifacts adding to the significance of the place.

Sandipani Ashram
Having taken in enough for the day, the team retreated to the hotel for a dinner later to suit the dipping temperature outside.

Day-3 (20-Dec-2017)

The rejuvenated team set out early for the town of Maandu, about 80 KM from Ujjain, and the travel time en route was well utilized for networking that brought people closer. What started as a two hour drive almost stretched for four hours before we hit Maandu and the lunch served there was much better and tolerable than the one we had the previous day.

Having quelled the cravings of belly, the team set to explore the structures and ruins of the ancient city of Maandu, which presented some exquisite sights. Visiting places like Jahas Mahal (Jahas meaning a ship) ,  Hindola Mahal and Roopmathy pavilion, one could experience the beauty in the form of butterfly shaped pond, Sauna bath place and other such spots , which were well explained by the local guide , who unfortunately could not speak English.

Maandu

Maandu
















As the famous Bagh caves of Maandu could not be accessed due to an accident on the way, the team after a visit to the Echo Point and a tasty tea in too small a cup, a specialty of North India, set out to the town of Maheshwar, which has some beautiful temples under its fold. Ahilyeshwar temple  is basically the place where the idols worshiped by  Devi Ahalya Bhai were maintained and the number and sizes of Shiva Lingas were mind boggling ! There was even a golden swing where Krishna was resting and whether its for security purpose or closing time, we were allowed to have dharshan only through a window, but the sight is worth a small trek to reach the temple.

In the fading beauty of twilight, Jaleshwar temple with the background of river Narmada was enchanting and with the oil lamps lit on the steps leading to the temple adding grandeur, the scene was too tempting for snaps. But, as the pundit of the temple had some other work the temple was closed even at 6:30 PM, clearly an hour ahead of the schedule- so much for the visitors thronging the place from far and wide ! As for me from a far off place like Tamilnadu, I feel a golden opportunity has been missed, as visiting this place again will be too much of an ask, health and purse wise ! Hope  the Madhya Pradhesh Tourism serve the visitors better than this !
Jaleshwar Temple
The Raja Rajeswara temple visited next was well lit and sported a brand new look with many sannidhis and people were happy to finish this dharshan fast as the shop selling popular Maheswari sarees were enticing them from the next door! But the myth of buying such popular items at a better rate from the places of their making was busted when the sellers at these places were also found to jack up the price and bring them as discounts. But such revelations were not to deter our folks who ended up buying a handful of saris before proceeding to Omkareshwar, an hour's drive from the place.

RajaRajeshwar Temple
Day-4 (21-Dec-2017)

The MP govt resort at Omkareshwar beat all the expectations and turned out to be a pretty good host in terms of clean and  ready rooms, good food and pleasing service. Wish our TTDC folks could take some leaves out of such places as the memories of our stay at TTDC, Coimbatore few years back, with dirty linen and crawling bed bugs still haunt us. The master stroke again was to shrug the morning blues and start early and to beat the early morning chill , which was pretty daunting, some local 'TATA magic cabs' were engaged and that protected us well from the weather.

Omkareshwar Entrance
Ours was almost the first group to enter the Omkareshwar temple, which was surprisingly without much security hassles that haunt such popular places and visitors were even allowed to carry their mobile phones.

OMKARESHWAR_Praharam
The dharshan that followed was out of the world, without any pushing or 'Jarugandis' by the temple staff, who even allowed devotees to take photographs of the presiding deity, which even now I am unable to believe.

OMAKARESHWAR
Due to the thin crowd , we could even make multiple visits and satiate our dharshan thirst and people there warned us not to take this as a regular feature as people had to wait for hours normally and that we were extremely lucky today with such an outing! Then followed an elaborate ritual outside the praharam, where a pundit made all of us to perform a pooja to a Siva Lingam with sankalpam and an abhishekam , while a professional photographer kept clicking to offer copies at dirt cheap price but the satisfaction derived by the whole experience was complete and worth all the efforts !

Sankalpam Abhishekam and Pooja 
A boat ride, that  followed,  on the river Narmada , upto the Triveni sangam there, enabled the touring party to relax and enjoy the beauty of the river which runs very deep, we were told.

Narmada Boating
We were then offloaded at the other side of the river bank to have a dharshan of Mamleshwar Jyotirlinga. It is believed that a trip to Omkareshwar is complete only if one visits both Omkareshwar and Mamleshwar temples. Some also believe that  Mamleshwar is the actual Jyotirlinga and not Omkareshwar !! The temple was old but grand and after an exclusive dharshan and a filling breakfast the team set out to Indore on its last leg of the tour.

Mamaleshwar

Mamaleshwar
The smooth two hour drive to Indore covering around 80 KMs was spent by the group, more to catch up with some sleep that was deprived by an early morning wake up call and to kill time before lunch we visited the Indore Lal Bagh Palace, where the security was multi fold, more than the Jotirlinga temple, but the marble environs where the royals lived left everyone jealous.

Indore Lal Bagh Palace
The parting gift of Madhya Pradhesh was a visit to the Anna Poorani temple, a brand new looking temple, before we set out for a typical north Indian lunch.

Indore Annapoorani temple
After a stroll on the Indore streets just to look for some simple easy grabs of purchase from the Raja Wada street, we moved back to the gleaming Indore airport.

Shopping 
The well lit Indore airport was at its impressive best and the waiting time vanished in no time with the touring party munching over the past few days that just breezed through !


While the tour, despite the hitherto unknown and unexplored terrain of MP did not have any jolts, the Indigo flight compensated it well on its way to Chennai with a sudden but severe jolt mid-sky that prompted almost everyone of us to call the Jyotirlingas we had seen, to our rescue ! Other than that parting shakeup , the team enjoyed the tour well, with the Tour managers doing a wonderful job and when we hit the roads of Chennai heading back home late into the night, we had a feeling of having completed a near perfect and satisfying outing!!

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Keeping the Whale at Bay !

Those were the days , when we came back from school we used to gulp whatever little cold coffee given by mom , carefully divided amongst all the siblings and then rush over to the school play ground for playing Kabbadi or Football or cricket whatever the flavor available and allowed by the seniors present at the turf. The intent was to play , exhibit your skills, prove that you are no moron and no less skilled than your closest schoolmate and return with satisfaction, sweat and some scratches around the knees, carefully washed to evade the prying eyes of parents back home.

Having satiated the thirst for daily dosage of games then one settles down with the books to do the never ending math homework , with an ear to the radio playing the film songs waiting for the call to dinner, which will anyway be frugal,  not that the lunch was royal. After swallowing the solitary item, normally in the company of pickles and onion slices, we used to settle down for the night invariably by 9 PM gossiping in low tones, until father yells everyone to sleep in order to get up early next morning and there ends our day. The house invariably retires by 9.30 at the most, know not whether it was to save electricity or a habit being inculcated. But the gossip and pulling of others' legs in hushed tones under the sheets is a scene, one could trek miles to enjoy !

The absence of a Rooster will invariably be nullified by the early stirring of my father who ensures by making enough sounds that even the best of Kumbakarna in the house gets up. He will either recite slokas loud and /or switch on all the lights and compensate it by switching off the solitary fan spewing more sound than air and which will be available only in that room.

As we retire early at nights, early morning studies are a must, which is a blessing in disguise as that is the best time to grab the complexities of the subjects faster. In the absence of Refrigerators, daily purchase of vegetables was a routine exercise and in turn everyone of the brothers will be assigned the job which will effectively bring the curtains down on the morning studies.

Sadly none of these are in vogue with the current generation and that perhaps accounts for allowing the whale into your drawing room. The discussions under the sheets at nights amongst the siblings could be anything from the goofed up maths test to the shrill whistling  of guys at the street corners. Normally, the heroic brother takes care of such little blips the next day. The point is, children had a forum to vent out and someone in the family to listen to !

The current generation in contrast sulk into their shells at the drop of a hat ! First of all, people have little time to interact and even the dining tables where ideas are normally exchanged becomes a hub where faces are hidden into mobile phones, with the mouth monotonously  munching something prepared few days back ! There are no confession places and no shoulder to rest as each has its own reason to droop!

From what little I understand of the menacing whale lure, people are sucked into it more due to the loneliness and helplessness. The hapless victim-to-be is initially lured into the activity, then coaxed to share the personal details of the family including photographs and then as further tasks forced with threats to share things which leaves the now cornered victim with little choice. Fearing for the safety of their near and dear ones and not wanting to face the ignominy of having been found out about his sharing all personal details, the desperate sucker normally sticks to the course of the game, as directed, rather reluctantly but without a choice, towards his doom.

The availability of free and unchecked Internet across the house is the first culprit that the parents fail to check and allowing the children to use the same to the extent of uploading photographs is, in my opinion, an unpardonable dereliction of parental duties. The closed door facility offered on a platter, in the name of privacy,  to the potential victim of such dubious baits is a disaster that could have been easily checked if only the parents had cared to spend more time on following and interacting with them. Even on weekends the working parents are either busy with their office chores trying to clear backlogs or sleep their way through the day wasting some precious moments that could have been spent to guide their little ones to safety.

The current generation will not be cowed down by unreasonable parental orders, unlike my era but am sure, they understand when explained patiently why they should not indulge in any activity. That is the reason why I choose to put the root causes of this evil to easy availability of Internet and free pass to wander into the oblivion, impatience of the parents to spend more time with their children and insufficient awareness education of the lurking dangers at every bend. Compare this situation with the yesteryear, when bored children used to play group games like Carom Board, Trade or the traditional 'Pallanguzhi' or 'Paandi' wherein more people are involved and they were rarely left alone. This nails the basic causes of the prevailing travails of the younger ones and the resulting heartbreaks for the parents.

Let us learn and learn them quick. It pays to be together, listen to the children and keep talking to the younger ones that could encourage them to come out if they find themselves in a corner. Let us respect the new found words of 'privacy' but also learn to draw the line as to where it could be breached with reason, in times of necessity.

It does pay to talk to your dear ones and more importantly allow them to talk and make yourself available to listen to them too. By such conscious efforts we could not only keep the whales at bay but also net them if they dare to advance further.

Though it beats me as to how the adults and even some techies have fallen for this, I am more concerned and focused on analyzing things where children are mislead.