Singaperumal Temple

It has been a year since I moved to Pareri, a small village at about 5 minutes walk from Singaperumal Koil. Singaperumal koil is a small town located in the outskirts of Chennai.

I am not the kind of person who goes to temple very often. I am here for almost an year and never had an idea to visit any temple. My room mates used to go to Church every weekend without fail. I used to go to theaters in Chengalpatu, regardless of what movie is being shown there, almost every week to pass my time, but never had the slightest idea of going to the temple.

Tomorrow is my last working day at Infosys. I had this guilty feeling of not going to temple for the past one year, which rot me. I heard about Singaperumal Temple from my colleague and thought at least today I should visit it and offer my prayers. I had collected money since I settled here in a piggy bank to offer to God. I took half of it and got directions from my friend and left to the temple.

I have already learnt that the temple is on a hillock. The main idol is carved within the hillock. I reached there around 7.00 P.M.

The experience I got there is awesome. With my limited words I will not be able to explain it. The place was so good for praying. I felt very bad that I have been near this place for a whole year and I was such an idiot to never visit it. It's all God's play to make me visit it in the last day of my stay. I have decided to visit the temple and offer my prayers whenever possible.

So especially for people staying and working around Mahindra City. Do spend some time in visiting the temple.

To read more about the temple and for some photos you can visit the following links
http://www.dharsanam.com/2008/03/singaperumal-koil-sri-ugra-narasimhar.html
http://www.indiadivine.org/audarya/sri-vaishnava-forum/674845-fw-singaperumal-koil.html
http://travellerspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/04/deja-vu-singaperumal-koil.html

Kanyakumari

Early in the morning we started to Kanyakumari. We five in car started early in the morning to be there to witness the sunrise in Cape Comorin.

On the way to Cape Comorin to witness the sunrise

We reached there before the sun rise and waited for the sun to rise.  The area was crowded with lot of tourists.

Before the sunrise

The rising sun

Next we moved on to Mathur. This bridge below is the Asia's longest and tallest trough bridge. Couldn't believe huh? Yes it is. The bridge was built to carry water between two hills.

Mathur Thottipalam

A view from the bridge

Next on our list was Padmnabhapuram palace.

From the entrance

An another view of the palace

No entry

The entrance

A view from the windows of the palace

Pulley used to draw water

Hand cuffs for the bad guys

One section of the palace

At the museum adjoining the palace

At the museum adjoining the palace

At the museum adjoining the palace

A welcome posture

Then we cooled ourselves at the Thiruparapu falls. 

Thiruparapu falls

and again was in Kanyakumari to witness the sunset.

Gandhi mandabam

Manimutharu

After the long trip from Chennai and after the bath in Courtallam, we rested here a bit in this forsaken, but beautiful dam.

The Manimutharu Dam

A small rest in the shadows

Canal digged through the rock

Boulder Bridge

Tamilnadu Government

Some red flowers

Mamallapuram - Mahabalipuram

Mamallapuram now renamed to Mahabalipuram is a place which I had a deep desire to visit after I read "Sivagamiyin sabatham". It is a tourist town 60 km south of Chennai known for its stone carvings. This town was built by the Pallava king Narashima Varman. One more reason why I wanted to go here is because I am staying so close to this place,its just a half an hour drive.

I was going on asking my busy room mates to plan a trip on a week end. But no one was ready saying they are just stones. What is there to see. This morons never wanted to take a break from there 24/7 work culture.

But now changed plan to go there along with Dhiren, Vinoth, Vignesh and Jai. We didn't have any plans before hand. I spent the week end in there room and we started planning things the day before. I insisted on going on bus but others insisted on a rented car. But Jai came with an option to borrow his friends car.

Lucky we took that option. We started in the morning(11.00 A.M). That is the time when we all woke up and got ready, so we call it as morning. We had our breakfast at around 11.30. We took the ECR(East Coast Road) to Mamallapuram. We started explaining delhite Dhiren Gupta about the story of Mamallapuram.

@ Muttukadu Back Water

On the way we visited Muttukadu backwaters. It was such an waste of time. There were two options available for boating. One which you peddle and the other one is like the water biking. The problem the water stinks a lot. While water biking you get wet for sure and we were not ready to get wet. Moreover we didn't feel anything attractive there. I mean it looked something like a desert nothing green. We got down there, saw the situation and started back our journey. We wasted our precious time and the money we spend on parking.

Crocodile Fossil

Next on our way was the crocodile park. Passed some time there and we continued our journey. The interesting part of the park was the crocodile fossil present there. It was amazing. Not only us most the people visited there had a doubt these crocodiles were alive. Almost all lied there as if they were some stone sculptures from Mahabalipuram.

Tiger Caves

We moved on and next on our list was the Tiger caves. Took some snaps there and moved on. Had our lunch when it was around 3 or something.

We entered the town. Its not worth calling it a town. You can call it as a village rather. It is fully filled with resorts and restaurants. I wonder why people stay there rather than Chennai. We climbed the rock to have a look on the sculptures and the light house. We were amazed about the sculptures. They were awesome only if you had a taste towards art.

 We inquired a tourist guide about the places to visit, and he learned that there is Pancha Pandava Ratham and the Shore temple more to visit and also we were left out of time as they close those things by 5.30.

We rushed to the Pancha Pandava Rathas and we were not allowed in saying the ticket counters close by 5 :-( We tried to bribe the watch man to get in but nothing worked not because the watchman was a fan of Anna Hazarae but because he had some superior officer in and he was afraid of getting caught.

So we returned home without visiting Pancha Pandava Ratha and Shore temple.

Kodaikanal

A view from the Guna Caves

A mountain squirrel

Watch Tower

View of a Dam from the mountains

Tender Cocunut

Dolphin Nose

Srirangapatna

It’s been around one month since we went out of the campus. We were very busy preparing for our exams. Now everything has got over and we had to refresh ourselves. We were discussing on the plan for that week end.. We had visited Mysore Palace, Zoo, Jaganmohan Palace and the Brindhavan Gardens. What was left around Mysore where we haven't gone? We went on for a search in the Google Maps and found Tipu’s Fort in Srirangapatna. We found some pictures and they were interesting. We decided to be there that week end.
Srirangapatna is a village of historic, religious, and cultural situated in hub of Karnataka, just about 13 kms from Mysore. The entire town is an island enclosed by River Cauveri. This history-rich town was the capital of the Warrior-Kings Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan - The Tiger of Mysore. We started late, took a bus and reached around 2.00 pm. When the bus went over a bridge across the river Cauveri, we had the feeling of entering a ruined ancient village. The fort walls that had fallen over the ages took us back to the dates of Tipu. When I saw those fort walls I got reminded of the Hollywood movie “Troy”. We got down from the bus and walked a little distance. We found a board marked Lal Mahal Palace.

Tipu Sultan Palace

Tipu Sultan Palace

We didn't find anything there but a lawn and some remains. It didn't look much like a palace. We took some snaps outside the so called palace. We were not so impressed by that.
Then we had a look at the Ranganathaswamy Temple. The temple is one of the most important Vaishnavite shrines in South India. Then we went to the river banks and then walked to the Colonel Bailey’s Dungeon. I forgot to mention about the water gate. It was really great to see a drainage system built by the ancient kings. We have never heard or read about that in any reviews of the place. The water gate has a board marked as an ancient building and it is taken care by the government but we were shocked to see people living there. They made that building their home.

Colonel Bailey’s Dungeon

Then we went to the Colonel Bailey’s Dungeon. It was named after Colonel Bailey who discovered this dungeon. This dungeon was used to imprison Maratha invaders, and other prisoners of Tipu Sultan. The dungeon measures 30.5 metres width 12.2 metres height and is built of brick and mortar. We walked to the top of the fort to get a view of the bridge built by Colonel Wellesley. We saw the crocodile pit and the huge walls built by them. The dungeon was really interesting. We took some good snaps there and then started walking. There were a lot of old buildings and temples left unnoticed by the tourists and the Government.
We then went to Tipu’s burial place. There was a stone laid in his remembrance. Then we walked to the Jamia Masjid and from there we took an auto to the Daria Daulat Bagh - the summer palace of Tipu. Built in 1784, this Summer Palace was one of the Tipu's favourite retreats. It stands on a raised platform at a height of 1.5 metres. The Bagh has treasured the paintings, engravings, arms that depict the valiant victories and struggles of Tipu Sultan. The coins, medals, weapons, canons and the pencil drawings are some of the noteworthy things found there. Another interesting thing exhibited there was the model of the island. It would have been really a difficult task to build such a model those days.
Then we left for the Sangam, the place where the rivers meet each other. This is the place where the Hindus perform their ritual rights. We were interested in the “parisal” ride. But we didn't because of its cost. Then from there we went to the Gumbaz, Mausoleum of Tippu Sultan, his father Hyder Ali and his mother. That was built by Tippu Sultan. The Gumbaz stands on a high and wide platform with an open veranda with polished pillars all round. The lawn in front of the Gumbaz looked like a dust bin fully covered with garbage. Although the Gumbaz had a royal majestic look, the surroundings were so disgusting because of the lack of proper maintenance. We just took a look at everything and started back to Infosys campus.