A Spiritual chronicle

Well as this is my first post in my newly created blog.. wil be lot grateful if u cud excuse me for all the wit, flavour and the expression that i lack....hmm... did i forget to mention those good sounding hifi words..words which u certainly need to look back in a dictionary for a person like me:).. in short , "The Always Impressive Vocab"....am a tyro in this blog field u c...ehhh...did i just unknowingly use a good word:).....Well, just before i write on anything ahead...just like we do Shri Ganesh before starting anything new...as in.. remembering and thanking Lord Ganesh... I cant go on eschewing the motivators behind....i.e my best of friends from college time ..Arjun and then Chetan(we call him Cd ..to be precise)... not to mention ..Cdz inspiration is Arjun only.Well,reading their frequently updated blogs inspired me to develop my poor writing skills ....how skillfully their posts keep morphing from one story to another..ok enuf talking.. lets get on the track ..


I had been very sad past a week.. as if something had dawned on me...had never been so my entire life....So,my parents planned to come down South to meet me as i could not afford to take a nice long leave.Mom dad came to Bangalore on friday...and Friday is when we left fr Madurai by plane.Surprisingly Madurai airport had just a couple of planes.. n when i say couple..its just a couple.The weather was cool, but not as cool as the kinds in my native city Chandigarh...whre ppl cant aford to even come outa their blankets to take a hot water bath even...uhhhh..
It was around 27degrees...pleasant i should say... just a little warmer than Bengaluru...

Next morning at 5 a.m we went to see the famous Meenakshi Temple... the one we all must have undoubtly read and rather mugged up from one of the chapters of our history books...We hired a guide and he showed us the enitre temple.It has a soaring and exquisitely carved architecture with around 1000 pillars and 4 gates..north south east west, and not to forget..two temples...Lord Shiva temple of 500kilos gold and Lord Meenakshi temple of 300 kilos gold...Inside, they make married couples exchange garlands just as happens in wedding ceremonies..I couldnt stop laughing watch my parents do so...:).Unfortunately camera stick was full because previous Kashmir trip pics of mom dad had not been deleted nor saved.That calls for a well planned trip ;oP
Next we headed for rameshwaram in taxi.It was a 4 hr drive and on our way we crossed a long bridge running right above the Bay of Bengal.The bridge had a rail track on it as well which opened up when a ship needed to cross it.Thats when i felt proud of the civil engineers of my country:).

Now,we reached Rameshwaram..Its a pilgrim place and certainly i am kinda too young to have visited it but, didnt wish to miss the ablution ceremony together with my parents..God knows when i would be blessed again to go later in my life..Just to throw a little light on those whose thoughts are darting here and there thinking what exactly it is..here is d gyan..

Rameshwaram is an island situated in the gulf of Mannar at the very tip of the Indian peninsula and just 24 kms from Sri Lanka. A very important pilgrim centre of the Indians. According to the Hindu mythology its the place from where Lord Rama, built a bridge across the sea to rescue his consort Sita, from her abductor, Ravana. Here Rama worshipped Lord Shiva to cleanse away the sin of killing Ravana. Lord Rama performed thanksgiving rituals to Lord Shiva after the battle at Sri Lanka and his triumph over the demon king Ravana. The temple has around 22 wells and we were to drink and take a small dip in the water of all these wells to cleanse our so called sins;).

The spiritual journey was still not over.On return to Bangalore, Sunday was the day to visit Tirupati Balaji in Andhra Pradesh,the ancient and sacred temple of Lord Venkateswaram.The temple has really acquired unique sanctity in Indian religious lore.The pandit told us that the Hindu hymns unequivocally declare that, in the Kal Yuga, one can attain mukti, only by worshipping the Lord of this temple...kinda hard to believe?..still.. no harms in believing:)..And so here , the darshan werent a cake walk.There was a six to seven hrs. long waiting queue for the darshan.The over-smart taxi driver promised us to get through to the main gate for a whopping 3000 bucks!..it was a black ticket ofcourse..My father agreed but thats when me and my mom acted smart as well.We went to the JEO's office and portrayed ourselves as NRI's from Canada with our return flight next morning.He asked me if i knew Hindi??:)and i was like ..'nopes!';)Guess what?We got the VIP pass at just one tenth the price..300 bucks only :D ... The perfect part is when a bunch of kids mistook me as Preity Zinta !!...All thanks to my Prada sun shades :-D
Getting on to what i saw in the temple was the most striking feature of the awe-inspiring black idol.Its the fabulous diamond crown, which is said to be the most precious single ornament in the world.Certainly its the richest temple in India, a master piece of South Indian Architecture. The temple has around five six hundis, a well where the devotees drop in their offerings to God.The most interesting part is here to come...In each four hour shift the amount of money collected from the Hundis is more than 3 crores!!.. There are around 60 retired college professors employed for the currency counting,who you can actually see them through the glass windows..sitting and doing there job under camera vigilance. Its heard that lately when Amitabh Bachchan visited the temple with his daughter in law, Aish., they put 20 crores worth jewellery in it!! No wonder I mentioned its the richest temple of the world.
Well i still have more boring stuff to write but probably in my next post.And ya, I promise, it wont be more spiritual again :)