Bhubaneshwar - temples galore

Just realised that i had not posted anything on the day trip to Bhubaneshwar, so here it is.
Short and to the point, I'm real lazy right now.

I hadn’t really planned much on what to visit in the city, so hit the main points; I know I had to visit Lingaraja temple and the caves, apart from that the rest would have to be a surprise. Boarded up at a small hotel near the station and caught the auto for the temple lanes, always difficult to communicate once you’re not in a north Indian state! I did manage to give the auto chap a rough description of the place I wanted to go, and he dropped me off near the Mukteswar temple.

 Its near a big pond right next to a bustling residential area. Quite easy to get lost in these small streets I must say.

The temple compound was small, but you could easily see the amount of detail spent in making it as I relaxed there for some time, relishing the cool black stones touching my feet in the compound.

You can relax in the garden right next to it and visit another temple connected via the garden, forgot the name, just too many to follow. Must say they don't call it the temple city for nothing, you turn your head and a temple pops up in the vicinity; I was in a very religious place, and the irony of that, I'm not the pious kind at all!

Next up I headed for the Lingaraj temple, about 500 meters away. Now I did not enter the temple, even at the insistence of the pandas (Brahmin guides/ priests) sitting at the entrance, 3 reasons – I’m not the most religious of fellows, they don’t allow photography inside, and I was on a deadline to make my flight back to Delhi now.

So I wandered around the temple wall, looking for some vantage point to click some snaps, and then entered one shop asking to be allowed to the rooftop to click some snaps. The shopkeeper charged me 10 bucks for it, so much for the religious feelings!

I later noticed a small sign near the shop advertising the photo opportunity for 10 bucks from the roof, so there. Anyway, I did manage to get a few snaps of the place, not the best I figure, but still captured some of the beauty of this exquisite temple, one of the biggest in the city.

After some coconut water to re-energise me, I was off to the Udaigiri-Khandgiri caves on the opposite side of town. Not a bad place, just too many tourists like me crowding up the locale, interspersed with the monkey population.

 You have to hike a bit to get to the top of the caves, they are all small ones, and most of them are closed off to the public now, but still makes for a worthwhile visit.

Have to remember to visit in the evening though, the bloody sun almost scorched me. All in all, one more city struck off the list now, a lot more to go…..

Srirangaptna and Mysore - Oct 4, 2009

Started for Srirangapatna at 9. My hotel guy told me that all buses bound for Bangalore pass through S’na. Got an express bus, 13 rupees for the 15 km ride, which takes half an hour. I got dropped at the S’na bus stop, the croosroads has two clusters on either side of the road – the one on the left has the mosque, temple, dungeons and obelisk; while the one on the right has the fort museum, Gumbaz and the sangam.

I decided to take the one on the right first. Seems I took a wrong route, a side route used by the locals as after 300 meters through light vegetation and small mud paths, I ended up bang in the middle of the Garden at ‘Daria daulat bagh’. I proceeded to the main structure, a light blue rectangular building which apparently houses some artifacts and old weapons, photography not allowed. I got caught here as the entry guard asked me for the ticket which obviously i did not have. So he directed me to the main gate 200 meters away at the other end of the garden. I proceeded to the gate but was too tired to walk in the sun again so took some snaps of the place and proceeded out. There are autos here that can be used to travel to other sites, I decided to walk it, not a good idea in sunny weather in jeans. I entered the other cluster of places on the opposite side of the road, about a km of walk this time around.

The first monument you hit is the Jumma Masjid, apparently still operational as a masjid today. The main prayer area was also open and I sat there for 10 minutes. The caretaker there told me he had to close as this area was only opened for the morning prayers, I looked at the carved white walls once again before going out. The caretaker was kind enough to let people know of the history of the place, and take their snaps. When I wanted to take a snap of his with the masjid minarets in the background, the poor chap shied away.

From here on forth on one corner you come to Thomas Immam’s dungeon, the whole area has maps so its easy to find your way, I took a snap of one of these maps and kept referring to it on my camera to make sure I did not miss any place. The dungeon also houses a small temple next to it which has a shaded area which I utilized to rest a bit. A shame that they have kept the outer wall area out of bounds of people visiting by means of wires, it would’ve been fun to walk on it to see the river (Cauvery I believe) running next to it. A further 100 meters on the road you come to the place where Tipu Sultan’s body was found, a small stone declaring the fact. Further on the road bifurcates as on the left hand side it leads to the Ranganathaswamy temple. I took this path to get to the temple, again no photography inside, outside on both sides you had the normal shops selling small stone deities and other stuff. I removed my shoes and joined the long line inside the temple compound after purchasing 2 tickets for 10 bucks. The going was slow, apparently because it was a Sunday, quite a few people from other states were also here. Met a coupe of elderly ladies who had come down from Bombay all the way here, as we chatted while waiting for our turn to see the deity.

Apparently the tickets I had bought entitled me to some sort of special pujaand were not entry tickets. I wouldn’t have even known had one of the priests not noticed me holding the pink piece of paper and called me aside from the masses. He started reciting prayers next to me for 1 whole minute, asking me questions, answers to which I obviously did not have. The only word I did recognize in his interrogation was ‘goutra’, to which I replied ‘Mann’, my surname (I believe my interpretation of even that word was wrong). The priest smiled and asked me in broken English if it was my first time here, I smiled back an affirmative. Then he handed me over a few flowers from the main statue’s feet, and I proceeded away from the impatient crowd. At another place inside the temple, I was again given the special 1 minute pooja, the other orange slip coming into play this time. I don’t really even visit temples when my mom pesters me to, and here I was having pujas done in a faraway town!

The heat was still a bit bearable as I clicked snaps of kids (and a middle aged guy!) swinging on Banyan vines, enjoying themselves inspite of the heat. Crossed over to see Colonel Bailey’s dungeon close by, seemed quiet a nice dungeon if you ask me, even though it was in the basement. Further on you have to cross the railway line to get to the obelisk. It’s a bit far away from everything, so did not see anyone else there. Situated on a small elevated mass, it’s almost on a corner where you can see the river bifurcating into two, and the rocks coming out in between the streams. I continued back, it was just 1:45 in the afternoon, so I decided to visit the Gumbaz at the other cluster as well. The auto chap charged 40 bucks (the returning journey cost only 30) from the bus stand to the Gumbaz, 3.5 km away. Small shops again dot the entrance to this tomb, where the bodies of Tipu and his family have been laid to rest. The white marble tomb has the usual beautiful designs that you can see on most of the Islamic structures. I paid my respects to the dead while looking at the exquisite designs on the door, walls and ceilings of the tomb.

Started back for Mysore at around 3 only, having spent a lot of time at the tomb. In the evening I ventured out again to see the Church and Palace lights. I took the circular walk around the palace as I came to the entrance gate. Here I found a lot of people, as I saw that they were infact entering the palace compound, at 7 in the evening. I was told that the entry was free, so I joined to take a closer look at the palace lights, what a stroke of luck! The palace visiting hours close around 6, but I believe that on Sundays, or maybe it was because of Dusshehra that they had opened the palace compound to the public at this time. The whole compound was filled with people from across the country and plenty of tourists, all clicking away at the beautifully illuminated palace. In front of the Palace, an army band was also performing various tunes, which continued on for the duration I was there. Seeing the lit palace from this close was a sight to behold, after being able to see it from 300 meters away only last night. Another day well spent, I tucked in at 10 after some random channel viewing.

Vellore - Fort and Sripuram Golden temple

I had to make myself sleep at around 10 in the night, or at least make the effort to achieve the impossible. I have a strange body clock, it refuses to switch off before 4 am. But I still tried to give it a go, the laptop switched off at 9:30, bathed at 9:45, hit the bed at 10. As is usually the case, the eyelids kept fluttering open every 5 minutes. I guess somewhere around midnight I was finally able to embrace sleep. If you thought I have trouble getting to sleep, getting out of it was an even bigger project; the dear body clock refused to switch off in the night, and also refused to turn on in the morning (if you’re think I’m talking of morning woody here, then I’ve got one word for you – dirty). The first 2 alarm bursts went unnoticed, but god bless the persistence of the third one, that finally woke me up. It never came to my mind to buy an alarm clock, the alarms in the cellphone were used as a normal proxy. Probably a good thing too as I can’t throw down the phone every morning to shut off the damn alarm.

Now this was going to be close, first up hot coffee, my brain doesn’t come out of hibernation till caffeine caresses it, ah lovely caffeine, can’t imagine a life without you. You can imagine the scene from the cartoons, where the animated character gets a bright idea, with the light bulb above the head, and the character’s face lights up with a bling, well the coffee hit is like that transformation for me.
Brushed, bath done in record time and checked the bag –
2 bananas, 2 apples – check (never leave for the unknown without proper nutrition to survive atleast a few hours)
A liter of lemon tang – check
2 nutrition bars – check (its chocolate, and nutrition combined, enough said)
Cap, shades – check
Sunscreen – CHECK
A magazine for the train journey – check
Wallet, cell – check

And I’m off, I reach the Kodambakkam station at 6:20 & watch from the far end of the station as my train ran past, no use running for that now, just have to wait for the next suburban one.It just so happens that I didn’t get one in the next 15 minutes, while I watched 2 return trains pass by. Guess Murphy spent a lot of time on train platforms too while he came up with his one liners. Finally I got my train for Park at 6:40, I needed the 7:15 out of Central, meaning I had roughly about 35 minutes to get to central, buy a ticket, & search for the Bangalore bound Brindavan express… Fortunately I had factored in a buffer of 10 minutes, the train ride took about 17 minutes, & I was in the ticketing queue at 6:55 AM. Never imagined that the general class ticket would cost 50 bucks, costs just about 13 Rupees for Gummidipundi which is also 2 hours away. I asked 4 people at the station, a cop, the ticket counter guy for the train, which just happened to be in the adjoining building at platform 6. I’m a lazy bum, but I broke into a sprint, darting past surprised passerbys, it was 7:10 am and I really did not want to miss this one as the next train would be at 11 only. All said and done, the train eventually pulled out of the station only at 7:40 am, so much for my Usain Bolt impression!

I’m the guy who would probably not even run to be on time at my own wedding, even if the betrothed decided to turn to the best man due to my delay. But this was a train, so there. I’m not a frequent train traveller, most of my journeys are on reserved tickets, so I was a bit lost on the station. I figured the coaches marked ‘UR’ stood for unreserved and joined the hordes in clambering onto one. A nice hot day, and I was at the gate again, watching the stations pass by slowly. The train took almost 3 hours to get to Katpadi station where I took a shared auto for 15 bucks that dropped me in front of the fort 3-4 kms away. I first visited the temple inside the fort, Jalagandeeswarar Temple to escape the sun. the temple architecture is quite something, with the pillars depicting a lot of different deities. Took a walk outside the wall around the inner temple compound, having a lush grass cover, felt nice to walk on. Inside the temple I found people lighting diyas at a wall, which had a rack with space for a lot of the, I paid 4 rupees and lighted a couple too. The temple building inside had the main deity (don’t ask me which) aroung which a circular path has various other deities carved out. Sat down in the small hall just next to this room for a few minutes with an old couple as I watched people carry on their ritual exercises.

Took a long walk on the fort wall, you get a good view of the hills in the distance, the bustling city traffic, and the moat filled with water around the fort. You can even walk ON the wall, rather than walking on the path inside it, which is what I tried. Had a small snack at the back of the fort beneath a big banyan tree which proved to be a nice resting place. There are not really many places to go down and explore, most of them filled up with heavy shrubbery now. I did walk through one of these areas, but it’s a bit of an exercise in itself, and doesn’t lead to any place exquisite. Most of the fort’s inside is now some sort of office area, or museum, or some institute, so I decided to venture out after the long circular walk on the fort wall.

Looked at the local shops before coming to rest at a big church some 400 meters from the fort gates. Here I asked a few locals for the directions to the Golden temple. So I took a bus from the bus stand opposite the church and in 25 minutes got dropped in front of the Sripuram temple. I had read that this temple has more gold than the olden temple at Amritsar, so decided to check this out as well. First, off with the shoes, deposit the bags, cellphone and camera at the place near the front gate. You can join special lines by paying 100, 200 and more amounts, I decided to go the common man’s path and joined the long free line. For the next 20 minutes you trudge along in a wire mesh bound path until they put you up in a room with chairs. Not just an ordinary room , this one has a BIG tv, fans, even ice cream and pop corn vendors inside it, and a restroom attached. If you’ve ever seen an airport hangar, it was like that, complete with the asbestos ceiling, and wire mesh for walls. The entire hangar was divided into 8-9 rooms of dimensions of roughly 80 feet by 40 feet each, and in one of these was I made to sit. And they literally locked the doors of each room, seriously lock and key! I was already deriding myself for coming here when I saw the board that said that waiting time was 2.5 hours, great! I sat in the room for another 25 minutes when they let the doors at the other end open, the crowd rushed forth and so did i. and once again in a long queue we trudged forth, but this time on side there was a wall. The weather thankfully improved, and there were strong winds now accompanying rains. The security at the place was quite tight, you had to pass through 2 metal checks before getting in. Now I finally landed on the star shaped path I had read of, with no walls on either side, just the asbestos roof above, and cobbled path below, I enjoyed the view, the garden maintained beautifully, lush green, flowers in the rows, and rain falling with overcast skies. I walked slowly as I enjoyed the rain drops hitting me from the sides with the wind, a mass of people stopping and sitting for rest as well. When you get to the main temple its an oval shaped path separating you from the temple with water pool in between. And as is the case in most temple, you can’t stand here for more than 10-15 seconds else the temple caretakers and other people start shouting at you. So you really don’t get time here to admire the amount of gold spent on the structure.

I looked through the small shops that were set up on the path selling puja preparations. It almost looked like a Clinique counter with the nice ladies behind the counter, and the wares displayed perfectly, and the setting was also similar. I paid 30 bucks to get a small book on the history of the temple, as they had no postcards, and this was the only thing which had snaps in it.Thankfully, it only took me less than 2 hours to visit the temple and the rain had toned down a notch, so I ate a boiled corn cob, and boarded my bus to the train station to get back to dear Chennai at 5 in the evening.