Trekking at Azhagar Kovil - 3

Hi Guys,

(To Read Trekking at Azhagar Kovil - 2, click here)

It took a long time for this concluding post due to my exams.

12.40 pm: We started moving down. This is where I left the previous post.

12.51 pm: The water we collected at the Raakaie Amman Temple was nearly empty as Saravana didn't collect properly. Bala said that there is another temple nearby on the way down where the we can collect the water from another opening of the stream. We reached there by 12.50 pm. It was a small temple that was a 2 minute walk from the main road. It was visible from the road, if observed carefully.

The Path to the temple

12.55 pm: It was five minutes before Saravana collected water from the water stream that was flowing through a pipe. It was some 10 feet below the ground. The water was again very clean and had some herbal flavour. There were a very few people who were preparing to take bath. The water was very cool and the sun was quite hot.

Water flowing through a pipe.

The small temple

1.08 pm: Another 15 minutes of walking and we reached the Ice Cream vendor - the man who sold Ice Cream at the dividing point between the road and natural path. It meant we had completed nearly half the journey in the downward path.

The Ice Cream Vendor

1.29 pm: We sat in a rock for some time. Bala had captured a butterfly and after some efforts he took shots in different positions before leaving the butterfly back to freedom (we didn't hurt the butterfly). After that we continued our journey towards the base. We spotted some goats drinking water in the stream and eating plants.

Goats

1.40 pm: We reached the base of the temple after some 10 minutes. We were so tired by then and it was relieving to see the wall of the temple.

Nearing the end of the journey.

1.45 pm: It took us five more minutes to reach the starting point. After capturing some shots we moved to the bus stop.

The entrance of the temple

A mandapam outside meant for devotees to rest.

It took us nearly 1 hour to come down. Leaving the rest period, I could say it took us 45 minutes. Walking down was easier than moving up. After drinking water, we moved to bus stop by 2 pm and it was lunch time. There were no buses there.

It took another 15 minutes for a bus to come and there was a big crowd. Again I was left with no buses at the other bus stand and hence I reached home finally by 4.15 pm. I was so tired by then.

Walking for a long distance after a long time didn't do anything that day. But when I woke up the next day, my whole body was aching and moving within the home itself was a trouble. Anyway it was a good exercise for the muscles and I got back well soon.

It was an unforgettable experience was me along with Bala and Saravana. Hope to do another activity soon.

I will write about the history of the temple and suggestions for trekking here in my next post (or soon).

Happy Reading and Viewing!!!

Power of Mobile Internet in India!

Hi Guys,

Do you use mobile phone to access internet? If your answer is yes, then you contribute to one half of Internet population in India. Yes, one half of Indians use mobile phones to access internet. It was 2% in January 2009 and in a span of 3 years it has become 48% in April 2012. Maybe, by this time it would have crossed 50%

Most of the times, I browse through PC, but mobile has been a great companion for me. Mobile Internet users can be broadly classified into two types. The first one comprises of people who do not have access to PC or broadband or who feel broadband is expensive (a survey shows that Indian people are ready to spend Rs. 50 per month on an average). The second category is people, who use mobile to browse while travelling or not being at home. I belong to the second category.

Mobile Internet offers great tariffs. There are packages for 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, etc depending on service providers. So, whenever I am travelling I activate the 1 day pack for which I will ultimately spend very less. The main purpose I would need internet while travelling is to check mails, to access Facebook and to see any other important site. Many of my friends who stay outside use mobile phones as modem. They use monthly packs and it is both cheap and good enough for browsing.

Two years back, when I started using Internet on mobile, the speed was very low and connection was very poor. At many places, the towers won’t support EDGE (which is an advanced version of GPRS which enables high speed). These days the speeds have improved a lot (am speaking of 2G technology) and so have the infrastructure.

A month back, the modem in my home went berserk and hence I was not able to use broadband. I used my mobile as a modem and it was very handy.  The speed was not great, but it was good enough to browse and download basic stuffs. I was amazed to see speeds of 200 Kbps which is one tenth of my broadband speed.

If we are able to get such good speeds in 2G, then surely 3G would be superb. There are lot of issues with infrastructure and tariff. But remember that it is just blooming. Recently tariffs have been slashed hard. Earlier I had a doubt whether 3G will be successful in India. But in 2 years time, I think lot of people will start using 3G.

With lot of websites becoming mobile friendly (even my blog is mobile friendly – set so in blogger settings) and increase in sales of smart phones, I think browsing in Mobile would be as good as browsing in PC. With decrease in costs of smart phones and improvement in Infrastructure of service providers, definitely India is all set to become a Mobile Browsing country.

This post is written for Internet is Fun Conest (http://www.vodafone.in/fun) on Indiblogger. Indibloggers, please vote for my post at this page

Happy Reading!!!

The Immortals of Meluha - Amish

Hi Guys,

It’s very difficult to write a fiction story based on religious characters. A little slip would mean that the book will be criticized for ever. A little high on reverence would stamp the book as a religious book and number of people reading would decrease.

Amish has done a marvelous job writing ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ The novel is the first part of the Shiva Trilogy. The second part is ‘The Secret of the Nagas’ which has already released and third part ‘The Oath of Vayuputras’ is yet to release.

The outline of the story is just simple – The Story of the Man, whom legend turned into a God.

The year is 1900 BC. The story begins with Shiva in Mount Kailash, nearby Lake Mansarover. He is the leader of a group of people. He is aided by Bhadra. They face frequent attack from enemies as the enemies want to acquire Lake Mansarover. At the same time, Nandi a captain from the Meluha kingdom (which spreads over the western parts of India and current Pakistan) approaches Shiva and asks their people to come to Meluha for their safe being.

Shiva decides to go and once they reach Meluha, they are astonished by the development and discipline at Meluha. The Meluha kingdom is ruled by King Daksha. The Meluhans are Suryavanshis (people who follows solar calendar). They were once ruled by Lord Ram who devised all the rules and hence he is worshipped as a God.

The Meluhans are facing lot of troubles. The Saraswati River is on the brink of extinction. They face terrorist attack headed by Chandravanshis who have allied with the evil Nagas. The legend says a hero will emerge and he will be the savior.

When Shiva reaches Meluha, the people are offered a drink that is said to cure diseases. When Shiva drinks it, something amazing happens and the people start to believe that Shiva is the hero they were waiting for. They believe Shiva will cure all their problems. Shiva is dumbstruck to know the immense belief people have on him.

He also falls in love with Sati who is Dakhsa’s daughter and he also finds out that the Meluhans live long. Sati keeps avoiding him saying she is not supposed to marry. Meanwhile they face frequent attacks from the enemies whose main purpose seems to be kidnapping the princess.

So, why do Meluhans live long? Who are Nagas? Are Chandravansis evil? Why is Lord Ram spoken so high of? Why do people have immense belief on Lord Shiva? Why do they need the waters of River Saraswati?


To all this, read the book. The book is definitely a page turner. I started and finished it off in the same day. Amish has penned a wonderful story taking all the characters of Hindu Mythology as extraordinary people whom history has turned into God.


See the official trailer for the book here.

Click here to buy 'Immortals of Meluha' from Flipkart

Buy The Immortals of Meluha from Flipkart.com

Click the image below to buy the set of 2 books - The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of Nagas from Flipkart

Happy Reading!!!

Trekking at Azhagar Kovil - 2

Hi Guys,

(To Read Trekking at Azhagar Kovil -1, click here)

Let me continue my trekking experience.

11.25 am: We hit the road. At the last leg of the roadless journey, we started to feel the heat. The sun was heavy and we realized the mistake of not taking a water bottle with us. The first thing we saw on the road was a Ice Cream vendor. Our initial thought was to buy, but soon we realized that eating an Ice Cream at this state would damage our throat completely. After some time we saw a vendor selling fruits and we bought some pieces of water melon and it quenched our thirst completely. Luckily no monkey interfered us when we were eating. After eating the flesh part, we gave the skin of the fruit to a monkey and it accepted happily.

The roads were constructed amidst the jungle and hence we didn't feel the heat here too.

Devotees walking down the hill after completing the prayers

11.45 am: The water melon was enough for some time, after which the tiredness stared setting in. After walking on the road for some 20 minutes, some tourist buses came into our sight which meant the temple was nearby. Just before the temple, we saw the tree where the famous incident between Tamil poet Avvaiyar and Lord Murugan took place (for more details of the incident, click here)

The tree on the left side is the tree where the famous incident between Lord Murugan and Tamil poet Avvaiyar took place.

11.50 am: It took us another five minutes to reach the first temple, namely Pazhamudhircholai, which is one of the six abodes (Arubadaiveedu) of Lord Murugan. We got two water bottles here and emptied it quickly (we were that much thirsty). We continued to walk upwards towards the next temple. After drinking the water, it started to sweat so much for me and Bala, but Saravana had no sweat. We were drenched with sweat in some 5 minutes.

Pazhamudhircholai Temple

12.00 pm: The next temple namely Raakaie Amman Temple was some 250 m away from the first one, but it took us some five minutes because of the steep nature of the road. I will say more about the temple in the last post. To reach the temple you have to climb some 70 steps and there are lot of monkeys here. The temple mainly has access to Noopura Gangai, which is a perennial stream starting from a waterfall somewhere above. The water comes through some pipe or some other means and devotees take bath here. The water is wonderful here. It has lot of medicinal properties as it brushes through many herbal leaves.

Raakaie Amman Temple

12.20 pm: We didn't take bath at the temple, but then we collected water and there were some 15-20 people standing in the queue. So, it took us 15 minutes before touching the water and then finishing our prayers.

A view from the Raakaie Amman Temple

12.30 pm: After eating some snacks at the base of Raakaie Amman Temple, we starting moving downwards. Moving downwards was very easy but the path was very steep and we had to control our legs in order to avoid falling down. We entered the Pazhamudhircholai temple and after finishing our prayers there we started walking down.

12: 40 pm: We started moving down.

I will conclude the trekking experience in my next post.

(To Read Trekking at Azhagar Kovil - 3, click here )

Happy Reading and Viewing!!!

Trekking at Azhagar Kovil - 1

Hi Guys,

This time I am going to write about my trekking experience at the hill of Azhagar Kovil (temple). Actually I was not sure whether trekking was the right term, but found out that trekking means walking a long distance where common travel is not available. My experience would fall in between the category of walking and trekking.

I would write about write about the history of the temple and hill at the end of the posts ( I hope to have a series of posts). I am planning to carry out a photo descriptive post.

To start with, the persons involved in the trek were myself and my friends Bala Kumar and Saravana Kumar. Bala was the organizer and actually 6-7 persons were supposed to come, but each pulled off at the last minute. Anyway we three had some good time together. We boarded the bus at sometime around 9 am. If you are wondering how I am depicting the right time from here on, I am using the time present in the photographs.

9.42 am: We reached Azhagar Kovil bus stop and started walking towards the temple.

9.47 am: Reached the entrance of the temple

9.52 am: Started our journey towards the hill. Stepping into the trees created something exhilarating. The temperature became suddenly cool and we felt separated from the whole crowd outside. A few monkeys welcomed us. There where few other devotees and sellers selling raw mangoes, cucumbers, amla water melon and a few other eatables.

9.55 am: We started taking a few photographs. Myself and Bala had cameras. Bala was more focussed on taking macro shots of insects and flowers there. I was concentrating on the nature surrounding and also capturing ourselves. We were full of energy as we entered and we climbed the side paths and few rocks here and there and took some photographs. We also asked Saravana to take a stick with him in order to protect us in case any monkeys attacked us. We also crossed a Snake temple (temple that had lot of snake statues). People had tied many colourful clothes in the tree - some prayers.

Monkey eating Raw Mango given by some devotee

An Interesting pose

10.05 am: We started meeting few steps cut out of rocks. Again we were not trying to advance quickly. A small stream with clear water was accompanying us all along the path.

Saravana with stick - Monkey Chaser

The three of us

10.20 am: The stream was close and it was quite broad. It was clear and the presence of water increased the number of creatures surrounding. Bala was more focussed on taking spiders, dragonflies and butterflies that were around. Saravana was helping Bala by finding creatures. In the process, he often forgot the stick and we had to remind him to take it back.

Bala taking a picture

A bunch of beautiful flowers with a fly on it

Water Spiders present

10.30 am: We were roaming around the same place. Some 3-4 monkeys were carrying their little ones and travelled across our path. Monkeys were generally afraid of us and move away or stay undisturbed. I think they will attack only if we have some food with us.

Monkey drinking water

The stream that was accompanying

Roots of trees

11.10 am: We had spent something around forty five mintues at two different places. Bala was trying desperately to capture some butterflies and dragonflies. Dragonflies here were really striking in nature. They had hues of bright blue and red. We started moving ahead by 11.05 am.

A Dragonfly found there

The path ahead

11.15 am: We were making some good progress and started seeing some steep steps and some heavy transportation which meant that we were nearing the road, which was nearly half way.

11.25 am: We reached the road. The stream was quite big and it started flowing at some distance down the road.

The last leg of roadless travel

Will continue the rest of the journey in my next part.

(To Read Trekking at Azhagar Kovil - 2, click here)

Happy Reading and Viewing!!!