GuruSriGuru

Sri Kalika mata Temple, Vedam, Srikalahasti

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:35:00 +0000

Vedam is a vellage near Srikalahasti in Chitoor district. It is around 6km drive from Kalahasti. There is a famous temple for Sri Kalika mata in this village. Many devotees visit this temple during Tuesdays and fridays to have their diparadhana puja. During this puja devotees lit lamps on a lemon base.

The Journey from Srikalahasti to Vedam thru small hills and good nature need to be experienced. You can also see low bhavi etc apart from famous Srikalahastiswara temple on the way to Vedam.

Jadugar Anand Magic Show in Town hall bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 May 2011 13:06:00 +0000

Performance of magic is all about making impossible to possible. So magicians make the impossible seemingly possible. We went to Jadugar Anand’s Magic Show at Town hall, Bangalore last week end of April 2010. I booked tickets thru http://www.limata.com/. Tickets are ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 300. Daily two shows at 4pm and 7pm.

The show started off with a narration on how Anand became a magician. He has 4 Guinness World Records on his name!. First show was about explaining about great magicians in the world using a big book. When they showed the book for the first time there is no magician photo from India. They turned pages again for the second time, this time Anand appeared himself and came out of the book.

He started with simple magic tricks like getting birds out of nothing, changing colors of flowers, etc. In many other tricks group of people or coming out of different objects in a surprise. We were trying to get into the bottom of the tricks and tried to watch closer for any visibility of a trapdoor or the sort, when suddenly, as if reading audience mind, Anand said with a “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a Government building and we are not even allowed to hit a nail into the wall, so forget about cutting holes into the stage.

In between young girls are dancing between different sets of tricks and in that time Anand is changing his dress and coming back to the stage with next set of tricks. He called for a volunteer in the audience to assist him for a few other tricks. A girl went on to the stage to help. He mesmerized her and he played a magic trick of inserting a sword right through her neck. Then, he played another interesting trick of levitating her against the gravitational force in the free space. Both of these tricks were carried out awesomely, and as expected, the girl was safe and sound as before!

There were some theme magic tricks, He took us to the olden days when pallaki/palanquins are used for travel. Around 15 persons came out of the empty palanquin in no time. He also played a drama on the corruption. In that they showcased a magic where, Baratha matha disappearing and appearing again based on the person opening a pyramid type object.

He also played some tricks of great American and Russian magicians giving credits to them. Cutting a man using electric saw is one among them. He also escaped from heavily locked box in fraction of seconds. He made a huge replica of the Statue of Liberty to disappear right in front of our eyes! All the above tricks were carried out awesomely.

When he came down from the stage to the audience once, all children went to have shake hand with him. After this, he demonstrated conjuring of a rabbit from an empty hat, and suddenly, conjured a huge elephant out of thin air! Pretty much impressive. Elephant just walked down from the stage, walked thru audience and out!

You know Bangalore software industry… May be he also kept that in mind. He said, to attract crowd he is creating different magic tricks thru out his magical life. This time he created a magic using the available latest technologies. He brought a big empty box and few videos are projected in the front side of the box. When the Videos are playing, he played magic tricks like few persons are coming out from the video to the stage. And Anand went inside the video from the stage etc. photos of few magic tricks are as below.

The show was played for almost 9000 seconds (as advertized). On the whole, I was quite a lot impressed with the show.

SriRamanavami, SitaRama Kalyana Mahotsavam @ Janakiram Pet Gudur

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:47:00 +0000

There is a small temple in Janakiram Pet, Gudur dedicated to Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. It is Sri Rama Krishna Mandhiram/Temple. D Gurumurthy & D Gurumurthy constructed this temple around 30-35 years back in Janakiram pet and now D Gurumurthy & D Subrahmanyam are maintaining it.

Sankranthi and SriRamanavami, Vinakayaka Chaturthi and Dasara festivals are celebrated well in this temple.

· Sankranthi

During Sankranthi season in December and January months there are daily poojas @ 5.30 AM.

· Srirama navami

During Sriramanavami there are daily poojas in the afternoon and evening for 11 to 13 days. SitaRama Kalyanotsavam is celebrated on the 5th day after Sriramanavami. All streets are decorated with lightings and Pata Kacheri or dance programs are arranged on that day. Ubhaya Dhatha/the Donor of the pooja with family will come with melathalalu/orchestra to the temple. Kalyanotsavam starts at around 10 pm in the evening and ends at 12 or 1 pm. Ubhaya Dhatha family performs this Kalyanotsavam. With prasadha distribution after kalyanotsavam ends the ceremony.

WelcOming rainbOw

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:54:00 +0000

Welcoming rainbow @ Aachman Regency, Shimla

Turpu Kanupuru Mutyalamma Ammavari Jatara

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:55:00 +0000

Mutyalamma Ammavari Jatara (Jatara in Telugu means Festival) is a big festival in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. Lakhs of people from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil nadu and Karnataka visit Turpu Kanupuru during this Jatara.

Goddess Mutyalamma talli is Grama Devata and every year Jatara is performed one week before Ugadi for the Grama Devata. Recently this temple is renovated with huge mantapas. This year this Jatara is starting on 29^th March and ending on 1^st April 2011.

Turpu Kanupuru is around 25 Kms from Gudur and 20Kms from Kota in Nellore district. We visited the temple last Saturday. Roads to this temple are not good and you cannot see frequent buses to the temple from Gudur except during Jatara. It is suggested to plan for your own/hired vehicle for visiting the temple. Even there are no food and lodging facilities are available.

One thing I enjoyed here is beautiful white sands in this area. You can click good photos in these spots

surprise gift idea

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 10:48:00 +0000

Do you want to surprise or thrill your spouse on your marriage day occasion?

Just follow this gift idea -

You can give an art of your first meeting place with your spouse. You can draw minute details like the surrounding nature, moods of both of you… etc. of that occasion in the art.

You can also create a floor plan of the first meeting place indicating you and your spouse. There are many software or websites like http://www.floorplanner.com/ are available to create floor plans.

Your spouse can definitely connect to the memories of your first meeting; it would be a great surprise for both of you.

Aero India Show 2011, Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:26:00 +0000

Aero India 2011 is the Asia’s largest air show, Aero India is held at Yelahanka Air Force Station, Bangalore, India from 9-13 February 2011. We visited this on the last day 13 Feb 2011. Ticket price was Rs 500/- for Air Display Viewing Area (ADVA) during weekends.

There was huge crowd and no chairs were available to sit and view even though we reached the place 2 hours before the scheduled show time.Most of the chairs were occupied by defense and army employees with their families.

The show was started @ 10.00 with some helicopters show. They showed helicopters carrying a Jeep, carrying Army men on ropes etc. It is advised to carry binoculars to view the show clearly. And it would be good if you have hats or umbrellas handy.

Surya Kiran show with Indian flag colors and Red Bulls show from German pilots team are important shows in Aero India. Apart from there were many fighter planes on the show demonstrating their capabilities.

There was huge response from the crowd when Surya Kiran flights create Art of Indian flag on the big canvas, The sky. It was almost last for 30 mins with different kinds of drills with flights.

At the end of Surya Kiran show, they created a love Symbol on the sky to mark for Valentine ’s Day, the next day. Check videos in this blog.

Red bulls show was also good, and read in some web sites that the average age of these pilots is around 55 years. At that age doing this kind of shows rotating flights in different angles, like reverse etc might be very difficult.

After viewing these shows near the viewing area we came back to the tent area where huge digital display of this show with related explanation was going on. We could not listen to this from Viewing are as there was huge crowd and disturbance.

And at the end of the Indian flag hosting show was also good. Around 10-20 persons sky dived using parachutes in Indian flag colors. Seeing Indian flag colors across the sky was awesome.

Modhuga Vana Vinyaka Swami Temple/Adavilo Vinayakuni Gudi - Gudur

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:32:00 +0000

Modhuga vana Varasiddi Vinayaka Swami temple is very famous in recent times in Gudur Town. This is also refered as Adavilo Vinayakuni gudi in Gudur.

As per the story, they were some herdsmen used to go to fields in Gandhi nagar area for forage for their cattle. They used to play, have their food on top of a big stone while the cattle have its forage and take rest. One day Lard Ganesh came into dreams of one of those herdsmen and said his idol is left without any Pooja and rituals in the fields of Gandhi nagar area. The next day that herdsman with help of other searched in that area and found out that the big stone on top of they used sped their life while cattle have its forage is of Lord Vinayaka’s idol. Then they constructed small temple and started Pooja and rituals.

This temple is situated near SKR Gov. college, Gandhi Nagar, North Gudur. (Check the map location linked to this blog). The Idol in the temple was found in fields around 10-12 years back and people say the size of the idol is increasing day by day like the Ganesha idol in Kanipakam. Ganesh Charthudhi/Vinayaka Chavithi and other festivals are celebrated very well in this temple. See 360 degree view of temple during Vinayaka Chavithi.

There would be huge Annadhana (Free Meals service) during the festival. Check Photo of Annadhana at this temple.

10 years back the route to this temple was like a small forest and bike riding to this temple during rainy seasons on the mud roads was thrilling. But now with real-estate boom and popularity of temple, many plots have come, and roads were laid down.

Mathsya Mela - Fisheries Exhibition Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:15:00 +0000

Yesterday we went to fisheries exhibition, Mathsya Mela in Tripura Vasini, Palace Grounds Bangalore. It was started on 18th Feb and open till 21st Feb 2011. The area was very crowded yesterday as there was a BJP Party meeting.

It was very good, big statues of fishes, Dolphin entrance welcome us to the mela. There were small artificial ponds created with crabs, fishes etc inside the mela. If you proceed further there are 100s of aquariums with different kinda fishes and aquatic plants. There were load of children and people watching these aquariums and taking some snaps of these fishes.

And then there are around 100 stalls with display of various fisheries-related products, ornamental fish, latest production technology, research and development and developmental institutions. There were many people buying different types of aquariums, fishes etc in this area.

Next attraction here is food court with lots of seafood dishes. You can have your lunch here, as we went around 4pm there we just had Chilly Prawns there. And there are shops to buy fresh fishes for your cooking.

Tour in Chitoor District and Sripuram/Vellore

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 06:04:00 +0000

Last December 25th, we planned to visit Kanipakam and Ardhagiri. We decided to go some other pilgrim places too in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh and then visit Sripuram golden temple in Tamil Nadu to complete all in a day trip.

We booked a cab and started from Srikalahasti in the morning Via Tirupati, Puttoor. Our plan is to visit Vepanjeri (Near Chitoor) and then to go Kanipakam from there. Vepamjeri is near Gangadhara Nellore and Chitoor which has Asta Lakshmi Temple and Dasavatara temple. Visited Venupopala swami temple in Karvetnagaram, which is on the way to reach Vepamjeri from Puttoor. This is one of the famous temples of historical importance in this district.

Dasavatara temple has idols of Dasavatarams of Lord Vishnu; It also has small temples for many other gods. It has huge 33 feet status of Ranganatha Swami. There is garden with 27 trees representing the 27 stars exercising their sway over the destinies of mankind. And Asta Lakshmi Temple has separate small temples for Asta Lakshmi Matas. Check http://www.vepanjeri.com/ for more details.

After visiting Vepanjeri we had our breakfast @ Chittoor and went to Kanipakam. As it was weekend and holiday there was huge crowd in the temple, we went for special darshan and completed our puja to Lord Ganesha in an Hour. Then we started our journey to Ardhagiri to visit Ardhagiri Sri Verranjanjaneya Swami Temple.

According to legend about Ardhagiri, during Tretayuga, Hanuman brought Sanjeeva Parvatham in order to save Lakshmana during a war when Lakshmana fell unconscious. During the journey, half of Sanjeeva Parvatham fell, and the place where it landed came is known as Aragonda. Aragonda, initially is called as Arakonda (In Telugu language, "Ara" (sounds A'raw)means 'Half' and "Konda" (sounds Kon'Da) means Hill or Mountain). With the time, the people changed their way of pronouncing this word "Arakonda" as "Aragonda" which is now the name of the village under this hill. This hill is famous with name "Ardhagiri" (Ardha means Half and Ge'ree means mountain). In Ardhagiri, it is believed that Sanjeevaraya Pushkarini (pond containing the holy water) never gets dried nor spoiled, even when kept for long periods of time. When devotees drink this theertham (or holy water) from the Sanjeevaraya Pushkarini, all types of diseases are getting cured. We completed our Darshan here very quickly as they was not much crowd on that day. We took some theertham in a can for home.

Our next destination was Sripurm which has Golden temple of Goddess Lakshmi Devi near Vellore in Tamil Nadu. We reached Vellore around 3.30pm from Aragonda and had of Lunch in Vellore. As it was just 4.00pm and as we want to visit Golden temple during lightings we went to Vellore fort to spend an hour or so…

The Vellore Fort's ownership passed from Vijayanagara Kings, to the Bijapur Sultans, to Marathas, to the Carnatic Nawabs and finally to the British, who held the fort until India gained independence. During British rule, the Tippu Sultan's family and the last king of Sri Lanka, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha were held in as royal prisoners in the fort. The fort houses a Museum, Christian church, a Muslim mosque and a Hindu temple, the latter of which is famous for its magnificent carvings. The Museum was already closed by the time we visited and as we do not have much time we did not visited Temple or Mosque. We just went on thru Fort walls to see surroundings. There is an artificial cannel kinda construction around the fort that might be created as a security measures. Now this cannel is used for Boating.

After the Fort visit, we went to Siripuram Golden Temple. Mobile Phones or any other electronic devices are not allowed inside the temple. You need to walk thru big Star shaped path to reach Golden Temple. The Temple was really beautiful with Lightings around it. And the Shadow of the Golden Temple (Elephants, Pillars etc) in the Small artificial lake surrounding it should not be missed. But one thing I did not like is the high publicity of the ‘Amma’ inside the temple. Check Some photos of the Temple here.

Sullurpeta & Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 05:41:00 +0000

As Dec 17th 2010 was holiday for us we went to our home town Gudur for long weekend. From there we planned to visit Chengalamma temple in Sullurpeta. During the Bus joureny to Sullurpeta i just googled for any other places near-by to visit and decided to go Nelapattu if time permits.

Chengalamma Temple ...

Goddess Chengalamma Parameswari manifested herself in the village of Sullurpeta on the Kolkata-Chennai highway and the temple for her was built on the bank of the Kanlangi River. History tells us that chengalamma idol was found in the river by few boys who were swimming and they brought it to the current location during the fourth or fifth centuries. People also refer to her as the village goddess “Tenkali”. With the passage of time, she is being worshipped regularly by devotees as Chengalamma. Devotees turn up in large number to witness “Chengalamma Jatara” (fair).

The Village goddess who was called Tankali gained reputation as Sullurpeta Chengalamma Thalli and her idol in the temple faces the sea. Devotees from different parts of the State visit the place and fulfill their vows, referring the goddess as the mother who grants boons liberally. The naturally-formed image of the goddess adorning the hanging roots (vooda) of the banyan tree is really an awe-inspiring spectacle.

We visited the temple around 11 am performed pujas and spend some time over there. Then we checked between Pulicat and Nelapattu to visit. As per discussion with some Auto drivers we decided to go Nelapattu as there were many birds available during that time.

After Lunch, we started journey to Doravari satram(on the NH5) from where we need to travel to Nelapattu. We hired an Auto from Doravari satram for the round trip and the drop at Naidu pet.

Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary ...

Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary is popular for the largest habitats for pelicans in Southeast Asia, It is home to many other native as well as migratory birds. Some of the readily seen birds of the Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary are Babblers, Pelicans, Flamingos, Open Billed Stork, Coot, Night Heron and Waders. Apart from housing some of the rarest species of the avian population, the Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary is home to many mammals like jackals, slender loris and reptiles like monitor lizard, tortoises and snakes. There are some huts and view points along the Sanctuary to view the birds peacefully.

Naturalists here say many of the gorgeous birds here carry on the roosting and breeding activities and they even count and list number of birds they sighted in the sanctuary every day.

The uniqueness of the sanctuary lies in the additional features that are offered. The environmental education centre, small museum, the library offers information for those who are interested in the subject. Tourists can spend some time in the library reading about the different species of birds and animals. The Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary also offers an auditorium which is well equipped with audio-visual systems for seminar and discussions. Based on no. of tourists available, they play some documentaries in this auditorium. See some photos of Nelapattu here -

You could even spot some Deer in this sanctuary.The ideal time to visit Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary is between October and March as the weather then is extremely pleasant which gives greater opportunity to the visitors to enjoy the sight of birds and animals in their natural habitat. Good stay and food facilities are available in Naidu peta or Sulluru peta.

Alludu numchi Phone vacchimdhi...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:28:00 +0000

Great Bombay Circus on Jan1st 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 12:36:00 +0000

This Jan1st we visited Great Bombay Circus in Bangalore. This is back in Bangalore after 38 years at the Palace Grounds opposite the TV Tower in J.C. Nagar. They have 3 shows daily @1 pm, 4 pm and 7 pm and available till 22nd Jan 2011. Ticket costs range from 40/- to 250/-

We booked 250/- tickets in advance and went to the place by 4pm. As it was New Year and week end, there was too much crowd around 2000 to 3000 people...

The show started around 4.15 with Russian Rope Balance performance. After that all artists and performing animals come on stage. That was awesome. We saw elephants, camels, horses etc. Then the performances Chinese roller act, cube pyramid juggling, Russian Palotna acrobatics, American limping board, Russian spider ring act, vertical swinging acrobatics, Russian devil clown act, high-wheel cycle skipping act and pocket cycle, Russian clown skipping act and elephant cricket etc are started one after other. In between the Magicians and jokers acts and plays were giving good humor and laughs

Cycle acts by male and female performers including group performances on single wheel, performance in pocket cycle and performance in High wheel cycle are good. Elephant cricket was awesome… there were some boundaries and catches too in this cricket. Dog show, Parrot show and camel show was too good. Some parrots were cycling, group of dogs were rolling a pipe kind of thing etc. Fire artists have given their good performances. And acrobatics were too good. There was a performance too throw ball in a net on top of the long rod thru steps attached to the rod using legs. This was very well done, when she missed the throw once when she was almost on the way, there was a huge response from the entire crowd. And there were some motor bike performances too.

Check some snaps of the performances.

Stay @ Rippon Mount Resorts, Wayanad

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 13:35:00 +0000

During last October we with other couple went to Wayanad . We initially thought to stay at Green Paradise Resorts. As we did not get Kabani cottages in Green Paradise, we choose Rippon Mount Resorts for our stay at Wayanad.

Our decision to choose Rippon proved to be correct. The whole experience at Rippon Mount resorts was awesome except the journey to the resort.

It was almost 6 or 6.30 pm by the time we reach Meppady. We did not estimate that it would be dark by that time. It was too dark added to that it was heavily raining. We took lil halt in Meppady as it was dangerous to drive in that heavy rain. Then we started our journey to reach the resort enquiring the localities about the route. We are almost reached the resort with the help of localities and Resorts’ sign boards.

There we saw a mud road with no proper way; it was a sharp slope and was very difficult to take reverse or U turn. As it was dark, rainy and no proper road ahead in that forest area and could not see any one else in that place we thought we missed the route and landed in the deep forest. Thankfully we had our Airtel signal, then we called resort enquiry twice and they came till our vehicle with torch lights to take us to the resort. These torch lights are like sun rays some timesJ. This was a thrilling experience

By the time we reach the resort it was almost 8.30 as it was too dark we did not adventure to see the surrounding places. We had good dinner in Kerala style and took rest.

We wake up lil early in the morning and went to see surrounding places with our Cams. The Resort is on top of the Rippon hill facing the famous Soochipara waterfalls. The view is breathtaking from the suicide point.... it’s really nice to see the mist moving around and the sky touching the mountain, where the mountains are partially seen.

We took many photos in the resort and ventured to walk outside the resort for some time. This forest walk was a nice experience. We could hear live screaming, roaring of many animals from long distances during our walk. After walking for some time we came back to the resort had our breakfast and started back our tour from resort to see other places in Wayanad

I will write a Travelogue on This Kerala Trip soon. And check http://www.ripponmountresorts.com/ for more details on this resort.

Siddara Betta - Trekking and Cave Exploration

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:56:00 +0000

Our Project team was planning to go out from long time.. finally the day has come... we checked with many options like Wonderla etc.... I suggested trekking... then we googled for some good place ... after reviewing some blogs we finally decided Siddara Betta as it has trekking, temple and most importantly Caves.

The Place...

Siddara Batta is a rocky hill 3660 feet above sea level. It is Sacred Place where many sadhus/Holy spiritual men made meditation and worship of Lord Shiva. We can still see some sadhus meditating here and some more are in samadhi state. Here is a famous temple situated at the Top of the Hill. Though the major crowd which visits here are pilgrims, this place is also interests for trekkers and other nature lovers. The main attractive spot here is the Lakshmi Cave, which is more than a kilometer deep and a visit to this cave is an adventure in itself.

The Plan...

Our Team members - Ramesh, Kharibam, Mahesh, Preetam, Swapnil, Kowsalya, Vinod, Kavya, Sachin and me planned to meet in office near Mekhri circle on Friday, 10th Dec 2010 @ 7.15 AM. Other team mate Rimple missed this as he was on vacation. We all met at the office by 7.45AM. Mahesh arranged a Tempo Traveler for this purpose. We all get into this and started our journey.

The Route…
Siddara Betta is around 12 Km from Koratagere in Tumkur district and is around 85 km away from the Bangalore (Mekhri circle).

We had our breakfast in Kamath hotel in Tumkur road on the way to Siddara betta. Nice Idly Vada and Dosas available there. We enquired for rice to parcel for lunch at hill top; we knew that there are no hotels available around Siddara betta. But it was not available at that time. So we started our journey back hoping to get lunch parcel in some daba on the way. We reached the flyover before Tumkur in a short time and started enquiring this place.

Important confusing fact is that there are two Siddara bettas .. One near dobhaspet and one near koratagere. Our destination is Siddara betta near koratagere. We need to take service road at this flyover (this place name is Dobhaspet) and take right turn to reach koratagere and then Siddara betta. We reached Siddara betta around 11 AM. We did not get food on the way. We checked for the food at the base and ordered at a small hotel to have it after coming back from trekking.

The Trek…

There are steps till the temple. We started going in that route to the hill top, meanwhile we met a localite/guide he said there is another way to trek which pass thru many other places of hill. Then we hired his service (for `400/-) for our trek and started trekking with him. The trekking was thru steep hill rocks, there is no path and it is lil slippery. On the way we saw some small cave and spent some time over there. Then we started our trekking again and in middle the guide forgot the route, after searching for 5-10mins we were in the right way and joined the steps path to the temple after almost 1 hour trek.

I’m already exhausted even though we took frequent intervals, as it was taking time for me, so I asked other team members to go ahead with the trek. I took almost 15 mins rest and started trekking again. Meanwhile other team members reached temple had bath and completed puja (it’s good to carry another pair of dress). By the time I reached the temple they were in Cave exploration. I had Quick darshan and hired other guide service (for `50/-) to join the team members inside the cave. There are many guides available near the cave. It took just 5-10 mins to meet other team members in the cave. Then we all started the Cave exploration.

The Cave ...

The cave is starts from the temple (near the Shiva linga) and ends outside the temple. The cave was long and the cave exploration was thrilling. There are some Samadhis of sadhus inside the caves who meditated here some time back.

We started to move inside caves. The passage was very small at some places; the rocks were quite slippery and sharp. At some places we need to cross big rocks... there were some real low rise rocks where we had to literally crawl to pass thru ...It was awesome !!

We also reached a few open areas with vegetation. One of these areas housed large roots which are good enough to be a nice swing. We had some group photos over there... and finally we manage to reach end of that cave after passing thru some bees :-(. It is good to carry Torchlight with you that helped us a lot in these caves.

There are many monkeys around this hill like in many other places which take away if you carry any plastic bags (i think it’s a nice way to reduce the usage of plastics :-) ).

From here we can trek to the hill top where we can see another temple and some meditation points and good 360 view of surrounding places.

But we could not go there as it was already 3pm to start the journey back to Bangalore. This time we used the steps to come back to the base unlike the trek path we used while going to the top. On the way we went to a place called Pyramid where two sadhus are still meditating. We did not disturb them and came down to the base and started our journey back to Bangalore. On the way we passed thru the Elevated expressway in Tumkur road that was newly opened on that day, which saved almost one hour of our journey.

Other places to see nearby - Devarayana Durga and there is a hill nearby with a fort at the top

Accommodation – no accommodation available, you need to carry tents if you want to stay night

Food – Kamath Hotel and some Dabas available on the way in Tumkur road. But no food is available at Siddara Betta. Good to carry from Bangalore.

Transportation - Self

Sadhasiva sanyasi from Khaleja

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 06:54:00 +0000

Movie - Khaleja
Lyrics - Rama jogayya sastri

Nandi hills and surrounding places

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:51:00 +0000

It was a long pending trip with entire family. As my youngest brother coming from Hyderabad to Bangalore for holiday we asked our parents also to come here so that we go somewhere around Bangalore

We initially thought to go to Nandi hills but later thought about other places too, after thinking of many places and searching in internet and blogs we decided 3 places – Nandhi hills, Bannergatta National Park and Sivasamudhra. Ha.. finally freezed to the initial place Nandhi Hills as it is nearby from my place, Sahakara Nagar. We decided to go early morning to see sun rise @ Nandhi hills and then visit to Bogha Nandheeswara Temple, Mudhena halli and Devanahalli fort.

We started around 4.30 am from home and reached Nandi hills by 5.30 am. It was butiful and my parents could not come out of the vehicle as it was too cold and totally covered with fog. We waited in the vehicle for some time as the ticket counter was not yet opened to go to the top of the hill. It was 6 am by the time we reach th top of the hill after getting the ticket.

Just after coming out of the vehicle, we went to the back side of KSTDC's Hotel Mayura Pine Top for proper view of Sun rise... But as we are not sure of the sun rise view point we came back to the initial enquired for the Sun rise view point after having hot tea. They said it would be 7.00/7.30 Am by the sun rises. So we had an hour or so to roam around before the sun rise. We left our parents at a hotel as they were feeling too cold in that environment and went across the temples and parks. We could not see others/places clearly as there was too much fog.

It was almost 7.30 am, but still no sun rise... so we had our breakfast and then waiting for sun rise... Around 8.00 am we could see only partial sun rise. It was Okay. We waited for Sun rise at Tippu drop till 10.30 am, but still no luck. Then we decided to go back... We went to Yoga Nandhiswara temple and Tippu Summer Palace while coming back to the base. Check some more snaps below.

Bhoga Nandhiswara temple is in Nandi village which is around 8Km from the base of Nandi hills. This is historical temple with high architecture values. This temple constructed in ninth century in Dravidian style and upgraded by 5 kings in different periods of time. The courtyard surrounding the temple is huge and the temple itself has several separate areas with small temples. During our visit, surroundings were too oily may be because of Karthika Pournami festival. The main complex of the temple houses a statue of Shiva and Parvati in the same stone with a intricately carved Kalyana Mantapa in front and lots of pillars; the Kalyana Mantapa in front of middle temple looks similar to the Belur/Halebidu built by the Hoysalas with micro carvings. A separate area has a dance platform and a place for the king to sit and watch the performance. The large peaceful tank/Kalyani is in the next area. There is good garden maintained outside the temple. You can spend at least half a day here visiting temple and enjoying the nature outside the temple.

Our next destination was Mudhena halli which is around 5Km from Nandi village. It is the birthplace of Sir. M. Vishveswarayya. His ancestral home, where he was born, has been preserved for public viewing. There is a small museum with the items he used. We can see his Bhata Rathna medal in this museum. And there are many photos of him with historical leaders and kings of that time. And Vishveswarayya's samadhi is also nearby.

Initially we thought to go to some small waterfalls near Nandi village while coming back as pointed by my younger brother. But as we are not sure of the route for this waterfalls plan and started journey back to Devanahalli.

Devanahalli fort is a small fort with only huge walls covering small village. We can just go to the top of these fort walls and spend some time over there. Then while coming back to Bangalore we visited Tippu's birth place near by the Devanahalli fort.

Jonnawada

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:01:00 +0000

Jonnawada is a temple town 12 km Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. This is famous for Sri Mallikarjuna swamy and Kamakshi amma temple. In tretayuga Mahamuni Kasyapa Brahma performed yagna and pleased Lord Mallikarjuna Swamy thus this place is named as ‘Yagnavatika Jonnawada’. Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy Kamakhsi tai grant to the innumerable devotes their desires, as their God head. Since then he continues conferring boons and his blessings on his devotees. This temple is constructed in the year 1150( Tretayuga). The goddess Kamkshi is belived as an incarnation of Shakti. A ‘Sri Chakram’ was installed here by Sri Jagadguru Sankaracharya. Brahma Rushi Sri Kashyap Mahamuni visited Bhoolokam (The Earth) and wanted to perform Yagna and chosen north of vedadri as Yagna Vatika (place to perform yagna) After successful completion of the Yagna a bright light appeared. It has spread over the whole bhoolokam. Later Lord Eswara appeared as Lord Mallikarjuna, who came out from fire of Yagna.

Kalyanotsavam puja for Mallikarjuna swamy and Ammavaru was long pending for us. So we thought to go over there to perform the puja during the Karthika masam(during November).

The puja at temple was around 10 am so we started early from Gudur around 7 am. Jonnawada is around 50 km from Gudur. Our in-law's family also joined us for this trip.

We reached Jonnawada around 8am and went for dharshan and Kshirabisheka for Mallikarjuna swamy. It was around 9 am when the dharshan was completed. Then we spent time on verifying boards available in the temple about Dhwadasa (12) Jyothirlinga temples dedicated to lord Shiva and Astadasa (18) shakthi peethams dedicated to Ammavaru. I counted and wondered to see that I have already visited almost one third of them. Mean while Amma and wife lit Karthika deepam in the temple.

Then the Kalyanotsvam started. It took around 1 hour to complete the puja. Then we went around seeing Pennar river. It was hot afternoon so we did not go to the river for the dip. Then we started our journey back to Gudur. We initially thought to go to Nellore city to have lunch at Murali krishna Hotel. But due to time constraints had lunch at a hotel in Reliance petrol bunk in the highway. The food was just Okay, not upto the expectations.

Accomodation - Average - Some TTD Managed rooms are available

Food - Below Average except Temple's Annadhana facility

Transportation - Self, No regular buses available. Some Autos are running from Nellore

Other places to see nearby - Narasimha Konda is another temple dedicated to Lakshminarasimha swami is around 3 to 4 km from Jonnawada. We could not visit this place this time. I visited this place long back during 1999. It was a nice experience to trek this small hill. Even a road is available to reach the top of the hill.

Vedagiri Lakshmimarasimha Swamy devastanam came into being nearly 500 years ago, on the summit of Narasimhakonada. According to the rock inscriptions, this temple was built by the Pallava king Narsimha Varma in the ninth century. Legend goes that the sage Kasyapa established the temple on the bank of Pennar. And the Vedic scripture “Brahmapurana” reveals that the Saptarishis performed “yagnam” on the top of Narasimhakonda.

Jokes again

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:21:00 +0000

One gud joke

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 06:40:00 +0000

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed a desire to become a “great” writer.

When asked to define “great” he said “I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, wail, howl in pain, desperation, and anger!”

He now works for Microsoft writing error messages.

Some Khart00ns

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:26:00 +0000

Song from Happy Days

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 05:19:00 +0000

పాదమేటుపోతున్న పయణమెందాకైన
అడుగు తడబడుతున్న తోడురాదా
చిన్ని ఎడబాటైన,కంట తడి పెడుతున్నా
గుండె ప్రతి లయా లోన నేను లేన
ఒంటరైన వోటమైన
వెంట నడిచే నీడ వేనా

ఓఓ మై ఫ్రెండ్
తడి కన్నులనే తుడిచిన నేస్తామ
ఓఓ మై ఫ్రెండ్
ఓడి దుడుకులలో నిలిచిన స్నేహమా
ఓహు ఒహోహ్ ఒహో ఓ ఊఊ
ఓహు ఒహోహ్ ఒహో ఓ ఊఊ
అమ్మ ఒడిలో లేని పాశం
నేస్తామల్లె అల్లుకుందీ
జన్మకంతా తీరిపోనీ
మమతలెన్నో పంచుతొందే
మీరు మీరు నుంచి మన స్నేహ గీతం
ఏరా ఏరా అల్లోకే మారే
మొహమాటలేని లేని కాలే జారువాలే
ఒంటరైన,ఓటమైన
వెంట నడిచే నీడ నీవె
ఓఓమై ఫ్రెండ్
తడి కన్నులనే తుడిచిన నేస్తామ
ఓఓమై ఫ్రెండ్
ఓడి దుడుకులలో నిలిచిన స్నేహమా

వాన వస్తే కాగితాలే పడవాలయ్యే జ్ఞాపకాలే
నిన్ను చూస్తే చిన్ననాటి చేతలన్ని చెంత వాలే
గిళ్లీకజ్జాలెన్నో ఇలా పెంచుకుంటూ తుల్లింతాల్లో తేలే స్నేహం
మొదలు తుడాలు తెలిపే ముడి వీదకున్డె
ఒంటరైన,ఓటమైన
వెంట నడిచే నీడ నీవ

Nagpur - Ramtek

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:04:00 +0000

My Brother DS is finishing his studies in Nagpur in this Year. So we thought to visit this place before April, as April and May will be too hot in Nagpur.

DN and I started from Bangalore. Our Parents and Uncle from Chennai joined us in Gudur.

It was around 15 hours journey to Nagpur from Gudur. We reached Nagpur around 11am in the morning. DS was waiting in the railway station to receive us. Then we went to Guest room in VNIT. After refreshing we just walk around VNIT seeing all departments and DS room in hostel.

It was 6PM, we just went for shopping near variety chouk, finished dinner and come back to VNIT.

We initially thought to go to Tadoba National Park from Nagpur. As our visit was during Holi Festival, it was holiday for the Tadoba. Then after searching about many other places near Nagpur, we finally zeroed to Ramtek to visit.

Ramtek is a small town, situated at a distance of 42 km from Nagpur city. It falls under the Nagpur district and is held in high regard by the Hindus. This is because this town is believed to be associated with Lord Rama. There is hill situated near Ramtek, known as the Ramgiri Hill. The hill houses a historical temple of Lord Rama, which is said to be more than 600 years old. This temple has greatly added to the travel attraction of the city. The legend also goes that Lord Rama stopped at Ramtek, along with His wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, while on his exile.

Another fact that adds to the attraction of the town, from tourism point of view, is its association with the Great poet Kalidasa. He wrote his excellent poem, Meghdoot in the hills of Ramtek only. Infact, it is often said that it was the beauty of Ramtek Hills that inspired him to write the poem.

We booked a cab to Ramtek covering some other places on the way. We First visited ‘Zero mile marker’ which is the geographical center of India (Actually it’s just a Traffic signal area :)) then started journey to Ramtek. On the way we had Maharastrian breakfast with Poha, dokhla rabri etc.

Ramtek is a fort Temple. It houses two temples one for Lord Rama and one of Lakshamana. Gopuras of this temple looks nize. See some of the snaps of this temple here.

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There are many Monkeys around this area. But unlike monkeys in Andhra or Karnataka, they look different. Check some snaps.

There is a lake with Water sports nearby Ramtek. We could not go for the same as it was already noon and too hot.

Then we started our journey back to Nagpur. On the way we went Ramdham. It is a temple having idols of Shiva, Durga etc which can be seen in different places across India. It also has big construction in OM shape. There are paintings and sculpture of Ramayana and Krishna leela in side this construction.
There is another temple Krishnadham nearby this, we could not see this. Then we had Lunch in a Rajasthani hotel near Ramdham.

And then we visited Dragon Palace which is a Buddhist Temple. Then we came back to Nagpur and started our journey back to Gudur.
And finally check how passengers are travelling in this area

Facilities available in Ramtek
Accomodation - No Accomodation available
Food - Below Average
Transportation - Self Transportation

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Short Poetry - కనులా ఇపుడెందుకే ఆ కన్నీళ్లు

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:37:00 +0000

After watching Chatrapathi Movie.. and 'నల్లని వన్నీ నీల్లనీ తెల్లని వన్నీ పాలని' song, I thought to write similar kinda song....

This is the short Poetry in Telugu with that inspiration...

కనులా ఇపుడెందుకే ఆ కన్నీళ్లు
నువు చూసిందే నిజమనుకొని
నా మనసు మాట వినక పోతివే
ఇపుడు తడిబారిన నికనులను నమ్మేదెవరు
నా మనసు రోదనను వినేదెవరు ...

- Guru
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పుణ్యభూమి నాదేశం

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Written by - Jaladhi
Thanks to eenadu.net

- Guru
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Comment on my blogs at -
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