A passionate teacher turned Digital Marketer.
“If I walk a little faster, I think I should be able to reach the Pharmacy within 10 minutes”, thought Ramasubbu and increased his pace a bit. His knees protested, and he decided to ignore the pleading creak of his painful knees. “Let me check with the Insurance company lady once again. Maybe after that, I can fix the appointment with the doctor for my knee...
The first sight of this impressive temple brought immense joy, not just because it was beautiful beyond words (we had already feasted our senses by visiting Belur and Halebid the day before) but because it was totally deserted. We had the temple to ourselves because the usual touristy busloads do not visit this place. There was a light drizzle and we alighted from...
Many a time I stay over at Amma’s apartment for the night and take the 8 min walk to my house the next morning. I usually take the longer route which is somewhat better than the shorter crowded route which is not at all pleasant. As I was walking past the corporation office, I spotted several walkers in sports shoes heading towards the newly spruced up Thiru Vi Ka...
The world famous Rajarajeswaram, or the Big Temple in Thanjavur is well known. But how many know that Raja Raja Cholan was inspired to build the stunning monument only after deriving inspiration from another temple, which is Veerataneswar temple at Thiruvadhigai, Panruti near Cuddalore. Mahendravarma Pallavan started building this temple but it was completed by one...
Thanks to Mr. Varadachari who is a walking encyclopaedia on Temples in South India, we reached the little hamlet in the Nagamangalam district of Karnataka, about 73 kms from Hassan and 130 kms from Bangalore. Our driver although a seasoned tourist traveller knew only the usual touristy places. We decided to rely on Google Maps to reach this temple. It took us about 1...
Did you know that an ancient musical instrument is still being played everyday at the Thiruvarur Thyagaraja temple? It is called the Panchamukha Vadyam. The musician in the Thiruvarur temple who is skilled in playing this instrument is a descendant of Tambiyappa, one of the disciples of the Composer, Muthuswami Dikshitar. While I haven’t had the fortune of...
Thirunaavukarasar, also called Appar, one of the 4 saints (naalvar) of South India (570 to 670 CE) travelled by foot to many holy shrines in Tamilnadu as well as North India. After having darshan of the Lord Shiva at Varanasi he yearned to move further North and visit the holy abode of Mount Kailash. He told his followers who were travelling with him to go back as he...
It’s been almost a year since I began reading the six-part series “Udaiyar” by Writer Balakumaran. This literary journey allowed me to escape into the Chola era, where I immersed myself in the intriguing account of the construction of the Big Temple at Thanjavur. Today, as I closed the sixth book, I cannot help but marvel at the intense research of...
Massachusetts is a beautiful state and we were lucky to visit in Fall…2019. One afternoon we (along with my sister’s family) decided to drive to Walden Pond, currently a tourist spot which has the fame of housing the great Transcendentalist thinker Henry David Thoreau for 2 years, 2 months and 2 days. Thoreau took this “exile” into the woods to internalize and this...
My paternal forefathers hailed from Thirupanandaal and later moved to Therazhandhur. That’s all I knew about this place. Since it was not a big deviation we chalked out our plan to visit during our #RoadtripJuly2023. An imposing seven storey Rajagopuram welcome us in. The temple had been recently renovated, because the Kumbabhishekam was said to be in August 2023...