sudoku, crossword

There is a new routine in the mornings; clamour for grabbing the newspaper for sudoku and crossword puzzles. It energises one physically before doing the same for the sleepy mind! S has been a sudoku fan for over a year now and all his free time at home is spent with a pen and pencil; on weekends he will be clearing the weekly arrears if any. He had been trying to get the algorithm for sudoku as soon as it hit the Indian scene and has been a 'sudoku convert' ever since. Y has been a crossword fan and tries to finish the entire crossword in one sitting .Of course there will be a few clues which are intriguing; she will toss them around and the aam jan would pipe in. The joint venture will then effectively seal the crossword puzzle for the day.

I have been fed on a diet of The Hindu crossword and it used to be a family obsession. Elders at home including my grandfather used to refer to it as 'kattam poda aarambichacha?" In that environment it is not possible not to be infected with the crossword worm. A very dogeared Chambers dictionary used to be sought out and constantly referred to, for the right word.

The same bug has made a triumphant come back. It is as much fun solving the crossword as it is to wait for the next day's edition for that missing word.We of course blame the 'not so good word', or the author for the incorrect clue and rarely, yes very rarely chide ourselves for not cracking that beautiful word/phrase which was staring us in our face.

Sudoku does not evince as much passion as a team activity and it is more of an individual satisfaction for completing an exciting work. The different ratings set the pace as it were for what lies ahead. It is a very good companion, a slip of paper and a pen while we are travelling or waiting.
Once bitten by either of these bugs you stand infected for life. Happily so!

sriperumbudur temple

The weather is extremely pleasant these days and drags you to drive out of the city. I keep telling myself to make the most of the few weeks ahead after which time will be spent in cursing the sun and sweat and refusing to venture out.
We decided on sriperumbudur as a default option. It was to be tiruvallur but we were reminded that it being 'thai amavasai' it would be near impossible to even get inside that temple. Velukudi krishnan in his pothigai timeslot had mentioned about sriperumbudur and the birthplace of sri ramanujar being quite worthy of a visit.
The roads are extremely good and we reached the temple town just under an hour. We were able to witness a 'veedi purappadu' with a fully decorated elephant and a camel leading the procession! Elephant was okay but a camel, here in the heartland of Tamilnadu? We followed the procession around the temple alongwith the 'veda goshti' for a while and alongwith the 'divyaprabandam' group for a while. The route was through the 'agraharams' and stopped at every house for an archanai. Invariably every lady was in her 'madisar' and every man in his 'panchakacham'. The houses were typical with low roof verandah with tinnai.
The main deity is 'adikesava perumal' and a sannidhi for Ramanujar was adjacent to the main deity. The temple appears very old and we were told it was built more than two thousand years ago. The walls of the inner prakaram were full of pictorial depictions of ramanujar's life written in both telugu and tamil.Plan to come leisurely and read up all these stories sometime.Ramanujar's life and achievements is fascinating. I was reminded of this incident in his life; he was in search of a guru and after a long search found one in manavala nambi. He taught him 'pranava manthra' and told him that it is a secret not to be shared with anybody. The very next day Ramanuja climbed on top of a mantapa in the town and relayed the mantra to all passers by. His guru was enraged and came and met him and asked him if he was aware of the punishment he will be meeted out for disobeying his guru. Ramanujar said yes, he will go to hell. But then he is prepared for the same, if many others on hearing the mantra are able to go to heaven!
We had good prasad and also collected 'puliyodarai, laddu,adhirasam and murukku ' from the 'mada palli' and headed back to the city.
However much I regard saints in great esteem, i was not able to worship ramanujar in his sannidhi right next to that of adikesava perumal's sannidhi. Gods and gurus different levels...

dakshin chitra

It was a tuesday during december holiday season. I had lined up to go on a trip to dakshin chitra. Then i was cautioned that tuesday could be a holiday. It is the umpteenth time that tuesdays are non starters in chennai. A simple haircut/hairstyling; not possible on tuesdays.Hdfc bank branch is closed weekly on tuesdays can you beat that. Whoever named in mangala vaaram was not communicating the sentiment to chennaites.

It was a caution correctly timed. Hence ended up calling dakshin chitra chennai office and was told that the place is worth 3/4 hours of pleasant times and there is a full fledged restaurant by arusuvai natarajan on the premises. Now with lunch being taken of, i planned to leave in good time the next day.

It is just half an hour drive from adyar and we were in a sprawling campus teeming with arts and crafts. I had been there with some office guests quite a few years back, but then it is different when you are with family. My niece A made a good companion and we both trotted off to andhra pradesh houses. The first one had a good verandah where she could sit and paint small pots.There was a lady keeping the house and helping the kids getting their fingers greased! In one corner there was a loom and another lady was getting ready to continue a cotton skirt with zari border that she was weaving.Got to see a loom at close quarters. It is a very complicated start up process. I was told many typical houses in andhra have looms in their court yard and the family members make up the entire labour force. I have seen them in kancheepuram right on the lanes and bylanes the vibrant colours making you take another glance as you drive past.

In one room handmade wooden and paper mache toys were kept just like a navratiri kolu arrangement and the inveterate kolu addict that i am, I stood rooted and enjoyed the wonderfully crafted toys.

We next went to a typical house in coastal andhra pradesh. It was very interesting in its design. It was circular with the innermost part housing huge storage bins for grains. This is to protect the grains from storms/flodding that this area is so prone, I was told. There is a second concentric circular design which has the living quarters.The roof is flat at the middle and slanting at the sides to drain off the rain water. We also found another smaller circular structure and we were told that it again is a cooking place, a case of redundancy built in especially in such cyclone/flood prone areas!I was fascinated at the native wisdom and the story behind each of these structures.

Others in our group made a detour of other houses on exhibit in typical tamil nadu, karnataka and kerala styles. Each house also had typical handicrafts of those areas practised by artisans and some of it was available for the guests to try their hand in. We tried the pottery as i have wished to get my hands gooey gooey at the potter's wheel. It is sheer magic to see a wet clay shape itself right in front of our eyes into a cute pot. My niece was much better at it what with her tiny steady fingers. I was told to do exactly as she is doing and not allow my thumb inside the pot to stray!

We landed in a huge hut in which one could try ones hand in several activities like paper mache doll making, shell doll making, palmyra leaf painting and such stuff. Kept A engaged for quite a while. We were treated to 'mayilattam' on the side.

There were numerous stalls selling handicraft items including lac bangles. The artist was making them as to order and it was a huge hit with my niece.She chose some colours and watched intently as it was taking shape right in front of her eyes. She had a trophy to take back!

Lunch was quite a good affair with 'hat dosa' (for the uninitiated(that is me!) it was ghee roast twirled and served like a hat) and other dosa and rice varieties.

I plan to come here again.That is the promise i usually make whenever i visit any place that interests me. I want to study the native architecture and also try my hand at every activity and not miss out on any single aspect of showcasing our native arts and crafts.

Till next time

day trip to mamallapuram

Mahabalipuram is just an hour's drive from home, but i was surprised that we had not gone there more often. It is a pleasant drive along east coast road and not many bottlenecks in traffic. With friends for company this time, one hour actually just whizzed past.

I remembered an earlier occasion when we had gone there in the morning and had difficult time locating a place to have lunch. I think it was a sunday and peak holiday season. We had to come half way to chennai to finally land a good vegetarian restaurant.

I was wiser this time, so planned for a trip after lunch. The weather was mild and near the shore temple we just could not keep our dupattas in place.Suddenly the wind used to drop and it was surprising to be in and out of heavy bouts of breeze, as if somebody was switching it on and off.The climb up the entire range of rocks in and around light house proved to be exciting. We discovered new rock temples of mahishasuramardini where mahendra varma pallava used to pray. After a while we had truly lost our way and asked one of the men who was overseeing the cleanliness of the winding pathways. He pointed to both the directions of the pathway and said we could go either way, we would reach the main road. He really believed that the earth is round! We trudged a long distance before our driver spotted us and waved frantically to catch our attention. But then as it turned out, this unexpected trekking was the best part of the trip.Paul coelho would greatly approve of going out of the comfort of the tried and trusted path and attempting something totally different.

There are lots of shops selling figurines, handicraft items and souveneirs. Somehow bags of varied shapes, sizes and textures seemed to catch our attention. I guess one cant go wrong with bags as a gift item.We zoomed in on a shop selling brass/brone stautes and my friend found the ganpathi idol sitting and swinging comfortably in a jhoola.She was particularly looking for such a piece she said and closed the deal.Her bag was weighing two and a half kilos more as a result of this purchase!

The crowd was just right without being intrusive and uncomfortable. Yes one noticed a distinct lack of 'foreigners' this time.The shop keepers were lamenting thin tourist arrivals after the mumbai terror attack. In a week's time the annual dance festival and peak tourist season will start.

I plan to be there with a different crowd

vedanthangal

We hit vedanthangal after a gap of over 18 years. And we were happy that the tourism department has not been sleeping in the meanwhile. There used to be one old watchtower with a single binocular mounted on a huge pedestral. Now there are quite a few watch towers and tourists bring their own binoculars and have unlimited viewing.There are no facilities for boating in the lakes unlike in Ranganathittu near Mysore. But the small pathway skirting one side of the lake is well laid and well maintained with benches all along the pathway. With cool and shady trees lining the entire pathway life was good. We enjoyed the cool breeze blowing, after the cyclone in Bay of Bengal dumped the entire depression into kavali and machilipatnam and sparing chennai of gale and gusty winds.

The birds were in good measure and were fun to watch.

I had tried the handycam for the first time outdoors. I wanted to capture the birds by zooming. They looked fantastic to me, but when we played it at home, the pictures are shaking quite  a bit. I thought it is the swaying of the bushes in the breeze but apparently not. 

We had two binoculars, one still camera and one video camera and a book on birds.So we were really like tourists.

We were told that vedanthangal is oldest bird sanctuary in India. This was due to the fact that when our winged friends from siberia and australia came over to roost, the local farmers took care not to shoot them or harm them in any way. They actually adopted these guests gladly in their midst.This is the story of the guests and their future generations  repeatedly making visits for over 200 years here.

My best view for the day were two grey herons sitting light on a rubbish heap in the water and floating gently along with the rubbish heap.We almost did not notice it, it was a perfect camouflage. I was reminded of the 'teppotsavam' in mylapore temple! One of them flapped her wings and flew a bit and landed back again and the camouflage of the grey was broken with a tinopol white of their inner feathers. Cormorants there were aplenty and their swift dive into the waters to catch fish was a treat to watch. Ibis and pelicans were in large measure and there were busy nesting and relaxing in hoardes.

The place was choc a bloc with visitors jostling for space with the birds who had come travelling from sri lanka, pakistan, siberia and australia.