In the Streets of Srirangam...contd

It was a cloudy day which brought huge smiles on my face and i was chirpy, getting ready to visit a place named "Thiruvellarai" which was located near Srirangam at a distance of half an hour's drive. I got so involved in the scenic beauty during the ride that i hardly spoke to Bashu which got him worried (why is the FM not tuned...ha ha!!). Now, our specific choice on visiting this temple was because Bashu's college time friend was a priest there and this temple was older than Srirangam - approximately 6000 years. I felt the count was too far beyond to calculate, by then i was used to 1000's..every temple there seemed to be so old!

 

When we landed at the sight of a very old temple majestically located amidst profound greens and browns...i stood there shocked for a minute, observing the excellent maintenance of the whole place. There were huge streets diagonal to the temple in the "Agraharam" style (name of the locality for a specific community of people with a row of houses) and the atmosphere was very silent, but for the laughter of kids around. Bashu's friend was the smartest looking priest ever, i had come across and he sounded so friendly as if he knew me before. His mom served us with fresh filter coffee of rich aroma which helped me subside my hunger for a while from then. The smart priest gave us a quick intro about the temple and its origin and suggested we could do a photo walk before actually getting into worships and usual prayers.

I couldn't stop my conflicting thoughts about the place, it all appeared like a neat execution of clear pathways with flowers all around, a very old antique styled mantap leading to a huge rock with the view of the main temple. The mysterious mood was due to the inherent refreshing cleanliness, dark shades of green as if it would rain there all the year. The rocky road along the pillars, from the huge rock had some kind of charm, anything we utter would echo in a rhythmic manner and i didn't move from there for sometime, trying to shout and sing what ever flashed through my mind then. Finally Bashu had to drag me along to reach the other side of the temple.

Bashu's friend cum the smart priest was busy attending the temple crowd and elaborating them on the history of the temple and gods in a peculiar flow and style of  Tamil. I sat on the steps wondering about the difference of sculptures and stories between here and Srirangam, there were too many of them and only few manged to stick inside my confused little mind.For my understanding, it was all artistically constructed during the Chola, Pandiya... period of kingdom, strongly based on their taste for fine arts, devotion for epics and belief on spirituality.

I clicked pictures of the place and the guys whilst they were laughing about old memories and  planning on when to meet up with friends next. Back at the priest friend'ss home, we were served with authentic "Ayyangar" food and i spent a while with his mom to listen to her simple stories and she startled me with the fact that the priest had completed his MBA and MFA, and still wanted to work in the temple as a promise for tradition, though his wife was not too happy about it...Must say i was impressed not by his goatee alone.... :)

His mom and the kids around there got close to me quickly, and there were sad bye-bye's from that place with invitations for them to visit me in Bangalore. I was more excited on our way back, remembered to have the camera in my hand to click a few candid shots of  random kids and people on the way, they were more than happy to smile for me naturally.





I insisted we halt near a lotus pond which was a visual treat for eyes...the interesting part were a few localities fishing there. They got all excited thinking i am a photographer from the daily....but nothing changed even when i said i am just a photographer by myself...took a few pictures and they gifted us with a few lotus flowers too - i came home to leave them in water, waiting to watch the pink beauty bloom.

  Evening, Bashu's younger bro Pras took us to his favorite temple and we almost had a running race(becoming a live comedy scene for people at the temple) since we were already late and i couldn't walk up to his speed.On our way back, i reminded about the ice cream treat (as if i could ever forget) and we landed up at a nostalgic outlet - Michael's...it was an authentic hang out which existed there from around 1950's...and the taste was like home made, each cup at Rs.4 - i wouldn't even get a simple stick in Bangalore at that cost :(

Now, Pras tempted on an ice cream bet and after our fights, quick gulps, more orders...i couldn't go beyond 7 or 8 when he had finished up with 11 cups ;) Cursing him, i ended up losing and paying the bill. He also gave wrong ideas to lie to mom at home...and later deceived me by telling her, by then i had sadly consumed 3 dosas with the best of my abilities...Even with my eye shutters waiting to close, i had to walk, run...sit..stand to feel better and fall asleep far later, planning a better trap for him to execute during our next meet. I had to work from home the next day, a re visit to Cauvery to feel the breeze again, some shopping at the temple, thank you notes to bashu, his mom and dad to have bared with me and a rush to the station to catch my train back to Bangalore...the break i had was indeed short and i had already was pondering on taking my next colorful break......... :)

In the streets of Srirangam..

Even the slightest thought of Srirangam would remind any passionate reader about Sujatha, the legendary tamil writer who captured all our minds through his "Srirangathu devadhaigal" (Angels of Srirangam). He talks about his childhood and teen days spent in one of the most beautiful temple destinations of Tamilnadu in his own style of humour in that. Srirangam sounds right to be called an island..not in lines with Maldives or Andaman but the small town is surrounded by water on all four sides and can be reached only via the bridge from Trichy. The panoramic view of river Cauvery from the bridge is itself breath taking, making us wonder what more would be on the other side of it.

My good friend alias photographer Bashu's home is beautifully located on the banks of river Cauvery, and my first visit to their place last year was spent in usual family introductions, quick visits to famous tourist places and get together fun times. I had firmly told myself that this time, I would spend time exploring places and doing photography than anything else. Our first day started well with a quick visit to Cauvery... …there was not much water at this time of the year but he wind was so furious as if it would blow us away. Happy to have seen greenly landscape and watching Bashu’s funny feeling about my way of talking and jumping, we headed home to plan an eventful day. But it was much more humid than expected, and i almost got paranoid  of heat and decided to stay indoors, discussing photography and not to miss, sleeping.

Later in the noon, i suggested to bet on a game of badminton (for ice creams). After my successfully managed efforts to divert Bashu a little by talks to win over that, we felt the climate was just good enough to jump into the chill water of Cauvery. Srirangam is said to be the home of the river goddess herself and she returns back home happily ending her long journey originating from Thalakaveri in Coorg, Karnataka. I had seen the water so fierce and gushy last time and was actually suprised to see it mild now, we could easily cross the river to walk(swim??!!) across the maize crops on the other side,  because the depth was maximum 5 feet.  

I got busy peeping into the clear water to collect shells and trying to float along the water stream. Bashu was trying hard to control his laughter at my funny expressions for tiny fishes biting my feet beneath. There were so many interesting scenes around not to miss...variety and mix of people, the old grandpa filled with soap all over him, group of young ladies chattering as they wash clothes, kids with obvious city looks playing with their father…probably an IT guy who has come home with his kids to visit their parents and home and this scene reminded me so much of my childhood days when dad would drive us down to water places, pretend to throw us in while we play on the shore...and my brother and myself would scream on the top of our voices. It took us long to know how careful he should have been, not to leave his grip on us.

The most awaited feature of the trip, at least from my point of view was...visiting the main Ranganatha swamy temple which celebrates on gaining ownership for the name Srirangam, to the place. Though i always felt a sense of devotion and peace at few crowd less  temples, what attracted me more was the creativity of sculptures which rendered complex stories and epics through fine art, the huge elevated "prahaarams"(pathway to the main temple and others) , few mystical powerful things existing within the 4500 year old temple whose beautiful architecture and inscriptions were done during the Chola Dynasty, who were ruling the geography. It was one of the largest temples which they had established then.

The “Aayiram kaal mandapam” there (thousand pillars arena) was considered to be the highlighted wealth of the temple for which the doors would open only once in a year for a specific occasion – “Vaikunda ekadesi” . The very look of it meant a lot with the sharp neat work across the pillars  which we could peep into, from outside the gate. It was surrounded by huge Mantaps with lot of stories and frames on gods, goddesses and epics. The huge horses as if ready to barge across, placed along the pillars left me speechless and i got engrossed in trying to read the oldest form of tamil script (which i could hardly figure out) . I can definitely say i was tempted to just dance around with the few classical steps that i knew, to feel the serenity around, getting back to an old scene which would have happened there , thousand of years ago...my inclination towards fantasy, you see !!

Bashu had made the necessary arrangements for us to watch the most incredible visual treat there, when the god is being made to sleep after the final "Mangal Harathi". There were very few of us allowed to sit there, to listen to the veena as the priest beautifully sung lullabies with classical rhythms before the main doors got closed, and i was very convinced that music had the power to take any of us to a dreamless calm sleep. Something better was the "prasadam" which was made of crisp rice mixed with jaggery and ghee - called "Aravanai", i was already so hungry and it tasted like the best at that minute. I was told later that it was the most special make of the temple. Not to forget, that during our long wait for this magical moment, the lawyer uncle and his friend who had extended their efforts to help us on all this narrated nostalgic stories about themselves in the temple and our lawyer uncle's friend was a voracious reader on history, epics etc. That made me quickly hang on him to get to hear too many interesting stories about kingdoms, gods etc...my favorite being the underground path from the temple to Trichy was constructed for emergency purposes during times of War.

 From the temple, we went around along with them, to roam on the streets of Srirangam and finally reached the bridge to catch a glimpse of the river view at night. I seriously didn't want to move from there - for 2 reasons, first being the place and second, lawyer uncle and his friend who gave us wonderful company throughout the drive with their crazy stories including my silly wish to have biscuits from the small tea shop along with tea, guess i was pampered enough to grab anything i wanted from Srirangam. 

Getting a little sad about my postponed ice ream treat, i went to sleep thinking of our travel to a nearby village, the next day. I hardly realized when i slept and when i woke up....it was for the aroma of his mom's morning tea.....