My Musings

ROYAPURAM or TAMBARAM? Madras, that is Chennai, has two Railway terminals - Central and Egmore. As the city has grown and expanded now, a need is felt for a third terminal to be built. Should it be Royapuram in the north Madras or Tambaram in the south Madras? Today (20 Jan 2012) a team is visiting Royapuram to have a proper personal perspective. Now, to history: Madras was founded over 370 years ago by Francis Day (and Andrew Cogan) in 1639 when he purchased 3 sq miles of land north of San Thome. Madras started growing, mostly around the Fort. George Town [Black Town] for formed for the settlement of Indians working for the British. Business houses were developed near and around Town. A road was built in 1814 to reach these main business houses. First Line Beach, it was then called, later changed to North Beach Road, and now renamed as Rajaji Salai. Parallel to this road was built Second Line Beach. On these two roads British constructed great merchant houses and banking insti...

KOILS in Tamilnadu Thousands of temples, small and large, abound in Tamilnadu. Times of India has highlighted some of these in today's (19 Jan 2012) issue. We will start with the 1000-year old temple of Thanjavur (Periya Koil). The Chola king Raja Raja Cholan built this Brihadeeswara temple in 1010. It is big in all respects - a gigantic stone Shiva lingam fills the Garbha Gruham, its tower (vimanam) is 216 feet tall.The temple's magnificence coupled with engineering marvel takes your breath. The structure has been built without using mortar.The Gopuram is unparalled for its geometric perfection, and masterly craftsmanship. The monolithic Nandi, the gigantic Dwarapalakas take your breath away. The inscriptions and the sculpture speak about the various karanams of Natya Shastra. You can read more about this temple, Raja Raja Cholan (Arul Mozhi Varman), his queen Lokamahadevi, and his sister Kundavai in Kalki's novels. Kanchipuram is one of the seven sacred cities ...

I had not travelled travelled by Chennai MRTS so far. Whenever I see the train speeding over the elevated tracks, I used to have a desire to travel by this service. The opportunity came at last yesterday (12-01-2012) when I had to go to Ambattur and Avadi. We reached Thiruvanmiyur station at 0700 and the train zoomed into the platform at 7-10. It was very sparsely occupied. Chennai from the top_view is good looking. No garbages, no stink ! For a brief distance near Thiruvallikkeni station, one can see the lovely Matina beach. Getting down at Beach station, we boarded the train to Ambattur. Takes about 40-42 minutes to reach Ambattur. On the return path, we took the MRTS at Avadi at 5-30PM and changed trains at Beach. MRTS is comfortable but should improve further. The return fare from Thiruvanmiyur to Ambattur is just 18-00. The bus fare is Rs 25 one way !! Rajappa 11:40 AM 13-Jan-2012

New Year 2012 dawned on a bright note for us. This is the FIRST  "new-year" for us at our own house Kalakshetra Avenue. Last night, Arvind, Krithika, Aditi, Janani, Ram, Pradyun, Ranjani, Praveen, Sahasra went to Azzuri Bay, a restaurent in Adyar (Gandhinagar). Vijaya and I ate in the house and slept. We had lunch (on 1st Jan) at TSG's house (2nd floor). Vijaya prepared Senaikkizhangu varuval and we shared. Thus, our new year 2012 went off. rajappa 1 Jan 2012

PAA - the film starring Amitabh, Vidya Balan, Abhishek, and Arundhati Naag - is a superlative film. Released in Dec 2009, it was a stupendous success film because of the greatest-ever acting by Amitabh, very ably supported by Vidya, Abhishek, and Arundhati. I had written a blog on this film earlier. This (11 Dec 2011) evening we watched this memorable movie on a HD channel. What a film, what an acting by Amitabh. Words fail me to describe this movie and Amitabh's acting. Last time when we watched this an year and nine months ago, Aditi was still younger - she didn't know many nuances then; now she has grown up (!) a lot, she enjoyed the acting of AB, her favourite actor. Questioned me non-stop on the dialogues, but she was immersed in the movie. A great and memorable film. Have you watched it? Rajappa 6:30PM 11-12-11 Tidbits :: The film garnered almost all the Best Acting Awards that year - for AB, Vidya Balan, Abhishek, and Arundhati Naag. Including the National...

The Hindu : Life & Style / Metroplus : Back to school

We went to Vaithisvaran Koil on 27th Oct 2011. This is our FIFTH visit since 2007. I, Vijaya, Arun, Ashok, Neeraja, Arvind, Sowmya, Aditi, and Sriram left house at 7 AM in a call taxi for Egmore. Gayathri and Krithika couldn't come.The train (Cholan Express) left at 0820 AM. Ashok had booked our tickets in 3 AC both ways and the travel was a pleasure.  Earlier, Vijaya, Krithika, Neeraja had prepared Idli, Lemon rice, and Thayir Saatham for our trip. We ate these on the way, and reached V-Koil by 2 PM. I had booked three rooms at Balambikai Lodge (500.00 per.) After refreshing ourselves, we went to the temple and performed archanai to all the five Deities - Vinayakar, Swami, Ambal, Muthukumara swami, Angarakan. Returning to the lodge, we slept after a nice dinner. Next morning, on 28th, after bath etc, we again went to the Koil and worshipped Lord Vaithyanatha Swami. Lunch at 1000, and then we left for station. The train arrived by 11-30 AM and we reached Egmore by 6 PM. Aru...