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Published: January 3rd 2010
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The statue and memorial
Distant view of both structures It was in November for a change we planned for a trip to the neighbouring state of Kerala. The trip was from Chennai by train . An over night train journey and by 10 .30 am we were in Varkala station. This part of south India is rich in vegetation and has plenty of rainfall. Rubber plantation , pepper and Cashew nuts are abundant.This is a small town along the beach which is very famous and picturique. My friend Rajeev had come to pick us up. He was my room mate in Bhopal and we had a good time way back in 1988 - 90. He has been calling me to visit his hometown where he has built a beautiful house. He works in Saudi Arabia and had come to India on leave. The beach is dotted along side with lovely resorts and motels with visitors from all over the country and out of India too.
We reached his house and after 2-3 hours started off to visit local places. It was raining but did not affect our plans The route was splendid along the sea coast . Plam fringed beaches and blue water added to the beauty. The first
floor was for guestes well equipped and we stayed here.
Varkala beach was a beatiful spot but I have to mention that a group of people were drinking , shouting & singng loudly which was not a good sign when you visit with friends and familiy. I somehow felt the very beauty of the spot is gets beaten by this. Inside an restaurant or a resort these activiteis may be ok but not in public.
The main aim of the trip was to meet my old friend and spend time with his family. We went around visited his old house at his village in "Velamanoor" which is at a higher altitude and with awesome scenery around. I did take some snaps around this place. We also visited his relatives nearby. here is a old portion of the house which is 300 years old and fully made of wood, i have attached the snap. It was splendid. the house was having a sprawling frontyard and a huge garden behind. There were huge trees with pepper creepers winding around. We were also gifted a bag full of freshly hand picked pepper by my friend's mother in law and it was
Its me
The blue sea in the background. lovely. I was tempted to place them on a bamboo basket and take a snap i did it. Also a photo of Rubber plant - rubber being tapped from a tree.
We planned a trip to Trivandrum the capital city of Kerala state and on the way we halted to see the Padmanabhapuram Palace fully built of clay and mortar roofed with tiles. Its still majestic and with a sprawling lawn which poses proudly. We went around clicked lots of snaps.
The next day was for the Padmanabha swamy temple which is in Trivandrum. It was a bit crowded and we could not see the main deity peacefully. At the main entrance to the temple we were almost compelled to buy some flowers and lamps which was a bit annoying ! The temple rule is that the gents have to wear a Dhothi ( a white robe around the waist and can enter only bare chested. We went around the temple it was indeed crowded but managed to have a glimpse of teh main deity the Lord Padmanabhaswamy in resting mode a huge idol which has three doors for the inner sanctum .The robes are given for hire
The towering temple
Sri Padmanabha swamy temple at the temple. After this we headed to Kanyakumari the rock memorial in memoery of Swami vivekananda.
The rock memorial has to be reached through a ferry. Its just a 10 minutes ride to the rock which houses the memorial of the Swami Vivekananda who gave his famous speech at the UN meet at Chicago. its a beautiful place and all the structures are on a massive rock. Vivekananda's speech at Chicago it was the historical lecture at the World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago on 11th September, 1893.
We did spend some time at the meditation hall and went around enjoying teh blue sea allaround and then also visited the Thiruvalluvar statue ( a Tamil poet very famous for his couplet poems )
Here we saw the memorial erected in the memory of those who lost their lives on the 26 th Jan 2004 when the deadly Tsunami struck at 7.30 am in South India. Many people were caught unawares and lost thier lives , some in their sleep after the christmas selebrations. It was a pathetic sight.
We also made a trip to the famous Janardhana Swamy temple at Varkala . This is situated on
Padmanabhaswamy temple
Temple tank and gopuram ( tower ) a very steep hill. This famous temple, which is believed to be almost 2,000 years old, is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The temple is a very good specimen of traditional South-Indian architecture. The circular building with a red-tiled roof houses the main shrine. Within the temple grounds, an old banyan tree contains within its trunk, images of ancient animistic snake deities. The Arattu, celebrated every year in Meenam (March-April), is the main festival at the Janardhana Swamy temple. The temple attracts many devotees. The Janardhana Swamy temple is about 3 km form the Varkala railway station.
The next spot was Sivagiri which is the headquarters of the Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham Trust. The ashram is devoted to Sree Narayana Guru (1855-1928), whose followers, the Ezhavas form a large group of Kerala population. Guru preached the doctrine, one caste, one religion, one god for humanity' and attracted a large following among the lower castes. Thousands of followers visit the Mutt each year. The Ashram is beautiful and set on a hill overlooking the town. They involve in lot of charitable work for the poor.
We left the place had lunch and were back at Varkala for the evening. Its
Temple tank
Clear water the only beach perhaps which has a river and sea side by side it was surprising, check out the snap .We also was a boat and two people collecting coconuts from the water while the third was plucking. I liked the snap as it was only two dark shadows and the coconut splashing on the water.
Spent time visting my friend's relatives in nearby places such as Pandara Thottam, Sembaruthi and on the way to Kollam. It was now time for us to come back to Chennai and start the regualr grind. Await for my next blog on Thiruvannamalai which we did last week !!
The kerala trip was indeed splendid and worth it.
Bye till then .
Ramz
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s.chandra shekar
non-member comment
kerala
wow !!! amazing