Visit to Chitragupta temple in Chatrinaka (Old city)

Chitragupta is an important person to Lord Yama who tracks our good and bad deeds. We rarely hear a temple on his name. I was taken aback by surprise when I first heard from my parents and we planned to visit on Sunday. Not sure of exact location, I googled and found that it is far interior into the old city. I never had been so far into old city so it makes it more interesting. We started in the morning around 8:00 on Sunday by car. The route is straight with no diversions from Chaderghat. You have to pass museum, Charminar to reach the temple. The sheep lovers throng road to make their Sunday meal little special. So, occasionally you tend to slow down. We reached temple with no difficulty and looks like it is well connected by public transportation.
The entrance to temple is hugely built with stone and colored with saffron. The temple premise is huge occupied with few families on left when you enter. One can find Hanuman mandir on the right side. The original Chitragupta temple is small but it is extended to accommodate Shiva, Ram and Shirdi Sai temples. The original temple looks like never had a gopuram earlier but built recently in South Indian style. The other gopuram for Shirdi Sai is built in North Indian style. Chitragupta temple has idols of Chitragupta and his two wife’s Iravati and Dakshina. The old style doors and stone still stand out when you get closer to the temple. The dwaja stambam is built in stone and stands erect in the premises.
The temple is built by devotees from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar some 200 years back. But I could not get any more information why these devotees from far way places came to Hyderabad to build this temple. We forgot coconuts and someone in temple suggested a place. The shop keeper quickly recognized and pointed that I am not from the locality. I also noticed that the people from both communities coexist peacefully in the place.
Whatever may be the reason, the temple once again stands as a testimonial for communal harmony in Hyderabad.

World Trade Center (WTC)

I visited New York in 2001 during my school summer vacation. We were group of six drove all the way from Illinois to New York. We visited the important places in New York and came to WTC. That was the last place we wanted to visit before returning to Illinois. It was raining heavily and we thought we should skip the WTC. We drove a distance and I thought I should take a picture of that building at least. Couple of months later, disaster struck and WTC was brought down. I was shaken. I empathize who lost lives and loved ones in that disaster.
Now I regret that I missed an opportunity to go onto the top of WTC, but it brings me relief that I have the picture of a standing building which was brought down by some craze. I like to post the picture that I took of WTC when I visited NY in 2001.

Wargal Trip

I visited a Saraswathi temple in Wargal, Medal district couple of weeks back. Wargal is around 40 odd kilometers from the city, Hyderabad. It is in the direction of scenic Shamirpet. The drive changes as soon as you leave Hyderabad and cross Shamirpet. The nature reeves as you pass by tiny hamlets before you reach Wargal. The side roads are varnished with small mercantile who sell corn (mokkajonna) and fruits. Many relish the corn. We could not spare ourselves from temptation of freshly cut corn from fields.
The state high way is well maintained and decorated with trees on both the sides of road. District buses, heavy trucks and passenger cars make most of the traffic. The route has many recreational resorts on the way.
There are many chances that you may miss the entrance to temple and so keep your heads up whenever your eye catches welcome signs and bill board pictures of Saraswasthi. The temple is not so big but well maintained and is on top of small hillock. The temple provides parking space and an elevator for devotees who cannot make to top using stairs. The temple is often mentioned as Saraswathi and Shani temple. My parents, brother and I made to top and visited the abode. The goddess is typical “Ammavaru” covered with turmeric with bright dark black eyes. The idol glossiness signifies the purity and power of the idol.
Kanchi Vedic school is adjacent to temple. A temple adjacent to a Vedic school and occasional chants, I leave that imagination to you. Besides Saraswathi temple, there are Vigneswara (Ganesh) and Shani temples. But the most striking is Shiva temple which is not on this hillock but few yards away. Shiva temple is very old and one can find archaeological dig findings in the temple premises.
We had food in Secunderabad while coming back home. A visit to this temple dilutes you from city life for a while and immerses you with devotion and green pastures.

Quotes

Here are few quotes I stumbled across while browsing Google. I could not resist to post. These are quotes on happiness.
Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart.

Away From Home & Back Home

My brief stay experience far away from home brings mixed feelings. But after all home is home. But I made great friends far in a distant land from home. I shared good moments with some with whom I developed a special connection in last 10 months.
Trips that I made to Delhi, Agra, Mathura, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Chintpurni and Jwalaji were memorable. I missed some good places. Hope the destiny will bring a chance in future to visit places I missed this time.
To sum up, the cordial environment made a distinct impression on me.

Chitpurni Trip

Seven of my office colleagues (Aarti, Manoj, Neera, Parminder, Raj, Shruti and I) started early in the morning around 7 early on Saturday morning to visit Chitpurni and Jwalaji temples. We rode Toyota Innova which comfortably accommodated all seven. Some of them have visited more than once unlike me who never visited.
Chitpurni, the abode of Chitpurni Devi is in Himachal Pradesh. This is the first ever time I am visiting Himachal Pradesh. I was told "Pahadi" is their colloquial language besides widely used "Hindi". Raj and Shruti are from Himachal.
The first one and half hour till Hoshiarpur was ok with potholes and construction. The ride from Hoshiarpur till Chitpurni is on mountains. The terrain offers excellent view of the surroundings which reminded me of Srisailam and Tirpathi to Tirumala trip. Weak stomachs tend to have nausea due to bumpy ride and occasional turns on mountains.
Chitpurni as one of my friends explained is the remover of troubles when one prays to the Lord with true heart and devotion. Devotees with red flags (dwaja), red bands to their fore head and baskets with prasadam are mottled in the crowd. The chants of "Jai Matadi" resound from the crowd. The atmosphere becomes electrifying with the chants as you get closer to shrine.
The holiday season and weekend brought more crowds to the temple. I found some discipline in devotees but with some occasional queue breaches.
Mata Chitpurni is on a round stone with bright eyes and covered with KumKum powder. It is serene and the very darshan of the glittering Lord gives you a wonderful experience. I entered from right and leave from left side of the main temple. There is a tree which touches the walls of the temple. It is believed that one ties a crimson thread after wishing. Once the wish gets fulfilled he or she has to come back and untie a thread. It need not be the same thread as it is hard to identify.
The place has one dharamshala on the way to temple where one can find accommodation and free food. One can also find dharmshala management staff and asking you to have food. We also found some family serving water in a tree shade for the devotees.
We had food at a decent restaurant and also helped ourselves with some golgoppas or otherwise known as Pani Poori.
The only unfavorable conditions are temple narrow lanes, devotees to and from temple throng the same conjusted lanes. I was walking back to my car, and found someone holding my hand. I was surprised and looked back. There is this small kid holding my hand for alms and not leaving. I had to pull my hand to release my hand. This is one of the instances that you will face all along the way.
My trip to Chitpurni was an unexpected trip. As I am from the South of India who are not much into “Jai Matadi” and this trip to temple was unique of its kind and left me many good memories.
We got into our car and started to ride towards Jwalaji temple. I sign off now and will post the details of my trip to Jwalaji soon.

First Paycheck

It throws a nostalgia of where, how much we earned and what we did with our first earnings.
I remember when I earned my first paycheck working in a cafeteria for couple of hundred dollars. As my first earning was before Thanksgiving, I spent my first few dollars on a full sleeves shirt I liked most and on a rental car which we (group of friends) rented to drive during the holidays.
I thought I will do a lot with my paycheck but the feeling got subdued when I realized that I too little to spend. The parting with some of your hard earned money especially from your first paycheck is unimaginable
The first ever time I was out from campus and saw the freeways in US. I never spent so much time in a car. Music, food, pictures and initial experiences being out in US was unforgettable. The car we rented became our car during the holidays. I still remember my friend Ramnag who drove it found hard to part with after the holidays.
Funny feeling isn't it??
I went back in time when I listened to one of my office mate who started fresh in his career and received his first paycheck.
Well who does not remember such experiences??

This week that happened

The week which started with the blame game of oil spill in which BP was accused, youngest (13 year) to climb Mount Everest, South Korean allegations that their naval ship was submerged by North Korea, and Bangkok failed diplomacy has ended with the biggest tragedy ever unimagined on Indian soil, Mangalore. The flight accident which claimed scores of lives is heart moving. I empathize with family members who lost their loved ones in such an unfortunate incident.

Ignorance or Arrogance

I spent great deal of time in US and returned. The stay in US made me realize what I missed and lost all those years. I had this feeling that one can survive anywhere in India. Sounded too cocky?? Well, yah why not it is my land.
The feeling brought me to a distant land which I never dreamt of when I returned. I set course to North for my living. Well, I come from a cosmopolitan city with colors. Moving to a distant land unimagined is a learning and thrilling experience atleast initially.
When I started to become one of them, few harsh realities started to surface. I was hurt when I was called "Madrasi". This word seems to pop up from most of them. It looks like this word is deeply engraved in many minds. Left alone uneducated, strangely from so called educated. Make fun of eating rice, yogurt, interestingly when use fingers to eat food and the way South Indians eat are common.
People wake up. I have an identity. Respect my traditions when I meant no harm to you all. I thank the bustling nature of my fantastic city Hyderabad who respects and invites migrants all across country. I do not rule out bias in my city but making mock of other traditions is crossing line and completely unacceptable.
Please tell me, mocking others way of living is ignorance or sheer arrogance?

Chile Earthquake

Chile earthquake at this time brings sadness when the memories of Haiti earthquake loss are still fresh on our minds. Fortunately the human loss in Chile earthquake is not much as it was Haiti even though the death toll continues to increase. The after shocks are giving lot of distress to Chileans.
I came to know that the top one earth quake measured 9.5 magnitude that too was in Chile. The current earth quake of 8.8 magnitude is in top five and Chile is in first and fifth slots.

First week in California

After nine years in U.S, I returned home. I am in U.S again after a brief hiatus. This time it is California. I never visited west coast before. So, this time I am excited with mixed feelings. The warm weather greeted me when I landed and it contrasted my familiarity with cold and icy winters during this time of year. Recovered from jet lag, I feel comfortable now.
My curiosity impelled me to visit one of the familiar eating place “Chilis”. I found lots of Hispanic food joints all around the place where I stay. I ate at one “Del Taco”. The food is good and perfect fit for fast food. The hot sauce served has a strong taste than the one served at “Taco Bell”.
After all I am in the land of movie making, so I watched Sherlock Holmes and Avatar in 3-D. I watched this as an ordinary movie at home but 3-D is way ahead in experience. The sound, vivid colors and graphics engross you and present a great experience. Sherlock Holmes is good but it has an unsual story which we do not expect to read from Sherlock Holmes adventures.
Well, I sign off now and look forward to coming weeks.