Universe, Life and a Weekend

One story about gravity warping the SpaceTime and causing time to dilate.
Another about dilated perspectives of influenced behavior warping the very personality.
And a lot of WTFs in between which left a lot spinning in the top storey.

What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?
#GoneGirl

Whatever can happen, will happen.
#Interstellar

I was pretty much afraid that gravity instilled by the mysterious black-holes that these (e)motion pictures had created would be inescapable this weekend. But then roughly 1600 KMs away, two different people I had known at two different times were playing throw-ball with each other. And you thought universe just couldn't be any more complicated?

The good explanations are tough to understand. The easy ones are as many as the galaxies themselves. Sometimes I even wonder what cooks my chicken - I honestly (90%) have no idea how much oil, salt and spices I throw in, but in the end it always turns out edible (thankfully). Either it cooks itself or some force warps the nature of the ingredients, dilates/speeds up the time so that it ends up tasting the same - nomatter by what different name I christen the new recipe. e.g. Dhamaka Chicken. Chicken Maniac.

Chicken Maniac <Patent Pending>

In this universe of endless possibilities and infinite outcomes, I am everything, and thankful.

Countless choices shaping the fates. Each causing a ripple and once in a while, the ripples coming together to form a tide that would sweep the future...for the future is never set (in stone).

But the past is set in stone. Atleast literally, if not philosophically or (quantum) physically. And geographically - at Lepakshi.

Lepakshi

Roughly 135 KMs from Bangalore, lies this place, smaller than any average tech-park in the city. The entrance is guarded by the monolithic Nandi Statue, a stone throw distance away from the major attraction - the ancient Veerbhadra temple - yet another granite marvel of a series of pillars, slabs and long corridors. You could call it our own neat and sculpted stonhenge.

Almost at the border, it lies in Andhra Pradesh enroute Banglaore - Hyderabad highway. 

And it would just, very beautifully add more into your already swollen list of wonderous Hows, Whats and Whys.

I would vouch for that in the very words of legendary Bappi da.

Kasam paida karne wale ki.

Nandi - The Bull

Lepakshi - Veerbhadra Temple

StoneHenge

Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki

Interstellar Effect

Minding it since 1991

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Rights to exaggeration and bragging reserved.

Its not how it happened; its how you remember it.

No characterisation intended

Data and information may have been skewed to suit the storyline, but Gravity was taken equal to 1G and Velocity << C

Everything is relative to your perspective

Of Shores and Temples

Kanyakumari
The rock lies about 200 meters off the shore of the cape. He paused for a while and then jumped into the merging waters of the three great seas. He swam up to the last bits of Indian rock, meditated there for 3 days and attained enlightenment.

So goes the (highly controversial) legend of Vivekananda. Why he went there? I do not know. Why I went there? (After so many attempts at making people accompany me to this place.) I do not know that either. But finally, this family trip of ours did fulfill the calling.
Kanyakumari hasn't got as much to offer you that could keep you there for more than a day. I somehow managed to keep my family rooted there for two days. Cause I loved the place. I had always known I would. Why? I do not know that as well.

The wind and the waves seem confused. Coming in from three directions. You yourself wouldn't know which way you would sway the next moment. The sun rises from the green waters of the Bay of Bengal and sets in the blue of the Arabian sea.
I guess there might be some truth in Vivekananda having stayed three days on that rock. For I know time becomes a totally different dimension when you are sitting at that spot. How? Go and find out. And take me with you.

Rain, Rainbows and Coconut Forests

Never saw a greater turnout for a sunrise (except Chhath puja :D )

Mum

And Me

Vatakottai Fort

Stream meets the Sea

Cause I made them stay a day longer

You don't simply avoid local sight-seeing :-/

The rest of the tour was more or less temple tourism. It began in Kanyakumari itself. The Suchindram Temple - where a male must be naked  waist-up to enter the temple.

Madurai

Porthamarai Kulam (Pond with a golden lotus) is located in the campus of this great temple with four pyramidal gopurams (entrance towers). Lord Shiva promised a stork that no fish or other marine life would grow in it and it doesn't. Tamil legends state that the lake is supposed to judge the worth of a new piece of literature. Authors place their works here and the poorly wriiten ones sink while the scholastic ones float.

Temples. They wouldn't let you carry anything that you would like but your money. Always your money. Special darshan, parikrama, abhishek, moksha - these do not come under the priceless category anymore and hence your mastercard can get you these.Take the top ten temples of India and their revenue will outdo the Fortune number one by heavens.

The highpoints were the windmills enroute Madurai and the Meenakshi Temple.

Windfarm - Just outside Kanyakumari

Meenakshi (Parvati) Temple

Rameswaram

They needed to cross the sea. They had to build a bridge. Two of them could identify pumice (rocks of igneous origin that could float on water). So they went about looking for such stone and marked them by writing 'Ram' on them to help others identify which rocks to pick.

My interpretation was termed obnoxious. 

Lord Hanuman built the bridge. Rocks floated because Lord Ram's name was written on them. Period.

Somehow, nobody thought of boats. The technology was sound enough for existence of a Pushpak Vimana (an airship that traveled with the speed of your thoughts) but not a decent boat. 

I kept this thought to myself. Religious sentiments. Faith. Whatever keeps the earth spinning.

The Ramnathaswamy temple has 22 kundas (water-wells) and a pilgrim is supposed to bathe in each of them. The temple is huge with long corridors and each of those kundas are separated by considerable distance. You usually would not have a lot of time at hand due to early closure timings of the temple. So it would a kind of temple run cum treasure hunt as you run from one kunda to the other through the corridors.

Apart from the temple run, the Pamban bridge is a treat - connecting main land India to the island of Rameswaram over the gulf of Mannar.

Pamban Bridge (not to be confused with the bridge that Lord Rama bulit)

Thiruvananthapuram
The Padmanabhaswamy temple has 6 vaults. Of these one vault has not been opened. Two snakes are carved on the door. There are no locks, no bolts, yet they cannot be opened. The priests and astrologers claim that human efforts to force open the vault would have apocalyptic results. The treasures of other vaults were inventoried and their net worth is estimated to exceed 50 billion US Dollars. The unopened vault is estimated to contain treasures worth 1 trillion US Dollars.

Padmanabhaswamy Temple

To enter the temple you must wear the traditional dhoti.
Another noteworthy place where you need to lose your clothes is the Kovalam beach. The waves there are huge. So is the fun.

Kovalam

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Rights to exaggeration and bragging reserved.
Its not how it happened; its how you remember it.
No characterisation or hurting religious sentiments intended.
Data and information may have been skewed to suit the storyline.
Everything is relative to your perspective.

That Halo Behind The Head

On an average, about 50,000 to 1,00,000 people visit the Balaji Temple at Tirumala, Tirupathi everyday. On special occasions, the number may swell well beyond 3,00,000.
This Saturday, the estimated number was 2,50,000. I and my friend, Ravi 'Dude' Singh were two of them.

2,50,000 people.
Anybody who knows anything or has heard anything about being at that temple will make it very clear to you that you will stand in a seemingly infinitely long line.
2,50,000 people. If you make each one of them stand in one single line, exactly behind each other (and with one arm distance between them), the line would stretch right upto Bangalore. (The distance between Tirupathi and Bangalore being nearly 250 Kms.)

I am unsure what caused the rush that day. It was the weekend. Last night I did see a big full moon through the bus window. And I guess some sort of festivities were on too - some Kalyanotsava.
Well, what it meant for me was that, despite opting for a 300 bucks special ticket, it took me 8 god-hours to come out at the other end of the temple. Everyone's best estimate put it at 3-4 hours. But not that day.
8 hours. You could have gone back to Bangalore and came back before I entered the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.

What was all this for? I cannot say. Not that I am very religious, unless you discount the daily morning agarbatti (incesne stick) I light up (only because my mother asks me too) and my college-(semi)circle nickname Sangam (earned owing to a partially non-religious activity).
But I had wanted to visit it for some time now. And Tirupathi not being that far from Bangalore, only made it dependent on me deciding (when to get in that line).

Its a test. You are in there, with people (sometimes) getting too close to comfort; with the line just not moving (or worse - the line beside you moving while your is not). You can very well quit in the beginning, but later, when you are half the way there, quitting would take just as much toll on you as going ahead. You would not have your phone or your music; you can't just kill the queue-time like you normally do.

What you will do is think, talk and maybe when you got absolutely nothing else to turn your mind to, chant Govinda, govinda - maybe stressing more on the syllable 'GO' to set  your line moving miraculously. And it will.

Enroute Tirumala

Windmills at Tirumala

Sri Vari Temple

I and my dear devoted 'Dude' (who following the ritual, got his head shaved) had been on a self imposed upvaas vrat (fast). Going by the initial estimate, it was only a matter of 4 hours. We contemplated that this would truly enhance the flavour of the famous Tirupathi Laddoos. Although the things did get awry, we held our resolve, until the very end.

Its a big satisfaction, having completed the journey. One where barely any actual distance was covered, but each moment in those eight hours was felt in its entirety. One where the fatigue was way worth the reward (read Laddoos) and those final few minutes under the golden gopuram - when no matter if you are an atheist or a painted pandit - your eyes would just remain fixed at the great deity in front of you.

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Rights to exaggeration and bragging reserved.
Its not how it happened; its how you remember it.
No characterisation intended.
Data and information may have been skewed to suit the storyline.
Everything is relative to your perspective.