Temple-seeing in Mysore.

My Mom has come to visit. And this because she wanted to give my nephew a taste of the bright lights after his exams and my sis couldn't bring him herself. So we went to Mysore the last week- May 1st.
And we treated my dear nephew to - temples instead of malls, strong incense instead of bright lights, and laddos and sugar pieces instead of the delights of KFC and Mac... Poor fella, to his credit, he didn't complain.

We went to Chamundeswari temple, to Nanjundeshwara temple and to another small temple near the latter that was the place where Parasuraman atoned for the sin of killing his mother. That reminds me- I do have to read up on my myths and legends. I do remember he cut off his Mom' s head, but can't remember what on earth for.

Chamundeswari- every time we drove past the hill, had wanted to pay the Goddess a visit. Finally we did. And returned content.
Its another story that we got conned. Mom and I paid 15/- for a mere picture of the Goddess. I mean mere paper- no stand, no hook , nothing. I have never EVER bought such pictures from the many temples I've been to in my life. To think that I could've got a better, proper photograph for the same 15/-! What is worse is that the fellow said he didn't have change and so gave me another picture to compensate! I think he must've done some hypnotising or something.... Seriously.

We also paid a visit to that HUGE statue of Nandi enroute. I remember, when I last visited the place from school , we were told that we'd be blessed with good offspring if we went under the forelegs of the bull. Nandi is in a sitting posture, but with its left(I think) foreleg raised a little. It seemed so easy then. But now, a couple was going under (dunno if for the same reasons) and they were just scraping through with quite some difficulty.

Nanjundeswara Temple was a pleasant surprise. None of us had any idea that the temple was such a big one. The architecture was beautiful, I think it was stone, but painted the colour of wood. So your first impression is that it is carved out of wood. It looks like an enlarged version of those sandalwood carvings. It was beautiful. The main deity is Lord Siva, but it also had several others- Parvathi, Ganesha etc. It was a huge, rambling temple and somehow it reminded me of Rameswaram, tho' my memories of that temple are of a 8-10 year old girl, from the time we used to be staying there. Apparently this temple is also associated with prayers/offerings for the souls of the dead.

We nearly didn't go to the Parasuram temple. It was so small, we didn't think that it could possibly be the one our friend had told us about. The one where you supposedly got all your past sins forgiven by praying at its doors. There was this small temple, hordes of trees all around, a brook flowing past right in front.... totally picturesque. And hens being slain, plucked and cooked, by the devotees themselves! There was a bald rock in front of the temple across the brook, where the sacrifice was done. Have any of you ever been fascinated by something you do NOT want to watch? Made sure my little son didn't catch any 'sights'. But he was sensitive to atmosphere. Knew something was happening that was not totally nice. Well, we prayed, but we certainly didn't kill any hens/cocks.
There was also this pair of old men sitting at the temple with a veena, singing songs if you gave them money. Kind of like the snake worshippers, Pulluvar, in Kerala, where the songs they sing are for the appeasement of the snake gods and goddesses, and also to usher in their blessings and prosperity.

In the evening, went to St. Philomena's Cathedral. My Mom's abiding memory of the place was that there had been some huge beehives there. How we laughed at her! And then we found that there were indeed huge beehives on the spires! Some three or four at least. Still.
But like my nephew said, maybe the bees have all died and its just the hives left. For who would climb up to just break up a bee hive? And at that height, if the bees decide they want a sting, you have to give it to them, you can't run away, you have to hold on for dear life.
My little son saw Jesus for the first time at close quarters, on the cross, hands and feet bleeding. And he said, Amma, paavam Jesus. It was Mass time and the church was gradually filling up. The church was absolutely full of gorgeous flowers, in every nook and corner, and we heard that the arch bishop or somebody was also visiting that day. We sat on the steps and it was very pleasant there, sitting in the evening sun, with the breeze on our cheeks.

Mom was saying that she wished we could visit a mosque, then that would complete the outing.. But as if God had heard, just then we passed a mosque and the muezzin was calling out prayers.

Returned to B'lore, tired, but definitely thinking the trip well worth it. Yeah, my nephew too.

Sibling rambles

We have been planning to go on a family trip to Tirupati for quite some time now. Finally now that my nephew's exams are over and my sister is free ( pls note that it is SHE who is free after HIS exams!!!), we are finally able to fix on a date.

We found that online booking should ideally have been thought of some 3-5 months back, and that package tours might prove to be a bit too strenuous, especially for my Mom. So we had to find an alternate source of getting darshan tickets alone, so that we could plan our journey independently of tour operators.

Finally I managed to find a friend this week, who reverted within a day(!) and asked me for exact dates. Now here was the problem.
My sister stays in a sprawling old ancestral house.
Her FIL is aged and will not be accompanying us, but neither can he be left alone in the sprawling house.
So arrangements have to be made.
BIL is of the type who doesn't really care about this trip, but is coming along to indulge his wife and SIL.
Sis is of the type who will fret and fume, but can't/won't open her mouth for nuts, and leave alone rant and rave, won't even mumble at the people responsible for the fumes. ( I am diametrically opposite to my sister! She was good and no trouble; and I was bad and only trouble, in our growing up years)
Neither of them want to request BIL's siblings who land up every year at the ancestral house for the summer hols, to hold fort for two days while they pay their obeisances to the Lord and come back.

So it was left to the bad ol' me to get both Bil and Sis to buck up and get everybody else to buck up too, and decide on a date when the fort would be held secure while we were away. Buck up, because my friend had requested me for the dates urgently, and him being a pal I knew only through our ramblings on the net, I didn't want to be a bother to him to the extent that he might never again visit my blogs. Aaaaah! he was a valued friend.

So I called up my Sis and gave her the picture and asked her to revert back with a date by nightfall. This after Sis had been 'planning' for the better part of 3 weeks on how to go and when to go... Till the next morn' no news from my BIL and Sis. I shared my feelings with my significant other. Told him how I was worried that my friend might think me a pain in the whatever.. That I wished the the couple would revert...

Which is when he told me that I never come to the point, but ramble. !!!! ?????

He told me that both me and my Sis laugh over every single thing under the sun when on a call, and beat every bush in sight, and bitch and backbite and gossip about this and that, (isn't that generally what all women in the family do?) and generally NEVER, EVER straightaway come to the point.
And when finally, we do condescend to discuss the reason the call was made in the first place, we again, are never very clear about what it is that we want.
That we go on to discuss how, if this was not to be, and that was not to be, it would be very bad indeed. And how if only it could be like this, or like that, it would be very nice indeed.
Still not coming clean about what it is that we DO want.
And then at the end of it all, we complain that the other person is not doing anything or not doing what we want!

Amazes me that my significant other knows me and my Sis so well, when he hardly is bothered to listen to our conversations.