Yindia!!!!! Day 9 The Rock Fort Temple

Looked forward to this day ever since i got here. The Rockfort Temple...

As usual i watched Keelaputur wake up that morning while i waited for Jagen to arrive. Im not sure if it was just me but i think the clouds that morning were so unique and interesting...

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

while i was up on the roof trying to get a few shots of the interesting cloud formations when the bark of a familiar dog came from a nearby house.. this little feller lived on the top floor and i had seen it the first day in India but i didnt have my camera with me...

From India Day 9 & 10

We drove tru a different part of town to get to the Fort Temple... and it was interesting to find that the saree shops we passed were actually part of the old temple structure which spanned the area around this great rock..

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

up a few steps to a small temple will lead you to the main flight of stairs takiing you all the way up... Unfortunately no photography is allowed in the temple areas... so all i got are stairs... Not sure how many steps we took but it was surely more then 272 steps which leads first to the Shivan Temple which is carve out of the rock .... again sorry for not having any photos because it was not allowed... thats actually sad because it was amazing... the rock carvings and the pillars were..hmmm. i have no words to describe it lah ... just amazing ....... Not a single pillar was the same... each had its own unique carving ...

The Rock was carved out some time in the 3rd century but it was fully completed between the 13th and 17th century....

... After an hour or so exploring this beautiful place we headed up to the top of the rock where the much smaller Ganesh Temple sits.... Being the highest point it had the best views of Trichy...

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

It was well worth the trip to walk all the way up all those steps but alas the heat and our tummies brought us back down to earth...

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

AFter a scrumptious breakfast of rava thosai we met up with the rest of the family for more shopping ofcos... Rose also wanted to find some books as she heard of india having a good selection of books by local authors... Interestingly books are so cheap in India... thats just ridiculous lah in comparison to how expensive books are in Malaysia.. Ever silver and Stainless steel products are so cheap too...

After a long day a nice chilled beer was a welcomed sight... Spent the rest of the day packing as it was the last full day in India... Sad yes but as a reward or a parting gift, Keelaputur put out an amazing sunset.

From India Day 9 & 10

hundreds of eagles....

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

Although i was sad to to take my last morning walk around Keelaputur i was satisfied with all it had offere.. Didnt take a lot of photos that morning ..for some reason as i wasnt in the mood... all i wanted to do was take it in... take it all in one last time.... before saying goodbye....

From India Day 9 & 10

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Yindia!!!!!!!!! Day 8 ... Poondi Madha Basilica

Woke up early to catch the sunrise again... and as usual it didnt disappoint.... amazing colours displayed before a glorious morning... it made me want to explore keelapudee further... so i walked tru the small streets as the women began cleaning the porch to start on their kollums... ....

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

India... was amazing lah... the beauty... was simple..... yet amazing.... but sometimes it can disappoint also ...felt that way that morning cos even though on my right was this amazing view .... but on my left ..there was a heap of rubbish stacked up and strewn across the street...... what i dont get is that there was a huge rubbish bin right there but it was not even half full... A herd of goats was eating the rubbish...... Then as one goat moved over to more fresher rubbish... i saw a kid... no not a baby goat but a human child... squatting next to the rubbish bin..... doing number two right there at the dump.......yes yes.. takin' a dump at the dump..... i will never forget the stare he gave me as he finished, pulled up his shorts and ran back to his house..... sigh...

Luckily the view on my right began to change from purple reds to a royal gold... decided to walk back to the house and go up to the roof to continue taking more shots of the sunrise...

From India Day 9 & 10

That morning we were in for a long drive towards the east to visit the Poondi Madha Basilica... its in a small village called Poondi which is in the northern province of Thanjavur . Jegan drove us there all the way along the Kavary river. We stopped for a break at a Kavary river dam. (cant remember the name but it was breathtaking).

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

Continued on through small quaint villages to reached the basilica.

It was the feast day which is celebrated around the same time as Vailankani feast. Hundreds of Thousands of people (Well it looked like that many) camped out at the grounds and also filled its hostels. We had watched the Vailankani feast on the TV two nights before and i was amazed by the magnitude of the celebrations and Mass. Maybe one day we will make a pilgrimage to Vailankani ...but Poondi Madha Basilica was equally fascinating and enlightening.

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

From India Day 9 & 10

We stopped at Uncle Mani's house to rest and we also had a late lunch. Uncle Mani was all too happy to show me around his backyard ...he talked about the frequent snake visits and also demonstrated how he trims the rattan trees. He had many fruit trees but unfortunately it wasnt fruit season.

From India Day 9 & 10

(his T-Shirt says it all on his take on life)

It was a long and interesting day and we made it back to Keelapudee just before the sunset and had a wonderful dinner prepared by F.I.L's cousin sister. She prepared fried chicken specially for me... this is hardly the normal style of preparing chicken over here but... it was delicious!!!!

end of Day 8
next up Fort Temple...

Yindia!!!!!!!!! Day 7 ...Yindia!!! let the positive energy flow!!

Had a really good sleep even though it was hot.... Woke up early that day and when out to watch the sunrise.. it was beautiful..

From India Day 5 to 8

Walking along the houses i noticed a lot of people sleeping outside their houses.. some on weaved beds but most slept right on the roads or pavements because of the heat.. Most of them completely covered themselves with their blankets... head to toe because of the mosquitoes..

From India Day 5 to 8

All shops were still closed except the tea shops... As men gathered to get their regular spot of tea to start their day...

From India Day 5 to 8

On the way back to the house one of the ladies whom i've noticed around Keelaputur came up to me and spoke to me in tamil... She asked if i understood tamil of which i said only a little... Then we had the most interesting conversation i've ever had in tamil... kekeke... amazingly we both understood each other... She asked all the usual Indian Auntie questions... like where i'm from? how many siblings? about mum and dad? etc etc... She used to help around F.I.L's house a long time ago..

I took a photo of her near her house and the shot is one of my favorites.Her friendly nature was captured in her smile and the sunrise had changed to a golden hue which gave a beautiful glow to her face....

From India Day 5 to 8

Got home to the smell of yesterdays curry... mmmmmm.... and nice hot idli... but before that i went up to the roof to observe keelaputur waking up...

What caught my eye were two little children helping their mother collect water from the public tap..... with their little mini water containers..... they were so cute... and so eager to help their mother... the little girl especially... laughing away as she ran to and fro with the container in hand... It was a beautiful moment.... one of many.. India... it was getting to me...

From India Day 5 to 8

After breakfast, Uncle Mani took us to Trichi town for more saree shopping...wow... the sarees were so beautiful and cheap...

Walking past the Fort Gates in the city centre i gazed at the Rock Fort Temple... cant wait to visit it... It was a tiring day and the heat really drains you..... best to visit early in the morning.

From India Day 5 to 8

Lazed around the house after lunch and decided to go visit Cooking Party at her house... she is amazing lah... her energy just radiates... wish i could be so positive all the time like her...

From India Day 5 to 8

day 8 hopefully soon...

Yindia!!!!!!!!! Day 6 - !! Overwhelmed by calmness!!

Finally managed to wake up for the sunrise...... it was Sunday and we got ready to go to St Joseph's Church for Mass. Uncle Mani's son Jegan, drove us to the church which was not too far away. The church was nestled in between coconut trees... so nice one... There weren't many benches and almost everyone sat on the floor. The whole mass was in tamil so i didnt understand anything... and while i stood up trying to focus on praying ..a man suddenly tapped me on the shoulder... and asked me some thing... but for the life of me i couldnt understand his tamil... i think he repeated himself three times... until F.I.L turned around to see whats happening... he too looked at me puzzled.. The man repeated himself one more time and then only we realize that he was not talking Tamil... he was talking in English... he had asked me if the car outside belonged to me... ME!!!??... he wanted me to re-park it somewhere else... his accent was so thick ....it was nice that he asked me in english... did i really look that out of place :) but i think he should have just talked to me in tamil....kekekeke ...





We went over to Jeyenthi's sisters place just down the road for breakfast and waited for Jeyanthi and family to meet us there. They had stayed at her mum's place (The first house we visited when we landed in India)the night before.

I got a little lost while because everyone was speaking in tamil but i was enjoying eating some good crispy tosai ... i tried to grasp some of the words but it was hard to participate in any of their conversations ...

Jeyanthi wanted to bring us to meet her eldest sister... her place was quite a drive away... but it was an interesting drive... On the way there we took a detour to Srirangam Temple which is the biggest 'working' hindu temple complex in the world.



F.I.L, Rose and I got down to have a closer look while the rest stayed in the car because it was freaking hot... 40 degress Celsius ... We were short on time so we didnt go too far in... the massive gopuram was fascinating... beautiful!!!...







The heat was really getting to us... it was a delight to get back into the air-conditioned car... Driving around Trichi you see alot of road works being done... hopefully this will bring some much needed change to the chaotic look of this city .....

Kumar took many interesting back roads to avoid the jams to reach Jeyenti's sisters place. But these back roads really open your eyes to the real living conditions the majority still live in... the poor in Keelapatur was nothing compared to this...

Anyway as we pulled to the house which btw has been newly rebuilt and was now three stories high... as usual the roof top landing was my favorite part of the house.... But this time it was just way too hot to stand barefooted on... it was 40 degrees Celsius after all.

After some yummy biscuits... We then went over to Jeyanthi's mother's house for lunch. The whole house was buzzing with activity ... relatives and friends... actually the friends in some way or rather related too..

it was a tiring day but it felt good... i was also feeling alot better... no more fever and my throat felt a lot better...

Once we were back in F.I.L house i as usual went up to the roof to watch the sun set... it was hot but the wind was starting to pick up... Standing up there watching Keelaputur unwind... the saturation of noises you hear ...its amazing... a chaos of sound.... its simply amazing...

Then suddenly in the midst of all that chaos ... i heard a faint chant in a distance ... i had no idea where it was coming from... and it seemed to get louder as i slowly focused on it.... and as the sun was setting it made me feel calm... i was actually overwhelmed by calmness... it was exhilarating.... .... and when the sun had disappeared behind the horizon and the hues of the sunset were replaced with twilight... the chant just stopped... and i was broken away from its embrace.. i felt soooooo rested... like i had just finished a fabulous massage or something... i just really dont know how else to explain how i felt at that moment...





Keelaputur looked different that night... We walked to visit another relative who lived nearby... i was sure i had the same look these children had ...as they played sparklers outside their home...




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for more photos go to my picasa page..

Yindia!!!!!!!!! Day 5 - Uncle Mani's Infectious Smile!!

My throat was already bad before coming to India.. Then getting drenched in the rain in Anthirapillai and being totally not prepared for Coimbatore and Kerala's chilly weather.... i had lost my voice and was burning up with fever....

Had a superb breakfast of tosai and chutney and took a couple of panadols... Then we got ready to leave Coimbatore...

I wasnt as trigger happy with the camera... Even Kumar commented that he hardly heard the camera's click this time... I was almost like a zombie... We were all tired and the road trip was long and bumpy ...


We stopped at Karur Town for a short while for tea and some tit bits... Karur was a bit more warmer then Coimbatore but the wind was just as chilly....





As we continued our journey back to Trichi it got warmer and warmer... and we reached Trichi... it was a balmy 38 degrees Celsius...



As we crossed one of the bridges across the Cavery river we noticed that the river served as a launderette as hundreds of people were washing and putting cloths out to dry... This time of the year the water level is low as it is controlled by a Dam nearby..

We reached Uncle Mani's house and as usual were greeted with his infectious smile and laughter... he had a cozy house surrounded by a garden full of fruit trees. He even had a grape vine growing in front of his porch.Uncle Mani gave us a tour around his garden. At the back there were 5 different types of Mango trees. Too bad it wasnt in season. Coconut trees, Jambu trees and many more. His land was surrounded by padi fields. Although it was so hot it was very shady and as usual windy... that really helped becos the heat was getting to me... i couldnt stand up.. the fever was really getting to me... luckily Uncle Mani's best friend who was a doctor was there... and he wrote me a medical subscription which i received after a superb late lunch and a really good evening nap...







Uncle Mani's family wanted to celebrate our wedding anniversary even thought it was almost a month before that. They even bought champagne to toast ... so sweet of them lah...I just had a sip of champagne and just drank water the rest of the night... Spent the rest of the night getting to know all of them but i decided to call it an early night... my head felt so heavy and a little woozy..maybe becos of the meds... but I swear my face was aching from smiling and laughing so much... it felt like my wedding day all over again...minus the alcohol ... kekekeke...



To be continued
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