Blantyre (Malawi) 1 - A new experience

On a Saturday morning we flew to Lilongwe the capital of Malawi. Blantyre being our destination we had to complete the visa formalities here before taking the flight to Blantyre. Due to the short transit time we were chased by the airport and airline authorities through the via entry, check in and flight on-boarding to Blantyre.

Once inside the flight we were pleasantly surprised to have a co-passenger whose face resembled Indian. On getting familiar, came know this person belongs to Malawi with roots in India. Should be surprised with Indian faces in foreign land, we promised. By the time we spoke about India and Malawi out flight was ready for landing. The flight bound to Cape Town dropped the Blantyre passengers on the way in about 40 minutes from Lilongwe.

Blantyre airport - now this is how an airport looked, 20 years ago.. The flight screeched to landing and tax-ing to halt was rough. The airport had a small conveyor belt and one can see their check-in baggage's being moved out of the plane and placed on it. Just outside this small enclosure was the reception area and we were out of the airport,the quickest ever.

Our pick-up cab driven by driver Paanji, took us through a 15 minutes drive to our accommodation at Kabula road. This was a deserted road and kept us wondering if were are on the safer side. We were to stay in a guest house, belonging to the British era. The building which served as an embassy office cum the Ambassador's house that time. Still staying strong it screams of old age. We checked in as the only occupant of the wonderful guest house called House 5. The staff was kind enough and welcomed us with continental breakfast.

With this kick starts our Blantyre visit. Staying tuned to this uterly different experience to embark us..

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Anjaneyar Temple - Gerugambakkam, Porur

Very recently we came to know about the Anjaneyar temple built by actor Arjun is at Gerugambakkam. On a Sunday evening we drove towards this place. We need to detour from the Kundrathur main road to reach this temple and from then on we need to face a rough and patchy road. In just 5 minutes one can reach the temple. A small residential street leads to the temple. Very near it one could see few small stalls mushroomed up to sell pooja items. The vehicles have to be parked in the street near the temple gates. First is the corridor were few trees are seen. On taking left is the entrance to the temple and you can see the Lord Anjaneyar much ahead. Here too are few trees uniformly spaced out. There is a coconut farm adjacent to this temple. There is a shelter above Lord Anjaneyar, but for that it is a open air temple. Facing Lord Anjaneyar and to the left and right corner are two shrines - one for Lord Ganesh and the other for Lord Anjaneyar's - Lord Rama, Lord Lakshmana and God...

Mannargudi - Day 2

On the next day at Mannargudi, we had an early start. After having tea through room service we left to the Rajagopalaswamy temple. The temple gopuram can be seen at a large distance as the from the space was allocated for parking. Early morning we could see only 2 cars before us. After paying the parking fee we went inside the temple. Due to the maintenance work we were devoid of enjoying the beauty of the temple gopurams. We got to see the temple's famous elephant - Sengamalam as soon as we got in. This temple is called as south Dwaraka, there is small Krishna statue inside which we can worship by taking in our hands. The main deity Lord Vasudevaperumal is seen here along with his cow. Next to his the baby Krishna idol which can we worshipped by devotees for their special prayers. We had a good darshan of the Perumal. Had theertham, jadaari and then walked towards the Goddess. The consort of Lord Rajagopalaswamy is Goddess Sengamala Thaayar. We had a very peaceful...

ECR Chennai - a Spiritual Trial

Pachai mamalai pol meni pavalavai kamala chenkan Achuta mararere ayar tham kozhute ennum. Echsuvai thavira yan poi indiralogam alum Achsuvai perinum vendean arangama nagarulanea. The East Coast Road in Chennai in known for the numerous resorts, hotels and other locations of entertainment. How about we take a spiritual trial on the same road for a change? This is what we did this weekend on a half day journey. Our first destination was Thiruvidanthai - around 30 kms from the city. The Nithyakalyana Perumal temple is an ancient one. Being near Mahabalipuram area its obvious builders were the Pallavas. Being a weekend there was a big queue of devotees till the entrance near the gopuram. Due to renovation on account of kumbabishen scheduled in near future we were allowed to workship only the urchaver instead of the moolavar. Perumal provided darshan in full floweral alangaram. Coming out after the darshan strong aroma of tamaraind rice pulled us towards...

Our wanderings and perceptions

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