Our wanderings and perceptions

As the monsoon gathers momentum, we decided to go on a coastal trip, this time towards the North of Chennai towards Andhra. The Wednesday near the Independence day we started from Chennai around 5:30 am. Our first stop was for filling the car's tank and then to fill ours at Sholavaram - A2B. From here we headed straight towards Andhrapradesh. On touching Nellore at around 10 am we decided to take a detour from NH16 to the city of Nellore. Had to navigate through small roads and traffic to reach Thalpagiri Ranganatha Swamy Temple. This is a humble abode of Lord Vishnu residing in the shores of Pennar river.  Lord Ranganatha is in Ananthasayanam with Penner river running at his backyard. The temple is gopuram is about 100 feet in height. The temple dates back to the Chola era and under gone upgrades during the Vijayanagaras, and the Nayaks. The bridge on the Pennar river backdrop  provides the most fantastic view. Lord Ranganatha is accompanied by his consorts Goddess ...

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...