Skywatch Friday

Last Sunday I went out for a drive on ECR (east coast road) after long time and I could see many changes en-route, which I took last while travelled to Kodai in March. We made a drive till Mamallapuram and amazingly the entire road was empty and was unlike a regular Sunday, where people throng at various amusement and tourist spots along the scenic highway. Perhaps, this unusualness is because of the early Red Alert by the Indian Metrological dept. warning that Sunday would witness heavy rainfall across the state should have put off planning a weekend trip by many. But the warning was withdrawn on Saturday and the Sunday was quite a pleasant day, and as we drove out by evening it wasn’t hot and the sky was far blue with clouds making lovely presence. About 6pm the sun hides away, leaving back some pretty and colourful twilight skies what you could see in the photos and as we come across the Great Salt Lake area, the sky opens up for great views and the palms scored well at foreground.

Linking this post with Skywatch Friday

Ganesh Chaturthi Post and Use of Camera

Post mom’s surgery I haven’t gone anywhere and while she healed well, began the renovation work at home keeps me away from traveling or even head out for the nearest beach.  Our car went for service at my uncle’s workshop; taking more than 2 months for a complete checkout, was also a reason prevents me going out. I also haven’t used my camera much these days, since I started to use iPhone taking photos using camera has come down, though I love capturing through camera and enjoy focusing which I don’t content with phone camera. After my travel in March to Kodaikanal, I seldom took out the camera for shoot and only last month I tried to capture some nice photos on the idol of Ganesh that bought for Ganesh Chaturthi. At night I focused on the Ganesh procession that came on our street, from the temple on same. But there too iPhone took prior! Following are photos shot on Ganesh Chaturthi.

Here come the clay idol of Ganesh that dad bought for the Ganesh Chaturthi, from the temporary shops that come up along the main road during the festival times. Though being an atheist, I do like anything that comes up beautiful and decorative and moreover I don’t want to keep away or deny what’s happening around me although my belief is different. For last few years the idols bought doesn’t had a real shape of Ganesh or features to be consider except the two eyes in red black seeds. But this year the seeds are missing and the Ganesh had his face painted in watercolors to look pretty good and shape was also fine. Later he was decorated by mom using flowers and jewels.

Following same evening the clay idol was dissolved in a bucket of water, a custom we have been practicing for last 10 years back, instead dropping at river or sea what we had done earlier and many still follows. I really don’t like idols immersed at beaches or any water body to pollute it environment. I love beaches and never want to see its beauty being spoiled and the number of idols, either made of clay or plaster of parries or whatever materiel damaging the beach or river front. I have seen many clay idols of Ganesh are thrown along the beach sand rather drop at sea, take lot of time and work to clear all. Keep this in mind, I suggest my parents to follow this way (of dissolving the idol in a bucket of water) and use the water for gardening, perhaps this won’t interrupt their faith.

The same night, a cart procession takes place at our street from the Ganesh temple, at the street end, and the decorated idol was pulled around the streets where people come out of their house and offer prayers. When the procession comes across our home I tried to capture some photos between the interruption of people and the result was above. There are two Ganesh temples in our area, but this time only one has come up with procession and they really done a nice decoration where the Ganesh was seated on a mice idol (his divine vehicle) with gold coated rope and whip in hands. The picture below was shot by mom from the front of the procession where Ganesh seen seated on mice chariot, and in another shot was the priest sitting on the cart doing pooja.  

Palamathi Hills and Balamurugan Temple

As part of my visit to Vellore district in February, I explored Palamathi Hills, a beautiful mountain range that close to the Vellore City or to say about 10 km from the same. Located southeast of the Vellore city, the hills is an extension of the Eastern Ghats includes Palamathi Reserve Forest and Otteri Lake, makes it a thriving hotspot for various birds and flora. I visited the hills through the back road, which I would recommend anyone driving from Chennai who like to enjoy village scenario and it was a short route too by going into Arcot town and taking the Arcot main road to Kavanur and then to Palamathi Hills.

View on a part of Palamathi Hills

The hills have a beautiful and scenic environment and I would highly recommend it visited during winter or monsoon to feel cool and find it quite greenish. Palamathi is a developing tourist destination with Balamurugan Temple, atop the hill, could be the prime destination to attract tourist. The yellow coated Murugan Temple, also known as Kuzhandai Velayudhabani swamy Temple could be an attention seeker for anyone visiting the hills and the hillock temple and tower is visible from the distance if you climb from the Vellore city. The temple has a beautiful arch at the foothill leading a driveway and a stairs parallel to the parking lot.

It was 12pm when we visited the temple and it has around 150 steps to climb from the foot hall to the temple and before we discover the off road that adjoin the hillock, mom and grandma went atop on foot and it was them to find out the mud road and we took the SUV close to the temple tower. The temple provides free lunch for the visited devotes and except me and cousin, others end their lunch there. Parents told the temple was well maintained and has couple of peacocks fenced in a cage inside the temple – form where one get to hold natural views all around.

The forest view along the off road that take us above the hillock and you could see goats feeding from a bucket kept by the temple people.

The temple perched on the cliff, shot while climbing down the hill towards Vellore city

Palamathi isn’t very high hills and should be around MSL 300-400 and has wonderful breeze throughout the year but should feel cool in morning and evenings unless monsoon/winter hits. I actually wanted to visit this place much earlier as post monsoon or midwinter to experience cool weather but it wasn't bad in early Feb. The best part of the scenic hills is the road winding down to the Vellore city and the hairpin bends are picturesque to shoot along the way or from the hilltop. But the temple has closed the windows overlooking that view, perhaps it located at unsafe spot, so we missed getting the scene but I managed to get some while drove through the Ghats.

Scenic view around the hairpin bends

Palamathi is a village panchayat and majority of the people living here are migrants from other places of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra and so they do not have a tribal status. The people cultivate paddy, groundnut and ragi above the mountains and sells at the city market. The Otteri Lake at the foothill is a manmade lake in the British era to supply water to Vellore city. I took many photos on the hills and I would share more in the future posts.

RGB Monday

A colourful gate of an industrial unit on the outskirt of Chennai! And it’s an instant click from one of my outing.

On New Year Occasion

A year has end and begin peacefully with great joy spread across, though nothing turned significantly different, a refreshing feel enters the vein as we accelerate into a new year, wishes and hopes bring new cheers into the life. The New Year eve was spent as usual in front of television; apart checking my cousins in next-street to greet on the occasion and receiving calls from other dear ones as we were awake till 1 am. News channels were live from different places on the sprite of New Year, and the beaches in neighbourhood (Marina and Elliot) was thronged by people and being a resident of Adyar, we could clearly hear the resound of rushing vehicles, blasting fireworks and aloud greetings   of New Year.

The colourful peacock Kolam in the picture above was drawn by my aunt in front of their house (and also our native home in next-street) which I shot at the New Year night. Due to very low light I couldn’t get clearer picture and I also used flash which went over exposed I feel. My mom also drew Kolam in front of our house but it was a simple one and uncoloured. For those unknown, Kolam is a pattern drawn in front of the houses, a traditional custom followed by the people of India and Kolam is a cultural identity of Tamil people and drawing colorful Kolam in front of the home is considered as auspicious and a sign of welcome during the festival seasons and events.

On January 1^st I went for a short ride on ECR (east coast road) and checked the Kovalam beach in evening. ECR being a scenic stretch of entertainment, there was heavy traffic on the road because of New Year and all entertainment hubs were crowded includes the toll gate with longstanding queues.  While parked at the beach, I find the sky beautiful and took some photos using the iPhone and I tried panorama and was really amazed by the light and colors of the sky. The setting of sunlight caused a great effect on the image, to only find a glowing sun as we moved out of the beach area and it continued for some time on the ECR before we took turn to The Great Salt Lake area, off the ECR.

It was such wonderful to see sun setting on the west and moon rising on east at same time. Being a full moon day, the moon was also at its full glory just like the reddish sun. Though I was taking photos on iPhone, I couldn’t get great details on both and the mild hazy winter weather took control even though the twilight sky was interesting watch throughout. Hope you enjoy the photos above and below on full moon.

RGB Monday

A land promoter’s colourful gateway at the outskirt of south Chennai. Picture shot during a recent outing on Sunday

RGB Monday

Here’s RGB Monday to keep away your Monday Blues and make feel colourful and yet cheerful! And this Link-in feature invites your colourful photos with the content of RGB – Red, Green, and Blue. 

Bottles and lids of soft drinks

The image has been cropped from the picture of a provision shop; I shot at Thiruporur on the outskirt of Chennai.

p.s. It seems the merchants of Tamil Nadu have decided to stop sell foreign soft drinks like Pepsi, Coke, Sprite, and Miranda… from the March 1^st. The decision was taken by the traders association of Tamil Nadu following the pro-jallikattu protest and as a move towards boycotting foreign products. Not only that they keep front the decision to prevent foreign products but argues that soft drinks are unhealthy to consume. Though I agree with the second one that soft drinks aren’t healthy and suggestible to drink, but if they decided to avert the overseas products it should apply to all and not alone on soft drinks which is least per cent. And I really want to ask those protests against foreign products and if they are sure about the decision will they prevent the millions of people working in MNC’s and give up the economic development support by this industry. I see there’s both good and bad in any kind of things and many foreign productions has become lifesavers for many and in the globalised world we can’t quit things completely unless they aren’t good for health or country and enter the policies/rights of nation. How many iPhone fans in India? Is iPhone or apple is Indian origin? Soft drinks are unhealthy and it should be boycott only on this basis. There is an unclear politics behind these and I can’t go inside it without a moderate picture. 

1. Devilish Angel

RGB Monday

Here’s RGB Monday to keep away your Monday Blues and make feel colourful and yet cheerful! And this Link-in feature invites your colourful photos with the content of RGB – Red, Green, and Blue. Please add your link-in at the comment section (along with your comment)and it will be mentioned at the bottom of the post.

A colourful and yet delicious grocery shop on the outskirt of Chennai.

I shot the picture at a small town next to Cholavaram on way to Periyapalayam, in  north of Chennai. The shop seems to sell adequate for a small towns alike and what hangs over are fruits and locally produced snacks. But the baskets beneath has what I looking for the post, the RGB colors.

I always like these small kinds of shops than malls, where we get anything that a household needs and we could move friendly with the shopkeepers and was adjustable in many ways. I have purchased a lot from the grocery shops alike from the childhood, and having one adjacent to our house we could buy anything without paying but they used to have a note and collect money at the end of a week or month. And we could communicate socially with them while purchasing and they could be trustworthy because many a time our house keys are given at them to give back to family members if one exit house.

Pls. do share if you have experience with small grocery shops J

1. Devilish Angel

Gloriosa Lily – The state flower of Tamil Nadu

During my Sunday outing last weekend, I was surprised to see the state flower of Tamil Nadu – Gloriosa Lily – which I was looking for some time. Alike it’s other common names including flame lily and fire lily; the flowers bloomed like fire flames on the fence of a farm house near Kovalam.

Kaanthal, the flower called in Tamil, has six tepals each extends up to 5 to 7.6 cm long and generally looks bright red to orange and sometimes with yellowish bases. I found two flowers; one with yellow base and the other quite bright red makes nice difference between the young and old that exhibits wavy margins.

Gloriosa is a perennial herb, native to much of Africa and Asia, climb or scramble over other plants with the aid of tendrils at the ends of their leaves and can reach 3 meters in height. Despite its showy and ornamental flowers as it was cultivated worldwide and also as a medicine, the plant is poisonous and toxic enough to cause human and animal fatalities if ingested. 

Linking this post with Floral Friday Foto  and contribute to Good Fences conduct by  new hostess Gosia at looking for identity blog

Surprise Inlet

During last month’s outing on ECR, we were redirected through Kalpakkam Township perhaps due to some road work on ECR. But I was really glad for this diversion that takes me around the beautiful and peaceful environment of the Kalpakkam Township – which was created for the employees of Madras Atomic Power Station, and this is the second time I come across this place after 2012. And what I find wonderful this time was the exit of a backwater channel into the sea.

During my former visit (click here), the backwater lake come channel was disconnected from the sea by a sandbank and viewed pretty clam in absence of anyone, even being a noon then but the place looks like a mini beach now. Perhaps because of the diversion, many people pass the way stop sometime to enjoy some gentle moment around the bank. Few locals where fishing on the mouth of the channel, using a fibre boat and some throw bait from the bridge along the channel.

I was surprised by the sight of sea waves flowing into the channel and this is first time I was very close to an active inlet where sea merges with a river/channel. I also admire the beautiful curves created by the sea waves on either side of the shore and looks like this change was due of recent rain and flood that let more water into the channel to break away the sandbank and other barriers. The tree roots and barks on the shore make certain it was the cause of flood.

The mouth area also has a small park with benches to sit and relax by watching the seashore or emerged beach. This place had already impressed me and I wanted to go around the backwater area in my wheelchair (on the platforms laid around) and also the ambiance of the township with number of trees for shadow is a delight to pass. With the new park setting and the opening of channel into the sea want me to go there again and inspires my already existed wish. 

Fence and gated field

Last month I went for an outing with family on ECR (east coast road) and came via GST (grand southern trunk) road and during the ride across countryside, I find some gates and the above one was opposite to where we had our lunch (that we brought from home) beside a village pump set and well.

The closed gate seems to be the entry to the paddy field that was fenced around, perhaps to protect from cattle or marking their plot and field. The gate with lush green paddy fields inside insist me not to miss the opportunity and being a devote of Good Fences meme, by Run aRound Ranch, wants me to capture it for the series. 

Fenced Paddy Field

During one of my outing on the outskirts of Chennai, I come across a meadow of paddy which I find amazing. The thing to feel amaze was not that I haven’t seen paddy fields before, but their existence. Though villages and farm lands around the Chennai are rapidly convert into plots and buildings, it’s wonderful to see the lands that are still cultivated. Perhaps sooner or later the landscape going to change but the sights will remain nostalgic like what many places used to be right now for me.

Linking this post for Run A Round Ranch's Good Fences.  Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends here 

From the outskirts of Chennai

I had a small outing last Sunday with my family on the outskirts of Chennai, taking a detour among the countryside and few forest routes leading all the way to my grandfather’s village on the Chengalpet-Thiruporur road. Rather taking the usual routes of ECR and OMR, I went on the roads that are alternate but not far from the IT Corridor and about 15km of stretch that was explored by me for the first time. My uncle suggested me this route that has big lakes (without traces), some patches of reserve forest and villages alongside farm lands. It’s quite out of traffic and the smooth road helps enjoying a leisure ride, breathing fresh air that blend with the village scents and fields of green and harvested lands producing different scenes to sight.

We had our lunch at the tree shades, shattered on barren or waterless lake and felt hot only for minutes out of the car where we used to the afternoon breeze, which pleased later when temperature soar down. We also forget to switch on the A/C once back in car and began to move with the environment that has something to share or capture enough. We find number of nochi plants gown on the roadsides, which helps in driving away misquotes but we aren’t sure will it survive if uprooted and replant at home. So dropped the idea of picking it up and the plant produces a smell which was sweet odors.

We drive past into few villages along with my grandfather’s and had a look at his abandoned home that turned to be worst in condition seeing it after five year. While back we took the OMR and then turned towards Kovalam, as I liked to see some birds on the backwater… but I was chanced little with the sights of heron, few painted storks and cormorants at distance. We also stopped at the Thiruporur market to purchase some fresh vegetables and greens, which we usually do if whenever come across this town. Because the vegetables sold here are harvested by the local farmers from their fields and the greens is one we could find many here.

Following were pictures from my outing: 

Scenic harvested land

Field of sesame

A farmer plowing his land using ox 

Gushing water from a village pump-set

Thiruporur Murugan Temple... under renovation

Thiruporur market

Painted stork at the backwater

Indian pond heron

A drive up to Mamallapuram, Kokkilamedu Kuppam, Airplane & ECR

I had a drive up to Mamallapuram on Sunday evening after long time or past summer. I haven’t planned for a drive but decided to go out to beach in the evening and my cousin on his own plan of dropping his grandmother at her house in Mamallapuram enriched my idea of going out. I joined my cousin family, following their interest to accompany me during the ride and living adjacent to ECR (east coast road) that begins at Thiruvanmyuir Bus Depot; and touching the road after 3 month (due to femur fracture)  put me into lot of surprise the changes brought alongside the road. Number of showrooms had emerged either sides of the road, like mushrooms emerging after a brief rain; many villas have also take place on the ECR towards Mamallapuram.

(click images to enlarge)

Since fracture I couldn't take seat into our SUV due to its height, so we took our uncle’s car and made a pleasant drive into ECR… and I wasn't comfort with my camera to take pictures using this car but my cousin sis took few pictures for me. After dropping my cousin’s granny at her home, we took a brief drive around the Mamallapuram which we sometime used to do while visiting the town. We drew beyond the town and went up to the rear gate of Kalpakkam Atomic Power Station and checked a beach beside a fishing village. Kokkilamedu Kuppam (village) is one of tsunami affected area where NGOs had built number of identical house to the villagers residing very close to shore. A big wave is enough to touch or test their houses and there were number of boats resting on the shore after week-long fishing.

The coconut palms at the distance of waves kissing were pleasing to check and the cool breeze rushing from the sea makes cold embraces. The houses in the village were all built neatly with narrow lanes in-between   and each house is left with concrete benches, outside, to sit and relax in evening and there were also few benches facing the sea which I am sure will make it feel pleasure sitting and watching the beach. The village was also laid with concrete roads and interestingly there are three graveyards for this village which I guess must be distinguished regarding their caste and community. Nice the road leads up to seashore to make it possible getting close to it but the environment wasn't clean to spent there more time.

We also come across a big airplane near Five Rathas, which I still have no idea how it should have brought there and why... but each one has different ideas about it and some says there’s a hotel coming up inside the plane or at the premises the plane is parked. I think it must have brought there to support the marine heritage museum that going to exists there soon and a submarine is also on the way to lay there which right now stable at Karaikal port. I still can’t believe how they brought the plane there, because the roads weren't wide enough leading to this place and even if they depart the wings and tail, how comes the big body. But I am excited seeing a plane near!

Surprising there wasn't much crowd at Mamallapuram (a UNESCO World Heritage Site of sculptures) being a Sunday and the roads were also unusually less crowd of vehicles and perhaps, absence of many buses on that day could be a reason for the shortage of crowd. We find number of Great Egrets on the Muttukadu backwater, but we couldn't stop and take pictures unlike before since vehicles passing constantly. The day ends with bright sunset for us and the sun was too fast that day rising down to pinkish red without giving a chance to capture in-between trees and buildings. The ECR has become much accident pone there days and we see more than couple of accident that day and I think the barriers kept along the road to control speed were also in a manner of creating accidents. I think the police need to consider alternate source to this to reduce the accidents and the way buses crossing those barriers where threatening!