An Island Temple on Palar river, in ECR

Following Kadalur check-Dam (click for the previous post), we visited a little island temple on the other bank of the Palar river. If the left before crossing the Palar river on ECR led to the dam, the right after crossing the river directs you to the temple that rested on a rocky mound at about 150 feet inside the river. The temple is connected by a small bridge that covers the distance between the bank and temple.

The temple called by the name Shri Kailasanathar Kovil has Lord Shiva is a prime deity and is worshipped in the name of Kailasanathar. The inscription at the temple says it was built during Pallava King, Nirupathungan, in the 8th century, and the temple was completely a renovated structure of its original. And the temple is located at a place called Vasavasamudram, about 80km from Chennai on ECR.

The time we visited the temple was closed. Actually, we had no idea about its timing or intended to visit the temple until I checked the dam, and I thought of only taking a look at the place, as we went close to the same. I came to know about the island temple through a vlog by My Sutrula, and I really liked the environment and flow of water around it trigger me to visit.

It was a quiet afternoon, and we drove there after having lunch under the shadows of trees, surrounded by paddy fields and coconut trees. I could easily smell the fragrance of fresh paddy grains every time the wind blows on, sending a nostalgic feel to my senses. The temple beautifully stays in the water on almost four sides, and the road to the temple is narrow through paddy fields and village streets.

While I stayed with the car, others went down to check the temple complex; though the temple’s main gate and the sanctum are closed, people are allowed through a side gate to circumambulate the temple. The images on the temple and river were shot by mom, as I didn’t take my wheelchair, I couldn’t get close, or drove on the little bridge across the water. I really enjoy the view and sound of birds and running water off the paddy fields; it’s a wonderful place to enjoy peace.

Kadalur Dam – First outing of the year

I haven’t planned to go out during the Pongal holidays esp. to avoid the festival crowd, even though the government had forbidden people from visiting tourist places and beaches during the Pongal holidays to prevent the spreading of coronavirus. I went out on the Mattu Pongal day (Jan 15), and this day is usually crowded on ECR (east coast road), unlike the Kaanum Pongal (the next day), with a peak in-crowd, but the closer of tourist places left minimum vehicles on the road. Only the amusement parks were opened, with a fully loaded parking lot.

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My brother said, let's go for a ride on ECR, and the idea of visiting the Kadalur check-Dam came on the way. I came to know about this dam from my cousin-sister, who checked the dam last year. And I wanted to check the dam then, but the pandemic made it impossible, and I learned later the recent rain had brought enough water to the dam to overflow.

It's always a dream to see water in the Palar river, which often looks dry, other than little pools of water. The Palar river rises in the Nandi hill of Karnataka and runs into Andhra Pradesh, and then into Tamil Nadu, for a length of 350 km before merged at the sea. The dam is about 75km from Chennai on the ECR, and there’s a signboard indicating the road to the dam (take left) before crossing the river.

The check-dam is built at the mouth of the river for about a km in length, and in between Vayalur-Kadalur village, where the river meets the sea. The road passes through the narrow streets of Vayalur village, ends at the north bank of the river, and then a mud road slides to the dam. When we went, there were already a dozen cars and bikes parked in front of the river, and many people were having fun by sliding through the spillway and taking bath at the river. Despite the slippery spillway and rocks around the dam, this seems to be a safe place to relax and enjoy the bath as a family.

It was noon when we arrived at the dam, and the sun was shining above our heads, so we could not get clear pictures of the place as there was too much sunlight. I even couldn't shoot the flock of pelicans taking flights above the dam site, and they should have come up fishing at the dam. The water stays up to and beyond the bridge of the ECR, which is something I have never seen before – the last flood I saw on the Palar river was in 1997. We quickly moved from there as the sun was quite sharp on us.

The dam is built in 2019 with funding from Kalpakkam Atomic Station and was opened by the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K Palanisamy. And the best time to visit the dam is post-monsoon, the only time when the river sees some flow of water. 

RGB Monday

The four days of the Pongal festival went with the flow and I was just idle watching a couple of newly released movies on OTT and entertained by other programs on tv and YouTube.   As usual, I went for Kolam hunting on our streets on the Pongal evening, but as I expected, I couldn’t see many colorful kolams, and some are in regular patterns to shoot. The Pongal festival wasn’t lively at home, and we miss the Pongal cooked in mud pot right outside the home, what we had done for the last four years, including two years along with uncle’s family. This year’s Pongal was the same as what happens when you eat Pongal – a dull feeling.

But the next day, the Mattu Pongal was good enough as I went on an outing on ECR to explore a couple of places, and what can give me happiness other than the opportunity of travel? I enjoyed the day, except for a couple of disadvantages, and this was my first outing with the sister-in-law, and it went all comfortably. I may write on the places in further posts with photos.

Now coming to RGB Monday, I share my aunt’s colorful pot Kolam she drew for the Pongal festival. Mom’s knee pain stopped her from participating in drawing Kolam, so my aunty managed to draw two more simple Kolams, the only colorful thing we added this year for the Pongal. Hope the Pongal is celebrated with happiness and peace at every house of Tamil people and a wonderful weekend for the others.

Spiritless Pongal Festival?

2020 exists no more, but it took away the happiness and festival spirit with along. I didn’t decorate the Christmas tree or put lights for Christmas and New Year, and now with Pongal, in 2 days I couldn’t feel excited in the usual way.  Pongal is the only festival that leftover to speak the tradition and culture of Tamil people living all over the world and it is a common festival that communicates our lifestyle and unites the people to support and thank farmers for their continuous work of feeding.

Every year we used to draw colorful Kolams, aka Rangoli, in front of the home to add auspiciousness to the festival, and boiling milk and rice in a mud pot, on top of firewood, is another kind of gesture greeting farmers and nature, and also helping the pottery workers.

I always love celebrating a festival beyond its religious beliefs and rituals, as I believe festivals are mean to gather people and celebrate the spirit of togetherness. Pongal is a social festival and farmer’s festive so wishing for their wellness is important and being a pandemic period, we had no option other than limiting our celebrations although our celebration is always restrained to two families. But this year is gonna be celebrated in the kitchen itself. Hehe

Talking about the past year will only make it sadder than happier, and it is a year the world will never forget for the number of losses mankind faced, but the consoling fact was nature restored its place even if it is a temporary phase.  Personally, 2020 is a devastating year for us apart from the pandemic Dracula sucking the life from all over the world, some lives were lost in our family circle and a couple of them were quite unexpected. Though no life is lost for COVID-19, my uncle’s death was the most sent tremors into our family than the cousin who died leaving back two little kids. No life is left to comparable and life is a life that is replaceable by anything but we haven’t been close with that cousin to deeply feel the pain.

This cousin is a good-hearted guy, and kindness would melt in front of his smile, and he had never raised his voice or think to hurt anybody, but he died out of high pressure and cardiac arrest. Perhaps because of this, he hadn't shared his problems with others, and this is a problem with many of our reserved types is to suffer silently. He’s a project manager in a reputed IT firm and an affectionate kid to his mom and with a problematic married life, should I need to define the challenges he got in front of him to cease his life?

My uncle is just 6 months younger than my dad and thus they are like best friends and whatever it is dad only call him first to know his thought before proceeding. I would say he was an iron man who lived among us, and his support to our families is significantly strong and there’s nothing he unknown, and has great grasping power to workout things at observing.  It was him, and it was on his captainship my brother’s wedding in November held successfully. But he couldn’t live less than a week to see them lead their life or any of our future events.  

We meet him frequently or to say at least once in a week or two, it was hard for us to think or feel he’s no more but we feel regret for our aunt who misses him the most as a loving wife. They lived like made for each other and as a cool and casual couple.  They lead any of our functions from the front and now seeing her confined to home hurts really. I hope she returns to normalcy and continues the way she was earlier. I know she too knows life has to move on, more than any of the other, as she already came over her daughter’s demise a decade ago. My thoughts go for her…

Thank you

Asus Vivobook X441ua

Begin the year with a new laptop as I said goodbye to my nine-year-old companion, the Dell Inspiron 15. It was a journey uninterrupted in any major ways, and it doesn't require service for the last 3 years perhaps it could be a reason for its sudden loss of response. I could have woken it up by changing the motherboard, but I decided to put it rest and went for a new one.  Asus Vivobook is cool and enough for the works I do. It was quite an upgrade for me from Intel i3 to i5 processor, 4Gb to 8Gb ram and 500Gb to 1TB HDD, and Windows 7 to win 10. 

Actually, I thought of creating a record as I believed my Dell laptop would last another year to complete a round of 10 years. But I could have made it if I could spend one-third of the amount spent on a new one. I know it would give me trouble even if I spend the amount as the touchpad lost its senses – I couldn’t be comforting all the time with a mouse and a broken bezel, and I needed an upgrade, so I decided to spend the money on a new laptop. Though I couldn't think of any other laptop other than the Dell, I also no need to say why as its sturdiness is world known, but a friend suggested me to go for an Intel i5 processor and Dell's laptops at this range are out of my budget, so I went for the Asus which came under my budget.

The only difficulty with the Asus Vivobook was its change in some key positions on the righthand side of the keyboard. But the typing is much easier than before, perhaps because of the soft-touch keys, and being a new laptop thing looks easier. I need to install MS-office and photoshop, the prime software’s I use on my computer, separately, and add backup files from the previous laptop hard drive. I’m overall content with the gadget and need to work more to use its various features.