note: (bear me for the long post... hope u like my travelogue)
We planned to check my dad’s friend
daughter marriage on Sunday (28/10/12) in Vettavalam near Thiruvannamalai and
so we wake up early as 4am and got ready by 5 and head the road half an hour
later for the 9-10.30am Mukurtham (auspicious time of wedding). Accompanying my
uncle and cousin – who drive the car, we also gave lift to one of our uncle’s
workshop employ and his little niece whom were suppose to go by bus to
Thiruvannamalai, decided to come along with since we have much space in our SUV
leftover by my wheelchair at rear.
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| (click pictures for enlarge) |
I always love and enjoy beginning travel
at early morning and this time too I had a wonderful drive through the
chillness of the morning and even it’s not cold like winter, the clouded sky
and dampness and tender sunshine were kissing the skin towards entice. This is
the only time I could check the sunrise awake between the clouds or rise behind
the mountains or buildings; it’s more cheerful than any other day since my
wakeup time is usually not less than 8 o’clock. :)
The first time I visited Thiruvannamalai
was 3 years back on the same month of October, and the ride were through
Tindivanam and Gingee; which was partially a state highways passes through the
countryside accompany by tress esp. tamarind on both sides of the road. The road also cut across the fortified wall
of the Gingee Fort which is one of the famous forts in Tamil Nadu holding a
strong historical background.
Gingee fort is also called as "Troy of the East" by the British
We reach the wedding hall by 10 am, few
minutes before the bridegroom tie the knot, but I didn’t check the marriage as
it was happening on first floor I stayed in the car along with my cousin.
Vettavalm is a small town 23km from Thiruvannamalai on the Villupuram road and thanks
to my Samsung Player with GPS navigation that traced the route for Vettavalam
without going to Thiruvannamalai, even thought we en route to this place about
15km by dropping the employ and his niece at Kilpennathur.
My dad and the father of the bride had
been friends for more than 40 years, since their college days at Presidency and
we couldn’t avoid attending the wedding as family though he had added my dad’s
name in the invitation. He’s someone always be on traveling and he had traveled
all over India and has friends at various level
and he’s basically a farmer but only his wife takes care of everything
since he keep on traveling. His bad time he suffers from health issue now and
discovers a bad sight and hearing lately which I guess must be because of his
immense use of Cell Phone; and he almost addicted to phone and could not stop
dialing someone anytime.
After spending more than an hour in the
wedding hall, we had nothing to do then but I had a plan already which was
waiting for dad’s approval and it was to check the Sathanur Dam that was about
55km from Vettavalam and 31km from Thiruvannamalai. It was less than 12pm then
and we had no work to return home immediately, so proceed with the plan and the
weather was still pleasant even there was a mild sunshine that day.
On the way to dam we stopped at
Thiruvannamalai to get some biryani for lunch but we couldn’t find a hotel or
shop that sell chicken briyani, instead there were only beef biryani everywhere
which I never ate and yet won’t eat. I only wonder how come there so many beef
biryani center in a town where the ‘Nandi (Bull)’ was worshipped as god’s
vehicle and idol in itself... I don’t want to get into the belief but I
understand the need that there are many beef eaters exists in this town. (I read
somewhere that more people from Kerala come to settle here spread the beef
eating habit).
Last time when I visit Sathanur Dam there
was no one and we also couldn’t spend much time since we visited during late
hours of evening, but this time being a Sunday many people gathered around the
dam and mostly youngsters were vrooming in bikes, creating great annoy to
public. The police were checking thoroughly every vehicle entering the dam
complex and a special search operation had been held on youngster for liquor
bottles, because during our last visit we get to see lot of broken bottles and
plastic tumblers thrown at the end of dam.
The dam complex had been newly painted now
and gardens were developed into much better and colorful sculptures were quite
neatly maintained and a pool, restaurant and lotus pond seems added lately to
attract more visitors. There isn’t much water in the vast dam reservoir and
even less compared to my early visit and the dam bridges were locked by gates
allowing only people through a small walk way which my wheel chair could not
enter, but I spent some time on the garden taking pictures.
By 3pm we took our back home journey
through Thiruvannamalai and it was a day beginning of full moon night, so the
roads were blocked inside the town to leave us to go around the Arunachaleswarar Temple to reach the Tindivanam road. Thiruvannamalai is famous for the full
moon stroll around the sacred hill here, receiving thousands of people every
month who take a walk about 14km on the foothill road that come around the
hill.
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| (backside tower of Arunachaleswarar temple) |
When we nearing Gingee, the gray clouds
formed to shower heavily and the road being a two lane and work on widening
taking place alongside, we forced to retard at progress until catch-up with
national highways. The ride further was smooth and interesting but as we
nearing Chennai the traffic began to grow steadily before got trapped into a
traffic congestion near Vandalur moving at a very slow pace for more than an
hour. We reach the home by 9pm, almost taking 6 hours to come across a 210km of
travel but when knowing the traffic jam near Vandalur last for 5 hours, I felt
glad we escaped with an hour.
