I got an opportunity or I agreed to take a short distance ride on Sunday, after so long days of not coming out of
home – for nearly seven months I held myself inside the home, other than
looking out from the balcony. Glad we moved here, to our native house, a year
and a half early to the pandemic starts so I have this benefit of watching from
the balcony what is not possible in our previous house in backstreet with least
activities on road. Lockdown days were quiet and pleasant here, but the
relaxations lately made it very noisy. Back to Sunday, we accompanied our
extended family for a temple visit in our ancestral town Mamallapuram, as per
our family tradition, visiting this goddess temple has been made mandatory when
a marriage is fixed.
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The busy ECR on Sunday in the shadow of trees. This is part of road beyond Mamallapuram towards Pondicherry. |
Yes, my brother’s engagement is fixed
at the end of this month and so was this visit. I’m not a believer in god exist
but I still accompany my family to temples as long it takes me out or
traveling. We hit the east coast road (ECR) early morning but the ride wasn’t
fun and comforting as well, as I had to wear a mask all the time even though I
pull down to chin often it lacks freeness. I now understand how difficult it
must be for those who go to work, wearing the mask all the time and while I
couldn’t sit freely, I wonder how tough it is to do tasks with masks!
I couldn’t see any great changes on ECR other than closed
amusement parks and tourism and entertaining hubs but the traffic was unusual for the time
6.30 in morning. I saw many cycle riders on the ECR, enjoying the cool morning
weather, while quietly pedalling on the left side of the road unlike a lot on motorbikes
vrooming and terrifying the other bike/car riders. We extended our ride another 25km from Mamallapuram to visit another
family deity temple. Due to the pandemic and lockdown the government has
restricted any rituals, so my family simply visited and worshiped the deities
in the temples.
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One of the temple is located amid palm trees and farm lands, a km away from ECR main road
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I sat in our SUV quite after a year
gap, because only last October we left the car for interior tinkering and
painting which was delivered only a week early to lockdown in March so I didn’t
had any chance to travel or sit in the car. My trip to Amirthi Zoological Park (Vellore)
in February happened in my uncle’s car and it’s the only trip I had this year
where I drove for a 150 kms. My travel to Mamallapuram on Sunday was a half day
trip and our breakfast was brought from a relative’s house there and we
returned home by noon for lunch. It was good to travel even it was for a short
distance of 70 km but for a travel enthusiastic this gives a bit joy and I hope
the pandemic is over soon so that I travel every length.