Trekking to Thiruvannamalai

Thiruvannamalai is situated 185 km from Chennai and 210 km from Bangalore. Saathanoor Dam across Thenpennai River is a tourist place near Thiruvannamalai. The height of the Annamalai hill is approximately 2,669 feet. Gingee Fort is another popular tourist destination located on the Tindivanam-Thiruvannaamalai road, 40 km from Thiruvannamalai.

Thiruvannamalai is one of the Pancha Bootha Sthalangal representing the fire element along with Chidambaram, Sri Kalahasti, Thiruvanaikoil and Kanchipuram representing space, wind, water and earth respectively.

Four Brahmotsavams are celebrated every year, the most famous of which is the one celebrated during the Tamil month of Karthikai (November/December). The ten day event culminates on the day of Karthigai Deepam. On that evening, a huge lamp is lit in a cauldron with three tons of ghee at the top of the Annamalai hill. 

Every full moon night, tens of thousands of pilgrims worship Shiva by circumbulating the Annamalai hill barefoot. The circumbulation covers a distance of about 14 km. On the yearly Chitra Powrnami (full moon) night in the Tamil calendar year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across the world visit the sacred town.

Guru Ramana Maharshi lived in Thiruvannamalai for fifty three years until he dropped his mortal coils in 1950. His ashram, Sri Ramanasramam, is located at the foot of the Annamalai hill, to the west of the town. 

Karthigai Maha Deepam Festival

Karthigai Maha Deepam is a great grand festival in Thiruvannamalai and the North Arcot region. On this day Thiruvanamalai town, having a population of 5 lakhs, accommodates over 86 lakh people. This great grand fest reaches its high spirituality by lighting Mahadeepam at Thiruvannamalai Mountain which is 2900 feet high. The Great grand fest of Karthigai Mahadeepam is celebrated for 10 days.

We should know in detail about this annual holy beacon festival. Brahma and Vishnu were both quarrelling about their relative superiority. To give a decision on it and to erase their ego Lord Siva stood before them in the form of a blazing mountain. Having failed in their attempt to find out its top and bottom the two prayed to Lord Siva for His grace. He blessed them saying that he would appear in the form of Jothi on the top of the hill every year on the day of Karthigai in the month of Karthigai. To commemorate this event the Deepam festivals is being conducted at Tiruvannamalai every year.

Of the five elements earth,water,fire,air and ether, fire is considered important as being in the middle. Adding Sun, Moon and Soul to these it is said that God exposes Himself in eight forms "Ashtamurthams". So the Vedas, Agamas and Puranas extol God as Rudragni Sivajothi and Paramjudar. Just as fire destroys impurity in anything, God destroy the darkness of ignorance and egoism in men and blesses them with the light of wisdom. This is short is the philosophic truth behind the celebration of the festival.

On the hill top there is a big copper turn in which large quantities of camphor, ghee and wicks(of cloths) are poured and when these are lighted it will be seen from miles around for somedays after the Deepam festival day. We do not have such a huge light in any other place of our country. On the same night the eleven storeyed Gopuram is also lit with "Ahals"(earthern oil lamps) set in rows in all the storeys. Though this festival is special to Tiruvannamalai it is common throught the Tamil country. Lighting festival is celebrated in all the temples of South India including Vishnu temples. All the houses will also be illuminated with number of lamps being arranged in rows to give beautiful appearance.

Annamalaiyar Temple

The temple dedicated to Lord Shiva was built between the 9th and the 10th centuries by the Chola kings of the Tamil empire. The temple is famous for its Massive Gopurams.[11] This has been determined from an inscription in the structure that was made during the reign of Chola kings who ruled in the ninth century A.D

The 11 tiered East Rajagopuram towers to a height of 217 feet, while the fortified walls pierced with 4 gopura entrances offer a formidable look to this vast temple complex. The Pei Gopuram, Tirumanjana Gopuram and Ammanaiammal gopuram are the other three. The 1000 pillared hall and the temple tank were built by Krishna Deva Rayarar of Vijayanagar. Each of the prakarams (outer courtyard) has a huge Nandi and several towers such as the Vallala Maharaja Gopuram and Kili Gopuram.

It is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalam - representing five basic elements. This is the Tejo Sthalam among the Pancha Bootha Sthalams representing Fire. The others are - Thiruvanaikaval (Aapo sthalam - Water) Kanchipuram (Prithvi sthalam - Earth) Kalahasti(Vayu sthalam - Air) Chidambaram (Akasa sthalam - Space).

About my experience of Trekking to Thiruvannamalai:

I have a thought that I have to visit Thiruvannamalai with in a week after Karthigai deepam. So, I decided to go any day of the 10 day festival. On Sunday December 2nd we decided to go there by Car. One of my friends is having car and we three peoples are planning to start by 6AM and we fixed a common meeting point at Guindy. As decided I have to call the other 2 persons to wake up in the early morning. I woke up by 3.50am and refreshed myself and started to call others. Baskar called me up by 5am and I tried to call my other friend Venkatesh by 5.10am but he did’nt picked up. I prepared some idlies with idly powder for breakfast and lunch and started calling again Venkatesh. But he was still not picking the call. I thought he slept and kept the phone somewhere and the time is moving to 6.00am. So we two are decided to go by bus and started by bike to reach CMBT. When I was on the road Venkatesh is calling me to say he was just woke up and he will be ready in another half an hour and we decided to meet as per our plan at Guindy. 

I reached there by 7:00 AM and Baskar is waiting there for us and Venkatesh is reached there by 7:20 AM for some traffic reasons. Finally we started from there by Car 7:30 AM. It was a wonderful experience to travel by car in a High way. Venkatesh had driven the car as professional. We stopped the car at Mathuranthagam around 9 AM and had breakfast. 

We reached Thiruvannamalai  by 11:00 AM and trying to park our car around the temple. It was not easy to find a place to park our car. It took 15-20 minutes and finally we found a place nearby North Gopuram entrance. We refreshed ourselves and went inside the temple for Darshan of Annamalaiyar. After that we had some food and we were discussing to go for Girivalam or Hill Climbing. It was then 1.30 pm so it was not possible to cover both. So we decided to climb the hill to see the Mahadeepam closely. We started our journey by 2.00 pm with water carrying with our backpack. Somebody said we don’t have to wear slippers on the hill but It was not easy for us to climb without slippers and don’t have practice also. So we decided to walk with slippers. First it was a normal step we climbed and after that it was a real rock climb and we are tired. So we drank water and taken some rest and climbed again. In between we met some of the peoples climbing down and we asked about the distance and they said it is nearer only. But it’s keep on going....

After that we realized that they are encouraging us to climb to reach the destination. But in the mid-way one of them said if you can’t climb up, now itself decide and return from here otherwise you will get in to trouble. This was a discouraging word heard from the weak person (incapable of climbing hills or they don’t have the faith in God), and I returned them we can climb up any hills as we already climbed some of the hills and we have the faith in God. They then closed their mouth and went down. We don’t loss our faith and courage and we taken some rest often and by this way we climbed above the hill by 4:30 PM. It took two and half hours to climb to reach the Mahadeepam. The hill was steep and a height of 2700 ft.

It was a good experience for us to climb in a fresh air with aiming high to reach the top. In the hill there was lot of herbs but we don’t know the names of them. Someone gave us one herb and he said Sakkarai vilvam, it tasted like a sugar dipped leaves. On the way to the hill we met few of the foreigners climbing up to take darshan of Mahadeepam. One Foreigner started slogans on God Siva on the hill. 

The deepam has no flame that time and the temple workers are preparing the deepam to flame by pouring ghee and oil on the copper turn. The copper turn can contain 3 tons of oil. First we decided in the starting of Hill climb, we will come down immediately after we reach the top before the sun sets. But when we reached the top we decided to wait there to see the light of the deepam. They said they will light up the deepam by 6.00 only. By the time we had some food there by sharing idly prepared by me. It gave some energy for us.  

Exactly by 6.00 pm they lighted the Mahadeepam and everywhere the sound reflected “Harohara”, “Harohara”.  That place was now filled with a spiritual wave. After our Mahadeepam Darshan we started to climb down from the hill. Now it was more difficult to climb down as the path was very rocky and the sun light was going down. Slowly we climbed down from the hill and my leg was started paining due to cramps in my thigh and calf.  Finally we reached the foot hill by around 8.00 PM. We had some refreshments and started towards Chennai by 8:45 PM and we reach Chennai (Guindy) by 11:45 PM. 

The leg pain was lasted 3 days for everyone but the memories of Trekking to Thiruvannmalai Deepa Darisanam will be long lasting forever.

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Visit my Hindi Blog: http://merabharatmahan-mountabu.blogspot.in/

Trekking to Nagalapuram East with CTC

From my childhood I was very much interested in reading Lena Tamilvanan's Travel Experience in Tamil Magazine "Kalkandu", from where my travel interest was grown up. I am not a good writer to write Travel write-ups, So I thought I can travel to the places to know more about the places. I travelled some of the South Indian Places like Madurai, Palani, Coimbatore, Kumbakonam, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Nagercoil, Rameswaram, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram and in North India Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Agra, Mathura, Mount Abu, Haridwar, Rishikesh and Ahmedabad etc., I started my first trekking in Parvatha Malai near Tiruvannamalai in the year 2011 with one of my friend.

(http://interestingindianravi.blogspot.in/2011/09/trekking-to-parvatha-malai.html) 

This was a temple visit but my unquenchable thirst in trekking was increased after this. After that in September 2012 I went to Sathuragiri Hills near Srivilliputhur. This was also a temple visit.
(http://iniyaindiyavilravi.blogspot.in/2012/10/blog-post.html) In mean time I was in searching for trekkers club. I found CTC in July 2012. I applied for a first trekking in Nagala with CTC and got rejected. My temptation was increased again and I am wondering why they rejected? May be they have some selection criteria for this and got more registrations than the actual. On the third time I got selected for this Fresher's Nagala East Trekking on 3rd and 4th November trip. I was very happy to see my name in the selection list.  I think they selected me this time for my blog post Mumbai Adventure HR Meet at Alibaug. (In this trip I did some adventure events)

(http://interestingindianravi.blogspot.in/2012/10/mumbai-adventure-hr-meet-at-alibaug.html)

After saw my name in selection list, I am waiting for the day to fulfill my thirst on trekking. In mean time I did some preparations for buying sleeping mat and life Jacket ( yup.. I don't know swimming). Finally the day has come. I went to CMBT (my pickup point) to meet the like-minded peoples whom they are coming along with me for trekking and the Organizers. Everyone assembled and we were started around 11.00pm.

The Vehicle running fast to reach to Nagala Base camp and the rain was started to welcome us with cool showers. We reached near the base around 2.00am and the mud road was very bad and our vehicle was struggling to move so we all get down from our vehicle and started walking to the base camp. Some of them are holding torch in their hand and moved slowly. My torch was stuck in my bag with other bags in a Car So I started walking front without light. It was very wonderful to walk in early morning (?) at a base hill with cool breeze. We heard a stream flow sound throughout our way, where it’s leading me the way to the base camp in the dark (?). 

We ended up our walking in a temple, where organizing team was preparing a tarpaulin hut for us to sleep and we opened our back packs to spread our mats and sleeping bags to take rest for some time. After a small nap we wake up by 6 am and the Organizers are ready to start the trekking. One of the volunteer (Tara) collected Disclaimer forms and the other (Jim Bino) collected money from us. Food and common gears are distributed to everyone and we started a fresh morning walk to reach the Nagala East peak. 

Arun Prabhakar was leading the team and I was following the team with my camera turned on. I took few photos with my camera in the beginning of the trek after some time I realized that it was better to capture the scenes in my eyes instead in my camera, because in the trail there were streams all the way, few steep climbing and have to hold something for balance. Therefore I kept my camera in my back pack to avoid loosing in the stream. We formed human chains to cross the speedy streams and helping each other to move on. 

We stopped at a small pool for a break (fast) around 9.00am and some of the members are started preparing Uppuma for breakfast. Some people are jumped in to the pool for refreshing themselves. By the time the uppuma were ready, I want to have a bath and entered the pool wearing my life jacket. Once I finished my quick bath I found that the uppuma vessel were empty. My stomach needs something to fill so I opened my bread pack and had some slices of bread. Mean time some fellow members (I guess Raji and Gayathri) are prepared pulka roti for whom they not had Uppuma. Nice to see the unknown faces are (By the time I know some of the members name) preparing food for us and I helped a little to collect some firewood.

After we had our breakfast we started our journey again to reach Magic pool and sun were above our head scorching us by his rays. We crossed some of the streams boulders, rocky grass slopes and steep gradients to reach the 2^nd destination Magic pool around 12pm. The swimmers are jumped into the pool immediately and the non-swimmers are watching this with excitement. Organisers Arun and Vibin are encouraging us to jump into the pool wearing life jacket. Then some of us are entered the pool with little fear. I don’t know swimming and didn’t jump in any of the pools never before. So I had a small hesitation to jump into the pool. After seeing my co-trekkers sliding and jumping into the pool I changed my mind to jump into the pool. It was a once in lifetime opportunity which I had in my life time. I tried twice to slide on the Magic pool. 

Then we moved into a next deep pool with dark water, a waterfall at one end and the stream draining it at the other end. Unlike the sliding pool, this had a much stronger current and was almost surrounded by high cliffs which made it one of the most enchanting vistas. Small Fishes in the water giving you a free pedicure, you just have to be there to feel it! Any tiredness we felt was washed away by the water and the shrieks of people enjoying it really lifts your heart. After that, our team prepared Vegetable Sambar rice and our stomachs are filled with that. 

We took some rest there. By 4 pm the organizers Arun, Sridhar and Bala went back to Nagala town to buy chicken and other members decided to do a short trek without back packs. Even though most of us were tired out after the two pools , lunch and a little rest soon revitalized us and when a plan to walk ahead to the 300 mts falls was proposed, most of us took up our torches and were ready to go. The ensuing trek was different from what we had previously encountered as we were deeper into the forest and the ground below was more dry leaves and mud when compared to rock and sand earlier. Few of the Co-organizers Vibin, Senthil and Hari guided us to the 300m water falls. We pass through lush green forest to reach the mini falls on the way to 300m falls. Sun is going to set and it’s getting dark, so we had a discussion that we will return from there. But, most of the members are decided to climb and reach the 300m falls so we started our trek again. When we reached the 300m falls the view was really an excitement. I had a thought that I will take shower in this falls up to my life end. But rain interfered my desire, so we took some quick shower and decided to climb down to our night camp near Magic pool. In return the path was very slippery due to rain and dark. We slipped several times like water sliding. 

Everybody returned to camp safely with small scratches and wounds on their legs and hands as a symbol of trekking.

We changed to dry fit clothes and camped near a cave rock. Gayathri, Vibin, Sridhar and Arun are prepared food for Dinner. Few peoples are played cards and few people taken a small nap. Veggie peoples got Chapattis and Palak panner and Non Veg peoples had rice with Chicken gravy. All are fall asleep by 12pm in the small area by adjusting themselves inside their sleeping bags or in their blankets.  In morning rising sun waken up with his rays and we had finished our morning refresh near the magic pool and tasted a cup of coffee with rusk. Some people entered into the magic pool again to play. Finally we left the camp by 11.00am with green memories and started back to Nagala Base. We collected all the waste like plastics covers (used for food packing) and carried all the way to base and left it in the garbage dumping box.  

It was now little easy to come down from the hill. The trail was easy but if we have to follow the right trial, if we miss the trial means it will lead us to the other direction and come back to the right track will take time and make you tired. So don’t do private trekking by your own without expert’s guidance, I came to know this as on that day some of the private trekkers are lost their way in the jungle and helped by our captain Arun.  Finally we reached the base by 1.00pm and had soda and bonda.(These things only available in that house /shopJ). There our intro session and our experience sharing started finallyJ.

Everyone shared their experience and feeling about the trekking. No one wants to leave the place and want to come again and again with the same team. The unknown faces are now came closer and became good friends as everyone helped anyone in that trek in some manner. (Thanks to all who helped me in some way or otherJ)It’s a wonderful experience for everyone and it leaves us a note that If you care Nature, Nature will care for you. 

After our experience sharing session, we started back to our home by car. On the way to Chennai we stopped in a Hotel and had our lunch. There is the climax, 3 drunken monkeys are fought with us in the hotel and ended up with a hand clash. The organizers dropped everyone at their respective points and we left to our home with a signing off.

Visit my Tamil Blog: http://iniyaindiyavilravi.blogspot.in

Visit my Hindi Blog: http://merabharatmahan-mountabu.blogspot.in/

Go Go Goa Trip!

During this October Ist week, in my Office Annual Meet was organised in Goa. So In our Chennai office 21 peoples are went to Goa.

In Annual meet there was lot of Indoor and Outdoor games  are conducted in two days and I spent some time by visiting some places in Goa. I saw some beaches and lot of old Portuguese Churches and buildings during my visit.

At Conference Hall

Goa Beach

Goa Church

Church Inside View

Very Old Majorda Church 

Majorda Beach Resort

In Mumbai Airport 

In Goa we can see some motor cycle painted like a auto rickshaw colour (Black and Yellow) called Pilot Vehicle  We can hire this vehicle to Roam around Goa and they charge nominally.  I used this vehicle to roam around Goa and paid Rs.300. Lot of private buses are plying through places in Goa. Otherwise you have to use taxi for city Sight seen.

Portuguese style house in Goa

Portuguese style house in Goa

Majorda Beach

Majorda Beach 

At Majorda Bus

Goa is famous for Beaches, Old Portuguese Churches, Cashew and Wine called Fenny. Other than this nothing is there. This place is famous for tourists for taking rest in a good climate. The climate here in goa is very pleasant.



Visit my Tamil Blog: http://iniyaindiyavilravi.blogspot.in
Visit my Hindi Blog: http://merabharatmahan-mountabu.blogspot.in/

Mumbai Adventure HR Meet at Alibaug

Last Month September I went to Mumbai Alibaug for HR Meet. When this meeting was announced First I thought this was a meeting and later I received a mailer contained a Document "Marooned". After that I was little surprised about this and waited for this event. 

First I went to Mumbai by Flight on Wednesday night and stayed in a IBIS Hotel near Airport. And I was instructed that a Cab will come in the morning to Hotel to pickup our team. (Some of our team members are already there in the same hotel). We started on Thursday morning by Cab and reached Gateway of India by 7.15am. We waited for other team members has to come and everybody assembled before 8.00 am. We started our Catamaran trip to Alibaug by A/c Catamaran. 

(Regular scheduled AC / Non-AC Catamarans & Speed boats with a capacity of 80 to 250 seats, from Gateway of India to Mandwa between 6.30 hrs to 20 hrs on hourly basis)

It took around 1 hour to reach Mandwa. In Mandwa the organisers arranged 2 cabs for us to reach our Resort in Kihim Beach Called Fountain Head. It's called as a Training Centre and we learnt well in that Resort. Two days we spent there was awesome.

(Kihim Beach - the actual name was "King Ham" beach, later it was called as Kihim Beach. Approximately 9 Km from Alibag and from Mandwa to Kihim Beach 10km distance)

Day 1: We had a small introduction session about everyone and the program started. After that we gone through a HR software explained by the developers. By 2 pm we had lunch and after that we went to near a beach area with the help of cabs. From there the real adventure started.

There saw that some ropes tied in between the coconut trees and we thought we have to walk on the ropes. 

The Game conductors / Organisers explained us about the first game. It was Stretch your limits. In that we have to place a stick at a longest distance from a line without touching any part of your body except your paws.

They formed us as four groups, in my group Vishal and vaneza are the team members. In first game we lost and in second game Bum a bridge we won all the four times. This game was really interesting for me. In this game a normal ladder will be there in one side and on the other side there will be a rope ladder to climb the tree. After the climbing of the tree, you have to walk on the ropes and hit the bell in the middle of the rope. Two teams has to compete with each other and who hits the bell first will win this game. I tried both the ladders and wins both times. 

Bum a Bridge

Bum a Bridge 2

After that we played A frame, in that we have to move the A frame without placing your leg down. your team members can hold the ropes tied on that frame for balance. In this game I lost my energy due to not consuming proper food so I came 2nd place.

"A" Frame

Kihim Beach

Next day morning we started with a Fire. They given some things which was Paste, Brush, Focusing lens, Some Chemicals, Bamboo sticks, Glycerine, Cotton, Paper and mesh etc., with these things we have to create fire in 5 methods. In first chance we didn't cracked anything but in second chance we found 3 ways to make fire with the given things. 1. Chemical Reaction - Magnecium sulphate with Glyserene. 2. Steel Flint with Magnet 3. Battery with Wire Mesh. Apart from these we can create fire with Bamboo sticks and focussing lens on a paper.

Next we have to create Mascot in Ice Bar. It's a kind of Ice Sculpture. We won in that creative work.
Also we played Blindsheep and created a standalone Catapult.

Ice Sculpture

The third day we had a great adventure. The Main game Rappelling - we have to descend down from a hill as face down. In our team two of us done as face down and one of my team mate done by Backwards. It was a real adventure and we had a thrilling experience.

Rappelling - At top of the Hill

Rappelling

Rappelling

In these games we came to know our mind and body's strengths and weakness and how we can act in a critical situations. It was very useful for all of us.