5 of our members sathish, sivaram,nadarajan srinivasan,venkateshwaran kasi rajan and me went on a one day historical trip on sunday. actualy it wasplanned to accomodate more but droputs were many and we decided to drive down in satish's santro
first stop- or rather meeting point was marutheeswarar temple in thiruvanmiyur
second stop- thiruvidanthai. a temple with chola and rastrakuta(?) influence.we hope sivaram- the only bachelor in the trip benefits from the gracious benevolence of sri nithya kalyana perumal.
third stop- marakkanam- bhoomiswarar temple. sathish could read the mey keerthi of rrc in the temple. nice sculptures. huge lingam. its right on the ecr. 4th stop- al hambra . an ancient trading post. with a brick fort. last built by the mughals. has history of arab horse trading, sambuvarayar textile exports etc.
5th stop pallava quaryy. where they excavated stones for the temples. also 3 unfinished ratha style temple which tells us how they built the 5 rathas.
6th stop- yali caves and the new excavation at sangam age temple
Though the climate was pretty hot, it was a cool trip. All through the trip we we discussed wide topics history, evolution, cinema, international politics to name few.
it was indeed a great trip as I got a chance for a long drive after a long time :) Without any hurry and maintaining the speed limit we enjoyed every minute of the trip chatting and shouting at our highest pitch. My throat is still paining from the talk we did yesterday.
Talking everything that came to our mind, pulling Sivaram at Nitya kalyana perumal koil and recomending him to the perumal for a marriage shortly the trip started of with full vigour. Sandhula sindhu padarappla Natarajan sir also applied for a second chance to Nitya kalyana perumal. :)
The one thing which disturbed me in the trip was Natarjan sir's comment that Ilayaraja is not great and he is not a good music director. :( toooooo much illa..
The view at Alamparai or al hambra was breath taking. Gigantic brick walls of the fort, the proximity to the sea, the view from the top of the walls..were all magnificient.
One more notable thing was that we have an odd man out in our group..when all four of us were chatting to glory, I really wondered how VK kept silent all through the trip. He spoke only when necessary and never uttered any extra word :)
Over all it was great trip and this should suffice for quite sometime till another trip is organized
We had an enjoyable Sunday. I have passed this Bhoominaathar temple, which is right on the ECR, many times. But I was really thrilled when Sathish read the RRC meykiirththi here.
My long await to see the 2nd century stone Vel was fulfilled yesterday.
Kalaaichals all the way In the memory they stay!
I took a big risk in criticizing Ilayaraaja when his die-hard fan was in the driver seat. Sathish kept his cool but made his revenge today.
//Sandhula sindhu padarappla Natarajan sir also applied for a second chance to Nitya kalyana perumal. :)//
Sathish, ithu nyaayamaa? athuvum oru parama appaaviyai paarththu!
I think we might be able to conduct such small trips once a month to cover the historical sites around Chennai. It doesn't pinch the purse much.. Say roughly about Rs. 300-400 per head.
The next trip thought about was to follow the trail of Dr. Gift Sironmony who did lot of research on iron age and megalithic mounds around Chennai. I guess some of these sites might still be traceable today and free from occupation. It will be a great opportuinty for our group to rediscover these sites and document them for posterity.
The next trip thought about was to follow the trail of Dr. Gift Sironmony who did lot of research on iron age and megalithic mounds around Chennai. I guess some of these sites might still be traceable today and free from occupation. It will be a great opportuinty for our group to rediscover these sites and document them for posterity.
Any comments ? ===============================================
That's great idea. I second that, we can plan for a Each Month a trip. Documenting the places we have visited , along with the routes, the things we have noticed, along with photos(kind of travalogue) will be a great information.
I would suggest do a search on google for Gift Sironmony, you can find some really good web postings. I came to know about him and his wonderful work ina short time, only through google search..