Sandhyavandanam at Sunset

Sandhyavandanam is a religious practice that should be performed by Hindu men thrice everyday. I visited Tonnuru Kere recently and happened to capture this beautiful moment.

 

This post is dedicated to all those important people in my life who have been urging me to get started with Sandhyavandanam, and I promise them I will- sooner or later.

Motorbike trip to Melkote

  I and my friend recently visited Melkote on my motorbike. Melkote was a prominent centre of Srivaishnavism during 12th century and is the abode of Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple and Yoga-Narasimha Swamy Temple. Melkote is located in Mandya district around 140 km from Bangalore. To reach Melkote , one has to travel on the Bangalore-Mysore expressway and take a right turn after crossing Mandya town and travel another 40km.

 We started on an early Saturday morning and  it took us around 4 hours to reach Melkote (including the time spent on breakfast at Kamat Lokaruchi on the way :) ). We rode at 70kmph most of the time on the Bangalore-Mysore expressway, but once we took the right turn and entered Melkote road, we had to carefully navigate curvy roads, speed breakers and curious villagers who were drying hay on the road. The other place of interest is the wildlife sanctuary near the temple. We did not spot too much wildlife here, though. Start to finish, we covered 300 km and consumed about 6L of extra-premium petrol.

   

 Green Fields on Melkote Road

 

     Cheluva Narayana Temple

Yoga-Narasimha Swamy Temple on  the hill

The Kalyani (Temple Pond)

Cheluva Narayana Temple visible from the hilltop(L) One of the many children who make their livelihood on the steps leading to the hilltop(R)

   The Steps leading down from Yoga-Narasimha Swamy Temple 

  Melkote Temple Wildlife Sanctuary

A Squirrel

I was playing around with my new mobile phone camera when I noticed this shy squirrel silently licking away the kolam in front of our house. I tiptoed close enough and after several lousy clicks, managed to capture this one :

I later learned that kolams are drawn out of rice flour for precisely the same reason- providing food for insects, ants and other creatures. I was impressed how detail-oriented our culture and tradition is !!