chidambaram

Anticipating I would get bored reading books alone in the long weekend, I decided to call up dutta and proposed him a trip to Pondicherry. Dutta disappointed me saying he had a working Saturday, and that Sunday was when he was free. Though I agreed for us to take that long planned trip to Pondicherry, however, within few hours I decided to postpone the Pondicherry trip and instead travel solo to Chidambaram to check out the temples there, importantly the navagriha temples.

Why temples? Last October I had visited Meenakshi, Srirangam, Brideshwara and few others in kumbakonam. It was a fun trip primarily planned for taking pictures alone. But the beauty of each of these places was equally inviting - just as the different temple architectures that I observed and enjoyed exploring.

The plan for the trip and booking of the ticket happened on Thursday, and the whole of Friday I was in two minds - whether or not to go ahead with the trip. By evening I was sure I wanted to go. I left home for Nungambakkam to pick up a new travel bag. The old one refused to open up - the zip lock won't budge and so all my might to open it resulted in tearing apart the entire chain strap!

I had limited options to choose from and had to pick up the best from the worst - an orange colored bag. The store manager thought complementing 'the color of the bag suits you' would make me happy. At least he was as I picked up the one he suggested.

Abandoned
After locating the Rathimeena travel agency office in Koyembedu, I explored the place [just like last time]. I saw an old women running from one counter to the other, from one bus to the other. I sensed that she was searching for someone. She kept on mumbling something in Hindi, and all everyone could hear her say was number 9 loudly, and several times. After observing her for some 10 minutes, people around her inquired from her about what was bothering her. She started crying and told us that she was lost and that her folks would be searching for her. Except for number 9 she did not remember anything, nor was she able to tell us anything else. People left her alone after trying to sort out her problem.

I wondered if she was insane, or whether in real she was lost. But who could leave her behind? And why is that only she was searching for someone, why was there no one else equally worried-searching, or saying number 9. I concluded perhaps her folks would have thought of Koyembedu as the best place to get rid of her. Though I wish she found what she was searching for...

Sleeping child
The bus arrived and an elegant lady took a seat along with her sweet kid adjacent to my seat. No sooner the bus had started, I saw the kid fast asleep in a reclined seat. Her face was so calm and relaxed that it brought an instant smile on my face. Childhood is perhaps the best phase of one's life. No worries to work, earn, and submit IT investment proofs!

धीरे धीरे बोल कोई सुन न ले
A girl occupied the seat next to me. After about twenty minutes she got down of the bus and a lad was my neighbor. For around two hours he spoke with someone in whispers. Amazing thing this love is, one can learn and master so many things - including talking in such hush hush manner. Occasionally he would look around to check if no one was observing it. I wasn’t. I was watching the Tamil movie of vikram.

Before time
I realize that apart from builders and project managers, transporters have also started adding buffer time! The ticket mentioned the journey time from 11 pm to 6 am, but I reached my destination, Chidambaram at 3:30 am! The bus dropped me near the Chidambaram bus stand at that odd hour. Thankfully the auto wallas around did not bother much, and as I had enough time, I decided to walk up to that Natrajar temple which was at a distance of some 2 kms from the bus stand. Midway I met a person who greeted me in Japanese, and then asked if I was from Japan. It was dark so I could not really observe if he was disappointed.

The deserted dimly-lit street appeared dangerous. But assuming Chidambaram to be a small town I was a little relaxed when not even a single dog cared to bark. Or maybe they too assumed I was a Japanese tourist which they may be used to seeing day in day out!

Luckily a tea shop was active at that odd hour; it was right next to the entrance of the big temple entrance. I had around three cups while waiting for 2.5 hours for the gates to open. The person preparing tea greeted me in Hindi and then spoke fluent English. English speaking rustic looking people now don't surprise me. Here most people understand the language.

In those 2.5 hours he told me his life history and also helped me plan my trip, especially for the Navagriha temples. He ensured his efforts were not getting wasted by quizzing me after his itinerary lessons. I asked him his name and after saying something he informed his name was same as the second son of Shiva.

Shiva
Everything I saw in this place has the Shiva insignia - the three parallel running horizontal lines with a dot on top. It's painted on carts, doors, kettles, lecterns, and even on gates! One man was sporting a yellow cloth which usually the northern pundits wear with ram ram printed all over. In his case something in Tamil was printed - was it ram ram or shiva shiva in Tamil I wondered.

Natrajar temple The main deity as the name of the temple indicates is Shiva. One gentleman who did not get tired providing me info which I could not digest told me that in this temple, Shiva stands on left leg, whereas in Meenakshi it's on the right leg - oh, and I had no idea Meenakshi had a Shiva idol or anything related to Shiva. You see, except for observing architecture and photography, I had but little interest in the resident deities!

The statue of Vishnu was mesmerizing. I observed it for quite some time. It had some hypnotic power I guess. I was also fascinated with the neat way in which the mini sumo wrestler look alike young pundit’s had applied the mark of Vishnu.

Chandrasekar and Balaji told me later that the pundits are hefty because they have to once in a week or so lift the heavy palanquin and move around with the deity sitting on these heavy palanquins.

This temple has a huge water tank and a hall with 1000 pillars - coronations of chola kings used to take place here. I was happy to be standing in a place where Raj Raja Chola would have stood any day between 9th – 12th centuries.

The kaali not seen
Some 1.5 kms away is the kaali temple. Natraja and kaali had a dance competition and he won. Kaali was upset and moved to this place where the kaali temple is located. I reached there but as the entrance did not appeal much, returned to the main road, and then to the bus stand to board the bus which would take me to Sirkazi, and then another bus to Vaideshwara temple.

Vaideshwara templeIt's the mars temple. I liked the tank area - huge with multi-colored pillars. I mean the pillars with colorful paints. The temple was crowded and it was difficult to move fast to have darshan. I think pictures are better than words…
Tiruvenkaadu templeThis is the Mercury temple. The pictures of Shiva on the ceiling of the entrance, in different dance poses were worth capturing.

Within the temple compound there are three tanks: One tank is used for bathing, the other one had lots of plastic bags and bottles floating, and the third one on the opposite side had thousands of fishes. I visualized were I to fall in that tank, the fishes would have bit me or nibbled my dead and alive skin just as some parlours use fishes to eat the dead skin during the pedicure process.