After 7 days of routine steaming ,gargling, antibiotics, with lots of Netflixing ,Priming, YouTubing ,a bit of work 😀 ,reading am back again and recovering well.
Some of my recommendations:(Statuary warning -these are my personal opinion-please read the reviews and ratings carefully before watching)
Netflix
Holidate
Emily in Paris
Serious men
Instant family
The switch
Miss india -Telugu ,a bit boring though
Off beat-Love guaranteed
Prime
Time travel -no nonsense Tamil comedy ,though a bit slow
Puttham Pudu Kalai -movie based on lock down -5 different stories ,first 3 are good
my story -Malayalam ,songs are good
Watching Home coming -2,reading Vishu’s Vault and documentary-Social Dilemma-pitfalls of Social media
Too much for a week??Taking a break to be with my evening companion(on non rainy days)
I added myself to India /Karnataka/Bangalore’s pandemic count on 31st oct.My first reaction was Why me?even after iterations of 5why techniques and root cause analysis in my mind,I could not figure out my source of infection,Hence I decided to accept and move on. while the disease itself may not cause you much stress,the calls from officials (though they are doing their job!) and the spam calls makes you overwhelming.Thanks to my community friends and family who are trying to make this as a smooth sail for us (of course with lots of tips and Whatsup forwards and loads of love ❤️!), Here I am in my home office which is my home for next 2 weeks.#Day3
Mantralayam “abode of Guru/Saint Raghavendra Swami” -though I am penning down a bit late this was one of our early trip. Mantralayam is a pilgrim town in banks of river Tungabhadra, state of Andhra Pradesh, India.
Pic Courtesy:Internet
Guru Raghavendra lived during the 17th Century and this the place where he attained salvation. This place is considered to be sacred for all his disciples/followers.
Matralayam is accessible from Bus or Train. Most of trains from Bangalore to Mumbai cross via Mantralayam. Station name is “Mantralayam Road.
We took an night train, landed there early morning. Since the station is remote, need to take a cab or auto to reach the town. There are lot of hotels near the temple and advanced booking is not required.
We visited the temple in the morning and headed back to Bangalore same day by night train. However there are other temples and tourist spots to visit if you plan to stay more than a day.
Srirangapatna!- this was actually our #1 when we decided our #108 goal.
This town in South Indian State of Karnataka is significant for religious, cultural and historic significance. We visited Srirangapatna on our en-route from Bangalore to Ooty via Mysore. This town is 15 Km from Mysore and gets its name from famous Ranganatha Swamy temple. Town is enclosed by river Cauvery which make the town very beautiful.
We started late afternoon from Bangalore and reached in the evening. Thanks to our GPS had to do a bit of run around to the temple parking lot- otherwise it’s straight forward to get here .
This temple was built during 9th century by Ganga dynasty and later on improvised by Vijayanagar and Hoysala kings.Hence architecture of this temple has a mix of Vijayanagar and Hoysala architectures.This temple is also identified as National Protected Monument.
Tower or Gopuram of this temple is one of the 10 tallest temple towers in India.
Some random clicks…
big picture…
Gopuram
Chariot
Since Srirangapatna was the capital of Mysore city during the time Mogul emperors Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan ruled Mysore there are also other places of historic significance. If you have time you can also visit , Daria Daulat-“Summer Palace” of Tipu Sultan, Jumma Masjid, Gumbaz, Palace. Tipu Sultan also died in the Srirangapatna fort during the pre-independence war with British.
After overnight stay in Mysore , next day morning we visited “Nanjangudu” . While Srirangapatna is a famous pilgrim place for Lord Vishnu, Nanjangudu is famous for Lord Shiva’s Shrikanteswara temple. River Kapila- tributary of Cauvery runs through Nanjangudu. This is another 9th century temple based on Dravidian architecture.
Like any other temple in South India you are greeted by Elephants in front of the temple. You can offer fruits, coconut and elephants will bless you in return.
This “Kasi/Varanasi of the South” is very vast with many towers, mantapas which would require at least half day to explore. Since this was our en-route stop we spent an hour and started to our final destination Ooty.
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