Sunday, May 23, 2010

Woburn Safari

I am writing my trip experience in our family blog :D

It was a bright Saturday the 22nd May 2010 Girish, Rohith,Rathna, Vajreswari and Myself (Krishna) started on a trip to Woburn Safari, around 9 am from Hounslow. Woburn safari is a safari approximately 50 miles from London, on the way to Birmingham.

The drive was a good experience for me. I’d looked up the Google Maps (though I was not driving). But we used the GPS navigator (it was called “Tom-Tom”). All we had to do was to key-in the postal code of the destination and it would guide us. It was really nice. It even spoke! Yeah, it was telling “Turn left NOW!” when we reached a left turn. And, hey, if you missed it, it won’t scold you! Never! I’ll re-calculate a next route to get to the destination. Our travel was mostly on M25 and M1. It took about an hour to get there to the safari.

Back in Bangalore, we (My Parents and I) have been to Banerghatta zoo safari, which was in a caged bus, which was quite safe. But this one was in our own cars, of-course a “no-cage” vehicle! It sounded risky but there were lot of ranger vehicles with us, who would take care if the animals came too close to us. First on the safari was the mighty Rhino. Then a couple of buffalos, tigers, elephants, giraffes, lions & lionesses, monkeys and lastly dual hump camels.

The whole safari ride took around 2 hours and we then were on foot for food (rhyme huh?). We’d not planned this, except for my 2-minute pop-corn which I’d made in the morning, which we ate during the Safari; we’d not taken any food items. We got some sandwiches and coke in their cafeteria. As soon as we finished our “lunch” there was a bird-show which was about to commence. It was a 20 minute show where there were lots of birds, flying around, close to us and making funny sounds.

We then started our foot-safari to meet ostriches and kangaroos having their lunch. On the way back, we monkeyed around, where we walked on a rope, hanging log of wood, what not !

It was a fun-filled-trip !

Click here to view the Picasa Photo Album

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Photos of Nagamangala Temple and deities

Dwajasthambam






















Praharam






















One more view of praharam



















Adhi Seshan surrounded by 108 sanku



















Moolavar - Sri Sowmya Kesava Perumal


















Urchavar with Sri Devi and Boodevi Thaayar


















Aadi Seshan with Salagrama eyes
























Close up eyes ( Salagramam)


















Thayaar Sowmiya Nayaki


















Aandal























Sri Venugopala Swami with Ruckmani and Sathya Bama


















Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Perumal









NAGAMANAGALA TRIP

It was a nice plan we ( Myself, My wife , Ravi and his wife & our grandson baby Aadi ) made to visit one of the oldest Naga temples in Nagamangala about 135 Kms from Bangalore. While going we went through Koppa and while coming back we came via Mandya.

For going by car it is better one goes through Mandya route. It is almost stright road and no need to cross many villages like Koppa route.



From Electronic City via village routes catch up Bannarghatta Road to reach Nice Road. By following Mysore Road on Nice Road you will reach SH17 by turning on to your left. From there you have to go straight on this state high way. On the way you can have darshan of a 'standing Anjaneya' holding mountain on his hand and bell in his tail end. After this at a distance of about 25kms. you can see Doddamallur Krishna temple on your left. ( I will write separately about this temple in my blog). It is a great pleasure to have the darshan of Lord Krishna as child. When you start from there you can have your breakfast in any of the restaurants like 'Kadambam' , 'Kamat' . If you travel more you will see Adiga also. We took ours in Kadambam and it was good.

We had a print out of google map via Koppa and for this we needed to take right after crossing Adiga restaurant. The route was through various villages and at last we reached Nagamangala. The route was lonely and it is better to travel in broad day light and to avoid single family travel by car. This is why we took our return trip via Mandya.



The temple has main deity as Sri Sowmya Kesava Perumal and the temple is called by his name. Separate sannadhi for Sowmya Nayagi Thayar. We can also have darshan of Andal near thayar sannadhi. Other deities are: Sri Venugopalaswami with Rukmani and Sathyabama, Sri Lakshmi Nrisimhaperumal, Adiseshan which has saligramam as eyes.

When we enter the main sannadhi, the middle portion of the roof is housing Adiseshan surrounded by 108 sangu and 'Shodasha' devatha. Shodasha means sixteen. The centre has a big sangu which looks like a big lotus bud and this is surrounded by Adiseshan. It is believed and there are stories to confirm that by visiting this temple and praying / carrying out Thirumanjana one can eliminate all difficulties caused by Rahu / Kedu. It is also believed that variousobstructions in marriage, studies, child birth, health etc., are completely solved by praying in this wonderful shethram.

It is told that this temple is 1000 years old. They do Thirumanjanam for Adisesha and mandala pooja for 48 days. If one wants to do mandala pooja he can undertake sankalpam during his visit and rest of the days the battar will do the pooja for you and send prasadam to you after 48 days. You have to leave details like gothra, star etc, with the problem to be solved with Rs 251 as charges towards this mandala pooja.

You take two lamps made of mud (agal vilakku) with ghee, thiri and match box. After sankalpam light the lamps one near Adiseshan and another in front of nagar nearby. After this battar gives thoopam and harthi so that we ourselves can show harthi to Adisesha. Match box is a must since the belief is that one should not use the already available lamp in the temple lit by others, for lighting our lamps.

For Thirumanjanam charges can be had from the battar. We had very good darshan of all deities eventhough there was no current by the help of Sri. Kesava Battar. We reached Bangalore in the evening and on the way we took very nice coffee at 'Coffee Day' shop. There is one more Anjaneya temple on the left while coming back on the SH17 road and this also looks to be an old temple and the deity is on the rocky wall.

Temple timings: Week days - 9am to 1pm and 5pm to 9pm
Sat & Sun - 9am to 2pm and 5pm to 9pm

Contact Details : Sri. Narayana Bhattar - Mob: 9448750603

Address : Sri. Sowmya Kesava Kainkarya Sabha,
Nagamangala Post,
Pincode : 571432.