It has been hectic schedule in business & also in personal commitments too. My present concerns are to make my new ventures a great success, to spend good time with my friends, be consistent in my blogging etc. But my mothers concerns are different, she is worried about my marriage and she wanted to do a Raghu Pooja in SriKalahastri. I didn’t want to disappoint my mother’s sentiments and I obliged to goto temple and perform the pooja…
We decided to goto SriKalahastri on Sunday(16th Nov 2008). Kalahastri is 120 KM from Chennai & is located in Chitoor district of Andra Pradesh. We planned to start from home by 1.30 PM so that we can reach temple by 4.30. Pooja must be performed between 4.30 PM – 6.00 PM because that is Ravugalam & pooja must be performed at that tim But we had an unexpected visit of a guest by 1.00 PM and we were able to start from home only by 3.30PM. We have two ways to route to reach Kalahastri from Chennai. We choose the shortest route redhills/tada route which is the shortest… Wonderful road and nice drive, but still we were late and reached temple by 6 o clock. So decided to have a normal prayer and again planned to make it on Tuesday(18th Nov 2008).
On return we took the renigunta road, which is little long in terms of KM & roads were also bad. We reached home little late by around 10 o clock in the night. Travel was of great experience, had nice discussion with my sister, it has been long since we had spent time for each other. Then saw a major accident near thiruvallur where a bus ran over a bike, road was flooded with blood, I wanted to take some snaps and wanted to share it in my blog but my mother did allow me to do it and she immediately wanted me to move from that place. I obliged to my mothers request and continued my drive. Then reached home slept & did normal work on Monday.
Again started on Tuesday to SriKalahastri, this time it Ravugalam was between 3.30PM – 5 PM. We started from home by 12 noon & this time decided to use redhills/tada route to & foe. This is a best route at present because of good roads, but we have a toll plaza near ponneri a kilometer before & after the toll gate roads are pathetic. Took some snaps to share it.
A person collecting toll
Toll tariff for different vehicles
Condition of road immediately after toll
Condition of roads immediately after toll, this road a junction which connects periyapalayam & tada road…
En route to SriKalahastri near Varadapalayam & you can see me in the picture…
Then reached the temple by 3.15 PM and got a ticket and had pooja done by 4 o clock, had good darshan & returned back to Chennai on the same tada/redhills road. SriKalahastri – Varadapalayam – Tada road was little narrow and had lots of narrow curves & speed breakers. Caught hold of a car, think the driver is a frequent driver in the route and he maintained good speed. Driver understood that we are following him to have a smooth drive & in the mean time maintain his speed and he helped me by giving appropriate signals. Without him I couldn’t have driven in that speed as it was pitch dark.
Then had a normal drive back home & it was yet another 300 KM drive. It was interesting to have driven 600 KM within 50 hours… It was a nice experience & I’m happy because my parents are happy & I made them happy by somehow sparing time for pooja. It was an happy ending & I headed to Madurai immediately after reaching Chennai.
AnandNataraj 