A short drive to Kotilingeshwara

On last weekend I went for a short drive to Kotilingeshwara temple which is not very far from Bangalore. Though it was a short drive but the longest one for me after owning a car. We started late in morning at around nine and we took the Malur village road rather than Kolar highway. Driving on village road is always soothing. It was a single lane road but driving was still easy as there was very minimal traffic. We passed the towns of Malur and Bangarpet. The distance of 75 kms was covered in two hours without taking any break. This place is very near to famous Kolar gold field mines which is closed now.

The temple premises has good shaded parking area where we parked our Grand i10. We took the entrance ticket to enter the temple. Ticket for camera including mobiles was costly as hundred bucks and no-one was buying it.  Temple authority should reduce the cost.

In Kannada, and Hindi too; koti means crore so Kotilingeshwara means one crore Shivalingas. The priest claimed that there are ninety lakhs shivalingas in the temple premises but I guess it was in few lakhs only. I am not very religious person and always want to avoid very crowded places but entered in main temple where there was a long queue of devotees. After the darshan, we took some photos while kids were busy playing in midst of shivalingas. After coming out of temple we sat at a small eatery and had our lunch which we brought from home. Then we started back for Bangalore and in next three hours we were back to our home. In between we stopped our car to a village haat to buy vegetables and few other stuffs. Driving was fun as usual. This short drive was just the beginning of many long drives in near future !

Getaway to Pondicherry

After a long time I was out for a travel and this time it was the small beach town Pondicherry. It was the end of February and weather was perfect to visit here with family. We started little late in morning at around eight. Quickly we could hit the Chennai highway. We stopped in between at a roadside eatery to have breakfast. After sometime we left Chennai highway for Pondicherry road. Road from here to up-to Pondicherry was not in the good state. Construction work was going on and the road was severely damaged. It was good that we had Innova cab, which still provided much comfort in endless series of potholes. After a more than seven hour journey we entered into Pondicherry state. It was almost four of evening when we reached there. After so long journey, a short rest was much needed. Fortunately hotel booked was quite comfortable. Hotel Lotus Pondi, where I had booking was very near to beach. Hotel rooms were clean and all the facilities required were available but bed was of small size. Hotel reception is adorable and staff is courteous. Given the cost of stay it was a well find and a great value for money. Overall staying in Lotus Pondy hotel was very much comfortable and highly recommended for budget travelers.

After a very short break we went to the beach which was just at walking distance. Reaching to beach was very mesmerizing particularly after the long travel. We saw the French memorial and had some good photos. Breeze coming from sea was very soothing. It was evening time so there was a decent crowd. We had a walk along sea shore called as MG road. We saw Gandhi statue, secretariat and old light house; and had a good cup of tea before turning back to our hotel. That two hours on beach took off our tiredness. After some time in hotel, we went for a walk outside which is called as French colony. Seeing the old buildings in french architecture and House-names in French was great. We got a small north Indian dhaba where we got our dinner packed. After a simple but tasty dinner we went for the sleep.

Next morning we woke up early. After getting ready we went to Sri Vinayagar temple, which is one of the oldest and renowned temple of Pondy. From there we went to Sir Aurobindo Ashram, which is a must for a traveller coming to Pondicherry. Then we went to beach side restaurant and had great breakfast and tea. We went back to our hotel and packed our stuffs. Now we moved to Auroville which is founded as global spiritual city. It was a drive to outskirts of Pondicherry. At the entrance we got a video introduction session and then we moved to the view point by walk. We saw the sacred Banyan tree on the way. After a long walk we reached to the view point to witness a great architectural monument. From Auroville we started back for Bangalore. We thought of visiting Tiruvannamalai temple which is one of the oldest temple of Tamilnadu but it was closing time when we reached there and could not go inside. After taking short breaks for lunch and tea we reached to our home by seven with some good memories of Pondicherry.

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Recently I finished the reading of a great book "The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr." written by Clayborne Carson. As this book is based on King's papers, it gives the account of events in his own words. Clayborne Carson played a perfect role in editing it and presenting all his papers in reproducing the chain of events for readers.

This book gives a very fair idea of Civil rights problem and movement in United States. It is unbelievable to imagine that even in late sixties, Black or so called colored people faced so distinct segregation in one of the best democratic country of the world. In one of the event during his India visit, someone introduced him to a gathering of students as "untouchable from the United States" and King was shocked to hear it. I too felt shocked to know, how a race can force another race to born, live and die for many centuries with a believe that they are not worthy of getting an equal opportunity and respect; what others are having privileged of. I have read about Abraham Lincoln on how he fought to end the social evil of Slavery in the States in nineteenth century but I never thought that slavery in the form of segregation could be so deep rooted in American societies even up to sixties of twentieth century. To put things in perspective, the segregation based on race in America in sixties was worse than the caste segregation in India at that time. Now when I compare it with Indian society, we have almost removed the caste untouchablity from our society but a section is still lagging far behind in coming up to ranks of others.

As we all know that King was a great follower of Mahatma Gandhi but this book shows on how he was a great follower of his Non-violent movement as well. I am unheard of any better instance of using Gandhi's non violent ways for any other movement in the world including India. King has successfully used it and demonstrated that non-violent method is more lethal than any arms movement and can produce the positive outcome for sure. In one of the first instance, People of Montgomery boycotted bus for more than one year and preferred to walk with a faith in Martin Luther King's non violent movement, for their rights. The book narrates a number of invoking stories of similar instances when colored people of different part of America could fight for the justice. The book shows on how MLK could achieve his dream of civil rights for colored people in his short but eventful life. Reading his famous speech "I have a dream" is still inspiring.

This book is sometime repetitive of the ideas of MLK and his movement struggle instances but it's a good read and highly recommended. This reveals the life of one of the greatest American and human being, very eloquently. This book is very eye opening for society also to understand the evil inside us. It is unbelievable that Carson presented such a beautiful autobiography out of MLK's papers and sermons.