Chennai Kapaleeswarar temple, Mylapore

This one is a very famous Siva temple in Chennai located in a place called Mylapore. The place is called mylapore because parvathi(lord shiva wife) on seeing a peacock dancing she forgot herself when she was in concert with shiva. Lord Siva got angry and cursed Parvathi for her behavior and to become a pea hen. After many years, she again joined with Lord shiva. Pea hen is called as Mylai in tamil, so the name Mylapore is used for this location in Chennai. Godness Parvathi is called as karpagavalli here in Mylapore. This place is also called as vedapuri. There is no proper evidence of when the temple was constructed and whose period it was built. The temple entrance has a big gopura and along with that there are also other three gopuras around the temple. Inside the temple there are separate gopuras for each subramanyia, ganesha, saani and also for navagragha. Almost, we visit every weekend to this temple with the family and while returning we will have breakfast in Hotel Saravana bavan. The temple also got a big pond and the water is almost around the year available in this pond.

You can see a lot Brahmin religion people in this area and they directly or indirectly do service to this temple. This temple is very near to Santhome beach. Those who have an idea to visit the temple can also visit the beach. I see lots of foreigners keep visiting this temple and this temple is always kept clean and has good car parking facility. You can also go to Giri trading shop to have look of the traditional Pooja items and other goodies.

Madurai

                                           Madurai Meenashi Temple Main Gopura

Madurai is the place in Tamil Nadu. The very oldest city and also called city of jasmine. Jasmine is very famous in Madurai and you could see these flowers very cheap here. Madurai malli they call in south India. The garland made out of Jasmine is very famous here.

 Very Famous Madurai Malli (Jasmine)

Madurai lies in the beds of Vaigai River. Also, it is almost 2600 years old and was capital of southern India during the rule of pandiyas. You can also say Tamil is been brought up by this city, since so many Tamil sangam has happened in Madurai. Tamil sangam is a kind of gathering of tamil literates in order to extend the reach of Tamil. 

Madurai is well connected via Road, Rail and also through Air. There are daily connecting flights from Chennai to Madurai. When it comes to tourism in Madurai there are so many places which are very popular over here. A few of them are 

Madurai Meenakshi-amman Temple, 

Long Corider inside temple

Thirumalai nayakar mahal, 

Thiruparamkundaram murugan temple, 

Azhagar kovil etc. 

Other than this Madurai is also near to 

Kodaikanal, Thekkady, Coutrallam (kutrallam) and Rameshwaram. 

The Palani hill is one famous Subramanya temple which is just 130 Kms far from Madurai. This is a very popular temple in Tamil Nadu and has got very godly excellence. When I saw about Madurai it is must that I should give details about the Meenakshi Amman Temple. This temple is one such excellence in the architecture of Pandiyas. Such a huge temple off course and huge 12 vimanams (Gopurams), according to hindu mythology Lord Siva in the form of Sundarar came to Marry Parvathi (Meenakshi). This event of marriage was being done by Lord Vishnu brother of Meenakshi. Even today this festival is been taking place in Madurai and been called as Chithirai Thiruvizha or Azhakar Thiruvizha. 

Golden Flower lake inside temple

Currently the temple is renovated nicely and the street shops are evacuated from this place. Thanks for Tamil Nadu government for doing this. Now look and the divine experience is being maintained properly. This temple also participated in the recent event for wonders of the world. A very huge temple spread around 48 acres of land in center of the city. 

Karnataka Heritage and Culture tour

I always wanted to help people by providing a lot of information about the heritage tour in Karnataka. There are so many places when it comes to heritage and cultural tour in Karnataka. A few which I loved a lot are Mysore, Hampi, Hassan, Badami and even Bangalore.

Mysore

My first view is about Mysore, which is a very close city to Bangalore and can able to cover in a day from Bangalore. There are lot of tourist attractions like Brindavan gardens, Chamundi hills, Cauvery enriched falls like Srirangapatna, Shivanasamudra falls, Tipu sultan fort, and the great Mysore palace. 

Hampi

The place that nobody can even image in dreams, the Vijayanagar Empire’s prosperity is still been maintained here. You can see the art and architecture of the Vijayanagar Empire is unexplained. Vitthal Temple, lotus stay and Queen Bath are nice places to be visited. The big statue of Narashima pose of lord Vishnu was the excellent creativity. 

Hassan

Belur and Helebid are the tourist places where you can see the Chennakeswara temple and Hoysaleswara temple. 

Badami

Ajhole and the famous Pattadakkal have so many temples built by Chaulakyas. You may require more than two to three days going around these places.

Visit to these places and know more about the oldest culture of India.

Bangalore (Bengaluru) Aero Show 2009

The most awaited Bangalore Aero show 2009 was already started on 11-Feb 2009. The show was inaugurated by the Minster of defence AK Antony, Government of India. The show is being conducted in Yelahanka Bangalore (Bengaluru) and managed by CII (Confederation of Indian Industry). This is the 7th aero show and there were lot of people who gathered at the show on the first day. The traffic heavily pilled up near Yelahanka due to the enthusiasm people have for this show. There are more than 100000 people are expected to visit this show this year. 

The show is conducted twice a day from 11th Feb to 15th Feb 2009. General visitors are allowed only on Feb 14th and 15th between 10:00 AM IST to 5:00 PM IST. There is a special shuttles are provided for the Business visitors free cost from Airport and from selected Hotels to Aero show. This time there is more than 25% growth in the Planes display from different countries like UK, US, France, Germany and India too. These are some of the major countries who participate in the show other than that 35 other countries join the Aero Show. 

The tickets are availabe at selected State bank of India Branch in Bangalore and selected Coffee day outlets, Bangalore. 

Chennai

Chennai, it is one of the largest metro in India, capital of State - Tamil Nadu. 

The metro has so many infrastructure and new booming IT companies. You can see different type of people. There are lot of Telegu people who got settled in chennai, settlers from Gujarat and many other people. Tamilians are the major population in Chennai. There are so many places to visit like as I said before Marina beach, besant nagar beach, East cost road (a beach side road extended up to pondy or pondicherry or Puducherry) and the Mahabalipuram are the week end enjoyments in the town. Chennai has lot of other industries like automobile, healthcare, technology etc. It is the second largest in software and BPO outsource. 

Since Chennai lies in the coastal reagion, so the temperture is always hot and humid. The temperture ranges from 36°C to 42 ° C. The temperture will be at the minimum of 18 ° C to 22 ° C in the winter season mostly in December and January. The rainfall is also seasonal and most of the rain is because of the North eastern monsoon. 

After being discussed about the generic feature of Chennai, I wanted to add some other beauties like the recent malls, pubs, the resorts, new infrastructure projects, the roads, the metro buses and the metro trains. The Chennai is divided into North, east, south, west and center. 

Tourist attractions in Chennai: 

The malls like Chennai city center, Spenzer plaza and Shoppers shop are the shopping malls in the city and they attract most the city youth. You have a very popular connemara library and British council library in the city.  Elliots beach, breezy beach and marina beach are the center of attraction. Guindy National park, Snake park and the Vandalur Zoo are some famous tourist attractions. 

Temples which I like, there are so many temples in the city they are Kapaleeshwara temple, Marundeeshwar temple, Kurunkaleshwara temple and parthasarathy temple are some of the olden temples which are around 1000 years old. 

World famous Churches CSI Wesley Church, Church House Of Prayer, Adayar, Santhome Cathedral, St. Francis Xavier church, and St. Antony's Church. 

The one famous planetarium called Birla Planetarium it will be very interesting for science lovers. 

If you have a plan to stay in Chennai or to visit Chennai then I would suggest to learn a little of local language Tamil. Tamilnadu is the only state in India which has fairly a very less people who know the official language Hindi. But anyone with fair English language can survive here as well. And all routes and the bus will have the signboard in English. 

Mysore (Karnataka)

Mysore is now currently being visited by many tourists than before because of the recent developments in the city. There are some IT giants who made this place as a major hub for software and service delivery. There are so many attractions in Mysore which most of the people love to visit on weekend breaks. Mysore is only 140 kms from Bangalore so many people visit Mysore as a day trip and then return back to Bangalore. The Bangalore to Mysore is a top class Highway route where the techies enjoy this road by traveling in Bike or by Car as a day out. In this route, green scenic view and many hotels which help you to fill your green thirst and to fill your stomach. Other than this road way, there are also frequent trains which help you to travel Mysore from Bangalore or from anywhere in India. The temperature and rainfall are very moderate so that Mysore can be enjoyed in all the season times. I had been to Mysore more than 5 to 6 times just as a weekend break.

The very famous tourist spots in Mysore are Mysore palace, KRS dam (at Brindavan Gardern), Chamundi temple, GRS fantasy theme park, Jagmohan palace, Zoo, Museums, Cauvery art gallery etc. Other than these places, nearby to Mysore there are few other tourist spots like Bylakupee (a Tibetan’s place), Tala cauvery, Coorg, Srirangapatna, shivasamudram. Apart from this Mysore is famous for its Dasara festival, this festival will happen some where in the month of October every year at the time of Vijalaksmi pooja. There are also few special things in Mysore which are the Mysore silk which is very famous material available in nominal prices in Mysore, Mysore is rich in coffee power export and sandalwood works. There is a History where the Udayar family who was ruling Mysore were very rich, they has built the Great Place in Mysore and other palaces around Mysore. There are also some Tomb’s and rich forts in Mysore and BangalorePhilomena Church is one of the beautiful places to be visited. There are also so many places around Mysore which I will post soon and explain more.

Mysore Palace

Mysore palace with Elephants and lamps in the night

The Nandhi and Chamundi temple.

Mysore silk saree varieties.