Vanathy - Talking by myself

Hello

I am Vanathy. 

I am happy to see you. 

I am in Chennai.

My happy birthday is 25-Aug.

I love Barbie dolls.

I baked a cake for New year. 

I love my friends.



I love my family

Happy New Year!

Vanathy

Adventures of Sibi - I

As 2012 comes to a close, here is something from what Sibi wrote sometime ago. Based on the published items from Tinkle, he wrote these. These are some of the excerpts.

 Happy new year!

Adventures of Sibi

1. Lays Vs Eggs

Once my mother asked me to buy 10 eggs from Sathya stores (a nearby shop)  gave me money to buy Lays chips packet, if I want. I went to Sathya stores and there was no Lays. So I went to Maha Yogam (a nearby supermarket). And bought 2 Lays packet. I came back to home.

My mother asked me for the eggs. I gave her 2 Lays packets. She asked me again where are the eggs. I saw my hands and I was holding 40 rupees and I have to go back to get the eggs.

2. Billy Comfort.

Once my mother asked me to buy Comfort (a chemical used to wash clothes). I bought it and marched back to home. I saw a man following me and I ran. He also started running and chasing me. I was about to shout. He said he came chasing me to give the Comfort. I saw inside the cover and nothing was there except the bill. I was ashamed and I thanked the guy and marched home. I told everything to my mother and she laughed.

3. Hit by 3

Once we were playing cricket on the road in front to my Grandma's house. When it was my turn to bat, Aadith, my younger cousin started bowling. Pramoth, my elder cousin, was keeping the wickets. 

On the roadside, a man was eating. I tried to drive the ball.and hit the man's leg directly from the place where I stood. The man started shouting and picked a big wooden stick to beat us.

Luckily, the wall was short and we three climbed over it and escaped from the place.

4. Lost in VGP

Once we went to VGP and when we were coming back, I raced my parents to the car.  When I reached near the car parking, I noticed that my parents weren't there behind me. 

I ran to our car and identified it. I waited for others to come. I saw my father coming towards the car. He asked me to sit inside the car. I saw others coming. They said that they went inside a shop to buy sweet corn, which I asked before going inside.

5. Bateroplane

Once, during my quarterly holidays, we went to Dindigul. There I played cricket in the terrace with Abhishek (my elder cousin).

When it was my turn to bat, I swung the bat. Suddenly there was silence all over. I too noticed that the bat weight has reduced in my hands. 

But how? To found out, I saw my hand and saw that it was holding a ball! Everyone laughed. I went over and checked that the bat was lying in the next house. I actually has swung the bat and it flew into the nearby house and I caught the ball!

The next house was my another Grandpa's house (my maternal grandpa's younger brother) and I went there next day and picked up the bat.

A Christmas Tale - Sibi , Vanathy and Santa Claus

 Today is Christmas day. Last Christmas, Vanathy received gifts from Santa and was so happy about it. This year, they went to Madurai for a function and so missed out on the Christmas at home. 

 But then she has been waiting for the gift from Santa all year long and so asked me whether Santa will deliver the gifts even if she is not here. I told her it is not possible as Santa will check whether the kids are there and if they are not, he wont. 

 She was not happy with the answer and asked me what the postman did if no body's home. I told her he will leave it with the neighbor or will come the next day. So, she said, Santa must be doing the same. He cannot expect everyone to be at home when he comes around. It was me who was looking for an answer...

 So they went to Madurai. Today, Vanathy texted me a message from her mother's mobile. Following is the text:

"You have to take my Christmas gift into the house and take it carefully my gift and you do not open my gift. I have to open my gift."

She immediately called me back (like she always does) to see whether I've read the message. And gave me a lecture on why I should not be opening her gift and if I follow her instructions, she will give me two kisses.

 Likewise, this year's gift for Vanathy from Santa is waiting for her at home till she comes back on Friday and opens it..

 Of course, Sibi is at a stage where he has become skeptical about the whole Santa business and even last year, he was searching for bills or the cover or the handwriting on the gifts to prove that I am the Santa who is delivering the goods.  I have to basically tell him that Santa will cut him off if does not stop the blasphemy.

 He is not here to do the sleuthing this year and hence, all evidences of Santa's visit were done with already. 

 And this year, Santa brought a little something for J as well. 

 After much search, I found that Santa left the gifts on our terrace and here is a shot of them. Apparently, Santa picked up the gifts from the "Santa Toy land" in the local Hamleys.


 Will be opened on Friday after the kids are home.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Oru Gallu - 3 Undavalli Caves - Vijayawada

The Satavahana express reaches Vijayawada by 9.30PM and after a late check-in the Haritha Berm Park (which is nothing to write about or even talk about) crashed for the day.

Got up late next day and was stunned by the view of river Krishna from where I was standing. It was huge and it was absolutely beautiful. There were boats and islands but couldn't see the other bank of the river. Amazing!

River Krishna

  After a late breakfast, started for the Undavalli caves. If you thought the Autodrivers in Chennai are bad, then you haven't been to Vijayawada. The two instances I took auto, I ended up in arguments with the driver when dropping off. The pre-paid counter in the station gave a receipt for 30 Rs as auto far to the hotel and I gave 40Rs and ended up arguing as the driver was asking for 50Rs. I flatly refused and then he started shouting in Telugu. I ignored and went to the hotel. And the same happened when I was asking for an auto to the Undavalli caves. I was asked anywhere from 200-250Rs for a 7Km ride. I ended up getting an auto for 150Rs and he started asking for 180Rs when we reached the caves. So to avoid all this, took the APSRTC bus while returning back and the female conductor started shouting in telugu for asking the 2Rs return on a 10Rs note for a 8Rs ticket (she did not return the 2Rs!). Overall, pretty bad experience in all modes of transport in Vijayawada. In a way, I was happy that at least in Chennai, I can shout back.

Undavalli Caves

Undavalli caves lie in the middle of palm trees and fields of paddy on one side and in a naturally elevated area in a hill. Thus you can see the caves from a distance and the caves cut a beautiful picture against the backdrop of beautiful black hill on which it was carved.

The caves

One of the intact ones

Carved into the hill as a three storeyed structure, they date back to the 4-5 centuries AD and probably had a beginning as a Buddhist or Jain origins. There are very similar to the Jain caves but apparently somewhere along, they got converted into a Hindu 'cave' or temple.

The first floor (or the ground floor) is a pillared structure, probably used as a night-stay as the place is full of pillars and nothing else. The second floor is suppose to house the Trimurti and the third floor has a huge stone statue of Vishnu in the anantha sayana pose, which is where the puja and rituals take place. One can go above the third floor which looks like an unfinished floor.

Narada?

The third floor also has three big statues of 'muni's which the local guy said to be Narada and Thumbura(no idea who that is). Somehow I felt that they looked like pictures from the Jataka tales and might be again Jain statues converted to Hindu sages. But I am not the expert here.

The caves show evidences of damages either from an invading army or just vandalism. Not many of the statues survive outside the big one listed above. The pillars are full of defaced statues and/or broken ones. The ones that are there show clear Buddhist/Jain inflences in the way they are sculpted.

And in some places, ASI has restored the faces of the sculptures with mortar/white cement etc to show us how beautiful they might've been. I, somehow, felt that it was better to leave these defaced than attempting to fix the originals. The fixes were hideous to say the least.

Urthava?

This is the true for the Ramappa and Hanamkonda temples as well. While the original structures were suppose to have not used any mortar/cement etc, but built by carving stones one over the other (the interlocking mechanisms were beautiful), the ASI restoration is full of mortar and cement to stick together the stones which basically is like taking the souls of these temples away. It looks awful and probably a disservice to the future generations.

View from the top

Back to the caves, the view of the area from the top of the caves is best seen than described. Although river Krishna is suppose to be only a stone throw away, one couldn't see it from the top of the caves (probably because the river is in the back of the hill!).  

There are some small carvings around and I am sure there may be some messages and inscriptions if only we can do a proper check of the hill (just like in every other Jain/Buddhist/Hindu caves) and they might tell some interesting stories. Unfortunately, there is not even a guide around from ASI.

Walked around a little and decided to go to the Kanaga Durga temple by Bus. Like I mentioned earlier, took the bus and after crossing the Prakash barrage, found that the temple is perched on a hill top. Tried walking to the top and after some time, gave up and started to the Vijayawada station to catch the afternoon Jan Shatabti to Chennai.