Athangudi Mansion, Chettinad

Athangudi Mansion stands out prominently due to its sheer size and grandeur. It is still being maintained well by its present owner. For a small amount he allowed photography inside the mansion. Though he sounded proud of the heritage he has inherited he sounded quite worried too. Government has banned demolish of such mansions, but the maintenance charges that is being provided is too less he

Faces of India - 167

The only male flower seller I saw at a temple in Chettinad. He agreed for a photograph, as I was moving away I heard the women flower sellers teasing him: See how the lady photographer took only your picture. Later I tried to make up for it by taking a woman flower seller’s photo too.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various
characters of my country whom I met

Madurai Cityscape

Pictures taken from Taj Gateway Hotel in Madurai. The hotel is located on a hillock which provides a good view of the city. Far from the maddening crowd we spent a relaxed holiday here. Towards the left side of the picture you can see the lighted gopurams of the temple.






Zooming into the transmission tower.




SkyWatch Friday

Mexifornia Festival at CPK

California Pizza Kitchen, Indiranagar, Bangalore is celebrating the Mexifornia 2014 festival with a variety of new dishes. At the bloggers’ meet there to review the menu, I was amazed the spread they had to offer!









We started with mocktails and CPK Nachos. For the starters they we were presented with a new concept where we can create our own tapas platter by choosing a base, topping,

Faces of India - 166

A spiritual guide at ISKCON, Mayapur, West Bengal. He is actively involved in the construction of a temple around an old shrine. The picture was taken while he was giving a short speech on the various activities done by him to collect funds for the temple.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various
characters of my country whom I met during my travels. See more

Unknown Destination

For this week’s Thursday Challenge on Trails I have this pic of long winding road taken during the drive from Chikmagalur to Bangalore.





I believe that all roads lead to the same place - and that is wherever all roads lead to. 
~ Willie Nelson

Fried Ice Cream

Ice Cream! Who doesn’t like it! Possibly invented by Chinese in 3000 BC, this dessert is available today in countless flavors and forms. Here is one version of ice cream I had recently – the Fried Ice Cream!

A first time for me, I was curious like a kid how the stuff would look like. (A unique dessert: I learned later, it was first served during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Wiki also

Faces of India - 165

A young boy from Chettinad, Tamil Nadu. He was helping his mother to make the tiles at their home. Many families are involved in this business. They have their own tile manufacturing unit in their homes. No big machinery involved. He smiled shyly as I clicked his picture. I instantly smiled looking at this pic today. Hoping he will have a good future!

Picture straight from camera with

One Evening...

One evening when it was windy...

One of the drive by shots taken on our way to Chettinad, Tamil Nadu from Bangalore.





SkyWatch Friday

Chettinad Houses

In the 19th and early 20th centuries Chettinad was the home to the Nattukottai Chettiars (Nagarathar), a prosperous banking and business community. The rich migrated to Sri Lanka and Burma. There are many who migrate to USA, Singapore and Malaysia. Today, what remains are the old mansions of these rich families.









The typical features are wide courtyards, spacious rooms, and tiled floors

Faces of India - 164

The picture was taken in the hotel lawns of Madurai. A young group of students studying catering or hotel management, in their late teens were taking pictures. They had just one sunglasses and each one was putting it on and taking pictures in various poses. I found it interesting observing them from far. Looks do matter in this age group, I thought. 

This young boy agreed to give me a pose.

Karpaga Vinayagar Temple of Pillaiyarpatti, Thiruppatthur, Tamil Nadu

Karpaga Vinayagar Temple is dedicated to Lord Ganesha. This is one of those rare temples where the trunk of Lord Ganesha is turned to right. The temple and the deity is carved out of rock, so pradakshina (act of going around the temple isn’t possible.

The reflection of the temple and its gopuram looked majestic, but the plastic sheets scattered all around the temple tank is an eyesore.




I

Blog Break

Dear readers, first of all apologies for pushing off on a mini vacation without letting you all know. Everything was planned in a jiffy and we traveled 1000kms plus by road covering Chettinad and Madurai (Tamil Nadu) the whole of last week. Everything was fine except the heat. In Madurai it touched almost 40 degrees C.

Now I am back to face the daily routine which has popped up some unexpected