The Hanuman temple at the end of the street where my parents live has been our go-to temple ever since I can remember. Whether it is a prayer for someone ill or a ThankYou for a milestone reached, sometimes 'just-like-that' and sometimes for a heart-to-heart, this Hanuman has been a constant in the lives of those who live nearby. A month ago, the temple was decked up for Hanuman Jayanti and my dad couldn't stop raving about how majestic our beloved Hanuman looked, how exquisitely the ceiling had been painted with tulasi and flowers and what a beautifully festive look the entire street had taken on. There was a constant stream of visitors for Him that day- each one being fed with a sumptuous lunch. Would this be any Hanuman Jayanti anywhere in the world? Probably! So why go on harping about this one? Because the choicest flowers were hand picked and strung together by a Muslim. The lunch was joyfully prepared by boys whose caste and religion no one knows. The entire cost fo
As you drive past Krishnagiri and onto Salem, you turn a rocky curve and suddenly you are hit by an unlikely sight- a mountain of green surrounded by fields of green and then some more green. You can count at least 5 shades of green- of shrubs, grass, trees and more of the same. As you whizz past this wall of green, you notice a lone white cottage. The next 4 days we reveled in much more! They say all the beautiful moments of a journey happen between the planned bits. We were lucky, cos we didn't make many plans, except to get some good food every meal. A 7 hour drive to Madurai from Bangalore on a Sunday morning landed us at Dindigul for lunch. Shrii Saravana Bhavan is most obviously a joint trying to sell on the name made famous by the HSB people from Chennai. The only reason we entered here was because the heat outside was crazy and they had an AC dining area. And then the 'meals' arrived. Sambhar, Kozhambu and Rasam like I have never tasted before. If you are ever ca