visit to Sriperumbudur on the occasion of Sri Ramanujars 1000 jayanthi--birthday

Went off to the bus stand dropping my blogging [barricade half way] as hub decided to visit Sri perumbudur on the occasion of Sri Ramanujar,s 999 th birthday,which actually falls tomorrow viz 10 th May but pre poned it by a day to avoid crowds .Sri peumbudur is his place of birth.

Got a AC bus.A woman got in, the  plaster on her nose and her throat on left side caught my attention.She had no bindi .Was she of mino community?Was i being stalked in the bus ,?She shooed away a short puny man with tilak who was suspiciously hovering too close to me and stood on the gap  between  my and hub/s seat.All seats were taken by then so a lot of standees.Very smart in a sari but looked weary.She then started speaking in hindi to her father.                                                                                                                                                       Oh i got it ,since 2014 i have been adopted by a powerful father and a powerful mother and people indicate as to who they represent .Being bindi less didn't mean that she was not a hindu as people up north even in my college days never put it on thier forhead till they got married unlike in south where girls have to wear bindi from infancy.Not only girls but also boys and men  who decorate their foreheads with vibuthi, chandan, kumkum,sreechurnam , black camphor and, thirumun.Nearly most  boys and men sport a tiny length of vibuthee on thier forheads .

In early 2015 when i was off the blog on our return from the first annual ceremony of my b.i.l in the city the young auto driver started lamenting loudly that whilst his mother repaired and set a old punctured tyre of his auto right and it was still running a friend cum lessor who had taken his other auto to repair and set it right had dropped it midway and had absconded and that friend only had to request his mother to repair it and she would have done it gladly.He had a picture of Jesus on his auto and said that he often visited a famous Amman temple in the suburbs.Religious theme in to my life was started to be spread pretty thick  since my b.i.l's demise in 2014                                                                                                                                     .earlier on  a sudden discussion regarding the date of Rama rose between me and my neice at laws.when the ceremony got over .They insisted that it was 7 lakh years as per tradition and i said it could be a exaggeration and at the most he would have lived 10.000years back.when i told them that one has to follow the worlds findings regarding date of human civilisation and  this is dated at 10000 years .since i believe Rama lived and walked around this land and ruled it i have to give him the  date which i can believe and my training and readings  in History about the date of  human civilisation which is generally agreed upon by various scholars across this world. This offended them and a lot of arguments flowed though both of us agreed that he was a living person but differed on dates.They felt i was questioning  hindu traditions ,epics, and hindu concept of time and i felt that they were not applying thier mind and were unduly  suspicious and blind to findings ofWestern scientists regarding the date of dawn of civilisation in this planet.
Maybe this conversation was heard as i am a forcibile  public property  since long and not liked by those who wanted to tune me .A hindu who believes in 7 lakh years as date of Rama can be easily tackled as foolishly traditional and be made fun off and brush of Rama as a figment of imagination but can that be done to a hindu like me who is convinced western dating is right and therefore very  convinced that Rama's date can be established without feeling either  appolegetic about it the way liberal practising hindus  would or fume and froth the way traditionalists would..
i have observed that it is the liberal practising hindus' , who are in awe of  certain aspects of other religions and find our religion wanting . i have never felt  Hinduism  wanting in any manner and was never in awe of any other religion.

ok back to the bus .As we neared Porur a landing in the airport  was clearly visible from across the open space which has radars and radio station of the airport .Though houses have come up all over , this place is still left free the way i remember it  when i lived here.Was that hindi speaking woman deliberately blockin g me and my hub?She got off few stops later.The board of the stop caught my eyes --Central reserve police.
Felt a sudden sinking .Was she one?Aern't they used in  tackling rioteers and naxals?.Was i being shielded from naxals?
Then another woman a lively one started to speak to her mother and stood near me.And the spectacled youth behind me shifted his seat in the corner and sat  behind me .He too spoke to his mother!
earlier in turning on the main roads in the city i would get ahead ache in left side [maybe that specs boy gave it]and as i turned automatically towards window i saw a police man glaring at me .This happened thrice.

I glanced around others in the bus.Looked wistfully at faces of midle aged women with their cares written al lover it.Would i ever get back those golden days?When my cares were my own, my joys , my thoughts , my emotions were my ownal minejust like those of other womenWonderful private life.who made me trade it off so forcibily?Even if i have powerful persons reading my writings for preceptionsor ideas will that eevr equal the liofe of a non entity, leading a life of ordinary cares , not thinking beyond family and relatives and at times neighbours and nothing extraordinary?Extraordinery like unravelling this co-ordination of flights, implants rfid and so on .Yes i was pushed in a corner and i am intelligent enough to  unravel it yet my dumb comon place life before all this was what was truly satiating.An ordinary normal life where one is the queen of one's house how much ever small it may be .Even a beggar woman living on a pavement leading a  life in full public glare  has the luxury of privacy of thoughts which i don't  .
Her thought could be about next meal and mine  considered high like on  philosophy or sceintific intelligence like finding out about the trap thrown over me but where is the privacy of those thoughts , leaving that alone i don't even have the privacy to think longingly of my next meal or snack which she has !

The temple was very crowded Villagers lay in exhausted heaps in all the vacant spaces in this temple which is dedicated to kesava perumal and thayar [consort] and has a separate sannidhi for Sri Ramanujar.As i waited for gates to open a spectacled midle aged middle class man came in angle and i felt a sting  Either it was he or was being used.Controlled  my rising temper and thought even here?Don't these people have any shame ?
Started chanting Narayana loudly.As i stood before Ramanujars moorthy i hoped to gather a glimmer of his strength to overcome the hurdles to chanting the mantras he had proclaimed to all .

The perumal sannidhi was closed Thayaars was open .indicating perumal--father's disapproval.

in the outer perumbulation with walls full of paintings and stone floor of the passag e filled with villagers sleeping off thier exertion in pulling the rath earlier in the day i  saw and heard a old man sitting amongst his sleeping frineds , singing about Ramanujar and Alanvandar in simple Tamil .it was neither the 4000divya prabandhams or slokas but  could be a family or folk song handed down through generations .He was singing with full devotion  and it moved me , instantly wiping away the insult to Sri Ramanujar by stinging me in the parts that are the special targets of my harrasers, in his temple.

I also realised the respect and reverence  these Vaishnavaite acharaya command since ages  amongst ordinary folks. and i had been thinking that only people like me who have descended from family of  scholars and belonging to brahmin caste have such reverence and knowledge.Lost my supercilliouness very  happily as vaishnavaites are very few to come by .Felt a kinship with all those simple villagers .
thought would iconic leaders  of present day be remembered thus by a villager 1000years later?History  books are full of accounts of heroic kings like asoka ., chandra gupta  or raja raja chola but does any one remember them with such affection and devotion?

My chappal had gone missing  like it did in my visit to Srirangam temple in 2015.Punishment?Hubs was safe and secure,
Walked barefoot on pebble strewn street to a mantap where ramanujars utsavar was placed .Then took a auto and bought a slippers.waited near a shop as hub went to atm a  glum youth literrally chased me away  to next shop by sweeping and dumping garbage near me .As we stood on opposite side for bus a mosque behind the shop  i was chased away. Why?Maybe fear of some one nastying those entering for prayer by nastying me and linking the two.
Bus never came .went to high way .Saw plane take off .now i am always watching planes Took few snaps and soon heard that chup chup-sound of reverse backing of car -yet to unravel this .But i do remember that in 2014 september  after days of dehydration i had gone up to get away from the confines of the house that had become morbidly sticky,As i sat facing east gazing at the sky the 3rd floor neigh --woman brah came and started to walk in 8 formation  vigourously i ignored her and was in my trance.she even bumped against me .and then stopped to hear something it was that chup chup sound  .She left as it got over.when i got up to leave felt a  pain in my throat like as if it was slit.

Got a ordinary bus.It got stuck in traffic near Ramachandra hospital vehicles on opposite side were moving.So many! Where was the money for all this?i remember all this area as sleepy little towns and villages with saccely any tarffic on the roads in -1990'.Now there are flats and flats, big brand shops, restaurants , gyms and road brimming with cars and other vehicles',So there is money to be made for the industrious and those focused on making it and goods available to buy and use

It was hot and humid and no breeze.Mind went back to the temple and the devotees.and upcoming elections .I am sure they will all vote so would every person from lower strata.What are they voting so enthusiatically I don't buy papers observation that it is due to high sounding words like democracy is  at play and so on .They are voting becuase they want and expect some benifits from persons they are voting for Since they are getting it like cheap food grains  or pension  or some such upliftment they are voting. so sincerely .  Why was i not all that intereseted[ before this brush with politicians that has simply made me lose all my trust] in voting .My basic needs are taken care of unless i am  delivered of those  promises like clean good roads , also low prices, easy housing,etc upto my level what is the point of voting?Roads corner will be dirty , pavements ,roads encroached -it is always right of lower and poorer classes  over our rights  .Nothing will change.So what is the use of voting?
When i said this to my dozing hub he got wild and and remonstrated that whether one  gets anything in return or not  we  have been given a democratic right which one must exercise even be it nota.
Then thought of my problem =fascination of politicians with my views etc.Few weeks back in adiscussion with hub im predicted that dmk will win all urban seat here and in cuddalore due to floods.hub didnt agree .he siad aidmk will sweep. i was firm but after few days amended it to if not whole of chennai thye will get this seat and few others. hub firm on sweep.and when toi also published survey i was happy .if my prediction falls flat so would this crack pot chases, questioning i am subject to  ,So hope amma really sweeps and doesnt concede even one seat thus denting my image of a seer ,which has become a dead weight around my neck.At least i will get one step nearer to my freedom.

As i sat on in that cramped seat fanning myself with a paper saw a man stare at me from reflection of the mirror  near the windshield .deliberate.I stared back .no use he kept on staring.The wait was prolonging on and on .Was it due to me?i changed position sitting slanting on the seat to air my back .immediatyely traffic gave way and we were moving .We were going South east wards and i guess my left side of face was facing east and right  north west .it was easy movt henceforward . A gas truck  with blue cylinders that kept keeping pace [we were seated in row behind driver] fell back

Came to that open radar space .Saw a plane take off.Was i being co-ordinated and in a tug of war ?did that shift in my seat change something? what ever i started to feel the scrathches near heart .Now on it was bullets that were keeping pace .sudenly realised that i had kept my bag on my lap nera left .changed it to right and scrathces stopped .Was too tired to get angry at people who are using religion to make me scratch all over postponing my anger .
At stop ddint get auto so walked through the tunnel like road due to metro work and wasnearly blown off by vehicle whizzing.some how walked that length and got back home.

The mentally handicapped boy was sitting in the temple.My reception committee earlier the young advocate of my flat received us at the turning by turning his scooter  .


written on 9.5.16

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Satyakala ..

Today 19 th morning visited Satyakala at Kollegal .The way to and fro from Mysore was flanked by rice fields in pretty green slabs . A very fertile area.

Nearly all boards  in towns and villages are only in Kannada so couldn't make out as to which building was ,what.
Satyakal is a small village amidst very lush paddy fields,being right besides river Kaveri.The purpose of our visit was to see the ancient deity of Sri Vardhrajar ,who was worshipped by Sri Desikan in 13 th cent AD when he took refuge in this tiny hamlet after fleeing persecution by invaders from north at his original place of residence at Sri Rangam.He stayed here for 12 years and went back when the threat was removed.It was also an exercise in tracing Sri Desikans trail across the south. 

The village reeked of prosperity but the roads were poor and  muddy and were turned to  sludge by a slew of tractors used in the farming operations.But the small temple is very well maintained thanks mainly due to the generous contributions of NRI 's ,mostly US based .The temple that was once said to be in a very bad shape has been  very well renovated  with halls, kitchens and toilets added for the convenience of pilgrims.The temple was empty save for the priest and a watchman's family.

The turtle like stone slab on which Desikan is said to have sat upon and meditated daily is housed in his sannidhi at the temple.Till 1920 it lay on the bank of the river a short distance away and was brought here for preservation.It made me pause and compelled me to sit before this humble seat of that wise and learned acharya and to meditate and try and  gather at least in a little measure the strength it must have absorbed by his sacred presence to see me through in my lonely battle.

The theertham --the taste of  the  holy water offered by the priest was  incredibly sweet unlike in any other temple i visited.What sweetened it? The fact that it was kaveri river water or simply something more?.

A short walk on a mud road flanked by banantrees , lush paddy fields right next to the gently flowing kaveri river is the fig tree under which Desikan sat and meditated .It is no longer in full spread as it is said to be in his days.But the trunk though dried and stunted seems to have survived  letting off few leaves to keep it going.
Desikan wrote 'abeedhitatva' a sloka to dispel fear and restore courage in this very scenic and serene spot and recited it several times.This sloka in later year inspired Harri hara and bukkha to establish the Vijayanagar empire that ruled the south for several centuries and its kings built several temples with great enthusiasm.
As and when Desikan wrote this sloka would he have foreseen such a tremendous event in the political history of  medieval India  ,that his heart felt sloka would sow ?Desikan was a scholar, poet, wise and seeped with bhakthi..A  man of religion alone who studiously avoided rulers and kings.Yet ,may be he did.Can't say.

As we passed over river kaveri its gentle unhurried flow seemed to murmur an assuring massage that any one will come and go but i will be going on and on seeing more and more . A detached witness to changes in human history and an affirmation of permanence and solidity amidst rapid changes and insecurities of life.

written on 19 .11.13   9pm in train from mysore to chennai

Visit to Melkote CheluvaNarayana Temple -

Chella pillai Perumal and His consorts at Melkpte Temple

Chelluva narayana temple at Melkote

On 18th noon after an insipid lunch at the hotel we left for Melkote by cab to have a darshan of Chelluva Narayana and  also see the idol of Ramanuja which he himself is said to have conscreted transferring  some his Powers and part of his self at  the request of the populace of melkote who couldn't bear the separation from their beloved acharaya as and when he decided to repair back to Srirangam.

For several miles the landscape was lush and picturesque.Bouquets of rose tinted flowers atop slender white and tall boughs of sugar cane swayed bewitchingly and a carpet of green rice fields with a dusting of gold ,the colour of ripening rice spread as far as the eyes could behold.An pleasant surprise and a delicious feast to eyes gone weary of seeing only man made machines ,crowding the streets ad distancing oneself from what one is madeof--earth, water, air and sky.
All the small and quaint houses on the road side were painted red with some advt or the other.

The landscape turned a bit arid and stony as we neared Melkote and spotted the Narsimhar temple atop a hill where Prahalada is said to have meditated.It therefore predates the Narayana temple below.

The town is just as i remember it .Not much changes .The Narayana temple was built by Hoysala ruler Vishnu vardhan in 11 th cent ad after he embraced Sri vaishnavism ,taken in by the personality and the healing powers of Ramanuja who had taken refuge in his kingdom after fleeing violent  sectarian persecution by a fanatical chola king  in his hometown in Tamilnadu  .This temple enshrining chelluva narayana was consecrated by Ramanuja.

Many figurines adorning the temple depict dasaavatar, various classical poses and mudras of dancing girls, rishis performing yoga and so on.Many of the figures have their limbs loped off.But the granite pillared mantap with its rich carvings of dancing Krishna performing various feats are intact.An cunning carving of an animal that looked like an elephant from one angle and like a horse from another angle caught my attention.The woven basket like filigree work in stone on several pillars are a testimony to skill and artistry of the sculptors of days gone by.
The main as well as the processional deity are bewitching.So is the idol of Ramanuja.The beauty of the panchaloka [--alloy-]-processional deity known as chellapillai was mesmerising and made me wonder whether there was any credence[ as the dates from history  simply don't match ,there was no sultanate at time of Ramanuja , it came after him, maybe this story has been spun for communal harmony  ] in the story that when ramanuja came seeking this particular idol from the Delhi sultans spoils of war and was allowed to take it ,the  young daughter of the sultan who played with this idol and was her favourite couldn't bear the separation and therefore followed Ramanuja hoping to retrieve it  and passed away.
A tiny figurine at the base of  the idols Naryana somewhat like Lakshmi caught my eyes. The priest explained that it was that of Bibi nachiar  --the daughter of that sultan ,installed there in commemoration of her unsullied and deep devotion to chella pillai.

The climb to the hill enshrining Narsimhar was strenuous.The skies drakened and the nambi narayana [also consecrated by ramanuja] temple in the next stop a few kms away was closed.

The lights were out and the village--Thodanoor was plunged in early darkness of the night.Yet i didn't want to miss having a look and feel of the lake said to have been dug by ramanuja during is exile in here.

Fireflies flitted and a pale Venus shone through cloudy skies as i sprinkled the water over head and watched the silent dark lake.Not a single person was around.Was such a huge lake actually dug by Ramanuja?Most probably.Digging wells and ponds for good of people is enjoined in our shastras.He had a large gathering of devoted disciples and they had a lot of time at disposal being forcibly kept away from their regular hectic religious activities .

On our return the colourful fields had become dark and forlorn silhouettes ,reminding one of constant cycles .They were carefully tended so that they may grow lushly only to be reaped to make  a living and then to be  cut and disposed off.

written on 19 .11.13  9 pm tuesday in train

Mangalore.

The city reminds me of Mysore but as a newer and modern version.The main roads are in concrete..It also reminds of Varkala with its winding inner streets with a lot of ups and downs.
The temples are just like the one's i visited at Kerala .The construction and layout with broad tiled roof's, the tiles known as Mangalore tiles that once denoted prosperity when it was laid on roof's of dwellings in Tamilnadu and Andra  in lieu of the locally made small sized tiles.

The tiles have stuck on forming the roof of several houses  side by side with spanking new multi storeyed buildings and  flat roofs.What struck me was the abundance of banyan trees  on the road side exuding solidity and continuity.

At night however the city took a altogether new look as we took another route,with blazing lights over shops , malls and gym's that looks out on to the traffic laden road with the exercisers visible to every passerby through the transparent huge glass windows ,exactly like some of those gym's at Chennai.A country wide phenomena of gyming in confines but visible to the public, a deliberate design?

Mangalore is a mini modern metro like those dotting South and Gujarat --my recent visits being confined to these places so are my observations.

Took a  trip to nearest beach that was 15 kms away to watch the locally famed sunset.The beach is clean and the sun set dramatically as a  delicious orange candy within a wink of the eye.Like signal most of the shops -eateries closed and nearly all the visitors emptied the the sands walking towards their parked vehicles!
The beach reminded me of Elliot's beach as it was a couple of decades back, forlorn and empty.Now one has to jostle for even an inch of space ,especially after sun down!

The auto driver was bent on pointing out the manufacturing units like that of fertilisers, cement, iron and it companies  lining the way to our bleary eyes begging for sleep  from the tiring, long train journey.

I noticed earlier in the day that  a lot of women  were on the street on their own from middle class .I found a kindred spirit with all those carrying a parasol --many of them as a protection from the heat to their fair and sensitive skins.
Side by side with tip to toe black bhurka clad gils a sizable number are those In jeans , 3/4 th leggings  and mini shorts!

 Earlier we could not have darshan of Sri Venkataramana since a local holi festival  as  a part of Rath yatra was in full swing with crowds of youth and kids  milling around having a whale of a time splashing water and smearing colours.But had  a peaceful darshan of Mangala devi the deity of an ancient temple from whom the city derives its name. 

T he beach near Mangalore.

To Udipi Sri Krishna temple --east to west coast.

Since childhood i always associated Udupi with Udipi hotels that dotted South India and were famous or their delicious cuisine ,of tasty meals and tiffins made tastier by generous garnishing with desicated coconuts.
The connection between Udupi and Sri Krishna was always there but somewhat hazy and distant  but its importance to our religious psyche was as concrete and equivalent to that of Krishna's temple at Guruvayoor.

It was my long cherished desire to visit Udupi that had reached fruition only now after harboring it within fir several decades and here i was walking down the Railway platform at Chennai searching for our coach, in the night express.
A slender man lay stretched out languidly on a sheet of paper in a corner of the platform ,with a cement bag for a pillow .He was unperturbed by  all the characteristic bustles of a busy rly station . His eyes fixed dreamily on the sky visible through a slit in the covering .
A sigh escaped me .How lucky he was to stare moodily and meditatively without anyone finding it ridiculous or insane  or abnormal.Some people even those lowly placed have all the fun effortlessly  that is bent on eluding those specially those who set a time frame to have it like me who has the additional burden of artificially  manufactured status  that is either out of genuine  respect or mere scorn ,unceremoniously thrust upon

The red shirted coolies have dwindled in numbers what with 90 % of the passengers be it a small boy clutching his mothers hand or a old lady bent with age pulling their travel bags ,all with wheels ,with ease.

The golden rays of the morning sun poured over the landscape the next day that was no longer  arid or cultivated fields as it was in Tamilnadu but that of dense foliage ,clumps of coconut trees ,whose dark shadow was reflected by innumerable ponds,way side ditches [ i recollected the heavy rains that lashed the train on its journey the night before] and backwaters  along the way. .
We had entered Kerala and were soon thereafter in Karnataka .The spacious red tiled houses occupying every available space in Kerala continued to do so as we neared Mangalore .The sea sky blue and restful beckoned us at a distance.

17.2.13--18.2.13

Koiladi.Temple

After visiting koiladi in the morning for a darshan of Appala Ranganathar[27.1.13] and on returning to our lodgings i was in a dilemma .Should i write or not write?Since if i write i'll write as it is and i am sensing strongly that whatever i write about my observations on the land ,people , temples, life etc , is torn to bits by politicians and journalists, in minutes and is gleefully carried off for themselves the bits that suits their ends best .

After packing up to return to the stables i stood on the balcony and the Raja gopuram towered majestically into my view with Ranganathar in his calm repose in the central niche .The lord of all.The personification of truth who presides over all equally and existing eternally.

Seeing him my dilemma dissolved as i decided that if what i write can bring about some good to some nameless, faceless and voiceless persons and does not cause harm to any one ,why not go ahead and just do it.so i have done just that.
Earlier as we left the lodge to the temple a  group of men in the white and white the attire of politicos stood around talking in the veranda The cabbie explained that the lodgings was a favourite spot for  political workers of all hues to congregate for a chat and that this group belonged to the one ruling this state.Tamilnadu.
The way side to koiladi  from Srirangam has retained its rural character with rolling fields of rice, sugarcane and plantains,. much as in times of those saint poets..A board said Ponni  [kavery]delta .
In some places land was cleared and clay bricks were shaped and dried and in several others huge concrete machines and lorries were stationed and at few other spots sand was heaped in huge dunes and were scooped up by bull dozers ,as lorries lined its sides.All these activities on the land that looked too fertile to be so trifled with.

Passed kallanai dam that was as bare as a bone picked clean .Just 2 years back on my last visit ,it was filled to the brim and was gushing out of the sluice gates in frothy fury !

As we neared koiladi 20 kms away from Srirangam banana fields were drying in the early growth and not as it does when it is fully mature .Obviously the water from borewells were being saved for the rice crops.

The temple however was a pleasant surprise, Gone are its dilapidated run down appearance,that it presented  2 years back on my last visit.
The gopuram had a fresh coat of paint and the walls of the temple were no longer crumbling.The cracks had not only been filled but the entire building was strengthened .Several workers were busy in the renovation work which i hear was speeded up in the past one year mainly due to the diligent efforts of Sri Vellukudi with  also the govt pitching in.

Two year back Kavery had worn a glittering deep blue coat and flowing merrily in full swing and full of life near the Kallanai as well as in the canals by the side of the fields  and on the side of this koiladi temple whist the temple had looked old and lifeless.Now the temple is glowing in its new lease to life but the river on its side is supine and dry!

The priest of this small but very ancient and sacred temple was bent on clarifying and rectifying the defects in Divya deasam guide books that the main deity of this temple --Ranganathar 's right hand lay on the head of Markandeya rishi seated on the floor and not on the appam[sweet delicacy] pot ,as is wrongly mentioned in those books.He wanted the devotees to know the exact traditions and not fall prey to hearsay.

License to write. [From my diary 18.11.12]

At last escape from that cell with kgb and co breathing down my back 24 hours a day .I am at Bangalore and am writing this from the roof of the tiny serviced apartments we are lodged in  so as to visit my ailing mother who has taken a turn for worse .

There  now, I  had thought with optimism unknown to my nature that i had successfully shrugged off  my surveyors in this bjp ruled state .Wrong again.A young man has come up and is fiddling with the generator 's cover and made a point to meet my eyes.

What is ppt's problem?I have made it clear that i am not joining politics yet they are relentless in their pursuit.Is my life under threat? I doubt it . Al this exaggerated conferring of attention is definitely to create an illusion of making me feel wanted and important so that i may not blurt out uncomfortable truths in my blogs which may be viewed as extreme or unpalatable by some.
.
So there i was successfully diverted yet again from what i wanted to write.[by the way this piece has already been sucked  and delivered by the ever alert ones later in the day] that i started to dream up the various sentences i would love to impose on kgb and his ppt boss if i had the power to do so .A few samples follow...

I would exile them to Dakshina Gagotri  [Antarctica] and set them afloat on a glacier in the coldest month for a minimum 2 year period whilst i warm my toes in my hearth .
Or
Post them in the hottest and most primitive country in equatorial Africa with swarm of flies and mosquitoes for company,
Or
Let them loose with a weeks ration in the thick and swampy rain forests of South America in the cosy company of anacondas.,
Or
Drop them in a uninhabited atoll right in the middle of south pacific ocean ,1000's of miles away from civilisation with some ration and a crude craft.
Or
Drop them in the area inhabited by the fierce Senthilese tribes in the Andaman islands

OK back to what i wanted to write.

The whole city of Bangalore is naturally air conditioned. .But the streets are dirty and stinking.In fact Chennai is comparatively cleaner especially in main roads and in posh ares.though the population and number of vehicles is higher.
The place where i was put up is supposed to be posh .Gosh if this is the state of  cleanliness of posh localities then what about others?Similarily the stretch of NH from Chennai upto Hosur the border of Tamilnadu flowed flawlessly and thenceforward into Karnataka it wasnt upto that high bench mark, set.A sign board cautioning against overspeeding on the highways caught my eyes.It ran thus--'Safety gears are placed between ears'.The state of city roads in both cities ,however vie with one another in proudly exhibiting the profusion of potholes and mini craters.Despite this lacuna,over all ,Chennai beats Bangalore hands down any day any time except that it cannot boast of that kullu kullu --cool weather all days through out the year.

This place is full of students as there are several colleges in the vicinity.Unlike Madras they move in groups that has a fair mixture of both genders.Their attire is uniform like viz dark jeans and darker shirts.Their favourite haunts the nearby malls.I got to know when we had to walk through a mall to cross the one way way route which the auto driver refused to make a detour to ferry us across.

The huge and glitzy mall was swarming with teenagers and college students. Seeing so many youngsters congregating at a spot scared me and made me want to bolt away from the nearest entrance  or simply disappear into thin air.,since i am used to seeing only greying middle agers generally in sarees or  in drab pant shirts in my favourite watering spots like the park, temple or even the beach.This massive surge of youth was a cultural shock and a yawning  generational gap to me  [ though i have been there   and done most of  it all but that seems like aeons before in another world ]and i felt the urgent need to run for cover.Some what like Nagesh did[acted] in a film as a country bumpkins bewilderment at his first brush with  the fast , fashionable   crowd in modern city.

In Chennai groups of youngsters consist only of either boys,, mostly young men roaring on macho motor bikes or only girls  and.the mixed bag  with a heavy sprinkling of north easterners, Africans that is so common in here is a rarity there .And the common watering spot --Marina or Elliot's beach  at Chennai has a mixed fare,of families,  children, youth and old .But in here the mall was totally monopolised by the young brigade who were window shopping, eating, ambling around or sitting in the inner pavement walls in groups  ribbing each other and a fair share of twosomes who looked enquiringly into each others eyes coyly whilst they licked cone ice creams  lost in their own secret world, publicly.

Bright lights of suburbs.

The way to and back was nothing like it was even a decade back, when the only known and famous landmark near our suburbs was the Ramachandra  hospital and an engineering college near the Sri Perumbudur town .
Now factories and more factories, gated housing communities, multistoreyed flats colleges  and huge shops dot the entire route.The car factory for which land was acquired ,is in full swing. I still remember the unmistakable wonder and pride in my f-i-l's car driver's voice when he visualised gleaming cars rolling out of the factory. when we went to inspect my f-i-l's lands.That driver is no more , had he been  alive ,he couldn't have lorded over those near empty high ways any more , since they were all crawling with cars  of every make , without a break for the entire 50 kms stretch.

An hour or so into or journey back, the cab came to a standstill  ,amidst thick traffic, As i looked out i saw that the halt was on the highways abutting our ex suburban house and the time ,8.30 pm.

There was a gym with transparent glass windows, with men working out  in full glare of all the passing vehicles as well as similarly transparent restaurants where couples were dining ,there was even a Reebok shoe shop! What a change! It was like a mela!

Just a decade or a little more back i would hesitate  to walk on this very road after nightfall as it was pitch dark and totally deserted the only movement being of those monstrously speeding mofusil buses that occasionally thundered by in this lonely stretch , squashing stray dogs, snakes and two wheel riders.and unwary passerbys.

Now every inch of the road was taken by motorists returning home ,probably from those factories .Lights that  were blazing, from head lights, street lamps, and from brightly lit shops, banks, petrol bunks, restaurants ,flats , hospitals ,gyms etc.has turned this dark quiet and lonely area , literally upside down.

Quite conversely the bright lights of the city the heart of which i live now looks, no longer that bright.