A visit to Tirumurthi hills

Mr Padmanabhan (my chittappa), his daughter Usha and her son Balaji represent three generations of our Pollachi clan. They joined us on a trip to Tirumurthi hills. No trip of ours to Pollachi is considered complete without a visit to Tirumurthi hills.
This was our umpteenth visit; have been coming to this place since my childhood. We have done it by car, bus, by bike part of the way, and by bullock-cart, all the way from Pollachi. It was during early school days when I was still in knickers when made the trip by bullock-cart. We were on road through the night.If I remember right, my thatha Chakrapani Iyer was with us. So were my uncles, chittis and cousins.
On a more recent visit with my chittis, we got nostalgic, with Sambu chitti, guiding us through the temple complex that she and Sita chitti were re-visiting after several years. Recalling our bullack-cart trip Sambu chitti said we had then brought with us rice, pulses, vegetables and things to cook our meals. Nothing was available near the temple those days.
The temple priests came from Dhali, nearest town about 10 km away.They brought everything needed for puja from there. No one stayed the night in the vicinity of the temple, fearing movement of wild animals. Even now the temple closes at 6 p m, though no wild animal frequents the place.
Prayers are offered at this huge rock. Legend has it that this massive boulder had rolled down , when one of the Trimurthis - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva - taking a stroll on top of the hill stumbled on it. Devotees believe that the Trimurthis show up on the hills daily after dark.
After I had taken these pictures, a temple employee on security duty told me that photography in the temple vicinity was permited, only on payment of Rs.51 as camera fee. When I mentioned that I hadn't heard of such constraints on any of my earlier visits, he said it was part of the temple regulations.

Station master Ramaiyer

On a recent visit to Tirumurthi hills I remembered a trip I had made with my late chittappa over 50 years back. He was then a station master at Pollachi (or was it Poolankinaru ?). We made it to the hills by bus and bicycle - by bus from Udulmelpet to Tirumurthi Nagar, from where we hired bikes to cover the three-km distance to the temple.
We bathed in the stream that flows by the side of the temple.
Took these photos during our recent trip. Not much has changed in decades since my trip on a hired bike. For which, I believe, chittappa paid eight annas as hire charges.

Station master Ramaiyer, as my chittappa was known among his wide circle of friends, had served in several places in his career in railways. He made friends wherever he went. Besides, a lot more people knew him for his propensity to cure snake-bite with mantra. Snake-bite cases were not uncommon those days and villagers had more faith in my chittappa than the local doctor.
I was then a schoolboy in New Delhi. On my trips south during vacations I had spent some enjoyable days with Sita chitti and chittappa in exotic little places such as Thirukkadaiyur, Rameswaram Road and Chettipalayam . The days were spent watching trains and hanging out at the station master's office whenever chittappa was on duty.

His son Balu and I, on occasions, took the last train to Tranquebar (at the end of the line) to watch a late show at a tented cinema house. There was no cinema house in Thirukkadaiyur. After the show, which ended well past midnight, we walked to the railway station to spend the night, awaiting the first train back to Thirukkadaiyur.
Sita chitti now lives alone in the house chittappa built for them at Pollachi in 1975. Sadly, he didn't live long to enjoy a happy retired life in his own house. He died in a road accident. Chitti remembers the date - May 15, 1983. She had lost her only son Balu, decades earlier, that too in an accident, by drowning at a village temple pond in Thirukkadaiyur. Not a day goes by without Chitti remembering her dear ones. "Balu would have been your age, had he been alive," Sita chitti tells me this every time I visit her in Pollachi.
My wife and I owe it to chittappa for having brought us together in marriage. Chitti and he were the ones who initiated an exchange of our horoscopes, and followed up the proceedings that led to our union. The jaded blow-up from a group photo gives an idea of how the Ramaiyer couple looked at our wedding, in 1971.

Jaya 'in Nikhil's shoes'

Two-year old Jayalakshmi is the daughter of Chitra, who took care of my mother at Pollachi during our recent US trip - June-Sept. 2009. We had shifted my mother from Mysore to Pollachi, where she owns a house. Leaving her alone in Mysore during our absence was not an option. We opted for Pollachi on assurance by Chitra that she would take care of my mother on 24x7 basis.
Bringing up her two-year old Jayalakshmi was challenge enough for Chitra. And now she had on her hand a 90-year old woman as well, and two cats to take care of. The cats, thriving on left-overs, always hovered around the kitchen door. Keeping those cats away from slipping into the kitchen in an unguarded moment added to Chitra's concerns.
When she is not crying for something or upto some mischief, Jayalakshmi was fun to be with, and apparently a source of cheer for my mother, whose great-grandchild Nikhil is of the same age. We happened to bring with us some clothes and things that Nikhil no longer used. Jayalakshmi wearing Nikhil's outfit looks a bit of a tomboy, doesn't she ?
Chitra said her daughter loved the pair of Nikhil's shoes Meera had sent so much that she refused to take them off even when she went to bed at night.

Back to school

Getting Sidharth ready for school has become less of a chore for mom after they advanced the show-timing of Caillou. The PBS Kids telecast of this half-hour serial starts at 7 a m nowdays, leaving parents of Caillou addicts reasonably ample time to get the children ready for school.
Sidharth/Nikhil wake up to Caillou, which, till early September, used to be telecast 7.30 to 8.00. The only thing you can persude Sidharth to do during the telecast is make him drink his milk in bed. His mom had less than half-hour to get Sidharth to brush his teeth, breakfast and to get him dressed for school, starting 9 a m.
It is a 20-minute drive to the school. And his mom (and occasionally Sidharth's daddy drops him) couldn't make it there by 9 a m, without driving Sidharth, a fast-forward mode, on school days. And he goes to pre-school thrice a week, for three hours and a half. There would be no scope for flexibible timings, to suit parents, when Sidharth starts going to regular school next year.
The Child Day School, set on a hillside, provides a setting that reminds me of a location shot in The Sound of Music.
But then Sidharth isn't on a school-going mood every morning. A Long weekend between school days,and visiting grandparents, may have been the factors weighing on Sidharth's mind on this morning, as he is led into the school by his daddy.

At Taekwondo

Master Koo doesn't encourage visiting grandparents to watch Sidharth during Taekwando class. Visitors distract his students, he says. On an earlier occasion, grandparents of a classmate of Sidharth were politely asked to wait in the car.
Prospects of sitting it out in the car didn't deter his patti and me from joining Sidharth for Taekwondo class, just once, if only to get a 'feel' of what it is all about. We must admit we were not familiar with this Korean version of martial art.

We were impressed by his outfit. And we had witnessed his spins, swings and his punches in the air, accompanied by the intimidatory battle-cry Taekwando practioners raise during a workout.
Watching Sidharth doing his things in the house, kid brother Nikhil gets into the act as well. On occasions when his mom takes him to Sidharth's Taekwondo class an observant Nikhil is quick to copy his brother.
This was as far as I could follow Sidharth with my camera. We did,for a few minutes, step into his class, conducted in a hall as spacious as an aircraft hanger. It was only for few minutes, after which we gracefully left the hall to wait out Sidharth's Taekwondo class in our car.

A ferry ride to Sausalito

If you hang out here,at Sausalito,long enuogh,they say, you could run into Andre Agasse or even have a word with Steffi Grafi.They live here. But then we needed no excuse for spending time.Our ferry back to San Francisco was still nearly an hour away.

Spending time was no problem. For Nikhil and Sidharth could so many things, such as ....Watching cars
Hanging out on the seafront.
Running around in the park by the pier.
Taking a piggyback ride.
Even feed a white parrot. The bloke in white who owns the parrot can mimick the bird.He appears to have found himself a lucrative means of employing himself. No mean achievement in a recession.
He has a way with children.Sidharth,fasciated with the proceedings was asked to look through a white tube called 'The Quiet Baby Machine'.I couldn't figure out what this was all about;asked Sidharth what was it he saw through the tube. A white bird, said Sidharth;the same bird the rest of us could see without having to look into the white tube.We ended up tipping the man for the privilege.

On the ferry Sidharth went out on the open deck with daddy to take in the sights.Sausalito is 30-minute ferry ride from San Francisco. A quiet bayside town with the trappings of a resort Sausalito is where the millionaires live.
Hollywood clebrities come to stay at The Inn Above Tide. The cheapest room here is priced $400 a day. But then everything about this bayside town appears pricey.And town's residents make no bones about retaining a classy look.I don't know if this is true, but I heard the residents have resisted Macdonald from setting up a burger shop at Sausalito,presumably, because having a Mac in town scales it down.
Bikes appear to in fashion in this town. Green-minded tourists hire bikes at Sausalito, or bring them from San Francisco for moving around Sausalito high street by the bayside.
Bikes parking is free at designated areas in town.