Visiting the Vegetable Market

Until a couple of weeks ago when I hopped on a local bus on its way into Ramana Nagaru, I hadn't travelled on a bus for a long time. What an adventure! Unfortunately as the bus was packed, and I was halfway down the aisle standing with my arms tightly wedged by my side, wasn't able to reach my camera to take snaps of the fun and merriment of all the great things happening inside the bus.


As the adventure was still fresh in my mind, I took the below photographs of buses plying in Ramana Nagar (a couple of hundred yards from Ramana Ashram). The amount of traffic on the road is the usual amount, but its not the traffic that is the main feature - its the NOISE.

Travelling on Indian Roads is an almost hallucinatory potion of sound, spectacle and experience. It is frequently heart-rending, sometimes hilarious, mostly exhilarating, always unforgettable and, when you are on the roads, extremely dangerous.


These 12 rules of the Indian road are published for the first time in English AND PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A SATIRE NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!: To read the rules, go to this link here.

I was on my way to the Vegetable Market off Thiruvoodal Street - which is a great place for haggling over excellent, fresh vegetables.

In the background, barely visible over the roof tops is Arunachala. Very nice too.

Outside Big Temple

Today I was supposed to meet Thiagaraja Gurukkal Elavarasu Pattam (family head and a senior priest at Arunachaleswarar Temple) so he could relate stories his father told him about Sri Seshadri Swamigal who lived and died in a room belonging to the family. Nowadays the room is being used as a video/music cassette shop and its virtually impossible to imagine it was the hallowed home of such a renowned Saint.

Anyhow the priest had to postpone our programme till next week, so I was left feeling rather disappointed nearby Arunachaleswarar Temple. So I decided to have a dosai breakfast and then wander about.

A deepam outside the main Gopuram is kept alight by pilgrims visiting the Temple.

Two hundials (boxes for offerings) stand outside the Temple gate - doubtlessly they are emptied every evening. I was told by a Trustee of a private Temple at Arunachala that private Temples have to be careful about soliciting offerings (such as by using hundials) - as they don't want to compromise their independent status and get taken over through the use of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Act, by which Hindu temples and Maths are taken over by State Governments in the name of better administration. Most large Temples at Tiruvannamalai have in fact already lost their independent status under the Act.

Outside the Temple bamboo frameworks are being covered with awnings in preparation of the HUGE crowds that will come to Tiruvannamalai to celebrate Deepam.

Life outside the main gate of Arunachaleswarar Temple continues peacefully and much the same as it has for hundreds of years.

The next generation seems ready to take over the family Temple business!