Aksharabyasam & Quick Trip to West Coast

My niece is going to start her preschool next month. She is already well versed with her rhymes (tamil, english and malayalam) and some panchatantra stories in tamil (thanks to the various Rhymes and Songs DVD she has..) Apart from this , she is getting extremely impatient at home...She has very less things to do, paavam.. So they have got admission in a pre-KG for her and wanted to do the Aksharabyasam before she started her school. 

Aksharabyasam or Akshara Abyasam is a ceremony where in they introduce to the world of writing. This is done in lot of temples. But my brother wanted to get it done in Kollur Mookambikai temple. There was my second niece's choorunnal also in Guruvayoor, which I had to skip because it came on a Wednesday and I couldn't afford to take leave for almost a week at this juncture. So I chose to go to Mangalore trip. 

We started from Coimbatore on Friday night through West Coast Express (Chennai - Mangalore) and had booked a Tavera from Mangalore for the two day trip. We reached Mangalore at around 5 am and stopped in a hotel for refreshing ourselves and with kids you definitely need it. 

We started to Kateel (Durga Parameshwari Temple) from there and reached the temple @ around 8.00 am. Had a good darshan. No rush or crowd there. It was a pity to see that there was no water in the Nandini river nearby. I had been here almost 7 years ago and remember seeing it with water. May be after the rains, there will be enough water in the rivers.

After the darshan there and getting a ZooZoo doll for my niece (she pronounces it very cutely) we started on our way to Udupi (Krishna temple). There used to be a huge arch which indicates the entrance of the Udupi, which was closed due to some construction. We reached there at around 9.30-10 am, if I am correct. We had our breakfast and fed the kids and then went to the temple. There was a huge crowd and there was a pooja going on. We had to wait for the darshan there for sometime and got in through the special entrance. This place is always crowded. My nephew is so allergic to crowd that he starts screaming at the top of this voice as soon as he sees the crowd. After the darshan inside, suddenly we realized that we couldnt find my sister in law in sight. She is easy to miss in that crowd. My brother had the 2nd daughter and I had his first daughter. With the heavy crowd we tried calling her name, but in vain. There was some panic among the members of our group. Myself and my sister got the kids outside as it was very crowded and were waiting for others to find her. Later they found her in a praharam outside as someone told her that it was the way out. And my parents were waiting on the actual exit for her. Finally it was my mom who spotted her thankfully. After that little fluster, we stopped for some purchases and then started our way to Anegudde (Ganapathi Temple).

Anegudde is in a sort of secluded area from the Udupi Krishna temple on the way to Kollur. It is a very small but nice temple. Again very less crowd here. Had darshan, played a while with the cows there. My niece and nephew had a gala time playing with them :) and started on our way to Kollur. 

We reached Kollur at around 2.30 pm and got in our rooms which was prebooked. Since my dad has been coming to this trip for almost 15 years now, he knows the people and the priests and was able to do the required travel and hotel booking well in advance. He visits these temples every year during the navarathri time. After feeding the kids and having our lunch, we all rested for a while. We then decided to do the aksharabyasam for my nephew too as he might be put in a play school sooner and that we wouldn't have to make another trip for him. We had to visit the temple in the evening for some sankalpam before we do the next day's pooja. At around 5.30 pm we started on our way to the temple. There was enough crowd but since we were taken by the priest who will be doing our pooja the next day, we got in through the special entrance queue and had a nice darshan. We all had to do the sankalpam before Adi sankara's praharam. My nephew was getting very cranky due to the crowd. paavam paiyan rombha azhudhutaan.. Once we were out, tap-la thanni ninna maadhiri azhugaiyum ninniduchu.. We rested in the temple for a while, letting the children play in the praharam. They kept running and running and running. My niece would say "athai.. thooki suthalaamaa..".. serinu avala thookinaa avanum oadi varuvaan.. rendu vaandugalaiyum thooki thataa maala suthanum.. adhuvum kovila.. paravaa illai.. aabathuku paavamillai.. enna makkal konjam loosenu ninaipaanga..adhellam paathaa aagumaa.. I just played with them.

Then when we were about to start back to our rooms, I noticed a person next to me and felt that I had seen him somewhere. I remembered him to be a director, but couldn't remember his name. I told my sister about that, by that time my brother also noticed him and went and spoke to him and got a photo with him (avan tholla thaanga mudiyala.. andha director paavam, edho koviluku saami thozha vandhaa ivan ennadaa naa ..) But he was very cooperative. My brother then told me his name. He was Sasi , director of Dishyoom. His next movie is 555 (if I remember correctly) with Bharat and a new face it seems.

We then went back to our rooms, and had a nice sleep. Sunday morning we were supposed to start by 5.30 am but got delayed (which happens when kids are there) and reached the temple by 6.30 am. aathaadi..evlo kootam.. that too for the ceremony.. there was already a batch happening in the Saraswathi Mandapam. We were waiting for our turn. This ceremony is done from 5.30 am to 1 pm only daily. It is very very crowded during the Navrathri time especially during vijayadasami and saraswathi pooja times. Only one person is allowed along with the person doing the ceremony. They will give a plate with paddy grains and a pencil like thing and they will ask you to write some letters after saying a sloka. Once that is done, they will use a golden needle sort of thing to write something (I guess its OM) on the tongue. That is all they did. There was this big guy next to my niece. Seems like he had come to do the ceremony by himself. There is seriously no age limit for this. People come in all ages to do it. It seems there is a common belief that if you do this ceremony you will get good marks..So you can see people thronging this place before their exams. Hmm.. Here I was, thinking that for getting good marks you have to study hard!!!

Once this ceremony was over, we couldnt do a darshan again because of the loooong queue. So said Hi to the goddess from outside and started our trip back as we had to catch the train the same day. We had our breakfast, and started our journey to Shringeri (Sharada temple).

Shringeri Sharada temple is another place where people do aksharabyasam. On the way to Shringeri we saw a marriage party going in cars (towards Shringeri). They were taking videos and this in turn was delaying us also as the roads were narrower (ghats..) and we couldnt overtake them..and they were moving so slowly. In a huge curve, there was a white Ritz car standing and a truck next to the it in the opposite direction and the road was blocked. Seems like there was an accident and the truck hit the Ritz.. and this Ritz belonged to the marriage party (pudhu car poala).. in a matter of few minutes, there was a big crowd (marriage party in the other cars joined us) and they all started beating up the truck driver..We couldnt see the extent of the car's damage. They asked us to stay put and were fighting freely.. We were already running late and didnt know what to do.. After some time, the driver went to them and said something and they let us  pass by.. Seems like he said that we were part of the marriage party and we were getting late to reach the mandapam..:D When we crossed the Ritz we found that the whole front portion was damaged.. papadam maadhiri norungidichu.. That was when the driver and my dad said that this damage might have happened only if the car driver was at fault. paavam.. kalyanathuku vaangina car poala.. I am sure that road might have been blocked for a long time.. thankfully our driver got us out of there sooner.

We then reached Shringeri temple. There is lot of construction happening there and so the main entrance was blocked. We had to walk a long way from the parking place to the temple. This temple is always a pleasure to visit for the river (even though Tunga had very less water this time) and its very huge fishes and also for the Shiva temple with its beautiful structure. Its surrounded by mountains on all sides and is a nice place to visit.

I am not sure if you can see the size of the fishes from this picture. And the stairs were very slippery. We also had the pleasure of seeing two elephants (kovil yaanai) and the kids just loved to touch it. They were given ample time to run on their own and play. After a relaxed darshan there, we started to Horanadu (Annapoorni Temple)

This is a very steep ghat section and there are two ways to go through it. We can go via Kalsa route or through Kudremukh. Since Kudremukh might take a slightly longer time, we decided to use the Kalsa route. Roads in some portions were very bad but the ghat views were too good. We reached the temple at around 2.30 pm and were in time for the final aarathi and meals. We generally have meals in the temple in Horanadu. rombha nalla irukum. I should say I was shocked to see the temple area. I couldn't recognize it at all. When I had come earlier, it used to be a very isolated place and the temple surrounded by the peaks , it used to be a lovely site and it used to have very less shops and buildings around, which made you feel as if you are in the tip of a mountain..But now the place was so flat.. I really felt very bad.. and so much crowd.. appadi.. I just didnt expect this much crowd here... the parking lot was full. But somehow we had our darshan and got our usual set of spices from there (its known for spices, honey etc..) and got some food packed for the kids and started our race back to Mangalore. Need to reach the station by 7 as my train was scheduled to leave to Bangalore by 7.45pm and the Coimbatore train was @ 9.30 pm. We stopped in between only in one view point, in Kudremukh which gave an amazing view of the ghats..Apart from that there was one another stop for the tea and then straight to Mangalore. The route from Horanadu to Mangalore is always a pleasure to ride.. the landscapes vary so vastly.. the ghats, the mountains, the valleys, the plains.... We were exactly on time for my train. It takes nearly 3.5 hrs from Horanadu to Mangalore through Kudremukh. My niece was reluctant at first to let me go and when my brother explained to her that I will be visiting her soon , she was happy to see me off in the train :)...she is such a cute smart kid. My nephew was already snoring. paavam he must have been too tired with all this travel. Once the train started, I went into slumber. 

We had a good trip, even though it was little tedious and strenuous especially for the kids and the elders. I actually used this ceremony to roam around as usual :D and that too with these kids...