Vasai Fort (Thane - Maharashtra)

Again Mademoiselle Mumbai called me. This time it was through my cousin, when she declared, she's getting married! Here's my OOTD at the wedding event from Fashion Panache.

Obviously a trip to Mumbai calls for its own list of places to be visited. Much unknown to many, is that Mumbai has its own bunch of ancient caves & 15-17th C AD forts. That includes caves in Kanheri, 2 caves in Jogeshwari etc and forts in Sewri, Sion, Mahim, Bandra, Madh, Vasai etc built by Porguese & British. I wanted to see atleast one of these forts if not all, and Vasai Fort was first in the list.

The Vasai Fort was built by the Portuguese and was called The Fort of St. Sebastian of Vasai. From the Portuguese, the Marathas won it over by King Baji Rao Peshwa, in 1739. From the Marathas, it went over to British Raj who called it Bassein Fort.

This is the first ever time I saw a fort of this kind. I've seen the Chenji / Gingee fort in Tamil Nadu and Golkonda Fort in Hyderabad, but the construction of those were very different, built with huge boulders of granite. This was built with some smaller granite, bricks, etc. The architecture is a major difference. The earlier places were South Indian and Nawabi architecture, while this was purely western, Portuguese to be precise. It was awesome. It was in ruins, still it was majestic.

I managed to spot the Fort beside a temple. An ASI office is at the entrance. It was fenced by ASI. After spending almost more than 15-20 mins in there, I realized this was just one of the 2-3 sections of the fort. I moved over to the 2nd one. 

This was much more maintained with a garden in the front and a swivel door and heavier fence. It was all the more majestic & bigger than the earlier one. I couldn't help but wonder how fabulous it would have been when it was in use. I was visualizing people dressed in Portuguese & Indian outfits of different races, walking about & talking in the huge premises!

The flooring has been re-done by the ASI and some broken places have been filled and renovated. There were some little openings & paths that led nowhere. Earlier might have been doors, who knows!

Some planks with reliefs sculpted on them were kept aside. Some more panels of relief sculptures were still intact on the walls. 

Some had written words - No I couldn't read the language! All of the windows and doors were arched in true arches, that's one fabulous aspect of architecture. 

One thing that totally astonished was there were no bats, no monkeys, no mongrels and no stupid humans too (read - smoking drunkards or just college bunking brats). Not even broken whiskey bottles - that's astonishing, I mean really, really astonishing. Just a few pigeons, nothing else!!! Behind this building was a huge wild mango tree. I had seen wild mango trees only in Parappalaru before this! 

Further walking ahead lead to a school here, while is located within the compound of the fort!! Beyond that is the village. Women clad in traditional Marathi saree drape with Mangalsutras and Men in the traditional triangular lungi tie-dyed in bright colors were walking about. Enroute was a mini dhobi-ghat with about 20 women washing clothes here - that itself was a colorful sight with their colorful outfit and all the more colorful garments that they were washing. In a green environment, with granite fort background, so much of colors was an amazing visual treat!!!

P.S: Click here to know what I wore to Vasai Fort.

TO REACH THERE:

Nearest Railway Station in Mumbai: Vasai Road station in Western Railway Line of Mumbai Local.

Trains to Virar pass through Vasai.

Autos can be taken from the station to the Fort. Mumbai autos run on metre.

Refer to the fort locally as Vasai Khila, as in the local language, so they understand!

Dedicated to my Mom & Pop

A Road Less Travelled by Pradeep Chakravarthy: A Review

Here comes my 2nd book review. So far my book review has been only one - Mahabalipuram: Unfinished Poetry in Stone by Prof Swaminathan. This one is in similar lines - but much smaller in size, perfect to carry in handbag for a travel! 'Do you care of be different?' is what the back cover of the book asks you. So, presenting...

A ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

A Historian's guide to lesser known temples of Tamil Nadu

by Pradeep Chakravarthy

Pradeep Chakravarthy, or fondly called by many as PC, is a name known to many via The Hindu already. He is a regular columnist in the newspaper and writes about several historically and archaeologically important places, esp. the roads less travelled! Infact one of my earlier posts has a link to PC's article on Kanchipuram - Remember me as a baby in Kanchipuram Thanthondreeswarar Temple? That's PC's article referred in my blogpost!!!

His first book was 'Temple Vahanas of Tamil Nadu'. His second was the fabulous coffee table book 'Thanjavur: A Cultural History'. Now his third 'A Road Less Travelled'.

The launch of this book was held at Vivanta, by Taj Connemara, organized by Madras Book Club. Guess who released the book - that's another person I totally adore - Shri. Gopalakrishna Gandhi!

The book deals with a brief history of certain districts followed by some important, historically important places there. If I have to go by PC's words - its his 11 years put in 165 pages. He regularly organizes heritage walks and has explored several places. This book is an culmination of not all, but selected places he's explored. 

The road which is less travelled he's dealing here is denoted in the map. Starting from Chennai, he has proceeded to Kanchipuram, Thanjavur / Tanjore, Kumbakonam, Madurai, finally Tirunelveli. Even in these districts its not the regular, famous temples, he's opted to give you the not often visited, yet must-see temples for their history, art, architecture. You should relate to this well when I say in Tanjore section, Brahadeeswara Temple (Big temple) is given a miss!
Yes, there are a couple of places from his book that tally with my blog - Dhenupureeswara Temple, Mahabalipuram (Mine's in 3 parts - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) and Thirumeyyam.

The language and the style of writing is very friendly & interactive. Its not just a travelogue, its an in-detail write up about each place including history, legends and also translations of songs / hymns written centuries ago praising the lord of each temple! I'm so tempted to give you the list of places from the contents page, its such an impressive list - but no, buy the book and see it for yourself! 

Its a 165 pages, paper back book. Now, guess the price of the book.......

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Rs.200/-. Ok, I know you're in a state of a pleasant surprise & shock. Now close your mouth, before the fly gets in! Lolz!!!

The book has also been translated to Tamil by Prof. Somasundaram who happens to be the grandson of freedom fighter Kappalottiya Tamizhan VOC!

Tell me something, how often do you get to see PC, VOC's grandson, MK Gandhi's grandson in the same room, at the same time? Glad I did and got the book autographed by author Pradeep Chakravarthy and Gopalakrishna Gandhi!!!

You may purchase Pradeep Chakravarthy's book at Flipkart here: http://www.flipkart.com/author/pradeep-chakravarthy.

Food Musings!

Long since I wrote something about food right! Yeah. Remember the home made ice-cream shop at Muthur??? Back with some more food, that recently made me go mmmmmm.....

Banana Split.......... Yummmm, right??? I'm not a very much ice-cream person, and I've been to Baskin Robins just once. But then, once when I went over to Saravana Bhavan, Mylapore once to have my lunch, I spotted this in the last page of the menu card - Split Banana. Well, when I entered the hotel first, the ground floor has South Indian meals and I wanted something different. The Swathi Speciality restaurant was in the first floor and I went over there. The first thing I noticed was the centrally located circle of ice-cream section! The ambiance was pretty good and on seeing the Split Banana in the last page made me want to order it and when it came I was more than happy on what I saw!!!

A long glass tray filled at the base with sliced bananas. Over that was 3 scoops of icecreams on a row - Banana, Mango and Black Currant. Liquid chocolate was poured was all over it. Over that was 3 dollops of vanilla softy atop those. Then 3 cherries atop the vanilla dollops. It was just wow!!! Only disappointment, the cherry had the seeds in them.... That's the fine points that one tends to notice when one starts watching MasterChef!!! I did meet to icecream section chef to tell him abovt Cherry Pit Removers!!!

Another food that recently caught my attention was Andhra Paper Sweet! Called Pootharekulu in Telugu, it is made of rice starch, powdered sugar & ghee... It was a weird thing when I saw it first, and decided to try it out. I really couldn't understand how it was made first when I saw it - whether it was paper itself filled with powdered sugar, whether the paper was edible... thousand questions! 

But then, with a confidence that normal paper itself is just wood pulp, and its not poisonous - I decided to just eat it, afterall I might just make a donkey out of myself!!! But then, the paper too was edible. The making really did astonish me. It was thinner than a tracing paper and it was absolutely paper like!!! Well, the sugar and ghee tastes were overwhelming. I was kinda over the fence about whether I like it or not. But sure, I'm amazed at it, no doubt!!!!!

Kovalam Kailasanathar Temple (Kanchipuram - Tamil Nadu)

A cue from my mom about a Shiva Temple with a special Avudaiyar, set me off to Kovalam in ECR. Me, my bike and cam and I was off to Kovalam. Tucked up within the little streets of Kovalam, I spotted this temple. 

As usual, it was closed. I enquired a lady doing her household chores nearby, and she directed me to the road opposite to the temple, across the main road, beyond a tank, to a tailors shop, where I can find the priest of the temple. Yes, I found him, in his house, attached to that tailor's shop. A very frail, weak, old man - my first thought was "Oh my God, how is he gonna show me the temple!". I asked him if he could send someone with the keys but he volunteered to come himself, provided I arranged for his transport (Ok, the temple was hardly 250m from his house, but he was way too frail to walk!). I got him an auto and there we were at the temple...

The Lord Shiva here is Kailasanathar. His consort here is Kanakavalli Thayar. So what's the specialty in the Avudaiyar (Avudaiyar is the base of the Shiva Lingam)? It has inscriptions! Perhaps, the only temple with inscriptions on the avudaiyar itself! Its says 'Sri Satheruman Murthiper'. 'Sat' means trade guild and this refers that the place served as a port. According to the ASI (Archeological Survey of India) the script on the inscription is Palaeography Script which again is not very common. The temple & its inscriptions belongs to 13th C AD. 

The base of the maha mandapam has a 3 line inscription throughout. At certain places they have been painted red recently to enable easy reading of the inscriptions. At one spot I could spot the word 'Kovalam'. Its a 13th C inscription and this place has been called Kovalam ever since then!

The ardha mandapam has some exquisite bronzes - Shiva Parvathi with Somaskandha with a cute little Nataraja on the arch with a (isn't the priest innovative to do that!), Standing Vinayaka, Ambal etc. The Maha Mandapam has 3 shrines of 3 Vinayakas - Kubera Vinayaka, Vijaya Vinayaka & Siva Sakthi Vinayaka. 

In the external circumambulation passage are Dakshinamurthy, Navagraha, Brahma, Sathya Narayana etc. The mandapam that housed Navagraha was visibly very old and almost dilapidated with roots of creepers all over them. The little shikara and stupi atop the Rishaba Mandapam and the Vimanam were so eroded, thanks to the construction made of lime-sand bricks unlike the sturdy granite, with which the huge temples are usually made of! Remember Mambakkam Muruganatheeswarar Temple? Its construction was also made of this, hence the severe erosion!!! May be those small area kings would have afforded only this or may be these were trials before they built the granite temples!!! The erosion is further enhanced with cracks due to creepers growing on them. 

The temple needs renovation, a big time renovation, with the intervention of archaeologists. Why? The sanctum sanctorum has tile flooring while the vimana is withering! 

From here, my next stop was Siruthavur near Thiruporur in search of some Megalithic Burial Sites. Half an hour drive on the long, absolutely deserted Chengalpet - Tiruporur Road, and reaching Siruthavur did not help to spot a Megalithic Burial Site. Totally disheartened, when I started back I did manage to spot the Blue Board of ASI, somewhere behind some State Govt. Building near a school, near the Thiruporur Junction, yeah a Megalithic Burial Spot!!! Have to go there again, with more details, to spot some more and better sites!!!!! 

TO REACH HERE:

To Kovalam / Covelong in Chennai:

From Tambaram: 30km via Vandalur, Vandalur-Kelambakkam Road, 

From Thiruvanmiyur: 24km in ECR towards Mahabalipuram

From Mahabalipuram: 19km in ECR towards Chennai

From Pondicherry: 125km in ECR towards Chennai

To the temple:

From the Kovalam Junction on ECR, turn right (if you're coming from Chennai in ECR) and go on till you reach the Kovalam Bus Stand. At Kovalam Bus stand turn left and you won't miss the temple, it at your left. The Temple tank is just opposite to the temple. At Kovalam Bus stand turn right and after some 10 buildings, you'll spot a tailor shop to the left. Attached to his shop is the priest's home. 

Google Co-ordinates: http://g.co/maps/yf3va

A year of being a Lady on a Bike - II!

As I completed my post on my biking musings, I started to remember some more musings with my bike, which I forgot to mention! So here comes the second part of that story, mostly incidents when I was mistaken for a guy!!!

Traffic police are excellent in the Madras city, and I’ve had a couple of instances when I’ve been stopped by them for regular checks. Once when I was riding in ECR, there were a few bikers already been stopped and checked, and so was I. I stopped took out my license and papers and handed it over to the policeman even before taking off my helmet. He looked at the license and looked up to my face so drastically. I lifted my helmet visor peacefully and looked at him. He said, “Oh, sorry. Gents’nnu nenachenga (I thought you were a man)”. I just smiled and he gave back my license and I whizzed away!

Once in a secluded road (as such, it was just a small lane perpendicular to a busy city road), I was stopped by 3 transgenders. One of them demanded money and I just lifted my helmet visor and said “I am a gal”. The lady (i.e. transgender), now had a much softer voice and asked sweetly if I could give them some money. I kept this ‘paavam’ face (kind of an ‘innocent’ reaction), and another transgender beside, just let me go!

Can’t help it, but kids are grown up with this idea that boys ride bike and girls ride scooter! Once a little boy came over to my place and the boy’s mom, a family friend, was enquiring me about my bike’s performance etc and we had a casual chat, while the boy kept looking at me & my bike. Later on as they were leaving, the little boy enquired his mom, in his nascent pre-kg English, ‘Is she boys or girls’??? Errr... 

I’ve already told you about my severe love-hate relationship with autos, in the prev. post. Somewhere near Nungambakkam, there was this auto guy who took a wide u-turn inspite of seeing me speeding in the very direction. I hit a hard brake and yelled (No, I don’t use bad words) at him. The auto driver who was first having an apologetic face, turned furious as soon as I lifted my visor! He has no issues if a biker yells at him, provided he’s a male biker!!!

I’ve told you I’ve fallen a lot when I started riding. One of my falls has to be mentioned here. It took place hardly half a km from my home! The road there turns left and right again in another 100m. There was this lady on a scooty riding ahead of me, pretty slow, as if she was searching for some address. Both of us where to the left of the road, as per traffic rules. Suddenly exactly at the left turning, this lady, without any indication took a right! Yeah, she had spotted the shop she was searching, at her right. No right indicator, or hand, nothing! I was just behind her, ready to take the left turn as the road is, by default. I wouldn’t have minded to hit her and then stop my vehicle – but then there was a little 3-5 yr old girl, standing in that scooty in front of that lady. A little scratch also, to that little girl would have made me the villain, no matter whose fault was it! My vehicle was in left inertia when I turned the handle to the right fiercely, plus hit both the brakes. Ofcourse that calls for a fall and I skidded and had a nice gash on my knee, elbow and palm!!! People did come running to help me out and to shout at that lady, for not indicating. Soon after this I called up my bro/friend/colleague who taught me biking and his first question was ‘What happened to the bike???’. Ah, a true biker!!!!!


P.S: Entered on Indiblogger Power 1 Biker Code of India Contest by Castrol Biking.