Destination Infinity's Blog, page 51

Poompuhar: Ancient Indian Sea Port, Now Tourist Destination in TN

Poompuhar is an ancient Indian port situated along the coast of Bay of Bengal, Tamil Nadu. No one knows when this town was created, but it has been mentioned in Tamil Sangam literature works like Manimekalai (4th Century BC), Silappathikaram, Pattinappaalai, etc. Also known by the name Kaveri Poompattinam, a significant portion of this port town was submerged into the sea due to repeated Tsunami, erosion, and floods. Government is now trying to establish this town as a tourist attraction in Tamil Nadu.

To get to Poompuhar by bus, one needs to reach Karuvi, Mayiladuthurai or Sirkazhi. From there, direct buses are available. The above photo shows the Silappathikaram Art Gallery. It seems, this famous Tamil Sangam-period story of Kannagi, Madhavi and Kovalan was set in this very town. The sculptors at Mamallapuram Art College have carved a few sculptures depicting the story in brief and that has been showcased at this museum. There is a Rs. 5/- entrance ticket for this.

Silappathikaram Story (in short): Kovalan is a rich shipping merchant at Poompuhar and Kannagi is his wife. But Kovalan is attracted towards a dancer called Madhavi, falls for her, and lives with her for sometime. He loses a major portion of this wealth and comes back to Kannagi. Since they are short of money, he decides to sell Kannagi’s golden silambu (a jewel worn on the legs) in Madurai. As he approaches a gold merchant there to sell it, he is captured and sent to the King who had been searching for a similar-looking silambu that was stolen from the Queen. Kovalan is mistaken to be the thief and is executed.

The above sculpture shows Kannagi about to break the silambu to prove to the King that the jewels inside it consisted of ‘mani’, that belonged to her, and not ‘muthu’, that belonged to the Queen. Once the King realizes his error in judgement, he faints and dies on the spot, and so does the queen. I know this story because I memorized a few verses of Silappathikaram for school competitions and have won many prizes reciting it

Another good tourist spot in Poompuhar is the Light House along the beach. This lighthouse was constructed and opened just four years back! Needless to say, the view from the top of the lighthouse is too good. It is well maintained and there are circular steps to reach to the top. Here is a view from the top,

There are large stones all along the Beach coast (to prevent the water from further eroding the land, I guess) but there is a small opening (shown above) that allows people to go to the water and experience the waves. I saw a few people swimming here. BTW, this town is also called ‘Kaveri Poompattinam’, which is roughly ‘Kaveri Pugum Pattinam’ or the town where Kaveri Enters (the sea).

On the extreme right, you can see the river Kaveri entering into the sea through those two stone bunds or whatever. There are a few monuments built to be tourist attractions (like the one shown below and in the first photo of this post) but none of them are maintained well.

There is one Temple near the beach, but I didn’t go inside. It seems there are other old Temples nearby. There is also a Marine Archaeology Museum which contains a few old coins and objects excavated from nearby. It’s a small museum – go if you have time. I wanted to go to the Danish Fort, in Tharangabadi, 22 KM away. But I didn’t have enough time on that day.

To me, the view from the top of the Lighthouse alone was worth the trip.

Destination Infinity

Photos by Destination8infinity (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Chennai Book Fair 2016 Postponed from Jan. to Apr. (Most Probably)

The Chennai Book Fair 2016, the annual book fair held in Nandanam YMCA grounds during Pongal/Sankaranthi, will not be held in January this year due to heavy rains/floods. Although the organizer of the event, BAPASI, has not confirmed the revised date/month, certain sources say that the book fair will most probably be held during the month of April 2016. Of course, this is not confirmed news, just an anticipated one.

So if you’ve planned to attend the book fair in January this year, you’ll have to wait for a couple more months. Follow BAPASI Facebook page for all announcements reg. Chennai Book Fair and the revised dates.

Destination Infinity

WRIMO India Anthology: VENGEANCE, Includes my short story!

I am glad to say that my short story, ‘The Singers’ has been included in the WRIMO India Anthology – ‘VENGEANCE: A Sting in every Tale’. This is a Kindle eBook containing collection of short stories written by WRIMO India authors and edited by Sonia Rao. I made the above poster in accordance with the theme of my story in the book. There are short stories written by other authors too. 

NaNoWriMo is a global organization that provides a platform to encourage budding authors to write the novel that they’ve been wanting to. The main event happens during the month of November where millions of authors from around the world encourage each other to try and complete the first draft of their novel, with at least 50K words, to be declared a winner.

We have an active Facebook group for the Indian chapter of NaNoWriMo: WRIMO India. Initially, we were writing short stories and submitting them for critique by fellow authors. While doing that, we got an idea to select and publish a few stories on a particular theme as an eBook. All the proceeds from the sales of this book will go to NaNoWriMo.

This book was released by Bollywood actor & author Olivier Lafont during the recently concluded Litventure 2015 @ Mumbai. The theme for this anthology is: VENGEANCE.

If you have a Kindle or if you read eBooks using the Kindle app on a mobile/tablet, you can buy the e-book from Amazon.in (Ind) or Amazon.com (US).

We are all budding authors, so you can’t expect our writing to be as good as Stephen King or Jane Austen

Song of the Week: Gerua (Dilwale)

Gerua is the latest song that’s on my loop. It’s from the movie Dilwale. The music has been composed by Pritam and the singers are Arjit Singh and Antara Mitra. This song has a touch of ’90s, predictably, given the theme of the movie. Initially, I didn’t like this song much, but after listening to it for a couple of times, it went straight into my loop. I wish I could like the other songs in this movie — among them Tukur Tukur is good.

Destination Infinity

Silver Engraving: Art meets Business!

My cousin brother, Hemanth Kumar, is in the Silver Engraving business, and his office/home is in the Jewellery hub of Chennai – T. Nagar. He is basically a silver engraving artist who paints beauty and life into plain silver by engraving designs, patterns, outlines, and even figures on silver articles like silver plates, silver tumblers, silver medals, puja articles, etc. He can even draw your face from a photo onto a silver plate!

Think of something and he can engrave it on silver. He does it with his hands and a huge engraving machine he has in his backyard.

In this post, I want to show you all some designs made by my cousin brother on a few silver articles.

Howzzz ittt??

Lucky are those who are able to make a business out of their artistic skills, don’t you think?

Destination Infinity

Song of the Week: Agar Tum Saath Ho (Tamasha)

‘Agar Tum Saath Ho’ is a beautiful melodious song from the bollywood movie Tamasha. Music for this album has been composed by A. R. Rehman, and Alka Yagnik is the singer. If you like melodious songs, you’ll love this one. Initially, I thought the entire song should have been sung by Alka, but then I noticed that the contrast between the two voices beautifies Alka’s voice even more! Of course, you might already be familiar with the more popular & peppy ‘Matargashi’ song from the same movie which is topping all charts. That’s also a great song. But between a melodious and a peppy song, I always prefer the former

Destination Infinity

Is Rain the reason for Chennai Floods? Absolutely NOT

***I am not an expert on this topic and I don’t claim factual accuracy. This article has been written based on my understanding of the situation, so feel free to correct me if I am wrong***

During the innumerable debates on Science Vs. Religion, I’ve been fed up with one section blaming the former while the other blames the latter. Blaming SYSTEMS while the actual blame lies on PEOPLE who do nefarious activities hiding behind the cloak of a system, is a favorite past-time for many.

The same thing is happening with Chennai Floods. People are blaming the ‘heavy’ rains and nature’s ‘fury’ while the actual blame lies on . . . 

Think about this: There were two depressions over the last month where the city received as much rainfall, if not more. But the damages, though considerable, were not as huge as the damages due to the third depression and the rains that followed.

What happened during the third time?

Why did the affected areas go many feet under water within a short time, when there was only knee-deep water in most places?

The dams/water reservoirs around the city were all opened suddenly (as they were about to exceed their safe holding capacity), and that water flowed right through the city, that too during the night, causing maximum damage. 

Human beings build dams/reservoirs without planning what will happen during floods, they don’t bother how to discharge excess water safely, they ‘develop’ areas that were supposed to discharge water to the sea by selling plots and buildings,

And then blame nature and rains. 

How fair is that?

Destination Infinity

Chennai Rains in a few Photos (Dec, 2015)

As you maybe aware, Chennai is reeling under torrential rains over the past 3-4 weeks. Here are some photos taken by me while driving on the Chennai – Tambaram Highway (Bypass road) today morning, after the heavy downpour, during the third depression in November/December 2015. Most of the photos below are from the low-lying Kundrathur area in Chennai, which is one of the locations that’s been affected badly by the floods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Destination Infinity

Photos by Destination8infinity (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

My Favorite City for Living: Coimbatore [CBE]

Did you expect me to say Chennai, where I live? Or Bangalore, where I used to live? NO WAY. Traffic and the time/effort taken to commute from one place to another alone takes large cities out of my radar. And let’s not even start about the cost of living. Forget owning a house, even paying rent in large cities is a large pain.

There is a charm with living in small towns/small cities. You’ll understand that if you live in one. Of course, if you hate large cities, like me, it’s even better.

I lived in Coimbatore for one-and-a-half years. I went there after living in Bangalore for two years, and after having lived in Chennai for more than two decades.

Just after returning to Chennai once again, I realized, my favorite city for living is Coimbatore. Make no mistake – I didn’t say working. Bangalore, I found, has the best work culture among the cities I have worked in. I said living – living in a house in the city without having to work in that city.

My profession enables me to do that.

Coimbatore is unique in many ways. It’s neither a big city, nor a small one. In a way, it has the best of both worlds.

Drive? Traveling from one corner of the city to another takes less than an hour. Heck, I even used to drive to nearby towns – Tiruppur & Pollachi in one hour. I was initially nervous when people in CBE were talking about how peak traffic was ‘exasperating’, but while on the road, I realized they had no clue what peak traffic meant. Maybe they should try driving in Bangalore for a day!

Hotel food, and even food in small messes, was excellent. Although I would give the crown of best-est food to Madurai, Coimbatore is not far behind. While I hated eating out in Bangalore, I loved eating out in CBE

YEPME.com Vs. Myntra.com

YEPME.com has been advertising on TV quite aggressively, so when I wanted to buy new shoes, I thought why not check their website. I also wanted to look at the collection of shoes on Myntra.com, to which, I’ll come to shortly.

I spent about an hour checking various shoes on YEPME. I finally selected brown color shoes with brown lace and black sole. I didn’t want white color anywhere because I am afraid it will become dirty with mud. With brown color, though, exposure to mud & dust will enhance its look, not degrade. Maintenance-free