Kanyakumari - The southern tip of India

Everyone knows it is the southern tip of India. We happened to go to Nagercoil for our friend's wedding and made it to Kanyakumari which is very close by. The boundaries are the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Kanyakumari was referred to as the Cape Commorin by the British.

Vivekananda rock is where they say, Swami Vivekananda spen his time meditating. Ferry is the only way by which we can go to the Vivekananda rock. The few minutes journey in the ferry is bit scary because the wave strength, even though it seems that the sea is divided by The Rock, is quite high. But it was a great experience. The place is very peaceful and windy. Looking at the waves hitting the shore is a revel, out of the World experience. Especially watching the pattern of how the wave hits and the water moves off the rocks back into the sea.
A black stone statue of Thiruvalluvar, famous for his philosophical work Tirukkural, is built at a bit of distance from the Vivekananda Rock. Again, we have to take the ferry from The Rock to the Thiruvalluvar memorial.
The solar calendar is scientifically depicted on the rocks and the shadow change as per can be observed.
It is a very peaceful place to be. I wished we had stayed there for long.

Monetary Bay Aquarium

Jan 2006 is when I happened to visit US for the first time. It was an official trip for 45 days and our stay was arranged at Irvine, where our office is also located. I could make it to my sister's place for only one weekend, Cupertino. So, the weekend I could to visit them, she planned for drive to SFO, Monetary Bay and the 17 mile drive. We could have only covered so much in 2 days.

Drive to Monetary bay, was driving up the hill and the experience was exciting, the weather at its best. It was still winter and foggy in the morning.

The most thrilling experience in the Monetary Bay Aquarium was the movements of the fish school. The entire school was moving in one direction and nothing could break their synchronization. It was a semi circle tank of water almost to the ceiling height and I enjoyed most watching them move around in so much of co-ordination.

Tirupur and Coimbatore

Friday we had invited Didi and Jeeju for a chilli bajji party. The chilly was handpicked by me and each one of them turned out to be as hot as they can! So, to eat those chilli bajjis, we kept some water melon slices ready that could aid us abbreviate the burn :) To everyone's surprise, we all managed to finish them all, wondering if we would be normal the next day morning ;)

With lots of dilemma, finally we decided we will drive to Coimbatore to attend our friend's wedding reception. It was three of us, Arun, Sree and I. We decided to start early on Saturday morning, so we could escape the traffic jam on Hosur road.

As planned, we started at around 5 in the morning. Stopped for breakfast at Adyar Anandha Bhavan (Bangalore calls it A2B), spent some relaxing time there. The restaurant was very decent, in the premises of a fuel bunk, landscaped with garden and children play area.

Then after 2 hours we stopped for a cup of tea, unknown of the town we had reached. Then we stopped for some cold milk and ice cream in Tamil Nadu's famous suppliers - Aavin, and we reached Tirupur by 12:30.

Tirupur is known for export quality textile manufacturing and garment exports. I had plans to do lots of shopping there. Comfort and relaxation took over the priority, so we decided to sleep all day :)

Sunday we travelled to Coimbatore to attend the reception. I decided I would shop there for some nice cotton wears. This time, the dearest friend made us run around for some accessory shopping needed for the bride in the first-time-visited place. we were left with no time for our shopping and drove all night back to Bangalore.

Did you know? (From Georgia Aquarium)

Georgia Aquarium

Last year's User Group Conference was held at Atlanta. It is a 3 days event where we get to meet our customers in person, arrange best practices' sessions, customers share their experiences in real time projects, customization and so on.

One of the dinners for the event was arranged inside the Georgia Aquarium. It is known to be the World's largest aquarium with millions of gallons of fresh and marine water along with many aquatic life found anywhere else.

Sipping the cocktails, we got an avid guided tour around the aquarium. The guide explained how Rays are sensitive to touches and the way one needs to try touching a Ray or a small shark in a touch tank.

The evening at the Georgia Aquarium was exclusively for us. It was a very synergistic evening with so much to know about the sea creatures and our clients :)

I spy!

They say that the Tanjore temple was built during the Cholas period. The structure seems untouched, however, there is a Brit face in one of them!
Ooops... this is the closest shot I could get with my Camera.

Thanjavur (Tanjore)

Thanjavur, they say, is the pride of Tamil Nadu. It was the royal city of Cholas, who were ruling till 13th century with Thanjavur as the capital. There are many temples in and around, of which the big temple is the most famous one left by the Cholas. The temple is built within a fort.



We visited the Big Temple, the Art Gallery, the Palace and the Thanjavur Handloom showroom. The art gallery has the collection of the bronze idols of Gods, Goddesses and the kings from as old as 8th century.



We could walk up the stairs to the top of the palace Gopuram. The stairs get narrow as you are climbing and you will feel whether you would really be able to pass through them. The stairs are built from all four directions. At every level of the Gopuram there is a hall with the supporting pillars and you can stop by at the windows to view the city.

There is an 8 storeyed structure where the King(s) and the Queen(s) would climb up to watch the city. This is located right next to the Queen's bathing pond. (There is an exact similar structure constructed in the Disney Land, Anaheim)


Thanjavur is known for its paintings, Thalaiattu bommai (the nodding head dolls made out of mud/POP). The paintings and art work are very impressive and meriting (and expensive). The paintings are very colorful, with a dominance of gold work in them.