'Kala' for snake and
'Hasti' for elephant.
This stone sculpture is at Lepakshi Temple. Srikalahasti one of the important holy places in South India.
Praveen, Gulli and I took a night bus... I remember a suitcase falling on my head from the overhead luggage rack in the bus. Not once, two times, same suitcase. The owner finally kept it on the floor board. We reached quite early, it was still dark.
We found a low priced lodging, slept for some time and got ready early. We visited the main temple first, it's quite big and was a busy place for a temple. The guide tried to explain us the invisible force which keeps... (not getting the word, ok let me call it shaking) shaking the flame in the Deepa but could never catch his explanation. The temple is a very interesting place, we spent some time looking around. Then we had tasty idli, vada and dosas from one of the many carts.
Just behind the temple is a rocky hillock. From the top we could see part of the town. That's Gulli and me and behind us is a scene from the story of Bedara Kannappa in which Kannappa gouges out his eye for Lord Shiva.
Done with the main temple, we explore the town streets. We climbed another hill in the middle of the town, much taller than the one we had climbed earlier. From here we could see the entire town and beyond it also.
That's river Swarnamuhki. The uniqueness of this part of the river is that it flows South-North direction. This is a rare occurrence. All rivers flow in the general direction of North South... at least in India. It's a Hindu belief that this spot frees one from some kind of sin... cannot recall what was told by our guide.
The town is crowded, streets are narrow and hums with activity.
Done with seeing the place, we had lunch, slept for a while and Praveen suggested we head back home. We boarded a Bangalore bound KSRTC bus. The driver drove like a maniac, mostly one handed. He would either be smoking beedis or chewing tobacco and spitting. He honked whenever he saw something moving and would go past pedestrians real close. It was a real tense journey... sitting in the very first row with a full view of the road. We reached Bangalore by 9 30 or so, without any incident.
It was a memorable little trip for the three of us.
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