Chennai 27 Dec 09

On 27 Decemer, we took Raju down the mountain to Coimbatore for his flight back to Delhi. It was hard saying goodbye to him; in fact, we barely had time as they whisked him away from us to board his flight. (Raju, we think we were approaching the runway when your plane took off.) Gopal and I flew to Chennai at the same time to see our friends the Gosavis from Mumbai who were attending a conference at the Theosophical Society. Bala, our landlord at our house in Brooklands, lives in Chennai and met us at the airport. He and his wife Vanitha were so gracious and generous with us, it really made our visit to Chennai a wonderful experience. They had made arranagements for us to stay at a nice guest house owned by a friend, they took us to a wonderful vegetarian lunch at a bustling, popular place, Saravana Bhavan. Then, they thoughtfully took us to Vivekananda College where Gopal had worked right out of college. It was good to watch Gopal dig in his memory as he recognized this and that.

We flew to Chennai on SpiceJet. Our plane was Cinnamon; Raju flew to Delhi on Basil.

En route to lunch, Bala took us to Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore. http://www.chennai.org.uk/religious-places/temples/kapaleshwar-temple.html

Fish we fed in the temple pool

Feeding the fish

Gopal and Bala at lunch in Chennai

Vanitha and Carolyn

Gopal at Vivekananda College where he used to work

Bala and Vanitha also took us to the Ramakrishnan Math, which was very beautiful too.

They also took us to the J. Krishnamurti Foundation where they tried to get us a room to stay in, which didn't work out this time. In the future, it might be a nice place to stay.

I like this picture.

Next, we went to the Theosophical Society to meet the Gosavis (Krishna Gosavi, Carolyn, Vanitha, Vijaya Gosavi, Bala)

Theosophical Society website: http://www.ts-adyar.org/

There had been a legendary banyan tree here which has died. I guess you could say these trees are its children. Needless to say, this is a beautiful place.

Vanitha, Gopal, Carolyn, Vijaya, Krishna sitting on a beautiful bench where J. Krishnamurti sat and lectured when at the Theosophical Society

Just to let you see the beautiful tiles

At the book store at the Theosophical Society there was a picture of a bird on the wall. It looked just like a Black-Crowned Night Heron, and is a bird they see near their beachfront. So I asked around but no one knew what it was. Today, I looked it up in my India bird book, and it IS a Black-Crowned Night Heron, exactly the same bird that nests over at Lake Merritt in Oakland and I used to see down at Point Lobos! How could that be? I haven't seen any in the Nilgiris, but they might be here around lakes, huh? How can there be the same birds in India and the U.S.? I mean it. I don't see how that could be unless people brought them in cages or something.

Going to Ooty and Doddabetta after the storm

We took a taxi to Ooty, and unfortunately I was unable to get any meaningful pictures from the moving car. We were unable to go on our originally chosen route (where the road is open, we thought), because the road from that point was closed. So, we went another route, and it was astounding how much storm damage we observed. But, also, the route we took was all on back roads, so it was really beautiful, not commercial like the usual road between Coonoor and Ooty.

On Ooty Lake

Raju on Ooty Lake

Raju,steering our boat

Dexter, there's a little train that runs along the lake. (I was imagining you coming here and riding on the train with you.)

This is a mouse, which is a tunnel for that train. (I think it's a mouse, Gopal thinks it's a lion, and Raju says the back end of it is an elephant!

From Ooty Lake we decided to go to Doddabetta, the highest point in Tamil Nadu.

Taking Raju to Singara Tea Estate

Dexter, when we walked to the tea estate, we passed a garbage dumpster near Orchid Square. This monkey is sitting on the dumpster, eating something she found in there. They haven't come to our house since your Mom told you about them.

Here are three little ones playing with each other.

At Singara

Raju

Bison at Singara (I know they're hard to see; just wanted to prove we saw bison while Raju was there.)

At the forest temple there

As the clouds came back in.

Saravanamalai Temple with Raju

On Wednesday, the 23rd, we finally had weather good enough to take Raju to the Saravanamalai Temple on the mountain. He arrived on the 20th, and Coonoor had been literally in the clouds the whole time. We could not see another hill, no vistas.En route to the temple. Raju taking pictures. Gopal and Prabu, the auto driver, ahead.

Little temple along the path.

Gopal creating puja at the temple.

I brought Mike's picture.

Prabu, Raju, Gopal

On the way back

Visiting Lingama Colony

So, I miss and love my family over at Lingama Colony. We go visit once a week when we can. This time we visited on a Tuesday because the kids were off school and some were leaving for the holiday.Gopal and Shriya (7) with Suhail's baby brother, Nawaz, who's growing so fast I didn't realize who it was!
My friend Suhail (9)

Shriya, Nawaz, Suhail (at Suhail's house)

This is the only picture I could get of Ladoo (3) who had just gotten up from a nap. (I was trying to show her how to put a bracelet on I had brought her, but of course she would have none of it.)

On Sunday, Krishna's son Raju came to visit, so he got dragged along to Lingama Colony. Everyone wanted to meet Krishna's son.

This is Suhail's family, and there are some names I am not remembering, most of them. Grandma, Nawaz, Suhail, ? , Suhail's mother and father. (I'll fill in the names as I find them.)