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My phone started buzzing with a flurry of phone calls at the stroke of midnight on 19th August and I had one standard question from almost each caller, “So, what are your birthday plans?”. With great fervour I was explaining to my friends that I’d be starting my day with a photo walk at the Theosophical Society, Adyar. I spent almost the entire night explaining to my friends whatever I knew about The Theosophical Society, the concept of Theosophy and about various clean-up activities that have been taking place to revive the Huddleston Gardens.  I reached the spot half an hour late that morning. We weren’t the only ones and we met with Vignesh and Sekar and set off to start taking photos. The Theosophical Society is a captivating place, offering you a complete retreat from the urban world. This particular morning the air was filled with the fragrance of the woods, the flowers and the moist soil owing to the recent showers. I was thoroughly confused as I started looking aro...

Forts Trekking .Rappelling / Rock climbing. Celebration. This sums up our three day journey of the famous AMK & Sandhan Valley Treks in the Nashik range of the Sahyadris, Maharashtra. Let me dissect the above three words for you! Forts Trekking : It all started with a saying “New people, new place, new experience, then you are definitely in for a new adventure!” when I signed up for this trek. Formalities at the airport by meeting the new like-minded people. Curiosity in the mind when you are travelling to a new place, especially across the coast from east to west. As per the schedule arrived at the city of dreams, Mumbai at around 1930 Hrs on Feb 22. Reached the people packed Ghatkopar railway station with a small taste of pre-trek toast, followed by the so called “Power Nap” sessions in the local train to the last station Kasara. Boarded the jeeps to reach the base camp of the AMK trek. We were briefed on the next adventures about to come by our energetic organizers...

ISKCON has more than 500 centers all over the world. The Chennai chapter of ISKCON inaugurated the present gorgeous temple at Sholinganallur on April 26, 2012. It has a lot of unique features. Find the chakras that line the body of the temple-purusha on the steps, see the avatars of the Lord governing the eight directions in attractive glass paintings and more! ISKCON Chennai is located off the East Coast Road at the Hare Krishna land, Sholinganallur. The deities worshipped in the temple include those of Radha Krishna Lalita Vishaka, Jagannath Baladev Subhadra, and Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga. Spread over an area of over 1.5 acres, the temple is constructed on five levels. There is a 7,000 sq ft temple hall on the first floor, an auditorium for cultural and spiritual programmes on the ground floor and a prasadam hall in the basement. In the temple hall, there are three teak-wood altars which house the deities of Lord Krishna with His consort Radharani and their assisting ...

A gentleman was walking through an elephant camp, and he spotted that the elephants weren’t being kept in cages or held by the use of chains. A man was walking nearby to a group of elephants that was halted by a small rope tied to their front leg. He was amazed by the fact that the huge elephants are not even making an attempt to break the rope and set themselves free. He saw an elephant trainer standing beside them and he expressed his puzzled state of mind. The trainer said “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” Moral: It is the false belief of the elephants that denied their freedom for life time. Likewise, many people are not trying to work towards success in their life just because they failed once before. So keep on trying and don’t ...

The feeling of pride and content never fades when even the smallest effort that you put results in something to be proud and satisfied of. Its that feeling, only multiplied a gazillion times is what you get when u smell the earthy compost every time you harvest a new batch  :) It has been close to a year now since me and my hubby started Segregation and Home Composting at our home. The mission was simple. “No recyclable waste from our home should be sent to the dumpyard”. Thanks to CTC- Ainthinai, we came to know about home composting option at home using Khambha pots and we immediately jumped into the bandwagon. We started off by segregating the waste in our home into recyclable (wet/dry) and non-recyclable waste (majorly house dust, thin plastics and e-waste like batteries). The dry waste including thick milk covers, plastic bottles/containers are separated accordingly while we started composting the wet waste using 3T khambha. The first time when we harvested a ...

Tiruparappu falls originate from the Kodayar River and cascades some 50-foot down (15 meters) on to a rocky 300-foot-long (90 meters) riverbed. It is about 13 km from Pechiparai Dam. For about seven months in a year is the fall fully rapturous. The Thiruparappu dam is built on a rocky bed spanning far across the distance covering one fourth of a kilometer in the direction against the water current. Further on, water from the dam is diverted to the paddy fields for irrigation. You can enjoy a bath under the gushing water, and later take a stroll in the area to get different perspectives on the falls. The District Administration has recently constructed a swimming pool for children over here which is very popular among the children.

Padmanabhapuram Palace is located close to the town of Thuckalay in Kanyakumari District, Tamilnadu. It is about 20 km from Nagercoil, and about 50 kilometers from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Though the palace is situated in Kanyakumari district of Tamilnadu State, it is administered by the Government of Kerala archaeology department. The Padmanabhapuram palace complex is inside an old granite fortress around four kilometers long. The palatial mansion is a wooden paradise. The palace is located at the foot of the Veli Hills, which form a part of the Western Ghats. The river Valli flows nearby. It was once the seat of the rulers of old Travancore or Venad State from the 16th to the late 18th centuries. The palace was constructed around 1601 A.D by Ravipillai Ravivarma Kulasekhara Perumal who ruled Travancore between 1592 A.D. and 1609 A.D. The palace draws hundreds of visitors every day continuously. It is one of the best 10 palaces in the world The Padmanabhapuram pal...

Kanyakumari district District consists of those parts known as locally Nanjil Nadu and Idai Nadu. The names of the villages of the district such as Azhagiapaandipuram, Bhoothapandy, Cholapuram and Kulasekaram reveal that these places were governed by several rulers at difficult periods of time.It is learnt that Nanjilnadu was under the rule of Pandiyas till the early 10th century and then under Cheras. The Idai nadu including Kalkulam and Vilavancode taluks were under the rule of cheras. When the power of Chola declined due to the rise of Hoysalas and western Chalukyas, the venad (Travancore) Chief tains (the decondants of central Chera's family) took advantage of the situation and gradually established their hold on considerable areas in Nanjilnadu. Veera Kerala varma one such cheif tain and style himself as "Nanjil Kuravan". The annexation commenced by Veera Kerala Varma was to a large extent continued by his successors and completed by 1115 A.D. For about four ce...

Kanyakumari was once referred to as the Alexandria of the east. Kanyakumari has been a great center for art, culture, civilization, and pilgrimage for years. It was also a famous center for commerce and trade. During the early part of the eighth century AD Islam entered the southern part of India through the sea route with traders and missionaries. Through St. Thomas, one of the twelve Apostles of Christ, Christianity arrived in this area in AD 52. Islam, Christianity and Jainism have greatly contributed to the architectural wealth and literary heritage of this place. Kanyakumari was also under the control of the Cholas, the Cheras, the Pandyas and the Nayaks who were great rulers of south India. The architectural beauty of the temples is the work of these rulers. During the British Raj, Kanyakumari was bestowed the dry title of Cape Comorin, necessitated perhaps by the Englishmen's inability to pronounce local names. Legend has it that Kanya Devi, an avatar of G...