The Marina Meet was a success and we all enjoyed it very much. A breif update on what happend at Marina and later.
After the confirmation from the group mates, I reached Marina around 5.55PM but could not take a right turn to the parking lot and took quite a long drive throuh the beach road. By the time I took a U turn, found a parking lot which was quite some distance from the Gandhi statue, parked my car and reached the premisis, it was 6.15PM. I saw three people discussing seriously and thought they should be the PS members. But was a bit reluctant to approach as I was not sure,because they were talking very freely and didnt look like a first time meeting. I thought I will go near them and if they are PS group members, they will call me. As expected, when I went near them, I heard a voice "Ponnyin Selvan" and thats it, jothiyil aikiyam ayittom. Mr.Ganesan, Shankar, Kripa were there and we got introduced to each other. Shortly Kamal joined us and soon Mr.Saravanan and Mr.Rajesh(not PS memebers) joined the group. We discussed many things about PS, Chola, history etc and in between Saravanan and Rajesh left as they had some work. So we five continued our discussion. Lavanya joined the discussion sometime later..puzzeled how she came into the picture..she joined through teleconference. She called Kamal on his mobile and over the speaker phone we talked for sometime. Kamal gave a briefing about the history of the group, about the groups interaction with Dr.Kalaikovan, and many news to us about the group and group members.
We never realised that the time was 7.40PM and its already late for us to leave. So we came to the agenda of the meeting, our trip around chennai. We all felt that a trip should be made once a month,because only if we target once a month, once a quarter atleast will be possible. But all were supporting the thought that once a month a trip can be organized and whoever is free during that time can join. Kamal suggested we make a trip tomorrow iteself.ie. sunday 21st. We agreed, but Mr.Ganesan said his brother is coming and so he cannot join.Kamal called Lavanya and she said if shes free she will join us.Kamal suggested that we will go to Madambakkam and Manimangalam. We decided the time to be 3 pm and all dispersed around 8PM. It was great meeting the unknown faces whom we met only through mails.
Sunday I left my house and reached the planned place in Pallavaram at 3.05PM. Kamal was waiting there and within minutes Shankaran joined us. We three started in my car and headed for Manimangalam. Kamal said, being a sunday, Madamabakkam will be crowded for Rahukala pujai and so we skipped it from our itenary. Throughout our journey we listened to a cassette , which Shankaran had brought. It had the conversation between Kudavoyil Balu and Balakumaran regarding the big temple, its construction, uthama cholan, etc. We also discussed about the same.
By 4.10PM we reached the 'Dharmeswarar' Temple in Manmangalam. The place was exotic. Lush gree fields around and a small but majestic temple structure in betwee were a treat to the eyes.The temple, as per ASI sign board was built by Narasima Pallavan III after his deciding war with Pulikesi III at this place. It was locked and we were told that in the evening its generally not opened and we can go and call the archakar who resides nearby. We went to his house and the archakar came and opened the temple for us. Had a good Dharshan of Darmeswarar and Devambikai. Felt really bad that such a beautiful temple doesnt attract any crowd. As soon as we entered and had our dharshan, Mr. Ganesan called me on my mobile to enquire about the status. He really missed the trip which was evident in his voice. Kamal explained to us about the architecture, the different parts of the temple, the difference between the Pallava construction and that of the cholas etc. Shankaran and I were realy thrilled to see and learn such things.(en maramandaila niraya erala, cant rememeber much of the terminologies which Kamal used but conceptually I could understand things...maybe it will take many more trips for me to memorise them...-:) ).
Then we left to 'Rajagopala Swamy' Temple another one and a half km away. The temple was a bigger than the sivan temple, with big garden (not properly maintainted) with rose plantations.This temple is also around 1300 years old. Kamal already warned us that we should not get tensed seeing things inside the temple. We didnt understand that untill we entered the temple. On almost all the walls of the temple, large number of kalvettu were found, but we understood what Kamal warned us. Everything has been covered by white and maroon chunnambu, in the name of painting the walls. We were shell shocked to see that. Kamal also showed a kalvettu of RR, which the varalaru.com team found during the visit with Dr.KK. The archakar told us that the speciality of the temple is that, the sangu and the chakram of the perumal are otherway here, ie. the chakram on the left and the sangu on the right. He said its the only temple like this, but inspite of its speciality its not one among the 108 divyadesam. He said it symbolises that the lord is blessing Arjuna before the war with his sangu ready to be blown.Another thing is that he is calling all the 'pasu madu' by blowing his sangu with his right hand.
We three discussed many more things related to cholas and set off to chennai at 5.30. At 6.15 I dropped both of them at Pallavaram and went home with a great feeling of satisfaction.
Hope I didnt bother you all by this lengthy description. I feel really happy and thirrled by this trip. Though short, it was a sweet one. A stepping stone for me into the great history. Hope to learn more from many more trips in this group.