Street Signs & Wonders

Went for a long walk this morning from my house to Express Avenue Mall, a brand spanking new shopping complex in downtown Chennai.  Took these photos along the way.

The monsoons have started bringing daily storms and flooded streets.  Sand flooded at Marina Beach.

A beautiful building along Marina Beach,  the Vivekanandar House where Swami Vivekanandar stayed for a short time with his family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Swami_Vivekananda-1893-09-signed.jpg

A gateway along Marina Beach Road

Cows Rule

The signs and store fronts fascinate me.

I like the eyes on this poster.

No Parking in Fround of Gate

I love this wall.

A wonderful accidental collage of posters upon posters.

My personal favorite

Pandy Pan House

Banana Kart

Street Pancakes

I love how this tree strikes a dramatic pose with the wall

 Yellow Yellow

My coffee at the Express Avenue Mall

This website is not an official department website.  The views and information are the English Language Fellow's own and do not represent the English Language Fellow Program or the U.S. State Department.

Mysore

Trichy, Bangalore, Mysore, Pondicherry, names of Indian cities are like charms for a bracelet, a tiny temple for Trichy, a little auto-rickshaw for Bangalore, a Palace elephant for Mysore, and a loaf of French bread for Pondicherry.

Visited Bangalore and Mysore this past week.  Too busy in Bangalore to get any photos, but managed to snap a few in Mysore.  

Lush, Tropical Mysore in the Morning Mist

Tuk-Tuks lined up in the morning in front of the hotel,  small altar behind the sign

Hindu altars everywhere, this one for Ganesh

Entrance to the Mysore Palace

The main building of the palace grounds.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysore_Palace

Wish I could have gotten a better photo of this, but just happened to look over and see the elephants walking by and hurriedly snapped this.  What's a palace without elephants?

Sri Shveta Varahaswami Temple near the entrance to the Mysore Palace.

Sri Shveta Varahaswami Temple Door

There are several species of giant trees in India.  Here is one from inside the Mysore Palace grounds.

There's a Disneyland-like atmosphere outside the Palace.  Here a man selling fresh sugar cane juice, and below, a man trying to sell me a snake.  He walked up to me with this wiggling wooden snake and I screamed, which made him absolutely crack up.

While I was in Mysore, I visited a school as part of my job, sitting in on the classes, meeting with the teachers and administrators, and holding court for 100 very enthusiastic children.  Here are some of the images from that visit.

The Mylapore Temple

The Mylapore Temple is just steps away from my apartment in a lively market area.  As you enter the temple, you must remove your shoes , but your bare feet on the ancient stones is warm and sensual.  Hindu worshipers walk the temple grounds in a circle, offering prayers, lighting candles, kissing the stones, feeding the temple cows.  At dusk on Saturday, the bell is rung continuously while the priest performs in the inner temple area (where I'm not allowed as a non-Hindu), musicians play a haunting melody on a type of horn instrument, while the drums beat.  It's a hypnotic, entrancing atmosphere.

The word Mylapore is expanded as "Mayil arparikum oor" which means 'Land of the peacock scream'. The word mayil, meaning peacock, which was the traditional vehicle of the Hindu god Muruga.^[3] ...Legend has it that Goddess Parvathi, the divine consort of Lord Shiva, did penance at Mylapore taking the form of a pea-hen, in order to be wedded to him. The name Mylapore is derived from this legend - "Mayil" in Tamil means a peacock. The famous Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore and its beautiful temple tank are associated with this legend.   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mylapore)

There is a five-headed  cobra at the peacock's feet.

The temple tower is said to have statues of all the Hindu gods and goddesses (quite a feat since there are so many).  You can see most of them in the towers over the entrances.

Outside the temple, people are buying flowers and statues, while the auto rickshaws beep-beep their way .through the narrow streets

Sri Iyappan Flower Shop

The Mylapore Temple:  A respite from the busy, crowded city of Chennai

This website is not an official department website.  The views and information are the English Language Fellow's own and do not represent the English Language Fellow Program or the U.S. State Department.