Beautiful chaos.

The recent most.

Hello,

I hope you are having a good year so far.

I had so much to write in the past one month but wasn’t getting any time to sit and jot my thoughts down.

And finally I’m doing it on my flight time.

Talking about the most recent thing first had the most wonderful 5 days in south India.

Even though it was an official visit I did take out time to visit the places that I had enlisted as “must visit”

I went through a few YouTube videos for jotting down the places I wanted to visit in Chennai and also checked in with the friends posted there.

Finally I sat down to ticking all the places in the short time of 2 evenings with clubbing the catchups with friends late in the evenings.

The best part about visiting the south was the escape from the severe cold.

I haven’t been much of a planner ever because I get very confused and anxious at the choice of where and how to go.

But off late I’m beginning to become a meticulous traveller and learning to enjoy the process of researching and penning down a few must visits at whichever place I visit.

So in Chennai I really wanted to explore the temples because I had only read about the Dravidian style of architecture in school and in more detail during my preparation days.

So the first evening I stepped out and visited the Kapeeleshwarar temple dedicated to lord shiva and thereafter headed to the Parthasarthy temple dedicated to lord Vishnu.

I was mesmerised by the stone work and the beauty of the temples that I wanted to soak it all in. The image of the idols of god, the smell of the burning insence sticks , the light of the Diyas hanging all around the door which led to the garba griha, the flowers everywhere. It was the most surreal experience and especially because the place wasn’t even as crowded as some of the other temples that I have visited.

Next up the list was St Thomas Bascilia. I made a quick halt and went inside this mesmerising church and offered quick prayers while soaking in the breathtaking architecture and the service that was going on.

I had also wanted to visit the Vivekanand house, which was my next stop. It made to my list because of the recent Youth Day when I learnt that he had a house in Chennai.

This was originally an ice house meaning ice was imported during the colonial times and stored in this house which later served as a house for when Vivekanand visited Madras.

They have done up the house really beautifully with virtual experiences and explaining about the life of swami Vivekanand. It was definitely worth the visit.

I was also told about this new generation cafe that is there in Chennai and after seeing its reviews online especially about its ambience, I headed there for having a pre-dinner meal.

It was by the name Amythst which was a beautiful green cafe with some interesting offerings on the menu. I enjoyed a quick meal there in the midst of a beautiful ambience. Ideally I would have wanted to spend a whole evening there but due to paucity of time and other commitments that I had, I pinned it down for my next visit in Chennai.

The next day I had reserved for Mahabalipuram. I was especially excited to visit the shore temples having grown up reading about this marvel.

Also since it is a UNESCO world heritage site, I really wanted to check this small town out.

It took us almost an hour and a half from Chennai and my first stop was the shore temple. I really was taken aback by the beauty of this temple and how it was build right across the shore that have now been barricaded to protect the structure. I just sat there for I think more than a hour just looking at the temple.

There are a group of monuments around the small town so next I headed to explore on foot, the Pancha Rathas which is again a beautiful monolith structure which 5 huge rathas carved out of a single rock. I haven’t seen anything like that before and to imagine how such structure would have been created really blew away my mind.

Then I set on foot to walk on the beautiful road right outside with trees forming a canopy across the road and saw some other historical structures and monolith structures the best of which I found was called the Arjuna’s penance. Again a huge monolith with numerous carvings of animals and idols of god.

Lastly I wanted to check the beach out but by then I was already getting late so I made quick halt at Joe’s coffee house where I had a very interesting conversation with the owner.

With the last visit at the cutest bookshop I headed back to visit my Lbsnaa Roommate who’s based in Chennai with my stomach and heart full.

Even though I have visited the place before but I will always cherish this trip because I learnt to have fun in my own company and explore the city in a whole new dimension.

With that, I’m sharing a few pictures from the place!

Wish you a beautiful day ahead.