The Heritage Trip with Rotary and V Sriram

So, when the trip was announced some four months back , the booking was close to around 60 people ( read Rotarians and families ) joining in . The bus could take 45—Sriram the Champ of the trip would have preferred 30—that was his number that he could take as a group and talk with attention undivided  . So we had a waitlist and a RAC set up.

But finally , due to various reasons – people may not have seen through the four months’ time window on planning  – marriages coming up right on the trip days, some illness , general drop outs , the group that finally made the trip was a bunch of 28 – Rotarians . their spouses …. That was a number which delighted Sriram

Two main reasons why these trips become so successful –

First one , the Organiser Renjit Joseph who is a master in this – Renjit has been thanklessly doing this job of arranging either an outstation trip or Heritage ones as this for the past 13 years or more for our Rotary Club. So , what is special that makes people tick and join when Renjith arranges a trip ?

n  

You can be assured , that comfort of everyone will be taken care

n  Renjit will get the best hotels at the best price—location , upscale rooms etc.

n  Everyone will be cared for personally

n  Food arrangements will be great if not extraordinary

n  Difficult questions/ situations will be managed most effectively

n  Everyone will be engaged during the travel period ( not with assignments )

n  Hardly , you will find him saying a NO to a genuine request

n  Timeliness will be maintained

n  Entire program will be shared in advance

n  And finally , he is lovely chap to deal with

Second  V Sriram – the walking encyclopedia , whom we are fortunate to have as a Rotarian with our club. There is never a dull moment when Sriram is around—With him around , you can look for intricate details –He is enigma – to the extent , it is puzzling to see him reel out so many facts , history behind things , periods of dynasty rule and so on. He is passionate towards these Heritage trips and there is so much download of wealth of information. Most of us would have visited the places,  we did on this trip but we all learnt many new things that we have never seen/ heard about or looked at in our previous visits . Just a blessed feeling having him around us to talk through. Sriram laces his information with facts , wit , pun , sarcasm ( at times ) and in a style that everyone will understand . He is multi lingual and so everyone in the team would understand his content easily.

The trip :

It was short trip ( just three days  ) but here is what we visited

Day 1

 – Afternoon – was spent at the Srirangam temple – Darshan was quick and the balance part of close to four hours was spent walking around the temple –

Some new things that I learnt but will put in a question form for you to check out what I learnt separately

1.       Why  is the Eastern side entrance  of the temple  painted in White colour always ?

2.       What is the reason for a Shrine to be kept for Pillai Locacharyar and its background

3.  Role of Ramanujam and his influence on not just the temple but the society in and around

4.  Do you have Pallava Inscriptions in this temple ?

5.  Role of the Muslim community in service to this Lord

I have just penned a few – there were several interesting , intriguing information that we got

We also witnessed the Garuda Sevai which is part of the nine day temple festival during this Tamil  month . It was a sight to behold seeing the Lord go around the narrow streets with music , chants of the vedas and general pomp and festivity

Love this temple for the architecture and the serene environment & atmosphere.

Day 2

Visited the Rockfort area—

The place where Robert Clive lived ( now I was  close to seeing reality with the  history that I read ) , the Rani Mangamaal Place , the church , the role of the Nawabs and so on – A good two hour walk around the place with Sriram walking us through the  Nayak era, the Nawab era and the British era

Noon session was devoted to visiting the Thiruvanaikaval temple – Several inputs on the shrine , the location and the narrow entrance etc

Afternoon was visit to Thiruvayaiyaru – The house where Saint Theagaraya lived , the Sammadhi – Sriram and his wife sang songs of the Saint at both places and it was a great story of the Saint – Key was the role of Bengaluru Nagarathinama in the creation of the Samadhi and her other roles in the Aradana that happens every year now

Sad part is the lack of water in the Cauvery river – Not a drop !

Day 3—

We visited the Rockfort temple – One thing that I have not seen so far was the Pallava cave( Lower cave temple ) at the start point of the climb—and the one which is called the Upper cave temple. .To listen to Sriram narrating the sthala puranam of Lord Thayumanswamy was a joy behold – Also the side story of VVS Iyer was something that we would have never  picked up

I have left things loose with no explanation to keep the blog simple – You can Google and get the information but it will not have Sriram’s flavor to it.

Other things that went well:

The bus and the driver – Always on time and matching to our schedules – There was never a point where we had to search for him

The timeliness of the team – We left on time for all the places – Just showed the respect that each of them had for others as well as for the Time itself

Hotel was very good – nice ambience , good food – Generally nothing to complain

It was small , chirpy group – Lot of things to talk about in common and everyone enjoyed the company – Smiles all around , all the time

Overall , a great trip

Renjith / Sriram – When is the next one ?