This is only for you , my friend , philospher and guide! This is not a day to celebrate friendship but with you everyday was a reason to celebrate!
You are probably everything that I am not, quiet, practical, organised , calm and collected. These were the same characteristics that repelled me against you , but after a point of time these motivated and inspired me.
Initially , I never got a chance to the know you because you never gave me a opportunity to know you. When circumstances were such that it was I was forced to talk to you and you were
forced to listen to me, I had an opportunity to know you.
Once when I fell down the road, you came running down the road with so much concern and tears in your eyes. I suffered that day but was relieved you were there.
That incident probably sealed our friendship. You were there to share the mess going on in my life. When everyday was such a struggle mentally, you helped me not to lose hope!
Many more incidents occured which kept proving me that you were one in a million.
As we started knowing each other more, we got into a number of altercations but each time you were the one to patch up.
Just when I thought I was so lucky, your separation is staring hard at my face. My eyes are filled with tears but I wipe them away thinking atleast I got to be with you for 3 years!
Your memories flash across me like a a flash of lightening making my lips broaden into a big smile! You would never read my blog (I know you hate reading blogs) yet I have no other alternative for sharing my thoughts on our wonderful friendship!

I read these lines of a magazine and just felt like sharing them:

"God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change

Courage to change the things I can

And wisdom to know the difference"

I am starting a column on my temple visits . This is not to enlighten others on the historical stories behind every temple but to share my learning and experiences.
There will be a brief history of the temple(gathered from the writings on the temple and books), and and a few interesting incidents.
Thirukadavur
History:
There are 3 historical stories behind this grand temple.Markandeya, son of sage Mrikandu was predicted to live for only 16 years. As advised by his father, Markandeya worshipped Amritaghateswarar in Tirukkadaiyur, bringing the water from Ganges through an underground passage to the temple. On the destined day, Yama appeared with his noose. Markandeya sought refuge in the Lord . The Lord warned Yama not to touch Markandeya as he was under His protection. Yama did not listen and threw the noose that bound Markandeya and the Lingam together. Angered the Lord kicked him with the left leg and held him under His left foot, making him inactive.
Another story is that of the abirami pattar who lived in the court of a king(I don't know the name).The King approached Abirami Battar and asked him for the pournami day of that month. It was actually a new moon day. Since the mind of Abirami Battar was filled with the vision of Goddess Devi, he - even without opening his eyes - said that it was full moon day.
This angered the king and he cursed him saying that if he didn’t see the full moon that night he would kill him.So he was made to sit on a slab tied by 100 strings , the fire beneath threatening to kill him once the strings were cut. Abirami Pattar sang 100 verses and after each verse, one string was cut. It is said that on cutting the 75th string, the godess threw her ring unto the sky which shone as the moon .
The third story behind this temple is that before taking Amirtham from ocean, the Devas and Asuras did not pray the first god(Lord Ganesha). He got angry and stole the Amirtha pot and hid it somewhere. It later on became Siva Lingam and hence the deity is known as known as Lord Amirthakadeswarar.
Since this temple is where death is conqurered (Markendaya story), many couples celebrate 80th and 60 th birthday.
Incidents:
Though some people advised us aginst visiting the temple on friday, we chose to go to this temple. Since it was a holiday(Christmas) and good day(Friday), there were so many couples celebrating their birthday. So every corner was filled with an old couple tying the knot again. We found no place to quietly say our prayers and we were out of the temple in just one hour.(The budgeted time was 2 hours on the first day and 2 on the last day). But the crowd shocked us so much that we didn't dare to make the trip on sunday again. Though the darshan of the gods was good, we could not even walk around the temple once fully.
Thiruvidaikazhi
History:
One of the lesser known temples, but worth the visit. Here Lord Murugan is worshipped as Bala subramanya and his consort Deyayani was betrothed to him here, it is said. There is also a Siva Lingam behind the deity indicating that the he had prayed to that Lingam.
Incidents:
Since it was not that popular , there were very few people in the temple and so we had a great darshan. Also, it felt like a temple (Calm, peaceful,etc).
Anatha mangalam
History:
After the death of Ravanan , Sri Ramar was returning along with Seetha, Lakshmanan and Anjenayar.Naradhar warns Rama that the demons are still thriving and then ram orders hanuman to kill them.Lord Vishnu offers his 'Conch' and 'Chakra' and Goddess Sakthi offered her 'Thirusoolam', Lord Brahma offered 'Bramakapalam', ' pasangusam' and Manthrashtakam', Lord Ramar offered his bow and arrow and Lord Krishna offered 'Sattai and Butter' to Sri Hanumam to kill the Demons. (This directly copied from the book - I still cannot recollect all of them ).Finally Lord Shiva offered his 'Netrikan'. With this skills Sri Hanuman killed those two Asuras and danced with joy in this place. Hence this place is called ' Ananthamangalam'.
Incidents :
We had never really planned for this temple.Our driver was a first timer and didnt know any temples. Moreover he irritated us by blaring lousy tamil songs. He just lost his way after tiruvidaikazhi and when we were asking someone the way back they told us about this temple. My mom is an ardent devotee of the Lord and was thrilled beyond words. Losing his way there was the only way he copuld make up for all the torture he gave us.
Vaitheeswaran Temple
History:
The Deity enshrined here is known as Vaidyanatha Eswarar and Goddess is Tayyalnayaki Devi.
Vaitheeswaran Koil is the popular name as it is said that God came as a Vaidya and cured Angaraka of his leprosy.It was here that Jatayu was buried.There are many more stories on how Lord Shiva cured many sick people.
Incidents
There Vaitheeswaran temple is quite famous for the astrology from Manuscripts. The concept behind this is that your life has already been written by God on the scriptures. Hmmm..
Interesting. I was so curious about this and then met an astrologer. The details of the this and the process can be discussed at length in another post,maybe.
Sirkazhi
History:
First, This is a such a huge temple. Then You see the pond on the banks of which the famous saint was left.There are 3 separate shrines for God Shiva here - Brahmapureesar, Thoniappar and Sattathnar. By the time we reached this temple the shrine for Brahmapureeshwarar was closed. There were very people in the temple at that time. When we were entering the temple itself an elevated site got to our notice.Curious to see what it was ,we noticed that there were steps leading to some elevated structure. Then someone told us that it was closed.Then some person took pity on us and opened the door.Then some person took pity on us and opened the door. The shrine for Thoniappar was situated there. We had to climb a few steep steps and were breathless. But then when the person switched on the lights, the huge structure of Shiva( in a person structure not lingam) and Parvathi just took the little breath that we had. But then when the person switched on the lights, the huge structure of Shiva( in a person structure not lingam) and Parvathi just took the little breath that we had. The structure was so imposing. It is believed that Shiva and Parvati appeared in a boat carrying the seeds of all species. Brahma started the process of creation after worshipping Shiva at this place.Then The Sattathnar shrine can be reached from the Thoniappar shrine by climbing a few steps. We can look at this deity through a window. This is opened only on Friday at midnights. He is an angry deity who has to be appeased with sacrifices and the like, which probably explains the odd timings.It is said that Lord Shiva fought with Vishnu and and theThe female deity Thirunilaianayagi's shrine is situated adjacent to Sambandar shrine.
Incidents:
This temple too did not feature in out itenary but turned out to be a great experience.
Thirunallaru(Saniswara Temple)
History:
I need to say nothing more about this god. The crowd demonstrated the fear for this God. This was the most crowded Navagraha temple.But apparently Sani is both a giver and destroyer.Dharbarenyeshwaraswamy is the name of Lord Shiva here.While awaiting the darshan of Lord Sanieeswara,we saw the paitinngs depicting the life of Nala and Damayanthi which is one of the main mythological stories behind this temple.
Incidents:
The pond is about a 10 minutes walk from the temple. People say that even we do not take bath in the pond, we are atleast supposed to see it. What a pitiable state of affairs!. We were not aware that the temple was far away from the pond. The driver who was learning with us didn’t know. He was in such a hurry to leave us that he didnt even guide us properly. There were people doing all the morning chores there(Brushing, Shampoo hair wash etc.) A pond of this nature should be kept neatly. It was everything a pond should not be.Then without our slippers we walked on the roads to reach the temple. Since my mother could not walk fast, we lost quite some time here.
Since we went on a Saturday, it was so crowded that even in the special abhishekham line one had to wait for 2.5 hours. We told the driver clearly that he should take us through the shortest route possible and then only we could cover maximum temples possible.
Vanamutti
History:
Many years ago, a king got affected with a chronic skin disease. When all his efforts for recovery failed, he prayed to Lord Vishnu. The Lord appeared before him and told to travel along the banks of the Cauvery where Lord Margasagayeswarar (Lord Siva) would guide him to reach a holy place. There the disease will be cured and have the privilege of witnessing the VISHWAROOPA DARSHAN OF THE LORD. The Lord also told him that the skin disease which he got due to Hathi Dosham would be totally cured, if he takes bath in the Holy Viswaroopa Pushkarni for 48 days. He witnessed Viswaroopa Darshan of Lord in the fig tree. The disease was cured and the place was called KODIHATHI VIMOCHANAPURAM now known as Kozhikuthi.
This was a small temple but worth a visit. There is no abishekham done since this is out of a fig tree.
Incidents:
After the morning advise , the driver thankfully found out the shortest route and told us the time that it would be open too. Morever, he bought a few bhakthi CDs which played the folkish tamil songs on Lord Muruga. In the morning we told him we didnt want to listen to any songs. No, but he had to do what we didnt want.The CD has only 3 songs which repeated so many times. He was not driving in the night to play music to keep awake while driving. But .. Whatever.
Thirumanachery
History:
From the name of the temple, one can understand why people come here.
Sri Umamangai Devi Prayed to Lord Siva at Kailash Himalayas to remarry Her in the earth. Lord Siva granted the boon to remarry her in the forthcoming Brahma Karpam .
As per the verdict of Lord Shiva, Parvathi comes to Earth as a cow. Then Parvathi regains her original form and marries Lord Shiva on the Earth(Udhvaganathar and Kokilambal)
First I said that I didn’t want to go to this temple but then a thought inside me said that it was only Lord Shiva. There is no reason to worship him.
Incidents:
It was a small temple and located in the interiors . But it was easy to identify that we were on the right track by the line of cars before the temple.
Kanjanur temple(Sukra)
History:
There are 2 main deities here.(Shiva in the form of Sukran and Lord Shiva and Devi together)
Lord Vishnu in his Vamana avatar asked King Mahabali for three feet of land that He would measure Himself. As requested by Lord Vishnu, when Mahabali acceded to the request, took up the kamandalam to pour water to symbolically signify the donation to Vamana, Lord Sukran took the form of a bee and blocked the flow of water.Immediately, Mahabali took a stick and pierced the outlet of the kamandalam, blinding Lord Sukran.Sukran was angry with him and cursed him. It was believed that Vishnu worshipped Shiva and was relieved. Then he stayed onto bless the other devotees.Shiva himself takes the position of Sukran. There was no separate idol of sukran.Brahma is said to have a got a vision of Shiva's marriage with Parvathi. There is one such idol where both shiva and Parvathi together.Also there are dance images of Lors Shiva. Here too Lord Shiva is said to have blessed a sage(Oops .. Forgot his name) with a vision of him in dance posture.
Incidents:
This navagraha temple was not that crowded.Everyone is scared of Saniswara only , I guess.
Suryanar Koil
History:
At the entrance, a horse-the divine vehicle of Lord Sun welcomed us.The main mandir enshrining the Sun-God is surrounded by separate shrines for each Navagraha.
The presiding deity, Sri Suryanarayanaswamy, is found inside the sanctum sanctorum with his consorts .It is built in such a way that it gets maximum rays of the sun.
When the world came into existence, the first sounfd that was heard was "Om". Surya god was born out of this.He married Suvarchala. Since she could not bear the rays of the sun, she created a shadow out of her named Chayadevi and hence the 2 wives of Lord. Surya (Often there is a concrete explanation as to why God has 2 wives - Think film makers (especially Kamal Hassan) should give it a thought before insulting the religion.
The Kol Theertha Vinayakar (Ganesha or Pillayar) shrine is a prominent sculpture here. One should worship him before and after all the navagrahs.
Incidents:
Inside the temple itself they were selling a set of 10 diyas(with ghee)(For Ganesha and the other Navgrahas).They directed us how and where to light the diyas at the appropriate places. There were many people who were clearing out all the diyas at regular intervals too. It was very beautifully organised. It was a sight to watch everyone in the temple walking with the diya plate with eyes full off bhakthi.
Raghu temple
History:
Here Raaghu Bagavan can be seen with his two consorts Nagavalli and Nagakanni together. This temple is one where Lord Siva was worshipped by Raaghu Bagavan and got relived of a curse . The MILK while being over poured over the idol, turns BLUE even today and it is really to be seen, to be believed . At the temple, they gave us a paper stating the various problems and how many diyas we should light. For a few it went to 56 diyas also.
Incidents:
During our stay at Mayavaram, we saw 2 snakes. When we shared this casually with a relative, he immediately advised us to take a trip to Raghu temple.He is supposed to be the king of serpents.
Uppiliappan koil
History:
The Lord is in the standing pose , Goddess Bhoomi Devi sitting facing north, and Markandeya is installed as if performing the rites of marriage of his daughter.
It is said that the sacred Tulasi Devi was born from the waves of the sacred Amritam in the Milky Ocean. After attaining Vishnu as her husband, she begged of him to give her the same status as Mahalakshmi.
Lakshmi was going to be born as Bhoomi Devi as Markandeya's daughter. Vishnu disguised himself as an old brahmin and was coughing continuosly.He desired that Markandeya's daughter should be given to him in marriage.The sage replied that his daughter does not even know how much salt to put while cooking.
Not able to find a solution, Markandeya wanted to worship his God, Narayana. After a long time, Markandeya was stunned to see Lord Vishnu in the form of a sage.
Incidents:
This temple also didnt feature in out itenary,but thanks to a friend of ours we got there. The prasadam we had also had no salt. We had such a good darshan of the deity that I wondered why people go all the way to tirupathi.
Guru Temple
History:
Lord Siva consumed the deadly poison (Ala Visham) , thus giving rise to the name Alangudi to this temple and the Lord came to be called as Aabathsagayar. Lord Ganesa subdued Gajamuhasuran who gave the Devas a horrid time and he thus he is worshipped here as 'Kalangaamal kaatha Vinayagar.
Incidents:
Next to saniswara temple, I would rate this temple as the most crowded .Here too there was a mad rush for lighting diyas. Here we had to light about 28 small diyas(so small that you could barely hold them). There were people and diyas all over the place. By time I finished lighting I was profusely sweating.
This ended our 3 day temple tour. We could have covered much more had we sequenced the temples in a better way.Many a times, we crossed the same place over and over again. It was 3 days away from the rut of life, the usual shopping madness in Chennai and the laptop in my house.

Why do people work after "working hours"? Too much work or too little planning. Does it depend upon which level you are in the organisation? Does it depend upon how much work you have at home? This thought often crosses me when I come across our clients. Infact , now that I ahve nothing much to study, I do not crib when I have to stay a little longer. I just start surfing the net for some information and time just runs away. Do people get paid for the hours they are expected to put in after the office hours? Generally, I have seen most women leave by 7 .30 pm but men hang around seeing cricket match scores, gossiping and of course doing some work too. I admit that I am never able to finish my work within 5 30. Is that due to procrastination? Is it because I have a laptop and I can always work on it when I go home? ??

Let me share my experience with one of our current clients. The building is of four floors each floor containing a maximum of 10 employees. There are hardly 5 women in the entire building. The accounts department is an all CA team and hence exactly knows what we know and what we dont. We only do some sort of a reporting for them and hence apparently we are not their AUDITORS!. Good heavens!! Generally, I have the habit of pullling a chair beside the client and doing my work. Seldom, I sit in the soom alloted for us. The very next day , they came up to me and literally told me to stay put in my room!!
Worse, the client has a complicated access system.Every bloody door there needs an access. Worse, the restroom is located in some floor for which you need to use the access card. When we asked the client to give us an access card , they told us that that we need to fill an application form. Heavens!!! Worse than applying for a ration card. Since you cannot leave the audit room, we just thought we can use the intercom to ask them any queries. But lo, the telephone has a password . They openly tell us that they want us to leave them soon so that they are at peace. My god! On the judgement day , God is definitely going to review the number of curses that these people have sweared on us.

Finally! 3 months and 2 weeks of preparation and exams came to an end yesterday!( hopefully it is THE End!!). This is institute is one of its kind. After 75 years of establishment, they suddenly realise that it is a professional exam that they are conducting and hence made all the questions compulsary. Since I took up a new version of the exam( third exam in the new series) and hence no trend analysis worked. It was like walking into a dark room ( that is probably the strength of any exam). There was one day break between all the exams which made it more strenuous!! 14 days of tension! Now the wait begins. They take almost two months to declare the results. Meanwhile , I have all the work in office to keep me OCCUPIED!

These are the outcomes of the session I had recently attended.
1.Even training can extend to 8!!
2.Cost cutting is also done on food (lunch).
3.They do not have the time to conduct a session for 5 days!!
4.The trainers may or may not have knowledge.
5.We should have access to the reviewer material to really understand if they have understand!!
6.What took 10 yrs for them to understand, is expected to be learnt in 4 days!!
7.Apparently we are not COMPETENT enough to comprehend the teachings!!
8.They all have authority to shout and demand attention not command respect.
9.All participants are subject to harassment (Eg: finish break in 3 min!!, otherwise you will sit late in the night)-refer point 1.
10.We are told to attend the sessions with a lot of seriousness, but they have the AUTHORITY to scrap off whatever they don’t want to conduct(rather not patient enough to conduct).

But I have to accept that there were a few sessions which were enlightening but that was partly due to the nature of the topic and the level of participation.