Dharasuram…. Our exploits

Dharasuram…. Our exploits

I decide to go on a ride someplace. No classes. No work. No assignments. Nothing to do, but sitting at the shop and chatting up people.
I don’t know where to go. I go to Suresh’s place to get my camera and he suggests Dharasuram, a temple of the Chola era, being restored as a World Heritage Site. Its about 100 km from Trichy, near Kumbakonam.
Its about 1.30 in the afternoon and me and VVD leave college on our motorcycle. Its blazing hot. VVD starts being his own creative self, right from the first km of our ride.
“My bag goes wherever I go”, he starts off. And I know the ride is going to be fun.
We go fill up petrol and check air and off we go. After filling up petrol, I ask VVD who owns HCL Technologies, the company in which he is going to work in a month. I was not disappointed. I got a extensive report on its promoter, operations, business arms, competitive advantages and distinctive advantages. We had covered 20 kms.
There is a police check post on the way to Tanjore. A bus is waiting to pass through and I overtake it at a very slow speed. This guy spits on my feet from inside of the bus. I mutter something nasty at him, whoever that guy was. I stop at the check post and ask the constable for some water to clean my feet. I do that and the report on HCL resumes, in a poetic and intellectually inspired manner from VVD.
Just as we are done with HCL, VVD remembers that he had a Emerging Trends in IT class the previous morning. He decides to enlighten me on Dot Net, the new basher from Microsoft that will apparently eat up Java, and is doing just that. That dot net exists and means so much to the IT sector was news for me. In VVD’s style, it was like the word from the horse’s mouth. I could not question anything!
We got hungry some 40 kms from home. So we stop for coffee at a shop in a village. We ended up having parathas and chicken, made in the traditional south Indian way. This is a funny episode. The server gives us 2 parathas each and goes off to fetch the kurma. He returns and finds the parathas lying wholesome. So the server does the service of tearing them into eatable pieces and pours kurma on them. We make it into a workable mixture and manouver around the plantain leaf and eat it. The next round of parathas arrive. We sit simply, expecting him to tear the parathas. This time around, the server thinks we are bums and just pours the kurma on the untouched parathas and leaves. I look at VVD and his lower lip pouts out like a kid’s, when something of it is taken away. Such an innocent expression coming from the face of a 25 year old guy!
We move on, after a heavy lunch and a cold drink. Feeling sleepy. We cross Tanjore without calamity and reach the bypass around Tanjore. The road has so many turns and major intersections that we had to ask so many people the way around. And VVD comes to my help even now. I usually stop the bike and ask “anna, which way to kumbakonam”. But VVD shouts “Kumbakonam anna!!!!” at the top of his voice. He startled the wits of one person and he scared off a poor man struggling to pedal his rickshaw.
We had to stop again, for some refreshments, for the heat was killing us. We drink coffee and water and reach Dharasuram. We ask our way to the temple and we find that the temple opens pnly at 4 pm. It was only 3.30 then. So we walk around the stonewalls of the temple and we find a way into the temple through the construction site. The walk and the corridors of the temple are paved with stone and its HOT! We run to the nearest shade and we are not disappointed with our efforts. Its cool under the shade and we walk around the corridors.
I will describe the temple now. It is a very ancient temple and it has very intricate sculptures and very fine work on stone. It’s a Shaivaite temple, the presiding deity being Lord Shiva as Iravadheeshwarar. The shrine is protected by the Archeological Survey of India and is a UNESCO World Heritage Monument. The latter is funding the restoration work. They were giving serial numbers to the various stones and literally taking the temple apart and putting it back in shape. The pillars are carved so well and so intricately. The shrine is devoid of any visitors, at this hour. So we have it all to ourselves.
We find an opening in the ceiling, and a ladder conveniently near. So we decide to go on to the roof. We go there and take some snaps and look at the temple’s tower from close quarters. It’s so quiet and desolate. Awesome feeling it was. Then someone among the construction workers orders us down from the terrace, and scolds us for going up there. I have never been on a temple terrace before. It was definitely worth the abuses sustained, and the shaky ladder!
We climb down and generally walk through the temple. We reach the sanctum sanctorum. We pray and meditate for some time. And we sit on some steps and take photographs of ourselves. Our VVD made it a point to talk personally to every deity within the temple premises. He even became the royal DJ at the dance hall of the temple. He even mixed a new number in his vocal chords right there. Hats off to his creative mind!
In the same hall, there was a spot where there was light permeating through a small glass window on the ceiling. It created an effect of a spotlight in the otherwise dark room. VVD stood under the light, with arms reaching for the light, like a prophet or like a rock star seeking ecstasy through the light. I did the same thing, but never even got close to aura that VVD was able to create at the spot.
We walk out of the temple, thirsty and tired. There is another temple at Patteeswaram, some 5-6 kms from here. Supposedly a temple of similar dates and dimensions. But we decide not to go there and go to a shop, where I devour a liter of cold water and VVD drinks a Pepsi.
We start back and I decide to drive fast and we are barreling down the road. Overtaking everybody. I don’t know why, but every buffalo and goat near the road tried to get itself killed at my hands. Had to brake hard so many times.
We crossed Tanjore and I had to fill up petrol. I decide to do it at the next petrol bunk, rather than backtracking into Tanjore. We keep coming toward home, when a very weird thing happens. We run out of gas!
The eternal rider in me wakes up! I hitch a ride with a motor cyclist and reach the next village, buy some kerosene mixed petrol and get a lift from some truck and get back to my bike in 15 min. we start off again. We stopped at the petrol bunk. It was just 2 kms further from the spot where we had been stranded.
We get back to college in one piece. And I take a warm shower and I walk out of my room, in a clean shirt and jeans. Feels so good. To be back after a brief break, feeling fresh and new. It’s a beautiful life.