Papanasanam Temple, Tirunelveli

Well, it’s my hometown – Papanasam in Tirunelveli district. The town Papanasam itself is named after the lord Shiva who stays here as the “Papanasanathar (the redeemer of sins)”.  This famous Shiva temple is located at the right bottom of Western Ghats and also on the banks of River Tamirabarani.

It’s located about 45 Kms from Tirunelveli and surrounded by tourist places like Agasthiyar Falls, Maanjoli Estate, 3 beautiful dams (Karaiyar, Servalar & Manimuthar), Vaanatheertham Falls and many….

Moolavar                             :               Papanasanathar / Kalyana Sundarar
Amman / Thayar              :               Ulagammai
Thala Virutcham               :               Villvam
Old year               :               :               1500-2000 years old

Sthalapuranam (History of the Temple):
Due to the heavy crowd gathered for the wedding of lord Shiva and Parvathy devi, Earth lost its balance and the south part of it started tilting. Lord Shiva called-up the Saint Agasthya to go to Pothigai Hills in the South and to balance the Earth level as his single weight was enough for the purpose equaling the weight of the millions of Rishis at Mount Kailash then. Sage Agasthiya also did the same on a requesting Shiva to show-up his marriage darshan.

On the first day of Chithirai month (Chithirai Visu - falling almost on April 14 each year), Lord granted the Wedding Darshan to Sage Agasthya. Lord Papanasanatha graces the Wedding Darshan behind the sanctum sanctorum as Kalyanasundarar on His bull vehicle. Sage Agasthya and his wife Lopamudra are in the shrine worshipping the Lord.

Speciality / Festivals:
Every year, the 10day long Chitrai Vishu festival is celebrated so grand. The ninth day is the car festival. Then on the tenth day, the floating festival (theppam) takes place. It’s belived that if we take bath in the river opposite the Papansam temple, it is equivalent to taking bath in Kaasi and all our sins will be gone.  Another famous festival “Adi Ammavasai” is also celebrated in the month of July and lakhs of people gather there.

How to reach: From all Major cities, buses/trains are available to Tirunelveli. Papanasam is about 45 Kms from Tirunelveli . You can travel by bus, there are so many govt and private buses available from Tirunelveli to Papanasam

Last Vegas (2013)

Four Hollywood legends Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline play four childhood friends, who are currently at their 60+ , reunite to celebrate the bachelor party of their friend - Douglas (a long term bachelor :) )  at Las Vegas.

If you expect an elderly version of "The Hangover" , sure you'll be disappointed…”., this movie is a lot different. It has a strong friendship, love, humour, fun, drama... all mixed up in a proper proportion.

Douglas & De Niro show you a touching relationship drama, while Freeman & Kline provide the gentle dose of humor. There is Mary Steenburgen who gave up her past life to become an aged lounge singer and changes the life of two of the men.

The film also captures Vegas pretty well, maybe not every aspect, but enough to make you feel like as you were there in Vegas for the 90 minutes. I'm really surprised why this movie was so underrated? Seems even Hollywood critics too give good scores only to the long boring movies like Gravity, or Prisoners... :P

What happened to AirAsia Flight QZ 8501

Just saw the news of AirAsia Flight QZ 8501 flying from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 passengers gone missing :(.  Isn’t the 3rd such incident this year in the South East Asia, and all of them focused on Malaysia. Air Asia is also a Malaysian Registered Airliner.

I am not a regular flyer. But still since I have flown in this route in a day time once, It’s really surprising for me to know that an airbus can disappear on such busy and short route. The waters between Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia are filled with passenger and cargo ships, sky is busy with flights and these countries are so close to one another (with several land masses in between them). A crash in such area would definitely be seen by someone. It is more than 24 hours and still there is no news of what happened. I hate to believe in conspiracy theories but this is really strange.

It is very sad and shame on us that we are unable to trace missing planes in spite of advance technology we have today. We have reached planets like Moon & Mars but failed to trace planes which are flying just 30-40K feet high.

We fly thinking it is one of the safest means of transportation with all modern technologies and monitoring but this has been 5th fetal crash this year :(

Why to pay extra for using Social Networks ?

That's great. Now pay extra for using social service. Read more: Airtel wants you to pay extra for using Skype, Viber, more - Hindustan Times

When the Telecom Regulation Authority of India (TRAI) had already quashed a proposal from Indian telecom companies to charge over-the-top players like Whatsapp and Viber extra "connectivity charges. Does this makes sense now?

How will you react if you are asked to pay for electricity at different rates for different appliances you use? This is exactly what Airtel intends to do!. And it’s not just the Airtel,, soon all the other operators will also follow the same or even poorer strategy.

Let’s see what TRAI does!

Social Media Explained !

RIP: K.Balachander - The King Maker !

Tamil Cinema has faced many unparalled losses in the year 2014. The great - Balu Mahendra, Filmmaker Rama Narayanan, SS Rajendran ….. and now the Iyakunar Sigaram - KB (K. Balachander) :(

I am not a big fan of KB. But still admire his ability to pick new people and in nurturing their talent. He’s not only a unique director who scripted a new genre of films with brave social themes., but also a master to have picked and mentored many legends of Tamil cinema.

He’s the one who introduced/made Superstar Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Nazar, Mohan, Prakash Raj, and A.R.Rahman ... to name a few. (Director Maniratnam may get the pride for introducing Rahman, but it’s KB who is the producer of the movie “Roja” and paid 1st salary for Rahman). All these people have become legends in their lifetime., what a talent KB had to pick and shine these people’s talent!

RIP KB sir. You may not be present physically with us, but your contributions to Tamil cinema will remain forever.

Hate giving reasons..

PK (2014)

Aamir – Hirani partnership has worked out well again!. After the mass success of 3 Idiots, the duo has joined together and delivered a very brave attempt as PK.

I feel the movie is so apt of the moment; where we see a lot of looting and cheating in the name of gods. We Indians are oversensitive about our religious feelings and sometimes so blind on the faith in god., and that’s why we see new-new godmen/women popping out at every corner of the nation, crawling out for money.

Hirani has quirkily riveted our ignorance through a character of an alien – PK. A very serious topic is delivered yet again in a most comical and colloquial manner. Aamir as the alien – PK., has completely capture the audience. Anushka as a TV reporter helps PK – to fight against a fraud godmen. Sanjay Dutt and  Boman Irani has played some cameo.

The message of the movie is very strong, but the screenplay is not so strong. Especially the 2nd half slows down a lot and feels like a TV serial. But it’s that single man – Aamir consistently keeps you awake and ensures “All is well” for Hirani. Truly, this is one of the best performances of Amair, and undoubtedly one of the good films of the year.

Lingaa Experience

This post is not a review of Rajinikanth’s “Lingaa Movie”. There are million other sites and bloggers to write about it, or I should I say – have written already (before even the movie got screened in India :P ). I just recollect my connect to Rajni movie releases here.

Rajinikanth’s films are not just movies. It’s an experience.

I love that experience start from my childhood. One that will make you scream, whistle, blast and just go crazy. You’ll experience the magic only in theatres, will never get it if you watch in DVD.Rajni movies are the only ones that I hold a record of watching only in theatres. Have never missed the fun, start from his one of the bests “Thalapathi”., let me be in Tirunelveli or Chennai or Bangalore – even when I was in the US.

Lingaa experience too did not disappoint me. Infact I am so happy this time, since we had a new fan joined us to cheer for thalivar -  my 3.5 years old daughter :P