thiruvannamalai

just a few weeks back i had a sudden unforeseen call from arunachala. Sumanth was also very excited, he being a great lover of Ramana thoughts. It was a Friday and we left Mysore at 12 noon. we drove to Bangalore and was supposed to join Jayanthy (My cousin) and family and continue our journey from there. but there was a small change of plan and we straight away drove to t'malai on the Hosur road. as usual the Bangalore traffic was irritating and we could get out of it only after two hours. Sumanth was pointing to certain road repair work that was going on and said that he is seeing it ever since he was a child!!.

After reaching Krishnagiri, we were pleasantly surprised to see the 6 to 8 lane roads with modern toll. prani and shravan were very excited to see these things that too after seeing various English movies on the TV, they were seeing the same here in India and that too in Krishnagiri!!!.

After Krishnagiri, the road suddenly took a turn for the worst. These roads had petrol bunks in dozens but no hotels for food or refreshments. we had some thing to eat after hosur so did not feel hungry.

we reached T''malai at 10 PM. We were booked in a resort called sparsha by Hari ( Jayanthi's Mr.) this place was very enchanting and very well decorated in a ethnic fashion. Once we entered the reception, suddenly a few dothi clad shining people took out maligai poo garland and garlended all of us. It was so funny!. One thing that we noticed in the reception was the sofa set that was made of banana fibres. It was fantastic.The buildings were very well designed with low cost materials and was made to look very ethnic but with full luxury. there was a kapi kadai decorated with cinema posters and with copper boilers just like the shops on the tamil nadu village roads.
The lawn and the garden were excellent and was lighted up in a dull manner.In the background rose the grand arunachala mountain that was a awesom sight. There was a light drizzle and the whole place was such unbelievable.

After we took our room, we had our food in the restaurant that was cooked fresh only for us (Since we were the only guests that day at that time) As usual the cooking and serving took so long we thought that the people were gone off to plant vegges and harvest the same !!

After we came back to the room,............. Now about the room ........ Very clean with full of snow spotless whitedrapes and bed covers. The room had various books about Arunachala and Ramana and certain books on spirituality. The room was also very well designed with low cost items and Sumanth was much interested in seeing each and every low cost idea. There was a bay window through which we could directly see the mountain in full view. Till now we did not have any idea what was in store the next day.

Jayanthi, Hari, their two children and Hari's mother arrived at 12 PM. We had a small meeting and decided to leave the room exactly at 3 A.M. the next morning.

We went to sleep peacefully that day.

The next morning........................................