Temple trip... again!

While the koftas ( I was talking about in the previous post) came out well, I just recollected the items I cooked this month..
Chutney wale aaloo
Veg kofta
Chinese noodles and veg manchurian (for the gravy I used knorr)
Shahi Paneer

I think I am becoming more and more confident of experimentation with cooking!
(I ll post the recipes shortly)

And here I m... Just reached home after a two day trip to our native and couple of other temples.
Well, always,the trip planning always starts with "just couple of" temples and we end up planning to see about half a dozen... which was the case again... And each temple has it s own story and own speciality.

But anyways, enjoyed every bit of it... Happened to see 2 new temples this time... One was just amazing.. It was in Mayiladudurai... Govindaraja Perumal Temple. The architecture of this temple was really superb... It was such a huge one.. But, like many temples here, not well maintained. Also, they have an idol of Lord krishna, which u can hold in hand and pray for whatever u want, while the priest will be doing some chanting.

Our first temple was Thiruvalliangudi...
It is believed that if we visit this temple, it is equivalent to have visited all the (108) divya desams. (This is a huge list of temples of Lord Vishnu which lot of people visit and keep marking off the list... )

Then we went to Tittai (Near Thanjavur). Here there are two temples... One for Lord Krishna and the other one for Lord Shiva (this place is Gurusthalam.. meaning one of the navagrahas). The Krishna temple has this special Lord Anjaneya to whom u can pray for something and write it in a paper and tie it in the temple along with a coconut... U should treasure the receipt number u get and come back after ur wish is fulfilled and remove the coconut followed by an "archana" to God.

Then, Uppiliappan Temple (near kumbakonam) is the "usual" temple. And this time it was more special because they had done a special pooja (Sambrokshanai) and it is supposed to be very good to visit this place within 48 days of this spl pooja. The unique thing here is the "prasadam" is made without salt. The reason is a story in which Lord Vishnu had to marry the Goddess who had taken the form of a small girl. The girl's father told the Lord that she does not even know how much salt to put while cooking, for which the Lord agreed to eat without salt.

Then we also went to Ragusthalam nearby. Here the special thing is "ragu kaala poojai" in which milk is poured over the deity during raagukaalam.

After taking rest in the night, we started our way in the morning and went to two temples...
One was Govindaraja Perumal Temple and the other one was kethu sthalam. In this Kethu sthalam (near poompukar), we can light 7 diyas and pray.

Had a hectic and nice and peaceful trip....

Oh! look at me... talking of cooking... and temples... Looks like I am growing old!
:)
I dont mind... cos I believe that we need to keep changing... for good :)

Bye,
Prabha