It was Saturday morning, and we were already thinking of what we'll do on Sunday morning. It was a long time since we went on a drive, so we chose Lepakshi, which was ideal for our travel from Bangalore. We started at 9:30 a.m. On one stretch of the road, we saw Gulmohar trees, beautifully lined up. I was wondering, if only Bangalore had those dwindling Gulmohar trees that we used to see in the 90s... Ah! those were the days when we actually "LIVED" :-(.
Coming back to Lepakshi, my parents got so excited, that they woke up at 5 a.m. And guess what? They were packing (for lunch) ghee rice in separate containers for four of us! And, they made appalam (pappad), jackfruit chips, and my father made onion and tomato raita on the spot! And what more? For snacks (it was as if we were going to a picnic to just have food), we had roasted groundnuts, chikki, and mangoes (again they were cut on the spot!). So overall, we had a gastronomic adventure.
We started at 9:30, and reached at around 12:00 p.m at Lepakshi. We first saw the statue of the Nandi bull. It was a huge Nandi, carved out of a monolithic stone.
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| The Nandi bull |
Then, we went to a small pond near the Nandi bull. It was a gorgeous pond, filled with Lotus flowers.
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| Lotus pond near Nandi |
We spent some time here, clicking pictures, and then we headed to the Lepakshi temple. We were not allowed to take pictures of the main deity. But, one of their main attractions is a multi-hooded serpent. We also saw something strange there, which I never knew. We saw 3 followers of Lord Shiva: a Spider, a person named Kannappa, and an elephant. Pictures below:
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| Multi-hooded serpent |
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| Devotees of Lord Shiva |
We also saw a pleasant and airy temple corridor. If I were a kid, I would have run around!
Finally, we went out of the temple, and we saw a huge number of shops. We peeped into one, where we bought a small deity of Shiva. We saw a huge market, where my parents bought mangoes. We were tired standing in the sun, so, we decided to head off from Lepakshi around 1:45 p.m. On the way back, we had lunch somewhere where there was shade. This was the place where my father cut onions and tomatoes to make a proper salad! Oh! I forgot, while in the car, we had continuos flow of roasted ground nuts, chikki, some mixture, and loads of things!
We reached back @4:30. All in all, it was a pleasant trip. We didn't need to face the wrath of the sun, but I would advise to carry a pair of socks (since inside the temple, we are not allowed to wear socks) and plenty of water (since you won't find water in the route we travelled at least).
