Reached Hyderabad

Yes, we are in Hyderabad. The flight from Boston to London was quiet. The service as usual was good. Food was so so. Srikanth suggested that I have a Bagel before we boarded. Gayatri packed a Chappathi. We had both - so the Airline's food was not enjoyed. The middle seat was vacant, hence we could stretch our legs better. The lay over in London was 6 hours. It felt very long. Rao was watching TV whenever he could.
Once we boarded the flight to Hyderabad, we sat in the plane on the runway for a long time. The plane was filled with noisy Indians (!!!). Many infants and toddlers. Continuos crying and restlessness. I was thinking od Sharanya who will be travelling soon. But she being a gem of a baby, may not cry and instead may charm everyone - these were my thoughts. The pilot announced many times that there was a problem in loading the luggage and hence there was going to be a few minutes delay. Those many apologies and announcements added upto a 2 hour delay.
We reached Hyd. 1 1/2 hours late. The food was great. Juices and water were continuously served. The staff was charming. My next seat was occupied by a young woman from Chicago. Her parents and siblings all live in Hyd. We had great conversation and I took her e-mail address.
The new airport is huge, but due to thick fog, I could not see the surroundings much. We took a Taxi to Secunderabad. The first 10 kms, everything looked clean and beautiful. Suddenly, it hit reality. Stray pigs pulling garbage out from corners, people dumping their household garbage on to the streets etc. The civic sense, I felt, was the same as it was 40 years ago. As long as the garbage left your house, you don't worry about it's destination. My next post will be about co-existance in Hyerabad.

Yatra 3 - preface

This time, we plan to see Mahalakshmi in Kolhapur, the other 8 Jyothirlingams and Ashta Vinayakas in Maharashtra, Dwaraka in Gujarat, Ayodhya, Naimisharanya, Varanasi and Puri Jagannatha. On Sivarathri, we plan to be ibn Varanasi. We collected the sands from Rameswaram and it will taken to the Visweswara in Varanasi.

In addition, Nirmala's wish is to go to Srisailam again. That we will do first since it would make the three of us visiting all the 12 Jyothirlingams together. The Tungabhadra pusharams begin on Dec 10th or so. We want to have a dip in that river at that time. We plan to meet Nirmala in Kurnool and proceed on our journey from there. This time, we have some wonderful people taking care of our house in our absence.

As usual, our trip began with our driving to Boston area to be with our daughter and family for a few days and fly to Hyderabad from Boston. On the way we visited the Rajarajeswari Temple in Rush, NY briefly. Visit the site at www.srividya.org for details about the Temple.