Epilogue 6 - South Trip after Kailash Mansarovar Yatra

Swamimalai and Chennai

Early morning next day, we went to nearby Cauvery river which was in full flow. There was a nice, clean, safe place to get down into the water. Though I am not used to river-bathing, I could not resist the temptation of the feel of cool cauvery water on me - my brother, my niece Shreya, my nephew Anuj, my cousin Chalapathy came with me. We all got into the water which was waist deep and spent more than an hour in the cool, warm, fresh, flowing water of Cauvery. Shreya knows swimming and she swam in the water. We all tried keeping our head under the water without breathing as long as possible - none of us could exceed 20 to 25 seconds...

Returning home fresh, relaxed and real hungry we polished off the venpongal with chutney in one go! We all ensured that those who did not come with us to Cauvery were left feeling bad with our description of the water, how we enjoyed etc. etc...I heard that my paternal grandmother is an ace swimmer and she could swim from one bank to other bank of the river with ease.  I should learn swimming before I turn 55!

By then, my niece whose tonsure ceremony was to be done in Swamimalai temple was readied with silk skirt and blouse. We all left for Swamimalai temple - which was seeing too much crowd that day due to some special festival. My brother had organised the function very well - hence, without much waiting, we got the tonsure conducted (Gayathri, my niece who is just 11 months old, sat quietly through this procedure without one cry and surprised all of us).

After darshan and lunch we left for Chennai around 2 pm... throughout the way boards proclaiming "asal kumbakonam filter coffee"...

Reached Mumbai next day morning, with my interest in Thevaram, Thiruvasagam renewed! Om namah Shivayah! Jeya Jeya Sankara! Hara Hara Sankara!!