Getting Theosophical!?!?!!!!!

I'm still struggling to survive in Chennai road and traffic. But the moment when i park the scooter in office and when i park in apartment at night are the most satisfactory moments i have in day. The satisfaction that i reached without any incidents. I'm still being tutored by my friend about the driving and the rules to be followed on the road. By rules, i don't mean the traffic rules implemented by the government. The rules followed by people to survive on the road. The rules i have learned so far are as follows:

1. Don't follow all the traffic rules blindly.
2. Don't give a damn about people honking horns behind you.(Which i have trouble following after driving in USA for close to 7 years where honking is very rare and only when we do some mistakes. So i still get flustered when i hear people honking behind me).
3. Don't give way to anyone. 
4. Exception to rule#3, give way only to Vehicles driven by women, because they are bad drivers and you would end up in accident and public supports only women. (This may sound little sexist or anti-feminist, but, 'Hey!!! i'm trying to be safe in road and not hurt others, so whatever tip helps me it's fine.)

I try to follow these, but in signals especially, where people try to squeeze in whatever gap they find, people keep honking me to squeeze ahead, but i'm still not comfortable to do that. So either i get scolded(which i don't hear much, thanks to helmet) or move my scooter with legs to squeeze in between vehicles. There are some places where there are no signals and after some time people lose patience and starts forcing in the oncoming traffic, it's like a war zone. One army trying not to give way and one army adamant on squeezing in and stop the oncoming traffic. One good thing is, even though i'm a bad driver, as nobody follows rules, even if i make mistakes, people adjust and get past me or avoid running into me.

This weekend also i stayed in Chennai, so i wanted to visit some new places this weekend. After the visit to the Anna Centennial Library last weekend, this weekend i decided to visit the Theosophical Society in Adyar which is just 4 kms from my place. Before going there i read something about Theosophy to get some introduction about it. First of all, it is different from Chrsitian/Boehmian Theosophy and its called Blavatskian Theosophy named after its founder. Is it a Religion? The answer is both 'Yes' and 'No'. It combines all the religions and mentions there is one absolute God and promotes Universal Brotherhood and that there was an ancient religion which will be revived and spread throughout humanity in the future, replacing dominat world religions like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism etc.The more i read about, it did indeed sounded like a religion. So i really didn't know what to expect there. Anyway it was open to visitors only 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, so i thought i will just cover the gardens if nothing else was there to my interest. 

Saturday my friend was also available, so we both went decided to go. Before leaving we were checking if any memberships are required or any entry fees etc. It was mentioned in their site that there are restrictions on Saturday like 'No Young couples allowed'. I guess they mean unmarried young couples.  I don't blame them for this rule. Anyone in India would understand why that rule was in place ;). If not, you should take a walk in some public park and see how young couples behave. I don't blame young couples in India also, they don't have much place to hangout. 

When we reached the entrance, the gate was closed, but i could see just then an Uber car entered with some foreigners. I got down from my scooter and went to the gate and called the security to open the gate. He gave me a look like "What do you want?". I said we're here to visit the Theosophical Society, and asked whether we came in wrong timing. He said its open now and looked behind me and asked "No girlfriend right?". I said "No, its just us guys". Then he opened the gate and behind us there were a couple on a bike whom he didn't let in. 

Only the garden and some historical buildings portion was open to the public and certain areas were open to only the Members of Theosophical Society. Inside it was very calm and peaceful. We couldn't believe we were in Chennai. You never hear that much silence anywhere in the city, except for occasional birds sound. It had few Banyan trees which must have been there for over a 100 years and we couldn't find where it primary trunk was. There were other trees which we normally find in villages and some i never heard or seen before such as Punnai maram(Alexandrian Laurel tree), Poovarasa maram(Indian Tulip tree), Magila maram(Bakula Tree/Spanish Cherry Tree), Badam Maram(Almond tree), Nagalinga maram(Cannonball Tree), Arali maram, Mavilangam(Garlic Pear Tree), Puliyamaram(Tamarind tree), Chembaruthi chedi(Hibiscus Plant), Aanai kunthamani (Coral wood tree), Kaattalari maram(Suicide tree), kalli mantharai(Temple tree) etc. You could cover an entire botany class in that garden.

In addition to these, there was a coconut plantation and it looked exactly like a village. If anyone in Chennai who has never seen a village, you can check this out. And i saw a tree full of bats, sleeping upside down which i was seeing for the first time. I was little scared that one or two might wake up and come and bite me. Saw a couple of parrots sitting in a tree too. 

There was a Hindu temple, a Mosque, a Catholic Church, a Buddhist Shrine, a Sikh Shrine and a Zoroastrian temple inside the garden. Most of them were locked, so we couldn't enter any. There were few buildings built in 1800s and one building had the statues and logos and many different religions and their respective religious figures with a phrase "There is no religion higher than the truth" printed in the middle of the room. Some meeting was supposed to happen, so the security was rushing us off from that place. Many foreigners who are members of the society visit there it seems. After all this was first founded in Newyork and then the headquarters was moved to Adyar(the place we visited). Annie Besant was its President for 26 years(1907-1933) until her death it seems. I remember her name from my childhood textbooks as supporter of Indian Independence. Never knew this side of her. There was a bookshop and a library, both containing only books related to Theosophy and all the religions.

Overall it was a nice place just to hangout for couple of hours, especially for families, considering no young couples allowed ;).  And i still don't exactly understand what Theosophy means and what exactly they do there now. I guess you can know only if you're a member. But for general public, whatever they allow for general public is enough to spend couple of hours.

After we completed the visit by 4, i didn't want to go to room soon, so we searched for any places nearby and found that the Broken Bridge is nearby and decided to visit that. It's a bridge, as name suggests leads no where, a broken bridge. It was built in 1967 to connect fisherman from Adyar side to the other side. The fishermen who worked in harbour would then take bicycles, tricycles, rickshaw to cross the bridge. After the bridge was broken in 1977 due to strong currents of Adyar river, it was never repaired after and became a spot for youth to hangout and to see sunrise/sunset. It was used in many movies(by which i came to know about this) such as Ayutha Ezhuthu where Suriya and Madhavan fight. So the main reason i wanted to visit the bridge was just as nerdy movie fan.

From Ayutha Ezhuthu

Me

After taking a couple of pics, there wasn't much to do there. Had to leave soon because of the foul smell. On Sunday i visited the Anna Centennial library for couple of hours and i guess i will go for atleast few hours on any weekend i'm in Chennai. 

Next weekend i may go to my hometown, so it will take some time for the next blog.

Badminton, we're still playing once or twice in the week. But should increase the frequency for it to have any effect in reducing weight.

Reading Challenge is at 17/30, still 4 books behind schedule. Have to complete 13 books in 13 weeks exactly. I should apply some force on the accelerator to complete that. 

See you in the next blog with some new (hopefully interesting)experience or stories....

Started Driving and Reading!!!!

Since the incident I mentioned in my last post, I have traveled twice in bus - to my hometown and to Bengaluru. Both times I made sure I followed things properly to avoid the occurrence of same incident again and I'm glad to say it didn't happen.

Also, I finally got the Yamaha Ray ZR Scooter which I booked this week on Wednesday 12/09/2018 after a long delay. The reasons for the delay were: 

i) There was a rule change which imposes that the new vehicles should have 5 years insurance instead of current one year limit, so the dealers were asking for some extension for them to implement this rule. 

ii) The usual delay which happens in any paperwork 

iii) Superstitious reasons such as I shouldn't buy or receive a new vehicle on Tuesday which I'm not supposed to ask why. So even though the scooter was ready for pickup on Tuesday, I had to pick it up on Wednesday.

For the past 3-4 days, I'm driving the vehicle with my friend in the backseat guiding me to and fro from room to office. As expected I struggled(ling) a lot. I couldn't balance in the first place. I leave so much gap between my vehicle and the vehicle in front of me, that cars are entering and filling the space in between. Moreover, I get scared a lot when suddenly some one comes in front of me or overtakes me and I loose balance immediately. My friend almost lost his cool a couple of times due to my driving. First day I went to office and came back to room safely, without any damage to me or the vehicle. But unfortunately my shoes got worn down because I kept touching both my feet on the road while driving , whenever I loose balance. Good I didn't start driving with my slippers on.

The 2nd day, I scraped onto a another bike and fortunately there was no damage incurred to either the vehicle or the person riding it, but i got slightly injured on my foot. After that, my friend was skeptical to sit behind me any more and mostly he drove for the next couple of days if he was with me. I drove only when I went somewhere alone. After that, not many incidents have happened and I'm driving somewhat ok now.

For the last two weekends I was not in Chennai, so this weekend I thought I will stay back and will definitely visit some place. I started checking few places where I can go for the weekend. I wanted to go to Higginbothams, the book store in Mt.Road ever since I came to Chennai, so that was on my list. Then I found this place called Theosophical society near Adyar, which seems like a very calm place to hang out. Theosophy means study of God or nature, something like that. Then the 3rd place in my list was the 'Anna Centennial Library' in Kotturpuram. A bookstore, a theosophical garden and a library. Just mentioning these options to my colleagues, they looked at me like I'm a nerd or a nut job. I finally decided to go the library. All the bachelor friends I know in Chennai, are the ones with whom I'm sharing the apartment. One friend was busy getting married this week. So I asked another to accompany me to the library on Sunday. Only because I'm not confident enough to drive alone to a new place yet.

On Sunday, as expected my friend backed out citing some other appointment. But I was sure that I wasn't going to spend entire weekend just sleeping in my room. So I told him that I'm going alone. He warned me to take the auto as he is still not confident about my driving. But I told I will drive properly and took off alone. It was just 8 kms away from my home and before leaving I checked the route properly. Surprisingly I reached there in 10 mins without bumping into anyone.

I parked the scooter in the parking lot and got very excited to enter the building. Its an 8 storey building which all belonged to the library. There is a self-book-reading section in the ground and first floor and there were many people in there reading, writing etc. The entire building was pretty silent. I went up to the 2nd floor which is dedicated wholly to Tamil books. Once I entered that floor, I couldn't contain my excitement. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Everything I saw, I wanted to taste it. Historical fictional works by authors like Kalki, Sandilyan, recent books by Vairamuthu, Jeyamohan, books on Tamil history, Indian history, short stories, Novellas, novels, articles, essays, Sangam Literature along with explanation, Tamil epics, even translation of famous other language books such as War and Peace, one shelf just for books about Periyar, one shelf just for books about Anna and one for books written by Anna, Indian constitution, Right to information Act and many law related books all in Tamil. It was overwhelming. I spent almost an hour just looking around thinking 'I wanted to read this', 'I didn't knew these books exist', 'i would like to read these', 'wowww...this is too much to take'. I felt dizzy actually by looking at that floor full of Tamil books.

Then I told myself that I shouldn't waste my time in just browsing and should actually start reading something. So I started the first book which caught my attention the moment I entered, which is a book titled 'Kandeebam', written by Jeyamohan as a part of series called "Venmurasu" based on characters from Mahabharatha. He has written 18 of these and this 'Kandeebam' was the 8th book. This book is about Arjuna, his 4 wives and his bow Kandeebam. I started reading in the same floor, they had many sofas and tables with A/c on, so it was very comfortable to sit and read. Only problem was that I had cold and I was coughing and sneezing every now and then and I couldn't sit and cough there, disturbing others. So I was rushing to the restroom every 15-20 minutes to clear my throat, nose etc and thus couldn't read in a flow.  So with this intermittent  disturbance, I read till 7PM and completed around 90 pages. The library doesn't lend books, so I couldn't check out any. I think that's actually better, because people won't be responsible enough in returning the books on time or in good condition or pay the dues properly. It anyway works out for me as the Library is nearby and I can manage to drive now. I can come whenever I'm free and sit and read in a peaceful environment.

Before leaving I went to the 4th floor to see if it has all the English novels which I want to read and to my happiness, everything I was looking for were there. And with the computers in each corners and proper indexing, it wasn't difficult to locate the books either. I couldn't believe it's a public library in Chennai. Wish they could also maintain the washrooms. Some portions of the building are still under construction and I think there's a conference room, amphitheater etc. There was a food court too and an Aavin Milk(similar to Dairy queen) parlor inside the building. So yes, I finally found the perfect place where I can read peacefully. If you can't find me in my office or in room in Chennai, now you know where I'll be.

My book count now is at 16/30 and i'm still 4 books behind schedule, but now I have hopes that I'll catch up soon.

Badminton, I didn't play much in the last couple of weeks. Should continue that properly.

Now that I'm driving, I'm hoping to explore new places and things to do. Going all Solo! Let's see how it goes....