Route to Lekapshi is Bangalore - Chikkabalapur - andhra border - a small village (Chilamattur, name courtesy Phani!) - diversion for 14 km - Lepakshi.
Where that village comes, what that diversion is, I would have surely been in soup if not for the all knowledgable Phani.
Well, sunday morning Nirmal and I started at 6.45, picked up Phani enroute and pushed off. Ride was smooth for most part, thanks to the new roads being laid for the BIAL! We finally reached "the small village" at around 10 after a slow pleasure drive. There is an AP Tourism punnami restaurant on the highway and we had some good breakfast and coffee. From there the diversion is 14 km long and going by the view I got at the entry, I thought we were done for. But soon the road smoothened up and even on that single road, one can coolly move at around 50 kmph. So, finally we reached Lepakshi and right at the start of the village you have the Lepakshi Nandi.
The Lepakshi Nandi is the biggest monolith (carved out of a single stone) nandi in India. It is really colossal and was carved in place. We started taking pics and giving out various poses. We came across a good guide who explained us all about the history of the location, the architectural values, the carvings on the Nandi and the logic/history behind them and so on. It was nice to pick up all the history in a very efficiently narrated summary. After that we just went to nearby rocks and took more photos and giving out more poses. Nobody could stop Nirmal!
Behold, outside there was lot of commotion, people getting down in buses and whole lot of activity. We came to know that this is the constituency where NTR stood while elections back then and now Balakrishna is gearing up to repeat the history. Tarakaratna was coming there during the later half of the day and so all this commotion! The Balayya fan in me was really excited to hear about it! I loved to see all those cutouts and posters put all around the place!
After chilling out (or should I say heating up, it was pretty hot!) at the Nandi, we moved on to the main temple. We intially had pooja done and then got ready to explore the temple' architecture. One poojari of the temple volunteered to give us a guided tour. We owe many thanks to him too. The temple has several small carvings which people like us can neither notice nor appreciate without they pointing things to us. Some of the carvings were really intelligent and one has to bow to the creativity of the sculptors! I had heard that Lepakshi has a hanging pillar and it was one of the main reasons I was willing to come down here.
Then I got to see it! It was really hanging. History says that it was totally hanging till 1902 when one british architect wanted to find out more about it and moved it a bit. This slight movement caused several cracks and twists in the nearby pillars and only then he could fully comprehend the architectural importance of it and left it alone. So, this pillar touches now the land slightly in one corner, so you cant actually pass a full cloth right through it, but still it is wonderful to see such marvels.
After a long guided tour and chilling out it was time to come back. We passed a scenic spot enroute and stopped to get some good youthful snaps. After that, a nice lunch at a dhaba and then to Nandi Hills.
We reached Nandi Hills at 5.30 around and it was really awesome. The hill was totally covered in clouds. We could see the ground underneath as a lush green patch and clouds floating away below us. View was breath taking and Nirmal coming there for the 1st time, was overjoyed. We also had a look at the birthplace of the Arkavathi river. We spent about an hour there, had a nice coffee and started back.
The return journey was peaceful. I dropped off Phani enroute, back home, a nice refreshing bath, ordered and ate an american chopsuey and a good night' sleep.
I hardly had any sleep the night before and did not really think that I would have enough ammo to make the trip so long and great! But I guess its really that enthu in the team which gives you all this energy!!! It was a really refreshing enjoyable great day and I have to wholeheartedly thank Nirmal and Phani for making it one!
