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First time I am writing Travel blog. This is about my recent visit to Kalady, Kerala.

Kalady means footprint. Footprint of Adi Shankaracharya. The Poorna river followed Adi Shankaracharya, wherever He goes. Now Poorna rive is renamed as Periyar river. (The footprint reminded me about Jaeger tracing. It is a distributed tracing platform released as open source by Uber Technologies. It captures footprint of communication among microservices.)

Coming back to subject. There must be enough materials about all city, sightseeing places, etc. I am just sharing here, my experience, photos, videos and take away points. 

I visited Kalady to attend Advance Meditation Course at The Art of Living Ashram, Kalady. I noticed "Adi Sankara Keerthi Sthambha Mandapam" on the way from Railway Station to Ashram. The Ashram is really nice place. When Guruji Sri Sri Ravishankar came to ashram to inaugurate, He acknowledge that this land has special positive vibrations. It is miniature version of The Art of Living Bangalore ashram. Here, meditation Mantap is amazing. Just sit there, close eyes and you easily enters in the world of meditation. Nice full size painting of Radha Krishna. Have a look: 

The course was awesome, as usual. The special attraction were:

* birth place of Adi Shankaracharya

* NADI PUJA (worshiping the Poorna river) 

* GAU PUJA (worshiping the cow)

* sightseeing 

 The people at Ashram, perform regular NADI PUJA, GAU PUJA, RUDRA PUJA, GURU PUJA etc. We also attended the same. Here are few photos about NADI PUJA

and GuaPuja. 

Watch this video to know more about Gau Puja. 

Vallamkali: boat race, is Kerala's famous tradition. Samskrit Bharati has a nice Sanskrit song, on the tune of 'song played during boat race'. I sang that Sanskrit song during travelling to Lower Sholayar dam. Here is an old video of the song. 

Here are few photos of Lower Sholayar dam trip.

On first day, before silence starts, we visited "Adi Sankara Keerthi Sthambha Mandapam". 

We saw 3D pictures about life story of Adi Sankaracharya. I really felt proud to be at India and being Indian. Such a great scholar, person Adi Sankaracharya walked on this land. He was real architect of modern India. He visited pilgrimage places across India, spread ADVIATA knowledge. 

Some of the pictures reminded me (1) Pandit Mandan Misra and Trotakacharya related episodes of Upnishad Ganga TV serial on Doordarshan. 

(2) Gurupuja chanting. 

We also visited Janmabhoomi Kshetra. 

At Janmabhoomi Kshetra, some BHRAMCHAARIs were chanting in a group. We visted beautiful temples crocodile GHAAT etc. 

There was a nice DHANVANTARI temple, at just walkable distance from Ashram. 

Next to Ashram, there is a pineapples farm. Have a look

Our course was just before ONAM festival. We celebrated ONAM also.  To be in Kerala during Onam festival is like, to be in Gujarat during Navaratri festival. Local people : men, women and kids visited ashram in colorful traditional dress, danced, played and celebrated. We participated silently. We had Flower Rangolis (Pookkalam) and special food Onam sadya (feast). 

On the last day of course, we visited a temple, and had boat riding at nearby lake. Some of us, did shopping. 

Next day, we attended Rudra Puja at ashram. 

Some of my advance course classmates had blissful DARSHAN of  Guruvayur temple. I visited Kalady and Kochi city. I visited Sri Ramakrishna Advaita Ashram. It has its own school also in same campus. 

Nice Prasdam of fruits at Sri Ramakrishna Advaita Ashram. 

Lakshmi Bhavan restaurant is really good place, to have vegetarian food with reasonable price. I strongly recommend the place. Many people have appreciated it at Google map.

Lakshmi Bhavan restaurants is near Sanskrit University, Kalady Junction. 

While travelling towards Kochi city, I realised that greenery in Bangalore is nothing compare to Kochi. In middle of green forest, there are big buildings. I reached metro station and bought pass for whole day. I could not visit famous Shankar temple, as it was closed. Chinmay mission was also closed, due to Onam festival.

There are many offers, discount at Lulu mall. Let's see inside India's largest mall.

Have a look to Onam Celebration at LuLu mall. 

Apart from Lulu mall, I visited Rainbow hanging bridge. 

There are around 50 places to visit in Kochi. I selected few of them based on my interest. The Kochi airport is really unique. The best part is, it is powered by solar energy. There is solar energy farm near the airport. 

Note:

I provided Google Map link, wherever possible. One can access many photos from Google map. I have added selifie photos in this blog. I have avoided group photos as well, respecting privacy of my Advance Course Meditation classmates

So, how is my first travelling blog? Comments, suggestions are always welcome.