November 21st 2010 - Karthick Poornima in Melbourne

Photos :MelbourneTripNov2010KarthickPoornima
This day being Karthick poornima, we wanted to take mom & dad to Dandenong Shiva Vishnu Temple in the morning as the temple closes at 12.00 noon.The earliest we could start was 10.17 am, we reached Glenhuntly station. Very soon we realised the train towards Frankston has been delayed. We knew if we take this train, by the time we reach temple we would see the temple doors closed, as the journey time including wait time for connecting trains or buses is 2 hours &15 mins.Hence, we decided to go to Gurudwara at Blackburn, as it was Guru Nanak Sahib’s janmotsav .We reached there at 12.15 noon or so. It was quite good there; mom finished her usual pradakshina’s there as well... :).The Langar was awesome and we headed off to the bus stop. To our luck, there was a direct bus from Blackburn to Dandenong temple with a journey time of 1.30 mins.We took mom n dad to a big Indian groceries shop (VEL SPICES) which is in the walking route to Temple from bus stop.Mom wanted a snap of hers at the Pooja Mandap made of wood at the store. We were showing them the rates of each & every decorative artefact brought from India. They were quite surprised to see that the prices were four times of the Indian rates …: P.We took tea at that shop; mom liked the tea there and said she felt refreshed after drinking that. By the way mom n dad fall asleep in buses/trains/trams within minutes of boarding the transport ...: P.We walked to temple…it was 4.15 pm when mom’s favourite Ganesha appeared at the entrance of the temple. She performed her pradakshinas after which we entered main temple. Mom and Dad were happy to see the Shiva abhishekam.Dad says, “Never in his dream had he thought he would see Shiva abhishekam during Karthik Masam in Melbourne Australia.”Somehow, we managed to get Mom outside the temple, as we had to head back home. The bus frequency is dropped as it gets later in the evening. Eventually we boarded the bus, then train, then bus, then train, then bus again…. The last bus that we took goes to our place, but we missed that stop .Got off at the next stop. We walked five mins more, but this helped to show mom n dad the park (which we did not know there was such a park in our colony).Dad was impressed with the colony. Finally, we reached home at 8.08 pm.