The Road to Alandi

Above – Datta, the 3-headed deity. The three heads representing (in this order) Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. Photo taken at Saibaba Temple on the way to Alandi.

Below, sights from the rickshaw along the road to Alandi (aka Alandi Road).

Part of the trip goes the same route I’ve taken to Ayurjoti. I’ve passed this granite mart several times. Behind this wall is a lot of granite.

The next two photos are of a military complex along the way.

Camel.

Oh look. A cow.

This is a very typical sight. People hang their laundry to dry … wherever. This happens to be a very busy street. Laundry hanging to dry and no one around. Odd. I think …

You can’t see this very well, but this vendor cart with two people on it is being pushed by the foot of a guy riding a motorcycle (see lower left hand corner). This is ok to do in India.

Here’s another one. See the motorcycle driver’s foot? Again, very ok here.

Ganesh Chaturthi, a Hindu festival and holiday (August 25 this year) is coming up so these Ganesh statues are being sold everywhere. A lot of preparations are made prior to the event.

This banyan tree has many long roots reaching down toward the ground.

When your car stalls in the middle of the road, find some tree branches and stick them into your windows and boot (trunk) so others will be aware that this car is going nowhere. This method, Nana tells me, works well for when buses come along.

Yes, I have a fascination with cows, ok? These are some beauties.

This apartment building and those around it stand out like a pretty good sized sore thumb.

Nana said the building at the top of this hill is a ballistics building where the military launches firearms.

Water tower with a whole lot of stairs spiraling up to the top. I reckon someone could get a bit dizzy here (not to mention some pretty sore quadriceps).

I’m not sure what this guy was doing here but I gave him 10 rupees to take his picture.

Here we are just inside the grounds of the Saibaba Temple where we stopped along the way to Alandi. Cows are sacred in India and cow statues like this one are seen in every temple.

Inside one of the many temples on the grounds.

(Saint) Shirdi Sai Baba (9/28/1835-10/15/1918) an Indian spiritual master.

Here is Datta again (see featured image at the top of this post) taken through a glass window. The cow (bottom center) is a symbol of making complete your expectations and the four dogs you can’t really see represent the four vedas.