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FEATURE

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western style at Ananta Resort in Udaipur with food fare, drinks to explore the Indian culture closely in a short span of 10 days and
and dancing to Bollywood music. The crowd danced along carefree allowed fellow San Antonians, whom we had never met before,
late into the night but I stayed till the countdown at 12 midnight closer to each other. I personally learned a lot about the rich history
and then we went to sleep tired and happy to catch an early morning of the places we visited. Oh! and how can I forget the monkeys,
flight to Chennai, in South India. that were abundant in Udaipur, Delhi and all over; without going
to the zoo!
Our flight to Chennai was delayed and reached late. We quickly
put our luggage at the Trident hotel and visited the Parthasarthy Prachi Shah is a sophomore at UTSA.
temple. On the early morning of January 2nd, we packed our break-
fast and left to the Pondicherry beach and the Aurobindo ashram. I
enjoyed the ashram a lot as it was a peaceful, perfect outdoor place
for meditation in a garden with greenery and flowers. After lunch,
we went to Mahabalipuram, about 37 miles from Chennai, which
has five free standing temples, four of them are carved from same
long granite boulder. They are called the five rathaas, charriots and
are “vehicles” to God. We saw Arjun Dhabas, the Krishna, Mahisha-
suramardini and Varaha cave temples and posed to take a picture
with the huge Lord Krishna’s butter ball rock. We then visited the
tiered pyramid shaped Shore temple overlooking the Bay of Bengal.
Here, we learned about the different types of temples in India —
monolithic, structural, and cave temples.

In the evening, we had an official event with Chennai, San Anto-
nio’s Sister city with our BCMS counterpart, Indian Medical Asso-
ciation(IMA) — Tamilnadu and Association of Physicians of India
(API)- Chennai. Dr. Jayesh Shah handed a check for $5,000.00 from
AAPI Charitable foundation to the Rotary Club of Chennai ( Anuja
- San Antonio Initiative) to build a school in Chennai. Dr. Venkat
Srinivasan gave a talk on Mind and Body Medicine.

On the last day, we visited a one-of-a-kind Diabetic Hospital
which provides comprehensive services for all diabetic patients at
extremely economical rates. We saw the 300-year-old Kapaleeshwar
temple in gopuram style or tiered pyramid shape. Here, I heard
about Vastu Shastra, the science of building a home based on certain
principles where the location and the direction the room’s face is
based on certain principles. We also visited St. Thomas Cathedral
and the Marina beach after which my Dad gave a lunch treat at a
local authentic food place called Murugan Idli Shop. Here, we ate
with our hands in plates that were green banana leaves. The food
was served hot directly on the leaf and the idlis were freshly made
in front of us. Chennai is famous for shopping for silk sarees, espe-
cially the shops of Nalli. The two hours given for shopping felt like
two minutes.

“Chalo, Chalo” said Dr.Roberta Krueger one of the delegates! Yes,
it was time to return home. It was an amazing trip that allowed us

28 San Antonio Medicine • May 2017