Flushing

This past weekend I went to the MahaVallabha Ganapathi temple in Flushing, New York. After a really long train ride we had to take a bus. The temple is beautiful with Lord Ganesha being the main deity. Along the sides of the temple are other deities such as Shiva, Murugan, natarajan, Ayyappan, Lakshmi, Kamakshi Amman, etc. The temple's Gopuram is in the process of construction. The Navagrahas are yet to be consecrated and have temporaraily been placed in rectangular tray. On a Sunday afternoon, it was wonderful to see so many people at the temple. The temple also has a canteen which was even more crowded than the temple. The canteen had a menu which was mostly South-Indian fare, the dosa being most popular. I noticed that for many families it seemed like a popular destination for a full meal. We ordered the Mysore Masala Dosa and the Pondicherry Masala Dosa. After a 45 minute wait for our dosas to arrive, we devoured the dosas and thought of Home. We headed out of the door and bought some kumkum and Vibhuti from the shop next to the temple. We had to wait for our bus. Meanwhile I noticed another temple opposite the Ganapathi temple and went inside. This was a Raghavendra Swamy temple. After a brief prayer we were back outside waiting for our bus. The Q-27 took us back to the Metro station in Flushing where we caught the No.7 train to Times Square. The train was really crowded with lots of people returning from Baseball games and the U.S Open. Anyways, our trip to Flushing was quite memorable.