One of the several duties of temple elephants - blessing devotees. This is at the Kanchipuram Kamakshi Amman Temple. These are the two elephants that figured last month on this blog. But the pics were taken on different occassions. 

An artist paints a figure of Vinayaka on a street wall in Kanchipuram. In Tamil Nadu he must be the most popular of the gods with his statue in every temple and temples dedicated to him on almost every street.  

A flute seller on Chennai streets. I just happened to be looking down from a second floor terrace when the pattern made by the flutes -- stuck in a bamboo pole that the seller carries around -- caught my eye. 

A `Poikaal Kudhirai' (dummy horse) performance. Like the Karaga attam (pic below), these performers were a regular sight on Chennai's streets. But nowadays they are seen only during festivals or arranged programmes like this one at the Mylapore Festival a few years back. 

A Poikaal Kudhirai performance. 

A `karaga attam' in progress. Once such troupes were a regular feature on Chennai streets. Now they are a rare sight and mostly in arranged programmes like the one in the pic. This was taken about three years back at the Mylapore Festival. 

Another view with Shiva and Parvathi to the left. 

Amman on her `vahanam' (vehicle), the lion. Most of the temples arrange stage shows. Here a light music programme is on as traffic whizzes past. Crowds watch from the pavement on the opposite side. 

Another lighting arrangement at a different temple. 

Serial light decorations are popular in Chennai during temple festivals. The light arrangements depicting gods and goddesses can be quite intricate. Here are a few: Amman 

A lady fills `Paal Kudams' (milk vessels) at a temple in Arumbakkam, a locality in western part of Chennai. The vessles will be carried to the Panchaliamman temple nearby for offering them to the goddess, Panchaliamman.
 

Women carrying the milk vessels to the Panchaliamman temple. 

A Nathaswaram player practices at the Kachabeswarar temple, Kanchipuram. The combination of him and the musician carved on the pillar made me want to take this pic.  

A team of Nathaswaram players at a festival. 

A flock of painted storks outlined against the evening sky at Vedanthangal bird sanctuary near Chennai. The place is about 45 km south of Chennai, near Chinglepet. The place comes alive with a huge variety of birds sometime in October-November and the season lasts up to February-March. Go early in the season to see them at their best, they are in courtship, later they are busy building nests, raising a family...

A painted stork chick attempts to fly. Talk about ugly ducklings. These black and grey young ones grow up to be real colourful storks below. 

Painted storks take off. 

A closer view of a painted stork. 

A painted stork carrying twigs to build a nest. 

A flock of painted storks at Vedanthangal. A few pintail ducks can be seen in the foreground. 

A view of the water birds, mostly pin tail ducks, at the Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary. This sanctuary has rich bird life following the mosoons. It is in Andhra Pradesh, near Tada, close to Tamil Nadu border. It is about two or three hours' drive to the north of Chennai. 

A close up view of the pin tail ducks at Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary.