I spent three years building a Shiva temple in the forest outside Tirupati. I cannot finish what comes next alone.
For 13 years one man looked after that temple on his own. There was no road to it and no steps up to it. I had an aeronautical engineering degree, no job and no idea how to build anything, and I could not leave it like that.
There was never money for it in hand. Every rupee was borrowed or came out of what I was earning at the time, and the loans are all repaid. Nobody was on a wage: my friends and relatives did the work.
Three or four years of my life went into it and I never expected anything back. What is there now is a road a vehicle can use, a bridge of half-tonne stones because cement was out of reach, and two shrines, from a Bhoomi Pooja on 20 August 2021 to the cement floor we laid in 2025.
On Sri Rama Navami last year I started something larger. It has no card written, no land, no building and no date, and I am the only person on it.
01Carrying rock in, and throwing it.
02Rock, because cement was out of reach.
03Carrying them the rest of the way.
04From the air, mid-work.
05Six or seven feet down.
06Breaking the big ones.
07My friends and relatives, working.
08On her day.
09Kamakshi Amma.
10The whole path lit, that night.
11The road finished, bridge and all.
12The old way, and the new.
13This is how the path to the temple looked before the bridge was built. People used this route for many years.
14This is what the hill looked like before we built the cement steps. Climbing was much harder back then.
15This is how the area looked before the Rama Lingeshwara Temple was built. It was very different from what you see today.
16This was the original path to the temple, where people walked on uneven stones to reach the sacred site.
17This is how the area looked before the Kamakshi Amma Temple was built. It was a simple, untouched space.
18During the monsoon, the path would often get blocked by heavy water flow, making it difficult to reach the temple.
19A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 4 October 2021.
20This is where we stored the sandbags.
21A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 6 March 2024.
22Before the Work (2021) - The temple path was dangerous—uneven stones made it hard to climb, and people often slipped and fell.
23Carrying Sand Bags - We carried 200 sand bags half a kilometer into the forest. Sometimes, I even used my bike to transport them. It took three months to move everything
24Building the Steps - With no experience, I trusted Nana (Lord Shiva). In three days, we set the rocks, and in two more days, we laid the cement.
25A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 25 February 2022.
26A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 4 March 2023.
27A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 16 March 2023.
28A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 19 April 2023.
29A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 1 May 2023.
30A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 27 May 2023.
31A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 6 January 2024.
32A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 20 February 2024.
33A photograph of the work at Amaralingeshwara Kona, 20 February 2024.
34October 2021, before any of the road.
35February 2023.
36The middle of March.
37July.
38The end of July.
39The last day of that month.
40Where we raised the ground six feet.
41Before, when it was all trees.
42Cleared, and not yet levelled.
43The Rama Lingeshwara site during the clearing work.
44The spot where he stands now.
45The site in March 2023, before the ground was worked.
46The same view a moment later, March 2023.
47The site during the clearing and levelling.
48Levelling it, and making the place bigger.
49The levelled ground, further on in the work.
50Before and after.
51The same place, before and after.
52Before the iron shed, and after.
53Getting ready for the first Shivaratri.
54The Pratishtha, on the Ayodhya Rama Mandira day.
55The same day.
56Mahashivaratri, at the shrine.
57The same night, further up.
58Before we put the rocks in.
59The other side of it.
60Part-filled, and still going.
61Another day on it.
62Filled, and level with the road.
63Red soil over the rock.
64Levelled, before the bridge.
65Before the bridge.
66Cutting the other side into a path.
67The same, closer.
68Clearing the trees out.
69Joining the two sides.
70Joined.
71From the other side.
72How people used to cross it.
73Before, and now.
74Building the bridge.
75The road, complete.
76The first day here.
77Filled, all of it.
78The bags, carried in.
79Holes dug for the pillars.
80Putting the pipes in.
81Us, working on the mandapam.
82Setting the basement.
83Building it.
84Before she was installed. Her eyes are closed.
85The only time she sleeps.
86My relatives and friends.
87Carrying up what the homam needed.
88The same, further on.
89Before and after.
90The same, again.
91The pillars and the shed.
922023, and 2024.
93The iron poles carried in, and painted.
94Clearing, the same morning.
95The pipes, brought up by auto.
96Rama Lingeshwara Swamy, after the roof went on.
97Kamakshi Amma's shed, ready and still empty. The Pratishtha had not happened yet.
98Her temple.
99Packing the bags to carry in.
100Dropped near the temple.
101The bags down, and the water we carried.
102Before the cement went down.
103The ground around the temple.
104After it was finished.
105Watering it.
106The road finished, wide enough for a vehicle.
I am not running three projects. Kona taught me what I can do with my hands and no money. Naamamandiram is the same instinct at a scale I cannot reach alone. The Puranas are what I wanted before either of them. Testing software pays for all of it, and lately I get agents to do the testing.
To make Amaralingeshwara Kona reachable. Steps, a platform, a road and a bridge, built by hand in the forest.
A temple made out of a crore people writing the names of Shiva and Vishnu by hand, because they are one God and not two.
The Puranas as animation, so you can understand them by watching instead of reading.
Nothing has been added to this record for 0 days. It is not finished and I have not stopped. Write to me anyway.
