Aurora - Venkateswara temple of greater Chicago

Have been planning to make this post for quite sometime now... and here it is. This happened 2 weeks ago (Oct 25 2009).

I was in Chicago that week and went to this Venkateswara temple of greater Chicago with couple of my colleagues (Sundar and Krishnan) - It is better known as the "Aurora Temple". It's a 1.5 hrs drive from downtown.

There were lot of unique things about this temple and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Few of them below...

1. It had a brilliant location for a temple. Spacious - pond nearby and surroundings were very good. Many gods and goddesses in one place...
2. It was a more authentic than many other temples I have visited in India. The temple a brilliant blend of technology with the latest features/ equipments in place + the authenticity of some of the oldest temples in India. There was also a temple car present inside the temple.
3. I definitely need to mention this - The people who visited the place. The ethnicity showed up distinctly - I saw lot of girls wearing dhavani ( Wiki link ) and Paavadai sattai (Its been ages since I have seen this... It was a delight watching this... if you know what I mean... :)) and men in dhotis unlike Jeans and T Shirts in Indian temples (Fyi. I am not complaining here... just my observation. I completely understand that this is not a fair comparison).
4. There is also another incentive to go to this temple - There is a cafeteria at the first floor which will fill you with proper pongal, vada, sambar and other indian delicacies.

On top of that, the temple also hosts Dance and Music classes apart from various Indian language classes.

Overall... I liked the place. If you happen to go to Chicago, do visit this place. Link to their website here --> http://www.balaji.org/web/home.aspx. Will post the pictures soon.