Life's street - bitter and sweet

Green Roads in Bangalore

2011-08-25T17:17:00.000+05:30

Bangloreans!! Can you guess which road is it from the photo? It is the current airport road. It is totally green and pleasure to drive through. But, we all know it won't stay long this way, so thought of capturing this image. Well, I remember about 10 years ago; all Bangalore roads looked like this.

Mango hot and sour Gojju

2011-08-07T16:30:00.000+05:30

Thotapuri mango medium size 1

Salt 1 spoon

Chilli powder (medium spice) 1.5 spoon

Daniya powder 1 spoon

Jaggery 2.5 spoon

Methi 1/4 spoon

Oil 1 spoon

Mustard

Pre Steps

1. Fry the methi seeds without oil in the vessel and make powder of it.

Method

1. Remove the skin of the mango and cut into big pieces

2. In a thick bottom vessel add oil and add mustard.

3. Add the mango pieces to the oil and sauté for 30 seconds.

4. Add salt, chili powder and daniya powder to the mango pieces and sauté for 30 seconds.

5. Add water so that it just covers the mango pieces.

6. Cover the vessel and leave it to boil.

7. When you put the spoon through the mango it must go through it, then the mangoes are done.

8. There must be some water still left in the vessel, if not add 1/4 cup of water. Add jaggery and methi powder and let it boil for 2 minutes.

This can be eaten with rice, chapatti or even bread.

Mango Gulamba or Mango Jam

2011-08-07T15:57:00.002+05:30

When my mother in law made mango gulamba at home, I immediate became its fan. I made it multiple times, as long as the mango season lasted.

Ingredients

Raw Totapuri Mango Medium size 1

Sugar 1/2 the quantity of the Totapuri Mango pieces

Method

1. Totapuri Mango must be medium raw, it must have a slight yellow tinge.

2. Cut the mango into small slices.

3. Measure the mango pieces in a measuring cup.

4. In the same measuring cup measure the sugar. Sugar must be exactly half the quantity of mango pieces

5. Add the sugar to a thick bottom vessel and add half cup water, and heat it on low flame.

6. Keep stirring the sugar syrup, until you get the sugar thickness to be one string. Other way to know is, when u add a drop of sugar syrup into water, it must stay and not scatter away.

7. Once the syrup has reached the required consistency, add the mango pieces.

8. Keep stirring the mango pieces in the sugar syrup regularly.

9. When the mango pieces must become a little transparent, hold up one piece of mango in a spoon and watch it, if it flattens then the Gulamba is done.

10. Remove the vessel from the flame and cool it before eating.

This will taste like jam and can be used in place of jam.

Beetroot - Banana Salad

2011-07-22T11:35:00.000+05:30

I had some boiled beetroot left so ended up making a salad, which turned out well.

Ingredients

1 Medium Sized Beetroot

3 Ellakki Bananas

1 spoon Jaggery crushed

Method

Boiled the beetroot and chop it finely

Chop bananas

Mix the crushed jaggery, beetroot and bananas together

Keep the mixture at room temperature for about 10 minutes, so that the sweetness of jaggery seeps into the beetroot

Keep in refrigerator for about 15 minutes and serve

Corn Flour Halwa

2011-07-21T15:07:00.002+05:30

I learnt to make this from my mother. This recipe is all time my mother’s favorite.

Ingredients

1 cup corn flour

1 cup sugar (you can double it if you like it more sweet)

1 cup milk

2 cups water

2 spoons ghee

Raisins and cashews

Method

Take a thick bottom vessel, keep it on the gas at low flame throughout.

Add ghee, and then add cashews and raisins.

Add milk, water, corn flour, sugar and stir it continuously so that no lumps are formed.

After few minutes the mixture thickens to jelly consistency and becomes transparent, Need to watch the mixture because it thickens really fast.

Spread it on a ghee greased plate.

Wait for about 10 minutes before cutting it into pieces.

It tastes yum and you cannot stop at one piece.

Amazing trip – Waynad – Day 3

2011-04-25T16:04:00.005+05:30

24th April, 2011

After a good breakfast we headed to Phantom Rock.

Phantom Rock

We had to pass the rubber plantation to reach the phantom rock. We admired rubber trickled down and got collected. I saw a snake free in the wild for the first time in my life. I am not sure which snake it was but it disappeared quickly.
When we reached the Phantom Rock it turned out to be a googly :-). The rock was supposed to look like Phantom's skull, but it just looked liked another rock. Still, we pictured the rock from different angles J.

Rubber being collected

Phantom Rock

Wayanad heritage museum

We stopped by at the heritage museum. What struk me were the burial stones. Burial stones dated back to about 1000 years. They had three sections - bottom section told how the person died, second section showed how angels took the soul, third section shows the soul residing with either Shiva or Krishna. There were pottery pieces, weapons and other artifacts retrieved by excavations or from the tribals.

Burial Stone at the Muesum

Edakkal Caves

We reached the Edakkal caves at about 11 am. The Qualis couldn't go close to the caves as the road was broken in between. So we had to trek. It was sunny, unlike the previous day when the weather was pleasant and cool. The roads leading to the caves were all at 60 / 75 degrees so ascend was pretty difficult. There was a huge crowd when we reached the caves. They delayed issuing the tickets by about 30 minutes because there was a huge crowd already inside the caves. Once we got our tickets we began the ascend. There were about 300 steps and some tricky trekking stretch areas before we reached the caves.

Hoarding from the ASI

Ascend to the caves

Again at the entrance of the caves, we had to wait, so that some people come out of the cave.

People coming out of the Cave

The caves are divided into lower and upper caves. The lower cave wasn't too huge and we didn't find any inscriptions there. The upper cave had lots of pictorial carvings and some inscriptions. They belong to Neolithic period of the Late Stone Age and date from about 1000BC. The pictorial carvings had wheels, human forms, some kind of animals, and one particular carving looked like lord Narashima. It looked very interesting and wondered what they all meant.

Cave View

Carvings in cave

We headed downwards and had good lunch at one of the hotels there. Food was hot and good, all of us being very tired and hungry enjoyed every morsel of it.

From here we tried to reach Thovarimala, which had rocks with inscriptions, but couldn't find our way to that place.

We headed back to Bangalore and by the time everyone reached Bangalore it was 12 am.

Amazing trip – Waynad – Day 2

2011-04-25T16:03:00.004+05:30

23rd April, 2011

We started from our resort at about 8:00 am, had breakfast and even got our lunch packed; we had already learnt that getting food around wasn't easy, though it was a tourist spot. We had appam, which looked like our rice shavige. Packed Pooris and headed for Pookot lake.

Pookut lake

Pookut lakeis a typical honeymoon destination kind of place, a park with a small lake, surrounded by lush green forset, boating in the lake, an aquarium and some stores for shopping. Suvarana and me took one pedal boat, Joe and Nawnit took another. We pedaled around the beautiful lake. The aquarium had about some 10 - 15 different kinds of fish and wasn't really interesting.

Pookut lake

Lakkidi View point

We headed to a view point "Lakkidi". The day was misty and we could really see anything in the valley. But having mist blow thorugh us and seeing some parts of the valley was interesting by itself.

View Point - covered with mist

Chain Tree

We headed to Kanthapara Falls, on the way we stopped at the "Chain tree". There is a huge chain tied to the tree, and it just made no sense to us. Local legend says that an Adivasi youth guided a British officer through Waynad. The British officer in order to take the credit of discovery, killed the Adivasi youth. This youth's soul couldn't rest in peace, and began to haunt the subsequent travelers. The local priest then captured the soul and locked it up in that tree and tied a chain. More than the tree it was the legend that made it intresting.

Chain tree

Kanthanpara waterfalls

Kanthanpara falls is about 23 kms from Kalpetta. It is situated in midst of an estate. We could reach the spot without much hassles. The fall looked very good. Best part was the place wasn't crowded and there was enough place for us to wade through the water and watch the waterfall. A leeched dared to go up Kavi's leg and bite her :-). But, she was quick enough to remove it. One leech bit Nawnit too, but he never realized it till end of the day.

Kanthapara Waterfalls

Meenmutty Falls

From Kanthapara we headed to Meenmutty falls, which was about 9 kms from Kanthapara falls. Entry ticket is 300 Rs for 10 people. We went in, and in one of the sheds had our quick lunch. To reach the falls we had to do an interesting trek almost 2 kms of which about 1 km is a hard trek. The 1km was treacherous, steep, and path just about 3 feet wide, slippery at place, any mistake would have us at the bottom of the jungle. We took help of rocks, tree roots to descend / ascend. Some ropes were tied to help us trek. At places, I literally felt I was doing mountaineering with a rope.

Tough trek to meenmutty falls

Rocky terrain around meenmutty falls

The whole experience was exlerating, and beyond description of words. We spent about 15 minutes at the falls and started our journey upwards. Weather was very cloudy and we all were scared that if it starts raining we will neve be able to climb back. Ascend seemed much easier. As we reached the top, it started raining and we were so glad that we had returned.

We headed back to the resort, rested and had a dinner at a nearby hotel.

Meenmutty Falls

Somethings To do / not do at Meenmutty

===================================

1. Go with good pair of shoes and tight clothing.

2. Go during early part of the day when it is not hot. So you can spend some time and rest at the falls.

3. Avoid this place if it rains

4. Avoid kids below 10 years and adults above 60 years.

5. Avoid if person has any aliment like backache, knee pain or any heart related.

Amazing trip – Waynad – Day 1

2011-04-25T16:01:00.006+05:30

21 April, 2011

All I knew was, I am going to Waynad for three days, and I didn't check the itenary Kavi had sent. I just saw the list of items need to be taken and the time of pick up and was all set.

22nd April, 2011

Kavi, Anitha and Joe picked me from my home at 5:45 am. We then picked Suvarna and Nawnit and were off towards Waynad!!

The party!

We crossed Mysore and entered Bandipur. Weather was amazing, and I just loved the drive. We stopped on a way to relish the nature, also saw a deer, rooster and some elephants.

River in Bandipur

Elephant at Bandipur forest

Nature at Bandipur

We stopped at the check post, to enter Kerala. There was a beautiful field and sheds right across the road

and whole thing looked like “Dil hai ki behain hai…..” song scene from "Taal" movie.

Taal Scene - Border of Waynad

As we headed to get some snaps, it started pouring. We took shelther under the sheds and it was real fun :-). When rain subsided, we took snaps and watched nature.

After the check post we stopped for the Ponkuzhi river and Shrirama temple at around 1pm. Temple was closed by 12 pm, so we went around and saw how the temple was built.

SriRama Temple

Ponkuzhi river

Battery

We stopped at the Battery in Sultan Bathery. It was formerly a jain temple, which was converted into a battery by Tipu Sultan. The temple doesn't have the idol nor any great carvings or architecture. The place has historical importance, otherwise nothing much to see there.

We got delayed by rain and at the checkpost. So, by the time we checked in to Wynd Valley Resort, Kalpetta, it was already 3:30 pm. So we couldn't visit the Banasura sagar dam. Instead we visited the Karapuzha earth dam.

Battery

Karapuzha earth dam

Sun was setting when we reached the place. The combination of the orange sun, greenery and water made the whole place look like a painter's paradise.

God's painting at Karapuzha Dam

We headed back to the hotel and had a delicious dinner - Appam and Veg kurama at a nearby hotel.

My First earnings

2011-04-18T21:46:00.001+05:30

"First earning", this conjures many old memories in everyone's mind, isn't it. Well!! My first earning was 5 Rupees and it was when I was in either 5 or 6th or 7th standard, can't exactly recall the year.

Every summer vacation we would go to my mother's native Channarayapatna. My mom's parents, brothers and one of her sister lived there. My aunty had a grocery shop there. To attract kids to the shop she would have a lottery chart.

What is a lottery chart?? Well, it would be some 500 of white peppermints, similar to polo (but without a hole :-), wrapped in colour paper and stuck on the chart sheet in attractive patterns. Off the 500 peppermints about 50 of them would have a number behind it. The chart sheet would be hung in front of the shop; kids would be allowed to pick a peppermint after paying 50 paisa. If there happened to be a number then the kid would get a prize, else no.

When I went for vacation that year, I offered to make a lottery chart because it looked interesting, not that I wanted to earn something. I made a girl with orange skirt and red top on the chart with about 500 pepper mints. I had to cut the paper to small squares of 1 x 1 inch. Then wrap each peppermint and stick on the chart paper. This entire effort took about a week. Once done, and handed it over to my aunty, she gave me a 5 Rupee note for my effort.

I was jubilant, too happy to see my first earnings. I can still recall singing on the road with a 5 rupee note in my hand and smiling away to glory.

What I did with that 5 rupee, I just can't recall :-(.

Rushed out of the fridge

2011-03-28T17:08:00.001+05:30

Now days, when I talk, my thoughts overlap and I end up mixing two conversations and end result is hilarious.
At my office there are six lifts, of which one lift doesn't stop at 2nd floor (My work floor) due to technical issues. On Thursday 24th March, my parents got a new fridge. Following morning on 25th March, on the way to office, I spoke to my mother about the fridge. I reached office, ended the call and entered the lift. Couple of known faces entered the lift; I greeted them with a "Good morning". Just before the lift started closing its doors, I realised that I was in the lift which wouldn't open at 2nd floor. I immediately said "oops!! This fridge won't open in 2nd floor" and rushed out of the lift.
In the background I heard someone saying "What??” I realized what I had just said, laughed to myself.

Once my laptop was up, I pinged my friend Deepa who worked in the same building and narrated her the story:

Vin: Hi da
Deepa: Hi
Vin: you know what happened today?
Vin: I was talking to my mom on phone, about new fridge they bought. I entered the lift that doesn't work for 2nd floor.
Vin: couple of colleagues entered the lift, I realized that I had entered the wrong lift. I immediately said "oops!! This fridge won't open in 2nd floor" and rushed out of the Fridge.
Vin: It was pretty funny.
Deepa: U seem to be confused soul today, you still are saying "Rushed out of the Fridge"

It looked like I was really confused that day.

Living Raaga in Deccan Chronicle

2010-05-20T18:16:00.000+05:30

Living Raaga got covered in Deccan Chronicle. Hoping to see more responses for this project.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/tabloids/giver-one-001

Genesis of Living Raaga

2010-05-20T18:11:00.002+05:30

For years, it kept running in my mind to do something, something philanthropic, and something that will add value to others and me. It ranged from building an orphanage to a temple. Finally, it struck me that I could teach art and crafts to women who can't make a decent living. They can use this skill to earn few extra rupees and also it can be their hobby.

The NGO will be a group of like minded people who will go and teach these arts and crafts to women. Then market their products under our brand name. The profit that gets generated can be re-used by the women to buy more raw materials.

I started this project at Abhala ashram.

Glass painting - Birds

2010-05-06T14:21:00.001+05:30

I found some bird’s glass painting design on the net. Downloaded them and made small coasters. Now that they are made, I am planning to make them a wall hanger :-). What say?

Punched flowers

2010-05-05T14:44:00.001+05:30

Punching is very intresting. I bought few flower punches and colour papers. I punched different colours randomly and stuck them up together. I put a quilled round in the center of the greeting card and then stuck the punched flowers all over. The card looks cute. :-)

Quilled - Photo frame

2010-05-05T14:41:00.001+05:30

This is my post on quilling. I made a quilled photo frame. I made some cut flowers and stuck it on the frame. The leaves are punched. The combination of quilling and punching looks pretty.

Origami - Lotus

2010-05-05T14:35:00.002+05:30

This is my first hand at Origami. I used crape and duplex paper to make these wonderful lotuses.

I learnt it from this link Origami - Lotus.

Glass Painting - Ganesha

2010-05-05T14:29:00.001+05:30

I got a pretty Ganesha design on the net. Downloaded that and made a glass painting.
I used black and gold liner to create the outlines. I decided to keep the painting simple and not to make it complicated. I started wondering how to make the palm look lighter colour. I put 2 drops of the sunflower yellow and then added 2 drops of the glass paint thinner. I got the effect I was looking for. :-)

If you want this design you can download it from here. Print the image with the options - A4 setting and fit to page. So the image you will get as A4 size.

Antique Ganesha

2010-04-11T19:12:00.001+05:30

I found an old Ganesha and Krishna idol. I gave it some antique look. The final output looks pretty.
Steps:

1. Take an old idol which you want to revive.
2. Wipe it well to remove the dust.
3. Make small pieces of aluminum foil and stick it all over. It takes a while to dry.
4. Paint the idol with Camlin Calligraphy black ink.
5. Using a slightly moist soft cloth, polish the idol well.

Warli Painting

2010-04-11T19:10:00.003+05:30

I did some warli painting on the pot.

Steps:

1. Take an earthen pot from any roadside shop.
2. Wipe it well to remove the dust.
3. Paint it with Camlin Black Acrylic color. It dries almost instantly.
4. With thin brush, start drawing the warli figures in Camlin white Acrylic color. Just put the outlines. Ensure the outlines are as thing as possible. If needed, use water to mix with the paint to make it thinner.
5. With a slightly thick brush, fill the figures with the same white color.

Lilly using Crepe / Duplex paper

2010-03-20T22:54:00.001+05:30

I bought some gold coloured crepe paper. The colour is so vibrant that I couldn’t resist making something out of it. So I made huge a Lilly. But for the leaves I used the Duplex paper. Once done, the flower looked gorgeous and when placed amongst the rest of the artificial flowers I have made, this stood out. I tried hard, but couldn’t capture the beauty of the flower I had made.

Modern Art – Painting

2010-03-20T22:51:00.001+05:30

I did some painting of random shapes and objects. I used vibrant colours. Once, done, I was amazed at how it looked, so went and got it framed :-).

Modern Art

Crystal Flowers

2010-03-20T22:49:00.001+05:30

I was waiting to make some crystal flowers because they look so royal and different. But I didn’t have the right coloured crystals at home. When I got them I could hardly wait and immediately plunged to make those. The crystal flowers looked so pretty. Whoever saw it, just said “wow!!!! Beautiful !!!”.

Crystal flowers

Door Decor

2010-03-14T17:53:00.003+05:30

Door decorations are very common in India; you will see it in front of almost every home. I made one with green crystals.

Door decor

Terracotta Jewelry

2010-03-14T17:47:00.004+05:30

I made some terracotta jewelry. I bought some clay, made different shapes of beads, dollars and earrings and left them to dry. Once they dried up, I painted them with different hues and assembled to form necklaces. What do you think of them?

Full neck chains with earrings

Half neck chains

Rudrakshi chain

Glass painting and flowers

2010-03-05T12:35:00.005+05:30

I made a new glass painting last week and a couple of duplex, stockings and origandy flowers.
The flowers look so good that i want to make more but no time :-(.

Glass painting

Orange flowers are made of origandy. Red and pink flowers are made of duplex

Flowers made of duplex paper

Stockings flower

Soft Idlis – Kunigal

2010-02-01T16:50:00.002+05:30

Sometime in August 2009, Dad and mom had been to Hassan. While returning, the car driver stopped at Kunigal for a quick snack of idlis. Since, then my mom has always praised those idlis. On Jan 31st, when we planned for temple near Hassan, my mom made sure we stopped by that hotel for breakfast.

In Kunigal, opposite to the Office of Talasildhar, is small road side eatery "sri Siddalingeshwara". Just by myself I would have never gone into that eat out. But, mom had already said so much about it, and I saw a fleet of cars at the hotel, so I decide to try it out.

The hotel is run by a young lady, and is just but a space covered with asbestos sheet, few chairs and tables around, and runs just on trust basis. People go in, order and a helper just fills a plate with their order and hands it to them. And no note made of the order. Once the person is done, will go to the cash counter and tell what he has eaten and pay the amount!!!!

We ordered idlis, they were amazingly soft and had sprouts, onions and green dill leaves. Apart from idlis they had crispy yummy vadas and pulav. Tea and coffee was just perfect. It was ages since I had such perfect beverage. The recipes were handed over to the owner by her fathers, who use to run that eatery earlier.

If you pass Kunigal, it is a must stop.

Trip to Mantralya

2009-09-30T13:39:00.007+05:30

Raj and me visited Mantralaya on 20th Sept. I got the tickets booked through our Time Sol desk.

Travel: We took the Hampi express from Bangalore on 19th Sept. It started at 10:30 pm and reached Mantralya Road at 7:30 am. For return, we took the Udayan express from Mantralaya Road at 10:05 pm and it reached Banglore contonment station
at 7:45 am.

Trip: We reached Mantaralya Road at 7:30 am. As soon as we stepped out there were government buses, which got filled within a minute. It was 8 Rs per head. Apart from busses there were many shared autos which charged 15 Rs per head. From Mantralya road, Mantralya is a 20 minute journey.

We had booked a room in our community's hostel there. It took us 15 minutes to get a
room. We freshened up and left the room at 9:30 am. There are plenty of hotels in Mantralaya, and it is quiet easy to get rooms.

To eat we went to Udupi restaurant, it was close to the temple and it looked decent from outside, food was decent too, we had a quick breakfast and headed for the Tungabadra river.

Tungabadra river:Tungabadra river is a 5 minute walk from the temple. It was a very sad scene there. The entire bank of Tungabadra River was nothing but a Dobhi Ghat. It was muddy and dirty everywhere. People, who wanted to have a bath there, took a coracle to nearby rocks, which were 40 meters away from the bank. We did a quick puja to the river goddess and left the banks.
Tungabadra River

Manchalmma Temple: We reached the temple and first visited the Manchalmma Temple. It is situated on the left corner of the Mutt complex, Goddess Manchalamma is the presiding deity of the village. Before visiting Raghavendra swamy, we need to first visit the goddess. We can offer madallakki to the goddess, this time due to time constraints I hadn't taken it.

Mutt:
In front of the temple
We then looked for what seva we could get done for Raghavendra swamy. In the list we saw that, most pujas were for either 5 am or 7:30 am. Only one puja "Archana sahitha Hastodaka" was for 11 am. We took that and went in. We went into gate 8, for the sankalpa. We were allowed to go into the sanctum right opposite to vrindavan and watch the archana and arathi. We then had a darshan of the vrindavan and went in for 14 pradakshinas.

Behind the mutt in a huge hall, there is idol of Moola Rama. Men not in Dhothis were not allowed into the hall. So, Raj could not come in for the darshan.

We returned to our room and went for lunch in our community hall.

Panchmukhi Temple: After a deep noon sleep, we started from our room at 4 pm. Had a quick tea at Udupi and took a shared auto to Panchamukhi temple. It costed us 30 Rs per head. It took around 40 minutes to reach Panchmukhi owing to the bad roads and stuffed shared autos. Our bodies had started aching by the time we reached Panchmukhi. Taking a bus would have been a good option, but there were no buses after 3 pm!!
Panchamukhi Temple

Panchamukhi Temple

The temple had padas of Hanuman at 3 places. We then went into the temple, took a ticket for mangalarthi. We had expected a glorious idol of Panchamukhi Hanuman. But it was udbhava murthi. We couldn't clearly make out the God. There was udhbava
murthi of Venkateshwara too. There were idols of Ganesha, Rudra devaru and Sesha devaru which were installed by the founder priest Antacharya.
Padukes of Hanuman

It is said Raghavendra swamy performed penance here for 12 years in that place when Lord Venkateshwara, Goddess Lakshmi and Panchmukhi Anjenya appeared and blessed him, and asked him to enter the brindhavan. Around the temple are the natural formation of rocks.
Natural rock formations
Natural rock formations

Return to Mantralya was much better and it took us 50 minutes to reach Mantralya. We went to have another darshan of Raghavendra Swamy. It wasn't crowded as most of the crowd was standing outside the temple for the dinner which starts at 7:30 pm. Preparations for Rathosava was on. The chariots looked magnificient.
Golden Chariot

Silver Chariot

The rathosava was scheduled to start at 8:30 pm, and we had to catch the 10 pm train, we couldn't wait to see the rathosava. We checked out of the room and took a shared auto at 15 Rs per head to the railway station.

Temple Timings: Darshan starts from 6 am in the morning and the temple remains open till 2 pm. Evening it opens at 4 pm and remains open till around 8:30 pm. Dinner at temple starts from 7:30 pm to 9 pm.

Raghvendra Swami's Padukes: Last time when I had been to Mantralya, we had seen the the original paduke's of Raghvendra swamy. It kept in the archaka's house. Before Raghavendra swamy entered the brindhavan he gave his padukes to the archaka. Since, then the padukes have been handed over in the family. I can't remember the exact location of the house but I do have the contact number : 08512 - 279427. In case anyone going there get the address please post it on this blog.

Things to remember:
If you plan for bath in Tungabadra river, then take a coracle to some nearby rocks.
Men will not be allowed with shirts on and to enter moola rama mandir, dhoti is a must.
To go to Panchmukhi first half of the day via buses would be better.

Flower show - Lalbagh

2009-08-11T15:59:00.002+05:30

Kavitha proposed the idea of meeting at Lalbagh at 4:30 pm on Sunday 9th Aug, to see the flower show. Of course, all of us agreed. It had been around 6 years or so since I went to the flower show and I was pretty excited to go.

Raj and I were late by 30 minutes while the rest of the team - Kavitha, Anitha, Joe, Pushpak, Suvarna were there on dot. We started off to the glass house where the flower show was hosted. It was crowded beyond our expectations.

Jostling as I entered the glass house, I spotted a cute pink teddy bear made with roses. The highlight of the show was - a mermaid, surrounded by four dolphins and four teddy bears. All of them were built with vibrant colored flowers - red, pink, purple and it looked awesome. The other highlight was the flowery dino with its baby.
Dolphins and Teddy in roses
Dino in flowers!

We went around looking at the remaining flowers, not all of them grabbed my attention. Quiet a few were the humble flowers from our gardens.
Colorful flowers
Colorful flowers!

The Dhalia, velvet flowers grabbed my attention. Raj was surprised at the Velvet flower (that is the way I call those flowers) it has the velvety feel; he couldn't believe how the flower felt. Done with the flower show we headed for the vegetable and herbal show. It was lovely to see the vegetables we consume on the plants :-).
Dhalia
Velvet flowers
Vegetables on Plants!!
It was 6:30 pm by the time we were done with shows and started going around the stalls. There were assortment of things on sale - flower pots, seeds, wood works, herbal medicine for cockroaches, bhel puri, gulkan, Eureka forbes, handicraft, purses, bindis so on. When we left Lalbagh it was 8:30 pm. It was just fun and refreshing.

Nisarga Dhama - Coorg Part 4

2009-05-09T21:12:00.007+05:30

From the monastery in Kushalnagar we started off to NisargaDhama. We had lunch at a small hotel in Kushalnagar.

NisargaDhama is 2 kms from Kushalnagar and 30 km from Coorg. It is resort belonging to Jungle lodges. The resort has cauvery water going round it. The resort looked more like Cubbon Park to us. The place was crowded with people everywhere and littered with plastic and leftover food.
Hanging bridge in Nisarga Dhama

There were quite a lot of bamboo trees and benches to sit. There was a deer park, where we took a basket of cucumber and fed the deer. Apart from that there were Elephant rides, which we weren't interested in. Going around the place we saw there was a place where people could get into the waters and have fun. If one wants, they can book a lodge there and stay. We went on a boat ride before we left the place. This place I wouldn’t mind avoiding if needed.

Deer Park

View of the river around the resort

From here we headed to the hotel in Coorg. We started off next day to Bangalore.

Kushalnagar / Bylakuppe - Tibetian Monastery - Coorg Part 3

2009-05-09T20:46:00.011+05:30

From Dubare elephant camp we headed towards Bylakuppe near Kushalnagar.

When we reached the monastery it was almost 11 am. The monasteries were beyond out expectations. They were huge, colorful (Blue / red and gold), and aesthetically pleasing.

The main temple houses there gold plated copper statues, One being the Buddha's which is sixty feet high, other two belong to the Guru Padhmasambhava and Buddha Amitayus. The hall where the statues were placed was filled with paintings. We couldn't make out the stories those paintings were trying to say, hence asked a monk what they meant but he said he knew nothing of it and had joined the monastery just one year ago. There were pillows in the hall which could be used for sitting and mediating. I went around admiring the paintings and just sat looking at the huge statues.
Main temple

There golden statues

Paintings in the hall of the main monastery

Pillar in the main hall

Painting in the main hall

We went around the other smaller monasteries around. One of them we the students were reciting their scriptures accompanied by the gongs. One of the smaller monasteries had five gold plated statues, we couldn't figure out what they were. This place is a must visit. There are no places to eat around. It would be better to carry some light eatables.

Sub monastery

Five golden statues in the Sub Monastery

Sub Monastery

Students in the Sub Monastery

Dubare elephant camp - Coorg Part 2

2009-05-09T12:20:00.011+05:30

16th May we reached coorg and went around Coorg and Talakaveri, more about it here.

17th May morning we started early for Dubare elephant camp. It is 30 kms from Coorg. We started around 7:30 am in the morning, so that we can be in the elephant camp by 8:30 am. We reached the camp by 8:15 am and rushed for breakfast to the hotel in the camp. Hotel was crowded and fast food like upma / idli was out of stock. So we had to wait for a dosas. There were some thirty odd people waiting ahead of us for the dosas. I was loosing my patience. Finally, we had breakfast and were at the edge of the river by 9:10 am, we saw a herd of elephants retreating. My face immediately dropped that we had missed the elephants. But then saw another herd of elephants coming by. I hurried Raj to take the earliest motor boat. It was 20 Rs per round trip, so we made sure we kept our tickets safe.
Elephants in water

As soon as we reached the spot we were told to go and get tickets for watching the elephants. It was 100 per head to wash the elephants and 100 per head for a ride. We decided to take the tickets for elephant ride later and hurried to wash the elephants. But once at the elephants no one checked for the tickets.

It was so much fun playing with the elephants. The Mahout would make the elephants lie down in water and then start scrubbing them with stone!! The visitors would then join the scrubbing the process. The elephants would just lie and enjoy the attention and the scrubbing.
Washing the Elephants

I removed my shoes and rolled up my jeans and got into the water without any hesitation, started looking for elephants which were less crowded. The mahout was scrubbing the elephants with a stone. But I resorted to just wash them with my hands. The skin felt very rough and thick. Once I felt I had enough of it, I got out of water and put my shoes on. The elephants too started coming out of water, we took few photos with them. Then another of elephants came to have bath. There was a little elephant with them. It went around jumping and spraying water on people. But, I didn't have the energy to go down and remove my shoes and play with the little elephant.
Washing the Elephants

We sat watching the nature. It looked beautiful with all the greenery, water and the reflections.
Nature at Dubare

People started piling for the elephant ride. By the time we decided to go for a ride there were some 70 people in the queue. We ducked the idea of elephant ride and decided to cross the stream on foot instead of a boat. The river and greenery looked beautiful. In secluded areas we could see people playing with water and swimming. We regretted for having not brought another pair of clothes. As we started to cross the river, we realized it was full of loose stones and I did slip and fall. Then it just got harder, so we retreated to take a boat.

Things to remember:
Be there by 8:30 am to beat the crowd.
Take a pair of rubber slippers, a towel and an extra pair of clothes.
Better to be in half pants to enjoy the water and bathing the elephants.
Avoid a rainy day because elephants are not brought out to be washed.

Chikalli Dam

From Dubare elephant camp we headed towards Kushalnagar to see the Tibetan monastery. On the way there is a small board which says “Chikalli Dam 2kms”. Our taxi driver suggested we visit the dam, we were a little skeptical but we decided to take the chance. When we reached the dam we were awestruck at the beauty of the place.

Beautiful Chikalli dam

Kumbhakonam

2009-04-19T13:15:00.010+05:30

I had heard a lot about Kumbhakonam and its temples. We (Dad, Mom, Raj and me) started from Bangalore on 13th March. Travel, stay and sightseeing program was chalked by Raji's Dad and his friend Shekaran.

Travel:
We started from Banglaore on 13th via the Mailadarui Express. Expressed chugged off from the Bangalore station at 7 pm. It reached Kumbhakonam next day morning at 5:45 am. We started back from Kumbhakonam on 15th night at 6pm and
reached Banglaore on 16th at 5:30 am.

Taxi was arranged by Shekaran uncle at 2000 Rs per day. It was there at the station waiting for us.

Stay:
There are plenty of hotels at Kumbhaoknam. We stayed at Hotel Chela. They charged us 500 per room as it was off-season. Else the cost is 800 per room. Hotel was clean and neat but the staff was rude and of course there is no lift in the hotel. So if you can avoid this hotel, do avoid it.

Places to Eat:
Meenakshi Bhavan is the best place to eat.

Papanasam:
Papanasam was the first place of our visit. This is 15 kms from Kumbhakonam. Main deity is Paalaivananathar and Dhavala Vennakaimangai.
One of the Main Shiva Lingas

Main goddess

The temple has a complex with 108 ShivaLingas apart from the main Shivalinga, Paalaivananathar and Parvathi. The 108 ShivaLingas bought forth the devotion buried somewhere in the soul. Legend says that Lord Rama installed all the 108 Shiva Lingas for washing off the sins of having killed Ravana. Ravana though an asura was a Brahmin. People had bought oil in cans and pour oil to all the 108 lamps; I really wish I had done that. I wish I had time; I would keep going round the 108 ShivaLingas.
108 Shiva Linga

Mullaivananathar Temple, Tirukkarukavur:
Mullaivananathar temple is located at a distance of 7 km from Papanasam. It is the abode of Mullaivananathar and GarbhaRatchaambikai.

The ShivaLinga is made of ant hill mud. This ShivaLinga was once covered with jasmine creepers. The impression is still seen on the ShivaLinga. No Abhishekam is done here, but once a month a kind of must called "Punuhu" is applied to the ShivaLinga. People with different diseases perform this puja.

We bought tickets for puja at Shivalinga and the Devi and also bought 11 lamps. We started the puja by lighting a lamp in front of lord ganesha. We proceeded to Shiva and lighted another lamp there and got archana done. We could see the impressions of jasmine creepers on the ShivaLinga. We then proceeded to the GarbhaRatchaambikai, we lit the remaining 9 lamps before entering the temple. We got archana done. We had taken the Madalakki and we offered it to the goddess. I could see women wanting to get married or get children, were cleaning the threshold of the goddess with ghee and then putting Rangoli.

The Punuhu puja happens once a month so we had to register for it. We got the Prasad a month later.
Kalyani in front of the temple

Guru:
We proceed towards the Guru temple which is around 15 kms from Kumbhakonam.
At entrance of the temple is Shivalinga. Prayers have to be offered first here and then proceed to Guru. We lit 2 lamps to Guru. There are two entries one special which is 10 Rs per head and other is free. We took the free one as it is was not crowded much.We offered yellow cloth, channa along with archana to the lord.
Guru

Uppaliappan Temple:
From the Guru temple we hurried to the Uppliappan temple which closes sharp at 12:30pm. We grabbed tickets at the Entrance for 10 Rs per head. We were lucky to grab the darshan of the lord. He looked magnificent with Sridevi and Bhudevi. This temple is said to be equivalent of Triumala Tirupati temple.We couldn't get archana done as it was already late.
Gopuram of Uppliappan Temple

We headed to Shekaran uncle's house for a sumptuous lunch, and chalked out the program for the noon.

Mahamagam Tank:
This temple is within Kumbhakonam.We first went to Mahamagam tank. It was a huge tank with 16 small mantaps. The water looked serene and I would have liked to spend a couple of hours staring at the water, but there wasn't much time. Kasi Vishwanath temple is located at the bank of the tank.
Mahamagam Tank:

Kasi Vishwanath temple:
This temple is within Kumbhakonam.Kasi Vishwanath and Vishalakshi Devi reside here. It is said that Lord Kasi Viswanatha, at the instance of the Nava Kannikas, i.e., Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Narmada, Saraswati, Kaveri, Kumari, Payoshni and Sarayu, came down to Kumbakonam and stayed with them. Temples for all the Nava Kannikas have been built here.

Sarabeshwara temple:
The god is a combination of Narashima, Kali, Eshwara and Durga. Prayer at this temple cures all the diseases.

Mahalingaswamy temple:
There was a huge Nandi in front of the Lord shiva. There were idols of 27 celestial shivalingas. Couldn't read what each stood for as it was all in Tamil.
Nandi in front of Mahalingaswamy

27 Celestial Shiva Lingas

Surya Narayana Temple:
In this tmeple, the main deity is SuryaNarayana. Opposite to SuryaNaraya is Guru. Within the compound are the temples for the remaining seven planets.We took archana ticket for Surya Narayana temple and got archana done. Then we got to know that there is a 151 Rs archana done for all the planets. Upon my insistence, we then got that done. They would give a plate full of coconuts and flowers, which had to be carried to all the temples. It was a thirty minute process but very satisfying. The archana began with surya narayana. The purhoit offered a coconut at every temple. We were finally given around 10 coconuts. We gave all the coconuts for free lunch.

Rahu temple:
We proceeded towards Thirunageshwaram for Rahu temple. Main deity of the temple is Nageswarar. There is an individual shrine for Rahu Bhagavan. Rahu Bhagavan resides with his both his wives. Hence this temple is called Raghusthalam. We offered blue cloths to the goddesses.

Abhisheka for Rahu lord is done three times a day apart from the Rahu kala. At 9 am / 12:30 pm an 4:30 pm. It is 150 per head to witness this miraculous abhisheka. Milk turns blue as soon as it touches Rahu bhagawan. When a trip is planned to Kumbhakonam, atleast half day must be dedicated to this temple to witness this feat. It is better to go there for the morning Abhisheka, crowd is a little less. During Rahukala crowd is overwhelming.

Within the temple complex is a shrine for Sri Lakshmi, Sri Saraswathi and Sri Shakti devi, called as GiriGujambika Devi.
Rahu Bhagawan

Nageshwaram Temple:
This temple is within Kumbhakonam. Nageshwara is the main deity of the Nageshwaram temple. In the complex is a Nataraja temple, it is in form of a chariot.
Temple is constructed such that sun rays fall directly on the lord once a year.
Nageshwaram

Temple in form of a chariot

Sarangapani Temple:
Sarangapani is within Kumbhakonam. Ranganatha swamy resides here with Sridevi and Bhudevi. The main temple looks like it is on a chariot.
Sarangapani temple in form of Chariot

Brahma temple:
This temple is within Kumbhakonam. The main diety here is Vishu with Sridevi and bhudevi. Yoga Narashima is also in the complex. Brahma with Gayathri and Saraswathi reside here.
Brahma Temple

Ramaswamy temple:
This temple is within Kumbhakonam. It is an awesome temple and the dieties are awesome. Sri Rama, Sita devi, Lakshmana, Bharata, Shatrugnaya and Hanuman reside here. Lord Rama, Site and Lakshmana are standing, while Bharata and Shatraugnaya are flying the chamara. Hanuman is sitting with a tambori and singing Ramayana,
In the temple complex painting of Ramayana are seen. It goes in three rows, to read the complete Ramayana we need to go around the temple three times, once for each row.
Pillar in the temple
Pillar in the temple
Paintings of Ramayana

Aathi Kumbeshwara temple:
This temple is within Kumbhakonam.Kumbheshwara resides with Mangala devi. The shape of Shivalinga here is different.

Chakrapani temple:
This temple is within Kumbhakonam.Here the main deity is Chakraraja and Sudharshana Chakra. Lord Vishnu can be seen within the Chakra.

SwamiMalai temple:
This temple is around 10 kms from Swamimalai. Main deity of this temple is the Lord Subramaneshwara temple. Of the six scared shrines of Lord Subramanya, this is the fourth. Around 120 steps have to be climbed to reach the lord. Mom so stayed back while Dad, Raj and me went up to the temple. Temple was heavily crowded, but we managed to get a good darshan.
Temple Gopura

Thiruvalansuzhi Vinayakar Temple / Vellai pillayar Swamy temple:
This temple is ar a distance of 2km from swami Malai.
Temple has a small white ganesh. It is believed that the Ganesh was formed by the white foam of the sea. This Ganesha is located in the start of the temple. Coconut and flowers are a must for archana in this temple. Atleast 200 meters from this temple within this complex is a Shivalinga.
Temple of Vellai pillayar Swamy
Main Shiva Linga in Vellai pillayar Swamy temple

Patteswaram:
This is at 5 km from Kumbhakonam.Goddess Durge, with eight hands resides here with Patteswaram. She is said to bestow all the Soubhayas to the devotees. First we need to visit Patteswaram and then come to visit goddess Durga. There is a area to light lamps in lemon rind. We bought the lamps and lit around 12 lamps. At 11 am abhisheka starts for goddess Durga. We bought tickets for Abhisheka and special entrance tickets. We could witness the abhishekam at close proximity.
Goddess Durge

Airavatesvara Temple:
It is a archelogical site and located in Darasaram. When we went there it was past 12 pm. So the temple was closed but we were allowed into the temple complex. The temple is called as Airavatesvara as Airavata, the elephant of Lord Indra worshiped Lord Shiva here. Temple has exquiste archeticture of Cholas.
Airavatesvara Temple Complex
Airavatesvara Temple Complex

Some points learnt:
To visit all the Navagraha temples 2 days is needed. When we visit Navagraha temples, we must first visit the Navagraha and then visit the moola God. But, we should never return without seeing the moola god.
To visit the other temples in and around Kumbhakonam around 2 days minimum is needed. So the total plan must be for 4 days if we need to do justice of going to Kumbhakonam.
From people in Kumbhakonam we got to know that the best time to visit is in March. That is when heat is bearable, and crowd will be less because of exams. Decemeber or any other holidays the temples get so overcrowded.
Try lighting Lamps in all the temples and get archana done. In many places without coconut archana is not done.
Make sure to be in Rahu temple to witness the miraculous abhisheka.
Don't try to take photos in any of the temples as it is strictly prohibited.

M M Hills / Malai Mahadeshwara Betta

2009-04-01T10:52:00.017+05:30

March 28 our group of 9 (Latha, Vinay, Kavitha, Anitha, Joe, Pushpak, Raj, Suvarna and me) started off to M M Hills. M M hills is 210 km from Bangalore. We hired a TT @8.50 Rs per km. The TT started at Latha's and picked all of us and by the time we left Bangalore it was 6:30 am. Kavitha had listed quite a lot of temples to see and had made a note that all temples close by 10 am.

Sategallu
We reached Sathegallu at around 8:30 am. We went to Kote Varadharajar Swamy Temple but it was closed :-(. There was one Hanuman in the temple complex. We spent some time in the temple complex. We then started and searched for Gyana Ashwatha and Koormasanam but didn't find them.
Temple of Kote Varadharajar Swamy

Madhyarangam
From Sathegallu we started off to Madhyarangam. We first went to Sri Ranganatha temple there. There are 3 Ranganatha temples on the banks of Kaveri - Adi Ranganatha in Sri Ranga patnam, Madya Ranganatha in Madhyarangam and Antya Ranganatha in Tamil Nadu. Belief is that touring all the three places will mean the end of the ciruit of life on earth for any soul.

This temple was closed too but we had another load of people who had already landed there, so they got the main temple opened. There is also a Lakshmi temple beside it but they didn't open it.

Madya Ranganatha temple
Ranganatha Swami's Padas
Sri Ranganatha Swamy

Someswara temple
Fortunately this temple was completely opened. Lord Someshwara resides there with Goddess Meenakshi.
Temple complex of Someshwara
Meenakshi Devi

We reached Kollegal at around 12 pm and temples were closed so we headed for lunch. There is only one hotel in Kollegala, Hotel Annapurna which serves decent food. But the employees of the hotel were pretty rude. Since most of the temples were closed in Kollegal we started off to M M hills.

M M Hills
M M hills is abode of Lord Sri Mahadeshwara is the incarnation of Lord Shiva. M M Hills consist of seven hills Anumale, Jenumale, Kanumale, Pachchemale, Pavalamale, Ponnachimale and Kongumale.
Temple of Sri Mahadeshwara

Stay
All the lodges are controlled by the temple management. Chandrashekar is the contact person. His mobile is 9986601196, land lines are 08225 – 272129 / 5272129.
Latha co-ordinated to get the rooms for us.

Puja timings
Morning puja: from 4 am to 6 am.
To attend this puja we need to take the puja tickets the previous evening from the ticket counter 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

Evening Puja: from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
To attend this puja we need to take the puja tickets durign the morning.

When the puja is on, the gates are closed and no one can get in. General darshan starts at around 6 am in the morning and 7:30 pm in the evening.

Lunch and Dinner
Free lunch and dinner are served at a hall close to the temple. Lunch starts at 12 pm and dinner at 7:30 pm.

We reached M M hills at around 4:30 pm. We checked in to Guru Darshini Guest house. We got two guest houses with four beds each. Five girls checked in one room and four guys in another room. Rooms were old but maintained well and clean. All of us just crashed and had a sleep till 5:30 pm. we then freshened up and went to the temple at around 6:30 pm. The evening puja had started and temple was closed. At same time there was God's chariot so we could watch that.
Chariot

We took some good pictures of the temple and at 7:30 pm we went to have dinner. We stood in the queue for dinner at 7:30 pm, by the time we could enter the hall for dinner it was 8:20 pm. Food was tasty and all of enjoyed every morsel.
Temple
Temple

At 9:00pm we went to the ticket counter and bought tickets for next day puja. Couple of them went for Sahasra Bilwa archane and couple for panchamrutha abhisheka. They asked us to be at the temple by 3 am next day.

After dinner at around 9:20 pm we went into the temple there was a small queue for darshan. Raj, Joe and I decided to have the darshan while the rest of them retired to the rooms. It was a peaceful darshan and we 3 of us reached the rooms by 10:15 pm and crashed.

March 29th all of us woke up early and were ready by 3 am and headed to the temple. To attend the morning puja the queue started at around 3:30 am outside the temple. We were there at 3:30 am, but there was no place to leave our slippers. By the
time we decided on where to leave our slippers around 20 people piled up in the queue. We went into the temple; only 20 odd people could see the puja performed, as it was a small hall. I was able to see the god at small intervals and in bits and
pieces. There were arguments and fights amongst people who couldn't witness the puja.

I really wish that the temple authorities did something about this. All should get an equal chance to see the puja.

After darshan, we collected the prasad and came out by 5:30 am. We went to the Basavana at the temple top. They had pasted banana to lord shiva there and many kept pasting coins.

We returned to our rooms and started from M M Hills at around 9 am.

Chilakvadi
We reached Kollegal at around 10:30 am, after a brief break we went to Chilakvadi, which is around 20 km from Kollegal. At Chilakvadi we visited Shambhu Lingeshwara Temple and Matt of Sharana Nijaguna Shivayogi. Shambhu Lingeshwara Temple has Shambhu Lingeshwara and Veerabarda swami.
Shambu Lingeshwara Swamy
Veerabadra Swamy

Kollegal
Haleparivaradavara Chavadi
We came back to Kollegal for lunch and went in search of the less known Haleparivaradavara Chavadi. We located this place with quite a lot of diffculty, it was in the Chitrachavadi Bidhi. There were 18th century paintings and carvings.
Carvings
Paintings

Maruleshwara
The temple complex of Maruleshwara was open but the main temple wasn't. Apart from the main lord, there was Subrameshwara / Navagraha / Shivalingas too. There were quite a lot of other idols around. This temple was built in 1920.
Temple of Maruleshwara

PapNash Shiva temple - Bidar

2009-03-01T21:12:00.006+05:30

On the trip to Bidar we visited PapNash Shiva temple.

The temple

Legend:
Legend goes that this idol was installed by Lord Sri Rama on his way back from Lanka to Ayodhya. It is said that till a couple of years ago, during the Shivratri festival snakes would visit the temple.

Main ShivaLinga

Puja:
Temple is usually crowded, since we went by 9 a.m. there wasn't much crowd. There is a big ShivaLinga in the sanatorium. There are three small Shivalingas in the temple complex. We were allowed to touch the ShivaLinga and perform puja for that. We took coconuts / flowers and incense sticks from the nearby stall. We got abhisheka done, it costed 51 Rs.

Three ShivaLingas in temple

Food:
There is nothing to eat around the place. The stalls nearby sell bottled water and cold drinks.

Travel:
There are no frequent buses to this spot. Easiest method was auto.

Narasimha Zarni - Bidar

2009-03-01T08:29:00.010+05:30

When we were on the Bidar tour, we visited Narasimha Zarni. I had heard about this temple from Kavitha way back in 2005. Since, then I had wanted to visit this place. And Narasimha Zarni is the the best temple experince I ever had till date.

Legend:

Narasimha in the Cave

The legend goes that, Lord Narasimha after killing Hiranyakashpu, proceeded to kill a demon named Jalasura. Jalasura was a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva. After he was killed by Lord Narasimha, Jalasura turns into water starts flowing from Lord's feet. And to this day water keeps flowing from lord’s feet and fills the cave.

The Cave

So, to reach the lord we will have to wade through a 300 feet long cave, with water about 4 feet deep. Bats hanging from the cave's ceiling add to the thrill. Lighting and ventilation have been recently installed. The water is a little muddy, since it is flowing water it is not uncomfortable to walk thorugh it.

ShivaLinga, Jalasura worshipped

At the end of the cave we have Lord Narasimha and also the Shiva linga which Jalasura was worshiping. There is very less place to stand, around 8 people can see the lord at once. If there are more people they have to wait in water.

Logistics:
We took tickets for entry and also coconuts for the puja. We rented a locker there for 10 Rs and put in out extra pair of clothes and towels. There is some kind of place for women to change, not very comfortable. Since the water is 4 feet deep it is advisable not to carry anything when we go in. At the entrance, the purohits offer to take us inside and do the puja. The puja was done well. We were allowed to do the abhisheka and offer flowers to the lord. At the end of the puja, the purohit asked us to offer 101 /201 / 501 Rs as contribution to annadanna.

Once out, it didn't take more than 10 minutes for our clothes to dry.

Beliefs:
We need to have a bath before we have get to see the Lord. So people have a bath in water fountain outside the temple before entering the cave.

Eat Outs:
There are no places to eat here. There are small tea shops though.

Reach:
Auto is the best mode to reach this place.

Madhugiri - Goravanahalli

2009-02-28T22:39:00.004+05:30

We picked Madhugiri as a destination for our Feb 6 trip. Madhugiri is about 40 kms from Tumkur. It has the second largest monolith and a fort is located at the top of the monolith. Fort is attributed to HyderAli.

Raj, Kavitha, Darshan, Vinay, Bhushan, Pushpak, Joe, Dhanya and me set off. Raj n me were on the car and rest on bikes. We started at 5 am and met rest of the group at Yelhanka.

We stopped for breakfast at Kamat. As we approached Madhugiri the monolith rock began to reveal itself from behind the trees. The rock stood proud well aware that it is the second largest monolith and dream of every trekker. It looked magnificent. We reached Madhugiri at 10 am, parked our vehicles at the temple, at the base of the fort and began climbing.

Initial stretch had steps and well defined paths, nothing exciting about this stretch. After about 30 minutes steep rocks began to show up. Little steps were made to help the climbers. First rock seemed fine but second rock I was on all fours, third rock looked deadlier and I decided to call it off. Rest of the team proceeded. Kavitha joined me after 15 minutes; Raj, Joe and Darshan joined us in another 15 minutes after they were chased by a group of monkeys; remaining group conquered the fort.

We had a decent lunch at a small eating place at the base of the fort. If you are planning to go to Madhugiri make sure you call lot of water. You will not get anything there.

We started back from Madhugiri, on the way we decided to stop at Goravanhalli. Goravanhalli has a Lakshmi temple.

The goddess is said to have self originated on the rock. The temple is extremely crowded on Fridays. To our luck it was a Saturday and the Lakshmi temple was not at all crowded. We got kumkum archane done, pleased the way it was conducted. Free lunch is provided everyday at the temple.

We wanted to go to the blackbuck reserve but it had already crossed 5 pm, so headed back to Bangalore

A visit to Channapatna

2009-01-26T23:14:00.006+05:30

25th January we started off to Channapatna. We started from Bangalore at 9:15 am. We had breakfast at the Kaddu Mane at Bidadi. The hotel was over crowded but we managed to get a table and eat some un-cooked rava idlis.

Our first destination was Kengal:

5 kms before channapatna right beside the highway is the Kengal Anjaneya temple. Temple is a huge complex with ample space for parking and relaxing for a while.
The Lord is 5.5 feet tall, has moustaches. In temple are the Rama/Sita and Lakshman; and Venkateshwara-Lakshmi idols. These were installed by Vyasa Raya. We got an archana done.

Second destination was Devara Hosa Halli:
From Kengal Temple take a devation into the village. About 4 kms inside there is another Anjaneya temple. Inside the santorium along with the Anjaneya is the Ugra Narashima. UgraNarashima is installed in the inner wall of the snatorium. After the puja, the priest will hold a mirror to show us the UgraNarashima. These idols too were installed by Vysaraya. This raod is pretty bad and driving is painful. If you proceed on this road you will get the Kanva ashrama and Kanva dam. We couldn't make it there.

Third desitnation was the Aprameya Swamy and Ambegal Krishna Temple at Mallur:
Mallur or Doda Mallur is 2 km from Channapata on the Mysore highway. The temple is situated close to the highway. It is a huge and old temple complex. Make sure you go around the temple slowly and not hurry. The main deity is the Aprameya. The Ambegal Krishna is made out of a single saligrama stone and is very cute. This Krishna is said to have inspired Purandara Dasa to write "Jagadodharana Aadisidale Yashoda ....".

We returned to Bangalore by 8 pm.

On Rajan's Chair

2009-01-22T18:10:00.005+05:30

Poor Rajan!! always targeted. Sujit one day stuck a Postit on Rajan's chair which said "Please Kick Here". Everyone had a smile when they passed his cube but poor Rajan remained oblivious of it for a week.

Chilkuru Balaji

2009-01-17T15:55:00.006+05:30

When we went to visit my brother's new born in Hyderabad, we happened to visit Chilkuru.

Importance of Chilkuru: As adherent devotee of Sri Balaji would visit Tirupathi every year. Owing to ill health he was not able to visit Tirupati one year and was in deep grief. Sri Balaji appeared in his dreams and told the devotee not to grieve for not being able to visit Tirupathi, and his idol was buried in a forest close by. The devotee reached the place and began digging and found The Lord with Bhudevi and Sridevi.

Location: Chilkuru is located approximately 30km from Hyderabad.

Travel: We hired a taxi to Chilkuru. We reached in approximately 45 minutes. The roads that lead to the temple were filled with vendors, selling coconuts and flowers.

Food: There are not good hotels around but many small shops which sell good tea.

Temple Timings: 5 am to 8 pm

Puja: There is no particular puja that is carried out there. So don't bother to buy or take things like incense sticks / camphor or flower but take coconuts. At the entrance of the temple there is place to break the coconuts. Leave half of the coconut and take the other half.

Once you enter the temple campus, you will be surprised to see hordes of people going round the temple at an unimaginable speed. Balaji is also called Visa Venkateshwara. Youngsters visit this temple to get visas :-).

In this temple it is said you ask god for your wish and go around the temple for 11 times, and take a vow to return once the wish is fulfilled. Once you wish is fulfilled you return and go around the temple for 108 times. It is said Lord hasn't turned down any of the wishes till date.

This is the first of the temples I have seen where there is no place to make offerings in cash to god / No archanas or pujas . Lord accepts offerings only in form of pradakshinas. Temple gives free numeric cards to count the 108 pradakshinas. This temple is very crowded on Fridays and Sundays so if possible avoid it on those days.

Onsite - Offshore model...

2008-12-13T21:14:00.000+05:30

Lot of raving about onsite - offshore model isn't it? Global team!! One team!! Bah!!
Now imagine entire team of developers / analysts / testers out sitting in US and you one and only poor developer stationed in offshore-India (for the heck of it); intentionally or unintentionally you will end up feeling like a foster child of the project ... hmm or the entire project FAMILY.

Client is in east coast of US and the team (Apart from the poor developer) is on the west coast, so you will never be able to talk to the client... time difference!!! If you are going to complain and raise a bawl then be ready to forgo you night sleeps, be alert in the calls that start at your 2 am or 3 am (that is the only slot client has). And of course the team out there will try their best to remove the feeling of unwanted ness that has grown into you, they will ask you take the notes and to promptly send them the MOM (minutes of meeting) before their EOD (end of day)!!!

You will burn midnight lamps to meet the deadlines and in the status call you will jubilantly announce that you have completed your tasks well within time... only to have the entire team chuckle because the deadline was pushed for the following month, months ago. #$@$@#$!!!

You will cry, scream and jump around to find out what is happening there. Unable to bear your bawls the family there will give you some work, which doesn’t need much of your brains. Try standing unnoticed; hoping someone will understand you, will allocate you will some work that is of your caliber (!!!), if you think so you shall continue to remain unnoticed.

As days pass by in the project, you will resign to the fate of receiving only end tasks, which are monotonous and boring. Don’t bother to complain, you will get to hear only the management jargons. Just start praying and hoping that your next project will come offshore and you will have just onsite team member!!! Every Dog has its day!!

God's smiling face

2008-12-02T11:07:00.004+05:30

Yesterday night, when I lifted my eyes to see the sky, I saw a beautiful sight.
I saw God's smiling face. Moon positioned itself to be God's loving smile and the planets Venus and Jupiter positioned themselves as God's beautiful eyes.

I tried capturing the image on mobile's camera, but in vain. Then I tried in a camera, I did get the image but it no where matched the God's face.

Lamp and Prediction

2008-11-18T10:29:00.004+05:30

I got this article as a foward. Found it very intresting, putting it up on this blog.

In all the prasna, or in all karmas, the lamp plays a prominent part, a messenger of the future. If the flame is plaeasant and bright, it forebodes good. Lets see how the knowledge about the lamp and the flame helps us in finding out more about a muhurtha or an event.

Evil is prognosticated, if the flame of the lamp
1. moves in anticlockwise direction
2. is not bright
3. emits sparks frequently
4. too small in shape
5. suddenly put of inspite of good oil and wick
6. extinguishes even after continuous effort to keep it lighted
7. makes cracking sound
8. it shakes to and from without wind

Following conditions of the flame forebode auspiciousness, prosperity and success, if the flame of the lamp-
1. is fairly dense and long in appearance
2. moves in clockwise direction
3. strady and bright
4. produces no sound
5. pleasant to look at
6. has golden or jewel like hue
7. burn straight and without bending

The different parts of the lamp represent following parts of a native:
1. Oil in the lamp- Physical body- Moon
2. Wick- Soul- Sun
3. Flame- Longevity- Fiery element (Mars, Sun)
4. Brightness or otherwise- Happiness or misery (Jupiter/ Saturn)
5. The can, its size and shape- The house
6. Breeze/ Wind- Friends/ Associates/ Enemies

From the cleanliness of the different part of the lamp, different things can be predicted. For peace and auspiciousness at home, the lamp is supposed to be clean and sparkling. There should not be any dirt and carbon shoot in the body/ oil or wick.

Because lamp represents fiery element, it should be made of articles represented by fiery planets Sun or Mars, such as gold, copper, brass or even earth. It should never be made up of silver or glass, whichh are governed by watery planet Moon, otherwise this might forebode great danger shown by Gandanta (Combination of Fire and Water).

The bent of fire towards different directions shows different things such as:
1. East (Indra)- Prosperity
2. South East (Agni)- Fear from Fire
3. South (Yama)- Death
4. South West (Nirriti)- Diseases like epilepsy or sudden fits
5. West (Varuna)- Peace, improvement of conditions
6. North West (Vayu)- Poverty, decline in the present conditions
7. North (Kubera)- The native had recovered from great danger to his life
8. North East (Isana)- General good health
9. Vertically upwards (Anant)- The native shall gain and success in his endeavors

While putting the query, if the articles given as donation to the astrologer is kept in the direction which happens to be signified by the rasi occuypied by Gulika at the time of query, in the 8th from the prasna arudha or 8th from the janma rasi of the native, then great danger to the native’s life is awaiting hium.

Kukke Subramanaya

2008-11-13T17:19:00.003+05:30

Location: Subramanaya is located at around 280 kms from Bangalore.
Importance: It is the abode of lord Subramanya and Vasuki. Importance of this place is mentioned in Skanda Purana. When Garuda attacked Vasuki (king of serpents), he came and took shelter in this place along with his family. In Satya Yuga, Lord Subramanaya was the senapathi for the Gods against demons; battle was fought on the banks of Kumaradhara. After he killed Tarakasura, he washed his spear in the river of Kumaradhara. Lord liked the place so much that he decided to make his abode. In Tretha Yuga Parashurama bathed in the river to absolve his sins of killing kshtriyas.In dwapara yuga, Samaba son of Sri Krishna bathed in the river to get rid of leprosy.

Temple complex has Samputa Narashima and Uma Mahaeshwara too. At a little distance away is Adi subrmanaya and Bhilwadhwara.

Travel: From Bangalore this place can be reached by train or road. By road it takes around 7 hours and 9 hours by train. If you can drive, you can enjoy the luscious green forests, little water falls and pollution free air.

We took the train at 9 pm from Bangalore city station. We reached Subramanaya road at around 5:40 am. Train waits there just for 5 minutes. Once out of the station there were hoards of jeeps and autos ready to ferry us to the town. We jumped into a jeep, which charged us 40 Rs per head. We reached the town in 20 minutes.

Stay: we had tried booking a room two days in advance, but everything was running full. We thought we will go and try our luck; if not there is the temple lodges to manage for half day; because, by noon most of the lodges are vacated. We got a room in Suraksha lodge, the room was a nightmare. It was tiny, about 4 feet by six feet. The window was covered with a plastic sheet, walls looked like they would fall off any moment and there was nothing called bathroom. There was a big toilet which was supposed to be both bathroom and toilet. We paid 300 Rs for it and stayed, hoping to get a nice room by noon.

We were tired after the journey and we went into immediate sleep, woke up by 11 am, freshened up, had breakfast and started hunting for rooms. We got one almost immediately at Kenchamba Lodge. This room was so very refreshing. Lodge was new, room was neat and furnished.

Some lodge numbers are:
1. Anugraha Lodge, Ph: 08257-281283. This is very close to the temple.
2. Shanmukha Lodge, Ph: 08257 281232, 9448548572
3. Mayura Residency, Ph: 08257-281336
4. Sheshanag Ashraya, Ph: 08257-281215,281219,281279
5. Shreenikethana Lodge, Ph: 08257-281261, 281221
6. Suraksha Lodge, Ph: 08257-281306,281782
7. Vailankani Sadana Lodge Ph: 08257-281291,281801
8. Kenchamba lodge Ph: 08257 318914/M 94805733298.
9. Forest Resort and IB, Gundya, (20KM from Temple)
For Booking contact DFO Mangalore, Ph: 0824 2423913, Fax: 0824 2411242

Room rents range between 200 to 1600 per day.

Food: There are two restaurants Neo Mysore Cafe and Kumara Krupa hotels on the temple road. Free lunch at the temple starts at 11:30 am and free dinner which starts at 7:45 pm. The queues will be very long, but even if you are at the end of the queue you will reach the dinning hall within 20 minutes. Food service in the hall is fast and food is extremely tasty, you will want more.

Getting around: Just jump into any auto. They charge minimum of 15 Rs from any point to any point.

Temple timings:
Subramanya temple is from 6 am to 1 pm and 3 pm to 9 pm.
Adi subramanaya temple is from 6 am to 6 pm.

Pujas:
If you want Abhisheka / Ashlesha bali or Naga prathista done then be in the temple before 9 am and get the tickets for the same.

The main reason for people to visit this place is for Sarpa Dosha. Each astrologer suggests different methods.

To get rid of this my astrologer suggested the below steps:
1. Get the date and time to enter the temple of Adi Subramanaya from your astrologer.
2. Bathe in the Kumara Dara River and get dressed in new white clothes.
3. Enter the temple at given time.
4. Get any puja done for the lord
5. Perform 9 Pradakshinas.
6. Collect the prasadam and the miritka (mud of the ant hill).
7. Go back to Kumara Dara rive, throw the white clothes into the river.
8. Return to the lodge and make sure you don't go anywhere but straight home.

Return: Trains start at 10:30 pm and KSRTC buses start from 2 pm.
We planned our return by bus. We took the 2:30 pm bus and reached Bangalore by 9:30 pm.

Bundle of Joy

2008-10-08T11:40:00.001+05:30

My brother was blessed with a son on 20th Sept 2008. In the photo below, the baby is 14 hours old. Isn't he a bundle of joy?

Where is the Restroom?

2008-10-07T13:30:00.006+05:30

This incident is the most embarrassing; and most humorous incident of my life. I did think a couple of times before I decided to put this up.

At college all I did was study. I never watched any English serials or movies. Relevance of Why I am mentioning this, you will know towards the end. I got selected to Trigent Software through campus. I joined this company in my last semester.

My first project lasted just 2 months. It was a proof of concept, which was destined to fail from the start. There were fifteen of us on the team (14 seniors including my manager); so proof of concept didn't fail because I was on the team :-)). Since all were seniors, interaction with them was limited to project talks.

Second project, as destined I landed under a manager who was the nastiest amongst all the managers and leads till date. I forgot his name, must be Ravi or Naveen or Chandrashekar. Let me assume it was Chandra. Chandra was around late 30's or early forties. He moved to IT from insurance company. We were a team of two under him. He took upon himself to monitor how much time we spent talking to which person, how fast we ate, how much coffee we drank, what time we came or left. If he realized we are free, he would mail us a word document and ask us to covert it to a PowerPoint presentation or vice versa. He sat few cubes away from where I sat, but he exactly knew how many times I opened yahoo mail / chat, how many forwards I got so on and so forth. I can't figure out even to this day how he did it, maybe he had a sniffer :-).

The facility we were using was under construction, and one day our senior manager called for a meeting to talk about the progress. In the talk he mentioned that the new restrooms looked good and elegant. Now, I took the literal meaning of restroom. So I pictured it to be a place with couches/ a coffee vendee machine / newspapers and magazines. I had never seen any such room in the office. How could such a place be there and I not be using it? You see the disadvantage of not watching English movies or studying too much or not interacting too much with the seniors.

Immediately after this meeting, I had a meeting with Chandra at his desk. I casually and innocently asked him “Where is the restroom here?”
Chandra stared at me a bit shocked, a bit puzzled, a bit amused. He covered his mouth with his hand and asked "You don't know where the rest room is?" Maybe he meant, how are you surviving the whole day, without using the restroom? :-). I innocently replied, "No, I don't know, thinking that it was a pretty evident place and I am too stupid not to be aware of it". Then he paused, raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the toilets. I was shocked and all that I could blurt out was "Oh!! Those are restrooms." Well!! the signs on the restrooms just had a man and a woman, no mention of restroom anywhere.

I was pretty embarrassed at my ignorance. I later laughed after narrating it to my parents. Chandra too must have had a hearty laugh. I don't know where he is now, but must be teaching some managers about monitoring their teams.

The Tale of My Eyeliner :-)

2008-09-19T12:11:00.003+05:30

Well, when I go to office I am a plain Jane. I wear crisp cotton dresses a matching watch, many times matching bindi, rarely matching earrings.

Babitha comes to office dressed to perfection. She wears matching earrings / watch / lipstick / bindi and always puts on eye liner. Many a time I complimented her for her neat looks. She sugested I put on eyeliner or at least lipstick which would enhance my looks too. Put on eyeliner and lipstick!! No way!! What an effort to do that. And I wasn't good at putting on eyeliner. I asked her to give me a demo of the same sometime :-).

Today, Babitha noticed I wore watch and earring matching my dress and she offered eyeliner and lipstick. We went to the restroom and she put some eyeliner on me. It could immediately see the difference. I applied some lipstick too. I thought I looked good.
Now, B and I headed to meet Prashanthi. Prashanthi was almost shocked to see me :-). By then I had smudged some of my eyeliner. So Babitha and Prashanthi cleaned it for me.

So much is happening in Cube then how is it possible that Rajan would not react. Rn along with Sarferazul sang "Sajana ne re muje...." :-). Asked me why I was decorating myself. Sarferazul said that adding eyeliner enhanced the beauty of the eyes; only person who gave some good complement ;-).

Rajesh saw me and he came down to my cube and said, "Did you listen to Radio mirchi today, they were talking about how much time women spend in dressing and they spend about 300+ hours" :-)). I walked to Rajat's cube to get some suggestions, he gave a strange look and said U look like a ghost!!

Prasad saw me and said "you look so different. Something different about your eyes. Were you wearing glasses before? Or are you wearing glasses now!!!" rofl. Then I had to tell him that I am just wearing eyeliner.

Next, it was Arul's turn. He looked at me quizzically and asked, "Are you not well!!!”. Prasad and couple of others could make out the difference and they went into peals of laughter. Arul, apologetically asked "Is it something I shouldn't have asked". I explained that it was my eyeliner.

Back at my desk, Prashanthi suggested I clear off the eyeliner as they were thick. I said who will look at me now and half day was done. I added "well, it is just Rajan around". Instantly Rajan added, "You dressed for me. Wow!! I am feeling shy”! We went into peals of laughter.

How I miss the evening walks with you mom!

2008-09-15T15:12:00.006+05:30

Till I got married in 2004, I would go out for evening walks with my mom every weekend. I enjoyed this walk so much, mainly because my mom would be giving me all her attention. We would walk all the way from home to Bhasayam circle, which is the shopping area in Rajajinagar. We would buy vegetables and groceries.

Mom would buy me bindis / bangles / clothes / slippers / purses what not. I always admire the way she bargains. Even to this day she always succeeds in getting a very good deal.

We would talk about everything - relatives, about my future, about my brother and father, her childhood, her married life, trails and tribulations of life. She would often consult many astrologers and tell me how bright my future will be.
We would got to Shanti Sagar and have some chat. She loved to eat Dahi puri and I would eat Masala puri. If we didn't eat chat, we would eat some puffs or toast at the bakery. We would drink some tender coconut or some juice.

I miss those walks so much. I wish I was not so busy in life. I wish I lived closer to my mom’s house.

Hic...Hic...Hic...

2008-09-09T17:12:00.001+05:30

Hic .. hic .. hic ...
I went on and on for 30 minutes. I gulped down lots of water....swallowed some sugar... drank hot water... still I went on hic... hic...hic...

People working around me were getting disturbed. Few gave me methods of stopping them like - holding the breath, opening mouth wide, talking or getting scared. They even suggested I wear a helmet so that I don't transmit signals. Ha ha ha.

Then I thought google is the best place and searched for "Hiccups remedy"

The first result that came up was
30 Second Cure For Hiccups
A cure for hiccups that takes only 30 seconds and requires no props.

I clicked on the link; there were usual disclaimers from the author and other related stuff. My hiccups were driving me crazy. Where is the 30 second cure????????? I impatiently scrolled down and I found the material.

Later when I went though the page again, I did see a link where it directly leads to the cure.

So this is what I did:
Open your mouth, inhale deeply till the point you feel you cannot inhale anymore. Ensure you don't let air out anytime.
Once you feel full, swallow the air. Ensure you don't let air out.
Do not exhale, again open your mouth and try to inhale as much air as you can. Do not let out any air. You can close your nose if needed.
Keep repeating the step 3, till you cannot hold anymore air.
Then exhale.

It just worked.

I tried this and it just worked!!! My hiccups just vanished.

God's Ways of helping

2008-08-27T14:11:00.001+05:30

I work on Oracle BI (OBIEE). I was working on the project called Portfolio management (PFM) along with MBR channels. Work was overwhelming, I was working late night and over weekends (something I never did all through my career till this point). Aug 29h 2008 was the deadline for me to deliver the reports on the PFM.
I received the data model on Aug 18. I plugged it into the existing data model. It worked. I decided that just few minutes of work is left and I can wind up on the weekend.

Weekend when I started working, I realized that the data model is wrong, I cannot sum the values!!!. And of the 6 reports that have to be completed two reports can't be created in OBIEE. On 25th Aug, I pinged the database team and asked them to give the right data model. Now they were busy and they could give me only by end of day. Now, I was getting scared. :-).

Database team was co-operative and by end of 25th Aug I got the data model on the development environment. I copied the repository file from the production server on to the development server, and then imported the data model. I created the joins and deployed on the development (dev) server, hoping it will work. I brought the UI up and when I tried to add the fields from the data model. It started throwing up errors. The error was straight; it said that tables were not found. I guess I was already worked up, I thought the problem was in the data model. So I went about doing umpteen numbers of trails and errors to fix the data model. It failed. I was at a loss.

Next day, while driving to office I kept thinking on how to bring up the system. I pinged the database team and requested them to look at it. But they were already overloaded. I kept on with my trail and error. At that point, my PFM manager Chandra pinged me. He asked me why was the development server was showing production data. Eureka!! It then hit me; the repository file was pointing to production database, while the new data model was in development environment. I hadn't changed the repository file to point to the development environment after I copied it from the production server. So I was getting the error. I replied to my manager saying he was great and he had helped me debug the problem. He was perplexed. Then I explained to him, I guess he had a good laugh.

Now, I changed the repository file to point to dev and Aaiye La!! It worked!! Phew!!

If my manager hadn't pinged me and asked me about data, I don't know how long I would have taken to debug the problem.

God's ways of helping are really unique.

Coorg - Part 1

2008-08-27T14:10:00.003+05:30

Coorg was one of the destinations on our minds for long. Finally we decided to go there for our fourth anniversary.

Beautiful Coorg

Travel
I Booked the KSRTC "Airavatha" buses to and fro from Coorg. We took the last bus to Corrg at 11:30 pm on 15th May 2008. We reached coorg on 16th May, 4 am. I had booked return for 18th May 2008 at 3:30 pm. We could have driven all the way to Coorg, but we decided against it.
We had contacted a kown person at Coorg and had a taxi booked for the 16th and 17th May.

16th May - Morning

We were scheduled to start at 7:30 am on 16th May, but we woke up only at 7:30 am. We asked the taxi to come in at 8:30 am, but the time we boarded the taxi it was 9 am. The taxi driver Sharat was very friendly.

Bhagamandala
We started off to Talakaveri via bahagmandala. Bhagamandala is 33 km from Coorg. At bhagamadala is the confluence of the rivers Kaveri, kanika and an underground spring Sujyothi. There wasn't much water in the rivers. At a very short distnace for mthe Sangama is the Bhagandeshwara temple. Here we have Bhagandeshwara (Ishwara), Maha Vishnu and Lord Subramanya. Hence, this place is called Bhagamandala. The temple wasn't crowded. We took a ticket for Arithi. The temple complex was in the typical Kodagu style. There was no major pujas or commotion in the temple.

Talakaveri
Talakaveri is the place where the river Kaveri originates on the Brahmagiri peaks. It is located 8km from Bhagamandala. There is a small enclosure around the spring, it is called the Gundige. The spring water from here surfaces one kilometer below in the peak. Close to the Gundige is a tank, where devotees can have a bath. The priests there will fill a pot of water from the Gundige and pour it on the devotees head. EVery Tulashakranthi day which is around 17th October the spring overflows from the Gundige. IT is believed that Goddess PAravathi herself apears in the Gundige on that day. During that period devotees throng Talakaveri.

We got kumkuma archane done for the Goddess Kaveri and proceeded to the temples above. There are two temples, one with Shivalinga and other with Ganesha. It is belived that sage Agasthya performed his peanace here in the Brahmagiri peaks. Close to the temple is a Banyan tree, which is belived to be from the root of the Banayan tree underneath which Sage Agasthya perfomed his penance.

From Takakaveri we can climb the peaks of Brahmagiri. We didn't have the energy to climb 400 steps, so we returned to our taxi. We headed for our hotel.

We had lunch at our hotel and started off to see Abbey falls at 3 pm.

Abbey Falls
Abbey falls is around 2 kilometers from Madkeri and is in a private estate. Taxi took us till the entrance and we walked around 200 meters through a coffee estate, from entrance to view the fall. A hanging bridge is built from where we can view the falls. There wasn't much water when we went, but got to know that during Aug - Dec lot of water in the falls.

Around Coorg - Raja's Tomb
Raja's tomb has royal tombs of Virarajendra and Lingarajendra. Along with the royal tombs are the tombs of Raja's priest and two Commander-in-chiefs. The tombs are in Islamic style.

Around Coorg - OmKareshwara Temple
Omkareshwara temple was built by Lingarajendra in 1820. It is said he got the Shivalinga from Kasi and got it installed here to wash away the sins of killing a Brahmin. There is big tank in front of the temple which is calm and serene. But, we cannot touch the waters of the tank.

Around Coorg - Madkeri Fort
Madkeri fort was renovated by Lingarajendra in 1812. It was disappointing to see that it is converted into a government office. So it is less of a fort and more of a bustling office. There is a small museum outside the fort which closes right at 5:30 pm. There are two life size elephants in the fort. We climbed the fort wall and we could get the view of the Madkeri jail and its inmates.

Around Coorg - Raja's Seat
This place was just 100 meters from our hotel. It is a park, where kings of Coorg would come and spend their evenings watching the spectacular sunset. Park has a breathtaking view point of the valley and mountains. Sight of the Birds returning to the nest in the evening combined the sunset and cool breeze will take us to a magical land.

The park was crowded with people and hawkers. There is toy train in the park. There was a musical fountain show at 7 pm; we weren't much impressed with it though.

From Raja's seat we retired to our hotel as we had a long day waiting the next day.

Comedy of Errors

2008-08-27T14:10:00.002+05:30

Ri just leaves her home keys carelessly on the desk at office. One day, I noticed her keys lying on the table unattended. I picked those keys and dropped into Rn's bag. Rn, willingly hid them in his bag.

After a couple of hours, it dawned on Ri that her keys are missing. She went around asking the more notorious people for the keys. Finally Disappointed, she descended at my desk, asking for her keys. "I don't have the keys" is what I kept telling her. She checked my purse and drawer. Finally she asked me to promise, which I did. Well, I wasn't lying. Was I?

Now, her attention turned towards Rn. She asked him for her keys, obviously he said he didn't have them. For some reason, she picked his bag, and started shaking it vigorously. And she could hear the sound of keys. Suspecting them to be hers, much against Rn's wishes she dug his bag. She found her keys and Rn's home keys. As revenge she took away his home keys too, though Rn tried to desperately explain to her that I as the culprit.

Rn just forgot to collect his keys before leaving for the day. He reached his home at BTM layout only to realize that he has no keys. He called his room mates, and they were to return after two hours. So, Rn had to spend two hours on the roads and in the rains. He called me, cursed all of us. All I could do is laugh and laugh. Poor guy!!

Now coming to Ri, fearing that Rn might take away the keys hid her keys and his keys in the drawer. While starting for home, she forgot to collect them. She reached her home and realized no keys. So she had to return to office. When she returned, she had forgotten the place where she had hid the keys and went on searching. Finally, she found them and called me to tell her story.
All I could do was laugh and laugh.

Glass Painting

2008-08-27T14:09:00.002+05:30

hmmm.. I resumed glass painting. Well! If you ask when was I even doing it, to have stopped it and then resume it :-). Then, let me tell you, I was doing this when I was at school, hmmm or maybe when I was in my initial years of college. Now, after
saying a "Wow", you are going to ask how many such paintings did I do and for how long did I have this hobby going? Right ???? Well, I just did one painting :-).

Now, a casual conversation with one of my friends prompted me to resume this. She had just completed one glass painting of hers. The conversation bought back into my memory those vivid and bright colours. Now this was all way back in January 2008.

In June 2008, I happened to visit Sapana Book Store and then I bought a set of glass paints. My company had given us photo frames for attending an event. That was just lying on my table. It looked like it was just waiting for me :-). Searched the internet for some good designs on glass paintings and found quite a lot. I chose the one with parrots. I took print of it.
Now I was all set.

Procedure for Glass painting:
1. I stuck the print of the design underneath the glass.
2. Traced the outline of the design with the outliner that comes along with the glass paint.
3. I left the design to dry for an hour.
4. Used a blade to make the outlines even and thin.
5. Then clean the glass with a cloth.
6. Started filling the colors.
7. Left the painting to dry.

Sounds easy, isn't it? Well! It isn't.

First time when I put the outlines, they became really thick. Later scraping those using blade became a pain. So I removed the entire outline and re-did everything. When I put the outlines second time, I did it part by part, so scraping out the lines was easier. When I started filling the colors, I realized that, I shouldn't fill two different colours, adjacent to each other at the same time. It will just mix. I had to scrape out some colours. So I filled in one colour, waited for it to dry and then used the other colour. The whole process took me around one and half months of time.

When it stood ready all painted, it looked beautiful.

I was proud of myself.

Trip to Nanjangud

2008-08-27T14:08:00.001+05:30

Nanjangud was one of the pilgrim places I always wanted to visit.

Temple:

Temple is the abode of lord Nanjundeshwara. The temple is said to built during the 9th century the Ganga period. Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan both had close association with the temple. Legend goes that, one of Tipu Sultan's favrourite elephant lost its eye sight. Its eye sight was restored after Tipu Sultan made a vow to the lord. In return he made a Shiva Lingam of jade with emrald necklace. He also gave the title Hakim Nanjundeswara to the lord.

Journey:
Nanajungud is 24km south of Mysore on the Mysore-Ooty road. So the best approach to Nanjangud is via Mysore. April 5th 2008 we started off from Bangalore to Nanjungud. We took a train from Bangalore to Mysore at 2:30 pm. We reached Mysore by 4:45 pm. The journey was peaceful and easy as Dad had already reserved tickets. From Mysore there are manybuses to Nanjangud. As soon as we entered the bus stand we had a partially filled bus waiting to leave. We reached Nanjangud by 7 pm.

Stay:
Dad had booked for 3 rooms in a guest house Eshwar bhavan. This guest house is about 200 meters from the temple. The guest house was neat and clean. There is a Arya Vysa choultry just 2 buildings away. We went for dinner there at 8:30 pm. Dinner was tasty and well prepared.

Puja at the river:
We woke up by 4:45 am next day, 6th April. We headed for the Kapila river for a scared bath. Water was warm. It was fun bathing in the river. I was glad that there were rooms where women could change. We poured that many mugs of water on our head which is equivalent to our age. It is supposed to clear out sins till date. We Left the wet clothes on the steps of the river. Mom had packed all the puja articles. We made Gowris in Turmeric and placed it on the steps, lit mud lamps. We worshipped Gowri and the river with flowers / incense sticks and camphor. We offered rasins and bananas to the Goddess Gowri and Kapila.Puja at the temple:We reached temple by 7 am. We took tickets for Rudra Abhisheka. We could go into the inner sanatorium of the temple and watch the abhisheka. It was a quick one. We were given Pongal / Kesaribath / Laddus as prasada. Each one of us lit mud lamps in the temple, Mom had packed them from Bangalore. My Sister-in-law and me gave two bananas / betel leaves and nuts / blouse pieces / bangles to five married women. We then fed the elephant with bananas and idlis, equivalent to our age.

Raghavendra Swami Mutt:

On the way back from the temple to the Guest house we went to Raghavendra swami mutt. The mutt doesn't have a brindhavan but actual statue of Raghavendra Swami. The legend goes that, a dhobi was using that stone for washing. One day Raghavendra Swami appeared in the dreams of one of the Wodeyar Kings and asked him to install the statue in Nanjangud. Along with Raghavendra Swami we have Vaayu Devaru too.

Return:

We took a bus from Nanjangud and started off to Mysore. At mysore we went to Mysore palace "Varah Dwara". A temple to Lord Varaha is inside the compund of the palace. It is the only temple in Karnataka.We had a return train to Bangalore at 2:30 pm.
Regretting not taking enough photos :-(.

Fun at work

2008-08-27T13:31:00.002+05:30

I work in a IT firm. So how the office looks and how people sit can be easily imagined. We all sit in cubes of four. At my office the placement of people changed, to bring people in same project together.

My whole cube was occupied by P (she) and me. Two other seats were vacant. Since R worked in my project, he was relocated to the cube adjacent to me. He is known to have a good sense of humor and also to crack many wacky jokes.

Now we were two girls against a guy. So the day he moved, we started our campaign of irritating him :-). Firstly, P and I decorated his cube with stickys bright pinks and yellows. Those stickys were noticed by one and all that passed the cube. R went crazy with all this. But...... But........ He didn't remove the stickys. So we went ahead added some lines on the white board "Welcome to the cube warming - R". This attached more people to his cube. We had our office admin put up two bright orange stickys and a note "Whenz the Party".

R kept THREATING us, saying that he would talk to our manager to change his place, which he never did.

We had an ultimate laugh when one of our senior colleagues, sitting in the adjacent cube walked by and requested "R can I have a sticky please. I need one and you have so many".

But, R preferred to take out his sticky book and give him a sticky, instead of pulling out one from the board. Senior colleague a little puzzled, and then said "oh, I see that stickys have a pattern". All of us were rolling with laughter.

Over a period of time, the board looked more creative.

Dolphin island

2006-12-11T16:22:00.000+05:30

Ile du Golfe off the south coast of Tasmania which looks astonishingly like and gigantic dolphin. How did nature create it an island to this perfection?

Links:
http://googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=1170&c=&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&om=1&z=13&ll=-43.570193,146.529722&spn=0.116911,0.2635&t=k

Sigmund Freud's Priorities

2006-12-06T10:44:00.000+05:30

This is a interesting test I came across. Try this.

Five things are happening in your house at the same time.

1. The telephone is ringing!
2. The baby is crying!
3. Someone's knocking or calling you from the front door!
4. You hung the clothes out to dry and it is beginning to rain!
5. You left the tap on in the kitchen and the water is already over flowing!

In which sequence would you solve these problems? Write down the sequence.

Answer:

Every individual point represents something in your life.Below is the meaning of each point:
1. Telephone represents Work
2. Baby represents Family
3. Door represents Friends
4. Clothes represent Money
5. Tap represents Love Life

The sequence you chose determines the priorities in your life.

Faith Breaks Walls

2006-12-01T13:48:00.000+05:30

Heard of Kanaka Dasa, a famous saint of Karnataka?

The legend goes that Kanaka Dasa was born in lower caste. The legend goes that Kanaka Dasa was born in lower caste, and was a warrior. Defeat in a war made him take up the path of devotion. He adopted Vaishnavism, i.e. became a devotee of Lord Vishnu.

Being a devotee of Vishnu, he went to Udupi to have darshan of Lord Krishna. Being from lower caste he was not allowed to enter the temple. Dejected, he sat behind the temple and sang praises of the lord and prayed lord for a glimpse.

Lord Krishna was facing East. Lord moved by his prayers is said to have turned toward the back of the temple, i.e West and the temple wall collapsed to form a window, so that Kanaka Dasa could view the Lord. Faith broke the wall!!

Even to this day, Lord Krishna faces the West and he can be seen through the window called "Kanakan Kindi" meaning "Kanaka's window".

Links:
http://www.answers.com/topic/kanaka-dasa

Cursed Town - Talakad

2006-11-22T10:23:00.001+05:30

Talakad is a scenic and spiritual center located in Mysore district, near T. Narasipura in Karnataka state. It was a capital of the Ganga Dynasty (350-999 AD). It was the capital of several dynasties that ruled over Karnataka.

During 1600 when Talakadu and Srirangapatna were under the Vijayanagar Empire. The death of the last ruler, Srirangaraya in 1610, provoked the Wodeyars of Mysore to declare war. As Srirangapatna fell, the Wodeyar ruler sent his soldiers to get the jewels of Srirangaraya’s widow, Alamelamma.

Alamelamma fled from the Mysore soldiers, when she saw she couldn’t escape, she is said to have jumped into the Cauvery, uttering the curse: "Let Talakad become sand. Let Malingi become a whirlpool. Let the Mysore king fail to beget heirs.”

River Cauvery is said to have taken a sharp turn eastwards towards Talakad, from its Southernly course. This buried the entire Talakad (about 850 acres) in sand. Since then Talakadu has been under a sea of sand and the family tree of Mysore rulers show a large number of adopted heirs, and the current Mysore heir Narashimaraja Wodeyar is childless too.

There are as many as 30 temples buried under the sand, very few are visible above sand. The Vaidyeshsara temple along with four others - Arkeshwara, Vasukishwara or Pataleshwara, Saikateshwara or Maraleshwara and Mallikarjuna are visible and constitute the Panchalingams here. These five ShivaLingams are said to represent the five faces of Shiva.

The Pataleshwara Shivalingam is said to change colors during the day (red in the morning, black in the afternoon and white in the evening). These temples are opened once in 12 years. It will be open this November – December 2006. I hope to go there and have a darshan.

Links:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talakad

Mother Earth

2006-11-20T12:00:00.001+05:30

What does the picture below look like? They look like Lips of a lady to me.

These lips belong to our mother earth. It is located in the Sudanese region of West Darfur. At 40 meters high and 1 km wide the lips actually appears to be pouting.

I hope to see the eyes of our mother earth. They must be filled with love and tenderness.

Links:

http://googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=1154&c=&f=q&hl=en&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=15&ll=12.370982,23.321614&spn=0.029846,0.040255&t=k

Temple of rats!!

2006-11-16T11:29:00.001+05:30

Heard of temple of rats? There is one such temple of Rats in Deshnok, Bikaner Rajasthan. The goddess of this temple is Karni Maa.

There are innumerous rats in the temple. These rats never go out of the temple. The intriguing facts are - no incidents of any diseases have been reported, no devotee has been attacked or bitten by the rats, and the temple doesn’t stink.

No baby rats are seen in the temple, all the rats seen are of the same size. No one has any clue of where these rats are breed :-).

Amazing fact is that. All the offerings like milk, sweets, groundnuts and waters are first fed (offered) to rats, and remaining food is distributed to the devotees as “Prasad”.

No devotee has fallen sick. In 90’s when plague hit Gujarat, people went to this temple to have water and milk drunk by these rats as medicines!!!

There are much folklore around the origin of Karni Ma and the temple. The most convincing is that, Shri Karni Mata is the incarnation of Goddess Durga. Karni Mata once tried to restore her dead stepson to life but failed, as Yama, the god of death had already accepted his soul and re-incarnated him in human form.

Karni Mata, famed for her legendary temper, was so inflamed by her failure that she announced that no one from her tribe would fall into Yama’s hands again. Instead, when they died all of them would temporarily inhabit the body of a rat before being reborn into the tribe.

Links:
http://www.karnimata.com

The Guy Next Cube

2006-11-13T13:51:00.000+05:30

“Are you free? “my lead quipped.
“huh!! Yes Please tell me.”
“This is Nikil, joining our team today. He will work on the Java modules”
“Voila!! What a handome guy.” I thought.
“Oh Great! Welcome to the team Nikil.” I managed to utter. I hope he didn’t realize that I was drooling at him.

Nikil was assigned a cube right next to me. He would give me a big smile whenever he saw me. My heart beat would shoot the moment my eyes would spot him. Would his heart beat increase too?

I would never miss a chance of talking to him, explaining to him about our project or the company politics. Everyday we would spend time together during breaks and lunches. We would chatter away for hours. We just loved each other’s company.

It was June 22nd 2006 my birthday; I saw flowers on my desk. I wondered for a moment as to who would have sent it. Then saw a naughty twinkle in Nikil’s eyes. I blushed. From that day, every morning I would see a flower on my desk. But, never had he put a red rose on my desk. Should I propose him or should I wait till he puts a red rose on my desk, I kept wondering through my sleepless nights.

It was August 9th 2006. He stepped by my cube with a photo in one hand and something hidden in his other hand, I thought the moment has come, and he will propose me. My heart started racing at a mad speed. He put his family photo in front of me, “This is me, my mother, dad and my sister.” Gosh!! His sister was almost a replica of me. “My sister died in a road accident 3 years ago. I loved her a lot and I miss her a lot. Whenever I saw you, I felt my little sister was back. Today is Rakhi… will you please tie it for me?”

P.S:
This is a digress from my strange world. But, when I got this concept, I could help but put it down on my blog. Will return to my strange world in the next article!!

It is my Buffalo!!

2006-11-09T12:21:00.000+05:30

There were two farmers living in the neighboring villages of Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. Both these farmers had their own flocks of buffaloes. They let their buffaloes graze in the same lands. A new buffalo was born.

Both the farmers claimed that the new buffalo was sired by one of the buffaloes in their flock. This broke into a quarrel. The quarrel wouldn’t end till the police intervened. Now, how could the police tell as to whose flock sired the new buffalo??
How is this feud resolved? Any guesses?? DNA test!!!

The farmers are going for the paternity test of the buffalo. DNA test would cost them 10,000 Rupees, while the buffalo itself would cost them 4,000 Rupees. After the test, the farmer having made a false claim of ownership would have to bear the cost of DNA.

It is really a strange world!!

Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061106/od_nm/india_buffalo_dc

Human Race with Horns??

2006-11-07T11:55:00.001+05:30

How giants are usually depicted in our tales? Huge human like creature, with 1/2/3 horns, red eyes, hairy body isn’t it? My previous blog talked about gigantic human fossil. What would we have to say if human skulls with horns were discovered?

In the 1880s, in a burial mound at Sayre, Bradford County, Pa., human skulls with horns were discovered. Horns started at the eye brows and extended two inches above. The skeletons were seven feet tall. Other than the horns, they were found to be anatomically normal. It was estimated they were buried around AD 1200.

This discovery was made by a reputable group of antiquarians,the Pennsylvania state historian and dignitary of the Presbyterian Church (Dr. G.P. Donehoo) and two professors, A.B. Skinner, of the American Investigating Museum, and W.K.Morehead, of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. The bones were sent to the American Investigating Museum in Philadelphia; they were stolen and never seen again.

Did Giants Exist?

2006-11-02T10:53:00.001+05:30

Haven’t we all heard of stories about giants from our grand parents? Did they really exist or was it fertile imagination?

Well, there have been certain evidences which prove Giants did exist. Ooooooooooo!!!

The image on left is of a monstrous fossil, which was dug up by Dr.Dyer while searching for Iron-Ore in County Antrim. Any guesses on the height and weight of the fossil?? It measured 12 ft2in and weighed around 2 tons!! The arms are of 4ft.6in and the girth of the chest is 6ft.6in.

This giant was exhibited in Dublin, Liverpool and Manchester.

Currently, this giant is supposed to be lying at the London and North-Western Railway Company's Broad street goods depot. No research has been done on this.

Intriguing isn’t it? Or was any research done, but results buried in dust?

If I unleash my imagination, I think giant men and Dinos existed together not very long ago. Hence, we have carvings (more to follow on this) and figurines of men riding Dinos and hunting them. What say?

Dinos lived with man!! - More

2006-10-30T17:54:00.001+05:30

Continuing the series of Dinos and Man….

How would we believe that dinos and man may have lived one earth together - Fossils isn’t it? What if we found pictures of dinos etched by early man? Can’t that be one source of evidence? One such is Ica Stones.

The Ica Stones were found in Peru in 1956, which had hand etched images of the dinosaurs and the primitive birds. There more than 15,000 such stones varying from the size of a base ball to twice that of a basket ball.

They clearly depicted the Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Apatosaurus and Pterodactyls. The stones also depicted men hunting down the dinosaurs and flying Pterodactyls.

Theses stones are composed of andesite, a very hard mineral. These stones get covered with natural varnish created by bacteria on it.

The carvings on Ica stones were supposed to be have been made, by scraping away the natural varnish to expose the lighter stone.

According to some reports, the grooves of the etchings also bear traces of additional varnish, however, indicating that they are very old.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been possible to date the Ica Stones, as they do not have any organic material to use radio carbon dating, and rocks can be dated by examining the strata in which they were found, but Ica stones were uncovered by the erosion of a river bank.

More expeditions will help us find harder evidence (if there is any) about Dinos and Man.

Dinos lived with man!!

2006-10-26T19:02:00.001+05:30

Once upon a time Dinosaurs and Humans lived together. Man loved to hunt down the Carnivorous Dinos but loved to have Veggie Dinos as pets. Then one day a meteorite struck the earth and Dinos vanished.

How does this story sound? Doesn’t sound true?? Well, there have been evidences that Dinos and Humans co-existed!! One of them is Clay Figurines.

50 years ago an archeologist Val Julesrod discovered some clay figurines at the base of the Bull Mountain in Mexico. Now, what is so intriguing about them?
Clay figurines depict animals that not only resemble camels, elephants, horses but also exact replications of certain dinosaur species Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex and Pterodactyls thought to have been extinct for over 60 million years!

Radiocarbon dating showed that they were 3500 years old. These figurines were found in groups of 20 to 40, and Val was able to collect over 30,000 of these. The dinosaurs were both alone and in various interactions with human figures.

Initially, this was disregarded as hoax, but was proved over and over again.

Dinosaurs got extinct 60 million years ago and mankind dates back to 2 million years, how they could co-exist? Does this mean that mankind existed in Jurassic Age? Or did Dinos live 3000 years ago? Or did man know about Dinos? Oops!! lots of questions.

If man existed with the Dinos then either man must have been gigantic or the Dinos must have been little (more about this soon).

Airplanes – When Did they come in?

2006-10-23T10:19:00.001+05:30

Let me test your general knowledge. When did airplanes come into existence?? Did you say this century? Well, Then you are absolutely WRONG!!!
Many researchers believe that the Egyptians knew the aeronautics secrets and could fly but later the secrets were lost.

Egyptian Airplane
In 1898, a 6 inch model of what looks like a glider was found in the tomb at Saqquara. It has been exhibited in a museum in Cario. Was it just a toy or a scale down version of the real aircraft?

Carvings at Abydos
At Abydos, ancient temple built by Seti I and his son Ramses II, there were curious carvings on the stone slabs. They seemed to be the images of aircrafts.
Below are the self explanatory images from the temple wall.

The Wall
Close up from the wall
Plane?

Plane with a man?
Helicopter ?

Submarine?

Central and South American Shuttle
Models of airplane made in gold were found in the Central and South America. These date back to 500 AD.

From our scriptures
Haven’t we all heard stories from our epics where the Gods and Demigods traveled in Vimanas. Ravana carried away Sita to Lanka in a Vimana, Remember!! Our ancient scriptures describe this aircrafts in depth to the very last technical detail. In “Vaimanika Shastra” (Aeronautical Science), talks about different flying machines and describes in depth the technical details of constructing and flying an airplane.

Interesting? You could read more here:
http://www.2atoms.com/weird/ancient/plane.htm
http://www.geocities.com/jirimruzek/abyhelic.htm
http://www.veling.nl/anne/templars/ancientaircraft_nf.html

The Dropa Stones

2006-10-18T16:25:00.001+05:30

The Dropa Stones were discovered when Chi Pu Tei, a professor of archaeology at Beijing University, and his students went out to explore caves in Himalayas.

They found the caves were squared and glazed. On the walls of the caves were pictures of sun, moon, stars and a dotted line connecting the earth to the sky.

There were many graves which had creatures of about 4 feet. The creatures had huge heads and small bodies. There were hundreds of Dropa Stones near the graves. Dropa stones were discs of one foot diameter with a hole in the center and had inscriptions. Stones have been determined to be about 12000 years old.

In 1958 Dr. Tsum Um Nui, deciphered one of the lines of the hieroglyphs. Translation read as “The Dropas came down from the clouds in their aircraft. Our men, women and children hid in the caves ten times before sunrise. When at last they understood the sign language of the Dropas, they realized that the newcomers had peaceful intentions . . . ."

Another section read that “the aliens' craft had crash-landed in such a remote and inaccessible mountain range and that there had been no way to building a new one to enable the Dropas to return to their own planet.”

None of these have been proved but rather severely criticized. But still makes an interesting reading isn’t it? Were the Dropa truly aliens from some distant planet, or is this all a myth?

Read more at:
http://www.ancientx.com/nm/anmviewer.asp?a=61&z=1

GDC day - Sweet Victory !!

2006-10-16T17:50:00.001+05:30

Finally 6th Oct 2006 had dawned. It was the GDC day!!! We boarded the buses which would take us to Club Cabana. Journey was long, and slow owing to traffic. Interestingly, the driver didn’t know where to take us. We lost our way to Club Cabana and went 2 kilometers ahead of the club and had to retrace. Thirsty and hungry, we pounced on the welcome drinks at the Club.

No time to relax! We rushed into a photo session, it was followed by a couple of speeches and we broke for lunch. Phew!! After lunch we had singing competition, a toastmaster capsule, and finally the skit competition.

We geared up for the skit. Since our skit was the first skit to go on stage, we set the stage in a hurry and the skit kicked off. From the back stage, I could hear peals of laughter all through the skit. We had a huge round of applause when our skit got over. We had few more teams performing. We watched the other skits, kept our fingers crossed and hoped for a first prize. We requested our teammate to record the skit in his handy cam. But later realized that, he had forgotten to press the “Rec” button. Googly!!!

Now it was the Time for results! The judge announced that our team was victorious. We had won FIRST PRIZE!! Entire team was up on its feet, and celebrating. From the stage we rushed to the garden and posed for the victory photos, with the trophy.

The return journey was a celebration with singing and dancing.

Practicing the Skit - “X – factor”, GDC day - Part 2

2006-10-12T14:19:00.002+05:30

We are a Lazy bunch of people in our team. So the leads literally had to pull us into the practice rooms. But little did we know that this would turn out to be a fun ride, with surprises..

What’s the story of the skit?

Our company follows a performance appraisal rating system where people are rated as one of these: X, E+, E and E-. X being the topmost and E- being the bottommost.

A fresher 'kid ' in the company aspires to get the topmost grade “X” during performance appraisal. During the first year, the kid works diligently but his arrogant manager gives him an E, but promises a better grade the following year. The following year, kid works harder, but the manager is replaced and he ends up with an E again! The kid is frustrated.

In the third year, the kid is no longer a kid. He's grown into this macho, scary man wielding cycle chains, knives and the like. (We actually replaced the thin timid looking actor with a huge, muscular one to make the transformation obvious!) . And this time, the manager is a timid, diffident chap. Our guy threatens the manager with a knife and a gun and cruises his way to an X. Hence the title “X – factor”.

We also had some interesting characters in the skit: like the cool dude who always gets an X, the filing assistant (not the administrative filing, but filing the nails of the 2nd manager), etc. Another thing about this skit - it was a silent skit, no dialogues! We selected songs from Bollywood to match each character and situation.

The Fun Part

You see, we are software engineers and we are used to changing roles and responsibilities everyday. So we felt free to would swap our roles during the days of practice. The director clueless of the swapping would pull his hair, and re-align the characters. Ooops! I forgot to mention, we had a director for the play, whom we drove so mad that he lost quite a bit of his hair during practice session.

The characters kept coming up with weird ideas to implement in the play, and added to the confusion. One of the leads felt there was enough confusion and decided to take matters in his hands. Moment anyone would come up with a weird idea, we had him running after them, shooting at them with the toy gun and bullet. Two days before the event, couple of the main character threw in the towel and withdrew from the event (project pressures!) We had an hour long serious talk to decide a “GO” or “NO-GO”. Finally it was not-so-unanimous “GO”.

Well, the most important part of the skit, Me!!I play the role of the second manager. My entry would be accompanied by the jingle from the movie Kuch Kuch hotta hai “Ms.Breganza...aaahaa”. , followed by “Haaila!! New Manager!!”. To record “Haaila!! New Manager!!” we did many takes and retakes, tested everybody’s voice. Phew!! Finally!! Got it recorded. And yes forgot to mention this. When I am on stage I will have an assistant filing my nails.

A couple of practice sessions and individual acting tuning, the skit shaped up well. We were all excited about the real show.

More to Follow:
GDC day
Sweet Victory
Toastmaster

Back to Life!! GDC Day - Part 1

2006-10-09T14:45:00.001+05:30

A mail saying that 6th Oct is "GDC day” Yawn!! Yawn!! (GDC is the name of my division, comprising of around 300 people). The event was at Club Cabana, who cares!! Another mail saying "Participate in Skit competition between the groups in GDC. Teams Enroll now!!" Yawn!! Yawn!! Are people jobless to participate?

I had bid adieu to stage before entering my post graduation and I had no enthusiasm to participate / initiate any skit, neither did I think any one from the team would be interested.

That evening my team started to plan for the skit - theme, script, actors. Wasn't keen on joining it, but joined. Well!! I don't regret joining the skit preparation; it was whole lot of fun. We were mimicking out Performance Appraisal Process. Coming up with the script and casting people onto the roles, turned out to be hilarious. I got cast too as a project manager. The entire script came up on the “White Board”. Now who will write it down? We are software engineers, we do SMART work not HARD work. So we took photos of the board with our mobiles.

Few days were left to practice, projects were on and there were many deadlines to meet. I didn't think this skit would even take off.

But, it is a strange world, you see.

More to Follow:
Practicing for the skit
GDC day
Sweet Victory
Toastmaster? or RoastMaster?

Easy Cure For Typhoid

2006-10-05T13:07:00.001+05:30

What made me search for a treatment for typoid?

My maid was down with it and had to shell out of lot of money for the treatment, Money part aside, she would take at least 2 months to recover. So, wondered if there are alternate ways to treat typhoid. I dug into the net.

Now, why did I dig? People take weeks to recover from Jaundice. My Dad treats people for jaundice, and they are back to their normal life and re-start work by the fourth day. He uses a combination of herbs, which tastes very very bitter.

So thought, there should be such medicines for Typhoid too. This is what I found.
Aloe-Vera and pure honey can be used to prevent and cure typhoid fever. Pure honey, Aloe-Vera and the white part of egg should be properly mixed together, this mixture is even more effective than many antibiotics popularly used for anti-typhoid orthodox drugs. This herbal remedy very effective, if only the white part of the egg from a local chicken is used, for preparing the anti-typhoid and paratyphoid medicine.

Well, the above remedy is not tried and tested by me, but though it can always be of help.

Links:
http://www.tribune.com.ng/19052006/hlt1.html
www.csl.gov.uk/prodserv/ana/documents/PARISH2.pdf

Girl grows glass

2006-10-03T16:46:00.001+05:30

Sarita Bista, has been generating glass from her forehead for last eight months, since January 2006. She sat in meditation for months without any food and drink till she fainted. The next day she began to bleed in the forehead and next day sliver of glass came out of her forehead. Since then she has been producing glass strands of 1.5 inches long and 0.5 inches wide. Around 100 glass slivers have been produced by her till date.

This incident has not been explored by the scientists or rationalists and its veracity is not proven.

Can a human stay for months without food and drink? I cannot really comment about the authenticity of this incident.

Links
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1053623
More can be found upon searching in google.

Mountain lays eggs!!

2006-09-28T18:19:00.001+05:30

In Guizhou province of china, a mountain cliff has been laying eggs once in 30 years.
The mountain is called Chan Dan Ya meaning Egg Producing Hill. It is densely covered with trees and weeds; surface is extremely uneven and very steep.

A number of egg shaped stones appear on the bluff of the mountain, once every 30 years. These eggs are approximately 30 centimeters in diameter, oval in shape and light yellow in colour. There are 68 such eggs preserved by the local people around, who feel these stones are good omens and will protect them.

Analysis of the stone eggs, reveal that the rocks date back to the Cambrian age, this was prior to the Triassic and Jurassic age!!! Oddly enough, the Chan Dan Ya is made up of calcareous (composed of calcium carbonate or chalk) rocks. It is indeed intriguing that Cambrian period rocks are coming out of a calcareous mountain.

Links
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-3-8/39075.html
http://perdurabo10.tripod.com/id1852.html

Mystery Spot

2006-09-25T10:07:00.001+05:30

I visited Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, California in June 2005.
There is a point in the hilly region called “Point of gravity” which has more gravitational force than normal. There is an old wooden cabin exactly on the point. This cabin is supposed to have slid own from the top of the hill owing to the gravity and stands on the spot at 17 degree inclination. Mystery spot is an area around that point. There the pull of gravity force more than normal and laws of gravity do not obey.

What I saw and felt?
Quite few trees in and around the spot are inclined towards the gravity point.

As I walk toward the mystery spot, felt the pull of gravity. I was amazed to see that Laws of Gravitations are not obeyed here. Tell me, what happens when a ball is placed on the higher end of an inclined plane? It rolls down isn’t it? Not in Mystery Spot. The ball rolls down till the mid of the plane, and then rolls back all the way upwards!! I decided to do away with their ball and gave them my lipstick. The lipstick too rolled down for a small distance and it started rolling up all the way!!

They have a pendulum in the cottage. The pendulum doesn’t oscillate equally on both the side. It oscillates more towards the point of gravity.

Many of the demos and exercises they conduct, I attribute it to optical illusion.

Why does this happen?
Some say that it is due to the carbon dioxide seeping up due to fissures caused by landslide or earthquake; some say that aliens left a strange metal deep down the earth; some say a meteorite and some magnetic field and so on.
There are theories which tell that this is a game of psychology.

Whatever be it, it is a fascinating place to visit. Do visit if you go to California.

Ants intelligent?

2006-09-22T10:17:00.000+05:30

I had soaked around 20 almonds in a shallow vessel. I left it on the kitchen’s parapet overnight. Morning, there were just 5 almonds left in the vessel. Who ate the rest of them? No one at home had taken them. Where did they go?

There was a huge trail of ants starting behind microwave and going to the window. Why are ants swarming here? Curious I pulled my microwave. And I see 8 of the soaked almonds there; ants were picking small bits from it and carrying it out of the window. How did my almonds go there? Did those tiny ants do this? Or was it cockroaches or rats? I knew neither of them was stationed at my home.

“How did almonds go there?” I kept thinking, as I picked the almonds and cleaned the ants. As I began my day’s cooking, I saw another trail of ants starting underneath my gas stove and going to the window. “Now!! what!! What’s under the gas stove?” I bent and
Underneath the gas stove saw the remaining almonds, and ants picking on to them. Now how did they go there?

Did the ants carry the almonds and hid them in two different locations, so that they could transport them in bits to their homes later? I guess so.

I conclude ants are definitely intelligent.

Born Again???

2006-09-19T16:46:00.001+05:30

Isn’t it interesting to know what we were in our past births? Dr. Walter Semkiw has published a book “Born Again”, which gives more insight into this. He has done considerable research on famous personalities. Semkiw mentions that physical traits, personality and talents are passed on through lifetimes!!!

Among the Indians, he has picked Amitabh Bachan, Jaya Bachan, Rehka, Sonia Gandhi and many more. Amitabh Bachan is supposed to have been Edwin Booth (1833 – 1893) in his previous birth. Edwin Booth was a great actor of Victorian times. Jaya bachan is supposed to have been Mary McVickers, wife of Edwin Booth. Rekha is supposed to be Edwin Booth’s first wife Mary Devlin, who died within few years of their marriage. Methodology he has used to make this conclusion is in the book.

Below: Edwin Booth and Amitabh Bachan

Below: Jaya Bachan and Mary McVickers

Does this mean that we will have the same spouses though many lifetimes? Ooooops!!

Is this a Discovery or Hypotheses???

My observation:
Edwin Booth’s features don’t seem to match with Amitabh Bachan, but seems to match Aamir Khan’s.

Links:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2006/03/11/stories/2006031103350100.htm

6 Years Ago...

2006-09-18T13:02:00.000+05:30

I read somewhere, God sometimes sends Angels in form of friends.

Most of us would agree. Six years ago, Oct 2000, God sent one such Angel, Casy to me. No one has touched my life, as Casy has done. She is a Mother when I am weeping, she is a Dad when I make mistakes and need support, she is a Sister when I have to share secrets, she is Brother when I need to deal with this bad world, she is a Philosopher when I need some sense (I severely lack that). She painstakingly replies to my mails, calls me. Me a bad girl, I don't call her regularly nor reply to all her mails (but I read them), but, she understands.

What do I say about her? She is my first Boy Friend. Jokes apart, she has been my guiding star.

When I sit to count my blessings, she is always there on that list.

When it Rains..

2006-09-14T16:03:00.000+05:30

If you are driving slowly in heavy traffic and you have your air conditioner on, do you keep your car windows tightly shut?
If yes, then think again. This causes Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.

Recently, family of four dies in a car due to carbon monoxide poisoning. It was raining and the family sat in the car with AC on and had rolled up the windows.

Rain water partially chokes the exhaust pipe and denies a smooth exit for the exhaust fumes. Since the AC had been left on, the exhaust fumes mixed with the air and formed carbon monoxide causing suffocation. The car was still running, when the four were found dead. The exhaust pipe had submerged leaving no outlet for exhaust fumes.

Carbon monoxide is said to be a silent killer as it induces a sleep like state not allowing the person to feel any pain.

It is suggested that, during monsoon the drivers drive with windows rolled down and without AC.

How you could prevent Carbon Monoxide poisoning:
http://www.personalmd.com/news/carbn_monox_012700.shtml

Who is she ?

2006-09-11T13:29:00.000+05:30

Who is the leftmost girl in the photos? Any guesses ?

I hate Taxi Drivers

2006-09-09T13:19:00.000+05:30

I always dreaded the buses and the auto drivers. They drove mercilessly on the roads. Now, the buses and the auto drivers seem to me as souls from heaven, as my encounters with the Taxi drivers have increased.

Taxi drivers come with divine powers; I could never do what they do. They drive at 120 km/hr when the speed limit is 30 km/hr; they overtake anyone from left or right, with least bit of noise; they take a sharp turn to the right of the road, from the leftmost end, with least bit of indication to the other vehicles; when there is a traffic jam, they blare their horns for way; they enter one ways and cause a traffic jam and argue that they are right; they stop their vehicles right in the center of the road, for people to alight, mind you they don’t signal that they r stopping.

Today morning, there was a traffic jam in the ring road, all the vehicles are going in the straight line, a taxi driver just takes a right turn to squeeze into little space, and go a few millimeters ahead. In this process he hits another car (not a taxi), which was coming straight. And it is not the Taxi driver's problem, the driver of the other car was coming straight!!!

There is a banner behind almost every taxi which says:
"In case of rash driving, call: 12345566". If some good citizens like me, call the number, we get a rude reply "With the traffic in Bangalore, they are driving the best." and they slam the receiver of the telephone.

How do I do it?

2006-09-07T17:13:00.001+05:30

hmmm.. I have been getting quite a few brickbats from my friends for concentrating too much on SPIRITS....

Anyway, if anyone is interested here is the way to do spiritual writing. Well, I tried the below steps. In the first attempt my hand drew mountains, it went up and down; second attempt my hand went round and round, third attempt my hand wrote "rrebuk", don’t know what it means though. I have tried again. If you try the below steps and get some success do let me know.

Here's How:
1. Find a quiet spot without distractions.
2. Sit at a table or desk where you'll be comfortable, with paper and pen (or pencil).
3. Take a few moments to clear your mind.
4. Touch the pen or pencil to the paper.
5. Try not to consciously write anything.
6. While keeping your mind as clear as possible, let your hand write whatever comes across.
7. Avoid looking at the paper; you might even keep your eyes closed.
8. Give it time to happen (nothing might happen for quite a while).
9. When it seems to be done, if and when automatic writing does occur, look over what your hand has produced carefully. The writing may appear to be nonsense or just scribbling, but try to decipher it as best as possible.
10. In addition to letters and numbers, look for pictures or symbols in the writing as well.
11. Keep trying. Nothing might happen your first few attempts.
12. If you start to achieve success, you can try asking questions to see if you can receive responses.

Tips:
There is no guarantee that automatic writing will work for you, but don't give up if it doesn't work the first few times. Give it a chance.
Be aware of psychological dangers. Some messages that come across might be disturbing. If you're at all not able to handle this possibility, don't attempt automatic writing.

All the Best!! Do let me know if you get any success in this.

Excavation through Spirit Writing

2006-09-04T16:55:00.001+05:30

Glastonbury Abbey was one of the most powerful and influential churches in Britain. In 1539, Henry VII ordered its destruction, and it was razed to the ground with such thoroughness that even its floor plan and overall dimensions were lost. Local people carted away the stones over the centuries, nothing remained of the Abbey.

In 1907, Glastonbury was bought over by a wealthy individual and held in trust until the Church of England could raise the money to buy the site and begin restoration in 1908. Frederick Bligh Bond was given the responsibility of excavation.

Bligh Bond instead of adopting the usual trial and error method of excavation, i.e. digging a trench here and there, Bligh used Spirit writing. With the most astonishing speed he uncovered the floor plan of the 600 foot Abbey, and made many remarkable discoveries with regards to the Abbey.

In 1918, Bligh disclosed in this book “The Gate of remembrance” that he and his friend John Alleyne, had come in contact with a deceased monk 'Johannes Bryant' through Automatic / Spiritual writing. Johannes lived from 1497 to 1533, and was involved in constructing the Abbey. Under his influence, Alleyne sketched a gargoyle that Johannes claimed to have sculpted himself.

Bond dug as instructed by his spiritual guide and almost at once discovered the foundations for the Abbey's twin towers followed by the legendary Edgar Chapel. Next he found the main altar, and an unknown side door behind it, as well as finding coloured glass, secret tunnels, water courses and drainage systems. He was able to identify every part of the site, including the herb gardens, the monks' hospital, dormitories, washrooms, some small cloisters (which were not shown on any historical plans).

Glastonbury Abbey today is supposed to be the oldest existing Christian church in the world.

Spirit Writing

2006-09-01T10:18:00.002+05:30

Spirit writing is also called as Automatic writing. In this process of writing, the messages do not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. The writer is unaware of what is written. Origin of these messages is unknown; it could be the "spirit world" or the subconscious.

In the first case, the writing was produced by an American lady, Mrs. John H. Curran of St. Louis Missouri. The case was closely observed by, Dr. Walter Franklin Prince, well known for his work as Research Officer of the Boston Society for Psychic Research. He wrote an exhaustive volume entitled The Case of Patience Worth, which was published by the above-named society in 1927.

Mrs. Curran was born of British parents at Mound City, Illinois, in 1883; she received only a desultory education and left school at the age of fourteen. At the age of thirty-one, she had never left the Middle Western States and had never seen the sea.

On the 8th July 1913, spiritual communications appeared to her from a personality who called herself “Patience Worth." Mrs. Curran hand started writing on the board. Patience Worth was a 263 year-old spirit of an Englishwoman of Dorsetshire England. Through Mrs. Curran, “Patience Worth” produced an enormous literary output, largely consisting of fiction, estimated at something like three million words.

Literary output included The Sorry Tale, a novel of the time of Christ; Telka, a tale of the Middle Ages; Hope Trueblood, a nineteenth-century story; The Pot upon the Wheel, and a large amount of poetry, impromptu proverbs, prayers, short compositions and conversation. An interesting feature of these works is that they were produced in markedly different types of dialect, but with a tendency towards the archaic.

Must Read:
http://www.patienceworth.org

Soon Coming:
Real Spirit writing incidents from history.

Links:
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/heywood/worth.htm

Humane Lions!!

2006-08-30T12:49:00.000+05:30

I came across an old and very intriguing piece of news.

In south-west Ethiopia, a 12-year-old girl was snatched by four men, on her way home from school early in June. A week later, kidnappers were moving her with police in pursuit, when three lions encountered the group and chased the men off. The lions stayed with the girl without harming her, before departing as police searching for her came near.

Sergeant Wondmu Wedaj told the media “They stood guard until we found her and then just left her like a gift and went back into the forest."

Lion attacks on humans and farm animals were frequent in the region, it was surprising they protected the girl.

A government wildlife expert said the lions may have mistaken the whimpering and crying girl for a lion cub and taken her into their protection.

It sounds miraculous isn't it?

Links:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/06/21/lions-ethiopia050621.html

Brr !! Spooky !!!

2006-08-28T12:02:00.001+05:30

I want to go to Bhangarh!!

Bhangarh is a town on way from Jaipur to Alwar city in Rajasthan state of India. It has the ruins of the town established by Madho Singh, younger brother of Raja Man Singh.

What is it about this town ??

No one dares to stay in the town after sunset, those who dare, do not return.
People hear sounds of dancing and music during nights, though the town is deserted.

Spooky!!!!! isn't it ??

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have opened their office one kilometer from the ruins and also have a sign board "Staying after sunset is strictly prohibited in this area." If anyone wants to venture out at night there has to get a permission from ASI.

Why is this place spooky and haunted ??? Well!! there are many fables. One story goes that beauty of the princess Ratnawati drew princes from far and wide. A tantrik / magician Singhia fell for her. He tried all the black magic he knew to woo her but failed as the princess herself was a mistress of black magic. Princess cursed a stone to kill Singhia. Stone rolled down on to the magicion and killed him. Before he died he cursed the city that, in one incident entire city would die and the souls of the people there would remain there for centuries, and if the town was ever rediscovered the township would not be found, but only temples would show up.

True to the story,a battle ensued between Bhangarh-Ajabgarh and none survived, and today temples dot the landscape and even far up on the mountains only shrines can be seen. And I guess it is those souls who keep dancing and singing in the night !!

brrrrr !!! scary !!!

Wedding Extravagance!!

2006-08-25T14:14:00.000+05:30

My opinion on expenditure for a wedding is its just burning of one’s money. Many tens of thousands of money are spent on food (most of it wasted), jewelry, clothing (not re-worn), decoration and what not. We are deprived / we deprived ourselves of many desires in childhood and youth, lest we spend too much. It could be just a couple of hundreds. We blow out this money in weddings. Why this extravagance?

Remember the wedding extravagances of Laloo’s daughter or Jayalalitha’s son? Wasn’t it all India’s money?

Just read, Steel tycoon L N Mittal spent $60 million for his daughter’s wedding, Vanisha Mittal with Amit Bhatia in June 2004, the most expensive wedding in world history. 20-page invitations in silver boxes, 1,000 guests put up in a five-star Paris hotel for the five-day affair, a party at Versailles, another party at a wooden castle temporarily erected in Parc de Saint-Cloud, Pop signer Kylie Minogue’s performance, five thousand bottles of Mouton Rothschild, and goody bags of jewels.
I have no comments, I am speechless.

Voila!! Cough Vanished!!

2006-08-23T10:32:00.001+05:30

Grape season is in. I ate up lot of those black grapes. The result was sore throat, cold and coughs. Cough was draining my energy. Tried the cough syrups Benadryl / Kaasni, but these gave a temporary relief. Finally, I was reminded of an age old remedy for cough.

After dinner, took a bulb of garlic, stuck it to the tip of a long knife. And barbecued it on the flame of the gas stove till it felt tender. I peeled the garlic and popped them into my mouth. When I woke up in the morning, Voila!! My throat was all clear, no more coughs.

Count your blessings

2006-08-21T11:53:00.001+05:30

The picture is of President Bush jogging with Staff Sergeant Christian Bagge. Sergeant Christian Bagge lost both his legs in Iraq war. Watch it here!

Count your blessings, appreciate everything you have, for you may never experience it again.

We Shall Not Leave Till……

2006-08-17T14:27:00.001+05:30

“Am I in the engagement of Cinderella and her Prince?” was what I kept thinking as I entered Neela’s engagement hall. Best of everything was around – decoration, jewelry, music, food.

Neela and I grew up together amidst the lush greenery and palm-fringed beaches of Mangalore. Most cherished dream of Neela’s parents was, to get Neela married off to a prince in a princely fashion. When I entered my Master Degree my family moved to Bangalore. Neela did her masters at Mangalore. Soon she joined Infosys, Mangalore and I joined IBM, Bangalore.

Neela called me on Sunday July 16th 2006, “Vinnnnnnnnnnn!!! I found my Prince. We are getting engaged on 25th July.” I was delighted “Wow!! Congrats!!! Neelauuuuu!!”
“Engagment is at Hotel Oberoi, In Bangalore. I am all so excited. We will start from Mangalore on 24th July, early morning. Vin, you better be there before the event starts”.
“Sure Dear!! I will be there before you even wake up.”

On the day of her engagement, my car broke down; I made it late to her engagement. I knew I would get blasted. I headed straight to the stage to wish her. Held her hand and hugged her, wished her for a happy marriage. She felt cold, as though she had just walked out of a freezer. Her eyes seemed to be staring out into space.

“Neela, are you feeling good. You are all cold.”
“No Vin, I am fine.” “Vin, I am so very glad you came in. I wanted to meet you before we left.”
“Wow!! Neela your prince is handsome and you are looking gorgeous.”
She blushed and whispered, "He is mine forever."

I sat in the hall, watching the engagement. There was serenity on the face of Neela, her fiancée and their families, they all seemed to be staring into the space; there was no joy or laughter in the air. Very few guests were there and no relatives had come. Strange!! Something was not right; I couldn’t put my finger on it.

As I drove back home, my thoughts oscillated between Neela’s perfect engagement and the strange atmosphere there. I switched on the TV and casually picked the day’s newspaper. “All dead as the bus plunges on Amai Bridge” was the headline of a news article. As I read through the report, my hairs stood up, Neela and her entire family, her fiancée and his entire family had died on July 24th.

I get an eerie feeling when I think of it. They couldn’t depart form the earth without fulfilling, at least a part, of their desire, “Their daughter’s Engagement”.

Flower? Creature?

2006-08-16T12:11:00.001+05:30

Got this image as a forward, saying it was a flower in the sea. Well!! It does look like a flower. Just got a bit curious and dug into www. Found that these are not flowers but aquatic creatures. Tunicates spend their lives free-swimming in the oceanic waters. However, they are occasionally seen by divers near the reefs of the offshore caves. Sometimes, because they pulsate and are transparent, they are mistaken for small jellyfish.

You could read more here

The burning toaster

2006-08-10T11:08:00.000+05:30

Read on net :

One of my daughter's wedding presents was a toaster oven. Soon after the honeymoon, she and her husband tried it out. Almost immediately, smoke billowed out of the toaster. "Get the owner's manual!" her husband shouted.

"I can't find it anywhere!" she cried, searching through the box.

"Oops!" came a voice from the kitchen. "Well, the toast is fine, but the owner's manual is burnt to a crisp."

I just read a War Diary !

2006-08-08T12:38:00.000+05:30

As I read through the blog Beirut Update, I felt I was shrinking in size. The blog is a war diary of a woman in Beirut, Lebanon. She narrates her experience as a civilian caught in the war. As I read through her entries, I realize that, most important and significant thing of their life is that “They are Alive”.

Most of us who complain, are blessed, we have home, we have food, we have kicking careers, still we complain about petty things. Why are humans so?

You belong to Me!

2006-08-07T12:33:00.000+05:30

Young Nirvan handsome, charming and lively was lying lifeless on the hospital bed. His pretty fiancée Neha was beyond consolation. No doctor could diagnose what had struck Nirvan. It started with a mild fever 3 weeks ago. Gradually his body had turned blue. Doctors gave up.

As the dead body was whisked away, Deepa cried incessantly over my shoulder. Deepa and I had grown to be thick pals within a year. I had liked her instantly the day I was introduced to her, by my manager.

“I am going to get him… I am going to get him…” Deepa had murmured as she stepped out of the office, when Nirvan announced his engagement with Neha. Nirvan and Deepa had sworn undying love for each other. Nirvan’s behavior had changed the day Neha had stepped into the office. Deepa was no match for Neha. Neha, slim and graceful, looked as if she had bathed in the light of early sunrise.

That day, Deepa met Nirvan over coffee. “Nirvan, How could you? How could you?” was all she could say before she burst out into tears. Nirvan, held her hand and in soothing tone said “I love you Deepa, you know that. I was not an easy decision for me, you know that. But, Neha is my dream girl. She is just what I wanted all my life. I am sorry. Love you dear!” The coffee shop guy told her they were closing. She realized, she had sobbed for 4 hours.

“Please can I meet you just for the last time”, Deepa pleaded Nirvan. He hadn’t responded to her mails or phone calls. “Pleaseeeee…. Just for few minutes, pleaseeee…” she pleaded, as tears welled up in her eyes.

“No!! Nothing can be done; it is all over, why don’t you understand? There is nothing you can do to get me back.” Nirvan got up to leave. Deepa ran desperately behind him, and tried to hold him. “Ouch!” Nirvan yelled; something from her purse pricked him, as she tried to hold him.

As Deepa stepped out of the hospital, she stepped close to me and murmured “I got him… I got him…”

What a brat!!

2006-08-03T11:21:00.001+05:30

"Mommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy !! Get me the toy or I will jump from the first floor" , my 3.5 year old nephew stands on the first floor and threatens my sister. Not ethical... but, well!! It is 100% effective.....
My Sis grits her teeth, she dare not say, "Go ahead and jump!!”

hummm !!! Why didn't I get such Ideas...

My bro's wife is expecting. This naughty nephew has been praying for a baby girl, everyday.
Any guesses Y ??? "I need a girl to be behind me. I haven't had a girl behind me for so many years.", is his imprompt and innocent reply. :-D.

Hummmmmmmmmmm!! What a brat !

Relevance of Satyagraha !

2006-08-01T11:04:00.000+05:30

We were discussing relevance of Satyagraha in current India.

What’s Satyagraha?

Satyagraha literally means insistence on truth.
Gandhi said “With Satya (truth) combined with ahimsa (non violence), you can bring the world to your feet.” Fasting, Civil Disobedience are (or rather were) potent weapons in the Satyagraha

Most recent Satyagraha, was the fight against reservation by students across India. There were peace marches across India. Many students fasted for days.
Striking resident doctors and medical students of five medical colleges, sweept roads in New Delhi on April 27 to protest against the proposed quota for Other Backward Classes in central universities and colleges

What happened at the end ?

Government decided to go ahead, and implemented the policy. It just didn't seem to have mattered to the government.

Satyagraha holds no relevance in current India.

To get justice or to fight for truth, I guess the best way would be, the not so "just" path; What if the students who were protesting the reservation policy kidnap some politician’s (Say Arjun Singh’s) kith and kin ? What would happen? Justice would be done immediatly :-D. What say?

News-Dhaka grabs land / Call center staff murder?

2006-07-27T11:44:00.000+05:30

It was a shocking headline, in the newspaper today morning “Call centre staff murdered, body thrown on highway". Tanya Banerjee, an employee with Aviva 24/7 Customer Service call centre in Whitefield, Bangalore was found murdered. In Prathiba’s case, the driver who was ferrying her from home to office murdered her, I assumed the same would be in Tanya’s case. As, I continued reading the repot, I found it was not the case.

It is sad to see the increasing crime rate in Bangalore. It is sad to see a young girl killed. We need to fight crime.

It is sadder to see the coverage Media is giving for this incident and not for Dhaka's Land Grabbing.
Everyday many gruesome murders are reported in the third page of Deccan Herald. Since, Tanya was an employee of call center; the incident makes it to the front page. She was neither in the company's car nor in the office nor was her body found in the office but at Sakleshpur near Hassan on the Bangalore-Mangalore highway; then why the headlines “Call center staff murdered”? If a worker from any mill would have been murdered in a similar fashion, would the headlines be “Mill staff murdered”?

If the headline of the news reads "Call centre staff murdered" it will definitely increase the readership and viewer ship of the newspapers and news channels. The channels will now ask the viewers to SMS their opinions. In turn the channels they would partner with the mobile service providers, to get a share in the income they would earn form the SMS.

As I went through www saw, Dhaka grabs 2 sq km of India's land. Read it here. Why does it not make it to the headlines? Because Politicians cannot answer this ? or Media won't get the same income ? or what else ?

Do all of us feel this? Or is it just a few of us?

Links:
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/call-centre-employee-murdered-body-thrown-on-highway/16711-3.html

Death is not the End ???????

2006-07-26T12:19:00.001+05:30

A feeling of sadness, mystery and fear of the unknown clouded my mind as I boarded the train from Raichur back to Bangalore. My uncle had passed away on Sunday in Raichur.

The unknown I feared is not the death; I know I am going to die someday, but what's after death.My uncle knew 20 days ahead that he was dieing!!!!!!

He was a victim of wrong diagnosis, and was suffering from past 7 months.
July first week, my uncle told the family “I got the “Ticket”!!!! But, since there is not place above, ticket is not "Confirmed" . He repeatedly told this to all “"I got the ticket. But not confirmed. I will not be troubling you all anymore", but it was brushed aside. Either way, what could anyone do to get his "Ticket Cancelled"?

Couple of days before his death he call his wife and told "No one will be around when I go." and went to explain about all the last rites to be performed.

On July 18 /19, my uncle called his children and told them that "Ticket” is confirmed for Sunday 6 pm. He told them that he will be going with his brother Vishwa. On the fateful day Sunday 23rd July, he asked aunty (his wife) for lot of juice. He told her "I have to take on a long journey; I need lot of juice; get me tender coconut, lemon juice, butter milk". He had a lot of them. He requested for more food, saying “Need to go on journey, I need food, give me curd rice and dal".

At around 4 pm, another aunt of mine visited him. She got ready to leave at 5:30 pm. She went to my uncle and said "I will be leaving, will come back". Uncle replied, "I am leaving too". At 6 pm he passed away. On 23rd most of his relatives were not in Raichur, except for 4 people and his corpse had to be kept till the next day. 23rd July was the death anniversary of his brother Vishwa.

Uncle knew when he would die? What would happen on that day? He knew he had to embark on a long journey?

Death is not the End, Beginning of another Journey!!

Have you seen such things? Let us know....

Prince - Flew 57 Feet Above Earth !!

2006-07-24T11:16:00.000+05:30

Most of you might not agree with my views. I was pretty irritated with how this event was hyped up.

I do understand that Prince is a little kid, and to survive in the pit for more than 2 days is not a joke.

Why was this made a national issue ? Why was this being telecasted LIVE in almost all the news channels ?
Why was this issue being escalated all the level up to the Prime Minister ? Prime Minister reacts and sends blessing down.

I would have appreciated if PM took more strong steps to control terrorism. People in Mumbai say that nothing great has been done out there.
Tomorrow there could be another series of bomb blasts. What will India do ? Talk about "SPIRIT OF MUMBAI" ?

Was all this to distract public from the Bombay blast issue ? To invoke a feeling of oneness amongst the people in India ?

I was amused to see Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, his cabinet colleagues and Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal there.
Was his personal presence needed there ? Do the downtrodden in Kurukshetra get this attention ? Was the CM jobless on a Sunday evening ?

Why is the boy being rewarded Rs 200,000 ? Because he flew 57 feet above the earth and That is NATIONAL NEWS !!

Aura ??? Can I feel it?

2006-07-06T17:33:00.001+05:30

Do we really have Aura around our body? You must be kidding? This would be the reaction from most of us. I had a practical experience of the same; I could feel the energy around me. Unbelievable isn't it?

Do you want to feel it ?!!!! You can try this too:

1. Rub both your palms till it is warm.
2. Press your right thumb in center of the left palm and rub it in clockwise direction, 10 times.
3. Press your left thumb in center of the right palm and rub it in clockwise direction, around 10 times
4. Press the tips of all your fingers.
5. Concentrate on the center of the palms and slowly bring both the palms together, until they are about 2 inches to 1 inch away.
6. Depending on your energy type, you feel repulsion / attraction / heat. Most often people feel the repulsion.

Can you feel it???? If not you can redo it a couple of times. You would be awed to feel the energy flowing.

We all have this energy flowing around us. We can tap this energy, channelise it and use it to heal us.

What did you feel? Lets us know and take it foward.

More To Come :
What's Aura?
Why did we feel the energy in between our palms?
How does it affect us?
How to use it?
and much more .....