Roadside temples..

Recently, I was very happy when i saw this supreme court directive.

i think that this has been long overdue. while i think that there should be places of worship and local gatherings for social occasions, the sentiments of people are being exploited by vested interests.
i have written earlier on some of the roadside temples that have come up as illegal structures.
i want to share some recent developments close to where i stay.
this was a temple that was located among the dwellings that were cleared to make way for a – hotel / multiplex / hypermarket and… a skating rink with real ice!
the others got fair cash compensations and alternate sites, though located a little far away, but bigger than what they had here.
the road is also scheduled for widening and it is a matter of time that this temple may also have to be removed or relocated.
diagonally opposite this temple is another, a more established one – as it seems to have been built on private land.
as if this was not enough, the third corner of the T-intersection had a couple of smaller temples that have started growing..
more on that in the next post.

Happy Deepavali

May the festival of light bring everyone the best of health, wealth and happiness..

Sarve janAh suKino BavanTu

Harihar 2

this is about another interesting location in harihar..

an oriental style

church

built by a brahmin

using a deity he found in the river.

harihareswara temple

from my earlier post, if you got a [wrong!] idea that the reason for me going to davanegere was the benne dose, sorry to disappoint you.

i had some other work in that area and was using davanagere as a base.

one other town i visited was Harihar, on the banks of the thungabadhra.
architecturally, i saw something very old - a few centuries old - as well as something very new, both places of worship.

the first was the harihareswara temple.
the following pictures should give you an idea of the exquisite architecture.
the entrance was pretty unimpressive and does not give you an indication of what is inside.

the sanctum sanatorium indicated that the structure has been maintained, but not too well.

the location is declared as a heritage site and comes under the archeology department. this has also impacted the funds for the upkeep of the temple.

the hall with pillars in front shows how the structure - of limestone? - has weathered well through the centuries and still stays shining, without any paint!

the structure of some of the stupas were also different.

this snapshot describes the story of the origins of this temple.

i will share the details of the modern church in my next post.

Benne Dose

It was a refreshing break for a couple of days from the city bustle.
off on an assignment, that took me to Davanegere - the home of the famed Benne Dose.

Having heard about the benne dose, we told the cab driver to take us to a genuine - not a star rated hotel - for authentic benne dose the first evening.
Sorry sir, no benne dose in the evening, he said.
makes sense, we thought, imagining oodles of butter on the Dosa that may be difficult to digest in the night.

so, we decided to get up early morning the next day and have BD for breakfast - so that we could still make it to our meeting in time.

we went to the Sagar Benne Dose eatery - that was also referred in wikipedia - with a lot of anticipation.

we were probably the first customers and the service was lethargic - somewhat like saying, why are you bothering us so early in the morning..

the place was very small, and if one looked at the way water was served, one would not want to eat there!
the cooking platform was very clean.

soon, we got our benne dose!
contrary to our expectation, the dose was not greasy - at least not as greasy as we thought it would be.

the taste was --- well, very good!
only half way through the dosa did i remember to take a picture.. what is missing in this is what i had eaten..

it was served with mashed potatoes, with a few onions sprinkled. no masala!
we topped it with a kali dosa [more like a set dosa] and another benne dose..

there was no wash basin, one had to wipe ones hands on pieces of old newspaper, that were cut in small rectangles and kept on the tables.

i guess it was the best way to take the grease out!

for all that, i was not feeling heavy - and had a normal appetite for lunch.

the next day, i wanted to try another variant of the benne dose - the open benne dose.. in a different place.

this also came with the mashed potato and thick coconut chutney.
there was a generous sprinkling of 'paruppu podi'.

again, the taste was yummy!

wish you had also been there :-)
p.s. as it was a rushed trip, we missed the 'chilli bhajji' that was made only in the late afternoons..
maybe next time.

Ganesha

Today is Pillayar Chaturthi - or, more widely known as Ganesha.
right from my school days, i had a fascination for ganesha.
from street corner temples to the one on BIG street [a very narrow street in triplicane, madras] to the huge 'mukkuruni' ganesha in the meenakshi temple in madurai, i am amazed at the multitude of ways of representing ganesha in graphical forms..
from simple modern strokes to traditional renderings, from simple sitting posture to riding a bike - one can find ganesha representations limited only by one's imagination.

i have always felt that ganesha is the first god of IT - with his own mouse!

our home also has a reasonable collection of ganeshas.

or the specialized forms - such as the one to ward off the 'evei eye'

or wall murals like

or

have you come across any special forms of Ganesha?

the water concern

Having grown up in Chennai - in the peak of the water shortage years, i have many memories of spending many hours a day - at odd hours, that too - on gathering water.


when water supply was limited to alternate days, we still needed to pump water as the pressure was very low.
i had to learn the mechanics of the pump - and associated techniques. 
for priming - when the water level went down, including taking out the washer and softening it, if it went dry etc, or replacing it with a new one, when the old one wore out.

then there came the more modern versions like this:

we also had to wait for the water tanker and a camaraderie developed among neighbors till the water tanker came and competition when the tanker arrived, to ensure that each family got sufficient water.

i notice that water is also important for politics, where i see that even 'emerging' slums get water supplied in tankers by the local politician towards the welfare of that colony.

recently, when i was looking at the finalists of the engineering contests organized by mondialogo - one of the interesting initiatives that i have been following for the last couple of years -  

noticed that the largest number of entries were related to - what else, water!

not only the Indian entries, but also from other countries!


Some of the smart investors in India have been investing in water. 
as one of the economic theories go, the next major conflicts in the world are likely to be over water!


what is your take on water?