Kolhapuri Special…

Last weekend I had been to Mahalakshmi temple at Kolhapur which is in southern part of Maharastra. I was joined by two other friends. For them it was a business trip and to me it was a divine trip. This was my second visit to the temple after 7 years. The first one was when I was doing my Post Graduation in Belgaum.
I think the first thing that comes to everybody’s mind is the traditional Kolhapuri Chappals (footwear). There are many other things it is known for like…. Kolhapuri dishes (which are very hot and spicy), Kolhapuri jewels which are very artistic and people from neighboring states like Goa and Karnataka come here to buy these. Kolhapur is also known for Marathi film and drama, and of course, Padmini Kolhapuri who was the heart throb of 80s-90s ;-).
Above all, Kolhapur is known for Goddess Mahalakshmi temple. The temple and the statue of Goddess Mahalakshmi are so beautiful that I was in divinity for some time. The temple is very artistic and built of black stone, which we normally don’t find everywhere. The huge pillars outside the temple were meant for lighting lamps, which were also eye catching. The temple has four entries (North, South, East and West), which are very huge. The statue of Goddess Mahalaksmi is about 3-4 feet which was ornamented with Gold, Silver and the diamonds. The goddess looked so beautiful.
It is said that this temple has history of Tirupati, since the goddess is the wife of Lord Venkateshwara. There is also Venkateshwara temple in the temple premises. Its is also believed that after tirupati visit, people should also visit Kolhapur.
The temple premise is surrounded by shopping market. You can find anything and everything here!!! It is so crowded. I think shopping would be a great experience. Though I didn’t shop much, but yeah, I bought Kolhapuri footwear for myself. I also had vada-pav (local flavor of Burger).
It was nice and memorable trip. I also met couple of local people, who were business partners of my friends. We had lot of fun with them. Though we drove around 1500 KM in 2 days and 3 nights in Mahindra Bolero, it wasn’t tiring. Thanks that we were driving on Highways…

Hampi Utsav, Need any help?

The famous Hampi Utsav will be held at UNESCO’s world heritage centre, Hampi near Hospet (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/241) on 3-5, November. Hampi is also known as Vijayanagara, the “City of Victory”. Hampi attracts visitors all over the world throughout the year. Every year, the first week of November, Hampi Utsav is held to celebrate the mark of victory of Vijayanagara empire. Renowned people from the field of art, dance, music and drama will perform during the Hampi festival.

Being from native district of Bellary, Sri. G. Janardhana Reddy, Minister of Tourism and Culture and Chairman of Hampi Utsav, has taken special interest to ensure the visitors live the Vijayanagara experience and put Hampi onto the world map.

The star performers at the event include Asha Bhonsle, Ilayaraja, Pankaj Udhas, Sonu Nigam, Kishori Amonkar, Hamsalekha, Kasturi Shankar, B. R. Chaya, Vasundhara Das and others… on Music. It also includes international cultural troops from Sri Lanka, Maldives, Tanzania, Indonesia, etc… Classical dancers include Swapna Sundari, Shobana Narayan and others

I have captured couple of monuments and have loaded on to this blog… these are just a few....

If you travelling to Hampi and if you need any help in terms logistics, lodging, cab facility, pls do not hesitate to get in touch base with me… I might be some help to you…

My Spiritual Trip

Almost every year we trip to Rambhapuri peetha (peetha=holy place). We started on 9^th Oct (Vijaya Dashami) around 3 PM from my place, Hospet and reached there around 10 PM. The moment we reached, we took a room to get ourselves settled for which the peetha authorities charged just Rs. 100/- and the room was very decent and well furnished.

Rambhapuri peetha is located near Balehonnur in Chickmagalur district in Karnataka. It the first and foremost peetha of pancha (Pancha=five) peethas for the people who practice Veerashaivism. The other peethas are Ujjaini (Karnataka), Shrishaila (Andhra Pradesh), Kedar (Uttarakhand) and Kashi (Uttar Pradesh) in India. Veerashaivism – a heroic shaiva faith(Shaivism). Veerashaivism strictly believes Lord Shiva is the only supreme reality and he is usually worshiped in the form of Shivaling.

We woke up early morning and the first thing we could notice was the fantastic view of malenadu (meaning hilly region in kannada). The fog was kissing the trees and birds were singing. The scenes cherished me. We got freshened ourselves and firstly we visited the temple of Shri Jagadguru Renukacharyaru. He is the first and foremost guru or rather founder of veerashaivism. Now this holy place is headed by Shrimad Rambhapuri Veerasimhasanadheeshwara Sri 1008 Jagadguru Prasanna Renuka Veera Someshwara Raja Deshikendra Shivacharya Bhaghavathpadaru.With his blessings many educational institutions, Hospitals and many other social work is going on mainly for the people who are less privileged.

Next we went to Shree Veerabhadra (is another son of Lord Shiva) temple, the god whom we follow in our home, we call it manedevaru and then followed a visit to shri Choudeshwari temple (goddess of power). And lastly followed delicious breakfast which was made of rice (pulav).

And then we left to Horanadu which is around 40 KM from this place located again in Chickmagalur distrcit. Horanadu is known for Shri Annapurneshwari temple. Annapurneshwari means “Feeding all”. It is believed that lord Shiva once had a curse and that this curse was reversed when the lord visited Goddess Annapurna and sought her blessings. It is believed that whoever seeks the blessings of Annapurneshwari would never have any scarcity for food in life. The statue of Annapurneshwari is so beautiful that a sense of fulfillment is felt when a person visits the temple. Male visitors remove their shirts and preferably cover their shoulder with a towel as a symbol of respect to the god. This I have seen, that is being followed in almost all temples in Malenadu area.

After visiting the temple we had a nice food offered to us from the temple authorities. Before leaving Horanadu, my mom never forgot to buy Coffee and Tea Powder, Spices and Honey which is well known here in Malenadu. This she does everytime when we visit this part of Karnataka.

Then we moved to back to our home. On the way, we also visited one more temple in Kottur called Shri Guru Kottureshwara temple which is around 60 KM from my native place, Hospet. It is a home of Saint Kottureshwara who preached Veerashaivism. This temple was built during 15^th century.

All these three places were spiritual retreat for me. It brought peace and serenity to me. Now, I am again back to my karmabhoomi (the place I work), Bangalore :-).

Bicycle Rickshaw: Symbols of Poverty or future?

I had been to NCR region few times. Earlier (Before joining the current company) I used to be on a Sales/consulting assignment which was 1-2 days. I didn’t had too much of chance to explore NCR region. I preferred staying in Delhi and travel to Noida or Gurgaon. This time I had a chance to stay in Noida for about a week.

Hmmm … the first thing I could notice was bicycle rickshaws and shared autos. There is no proper means of public transport in this region. People here, rely heavily on bicycle rickshaws. Now I am on dual thoughts, if rickshaws run on Indian roads outsiders or even Indians think it is symbol of poverty, bad governance, under development and things like that. But if rickshaws run in developed nations, we think it’s a future, an act of responsible citizens doing their bit to the nature.
Pls comment, I don’t know… if bicycle rickshaws should be forced to go off streets as they cause nuisance on roads as rickshaw wallah’s have very bad road sense or should be allowed to run on roads as they are environment friendly…

My first experience with new Bengaluru Airport

I was supposed to go to Noida on official visit and hence need to fly to Delhi. I was little excited about the new Bengaluru Airport, as I have heard enough of it, both good and bad.

As told in my earlier blog (To Airport via Vayu Vajra), I took Vayu Vajra (BMTC’s Volvo bus service to airport). When the bus took diversion towards the new airport from NH-7, I was waiting to catch a glimpse of the airport. First came gigantic Indian Oil aviation fuel tanks and then followed catering and cargo buildings. The bus had a separate parking area which is about 100mts from the airport entrance. The first thing that made me WOW was the ample parking space. I started comparing everything in new airport with the old airport.

I went 90 minutes early, as Air-India people instructed. I grabbed something to eat. I had couple of samosas and coke. Outside the departure area, there is very wide open space with heavy breeze hitting people around. I think authorities would have made some arrangements to cover the breeze. Now that I had outside glimpse of the airport and thought I would get into the airport.

The line wasn’t so long as compared to the old airport and had multiple departure gates. As I entered the airport, I could see few nice ads including Satyam’s. I went to Air-India counter and took the boarding pass and dumped my bag. Now that I had nothing to carry, I started looking one end to other end of the airport. It had everything snack, bar, restaurant, shopping outlets (with all international brands). It was overall good experience. I have only one thing to complain about, the LCD’s displayed to show the flight schedule is very small in dimensions. If somebody wants to look at the flight schedule, he/she needs to go too close to look at it. Otherwise the new airport is beyond doubt, is an international standard. My overall experience is "WOW".