06/07/2018

Ugra Narasimha temple Maddur

Sri Ugra Narasimha temple at Maddur, the idol is from the Dwapara Yuga and the temple was constructed in the 10th century. The idol from a single rock was a udbhava murthy, and consecrated at the temple by the hoysala Kings after chiselling it in typical hoysala style. It is unbelievably beautiful .
This is the Varadaraja swamy temple right next door. Vishnu Vardhan the king in the 11th century was advised to take his mother to Kancheepuram to pray to Lord Varadaraja for her eye sight to be restored. Since she was too old to make the long journey, he commissioned an identical idol and the moment the aarti was performed at the consecration, her eye sight was restored. Hence the Lord is also called Netra Narayana. The scaffolding you see is because the idol is over 15' tall and the pujas are done standing on the scaffolding. Another hidden gem found and was duly awe struck.

The bedside table

Last night seeing my bedside table, it struck me...what a story it has to say, if it could, that is...

As a child, the bedside table had a few toys and a bedside light, a picture of my favorite God.

As a middle school student, a few games got added along with Enid Blyton books and God was sent up on to the wall, as Tom Selleck replaced him

High school brought on more pics of hunks and books ranging from Chase to Linda Goodman. Toys barring a pink teddy bear were passe!

College and all pictures were replaced with the one crush, and the boyfriend's picture surreptitiously kept in one of the Sidney Sheldon books (never was a M&B reader, I would rather live it ;-)), his gifts, flowers, love notes etc...moisturizer being the one exception..and a reluctantly placed alarm clock to get to class on time, again the meeting with boyfriend was more successful than any alarm!

Marriage changed all pictures and a baby of course rendered everything else totally null and void and took centre stage, alarm clock and baby stuff dominated.

As years passed, family photographs, pain killers, lotions replaced everything!

And today....oils for joints, night creams, medicines etc, etc!!

Journey of 5 decades as seen on the side table!

Bhutan - The Land of the Thunder Dragon

A group of us decided to visit Bhutan as we were looking forward to natural beauty, silence and peace. All this is available in abundance...

7th October 2016

11 of us got packed, Ranga was dropping me at the airport, en route picked up 

​a friend​

 and we were at the airport by 1.30am, having crossed over to Oct 8th! As happens in a group, before we realized it, we boarded the flight and our Indigo flight took off for Delhi at 4.15am

8th. Oct 2016 ​ Delhi - Paro - Thimpu​

Landed in Delhi at 6.50am at terminal 1, collected our luggage, went out to find the complimentary shuttle to terminal 3...this bus goes out of the airport, collects other people too, does a mini detour and reaches Delhi airport terminal 3 after 45 mins! Ridiculous. Then by the time you finish your check in at the Druk air (Royal Bhutan Airlines) counter, immigration, security check etc etc...and you're given a gate which is at least a km away and the buggy for this is also a merry walk, oh yeah, you get the idea...

​Anyways made it into Druk airlines, an Airbus, and settled down...ravenous as we had had no time even for a cup of coffee...and the last meal had been 15 hours ago..thankfully a full breakfast was served, and I must say it was sumptuous. Feeling better with some fuel in, attempted to sleep and failed, however thoroughly enjoyed the view of the magnificent Himalayas and the rocking cradle motion of the plane as it landed.

We were met by Tshering and Dhava, our guides and constant companions for the next few days and were taken to have lunch and forthwith to the Khichu Lakhang Dzong, a beautiful monastery. We then checked in to our Riverside Hotel, a boutique hotel in Thimpu.

9th Oct 2016

Everyone decided on a relaxed departure, so that is what we did. by 10am, after having our breakfast at our Riverside hotel, we left to see the Memorial of the 3rd. King. Built by a grieving mother for her son, in typical Buddhist style, it is a pagoda set in a lovely garden.

S

​aw nearly 5 other dzongs, had a nice lunch, some did some shopping and we trouped back by teatime to the hotel.

The piece de resistance was the largest sitting Buddha in the world made of bronze housing more than 108 smaller Buddhas within...a sight which was super and could be seen from our hotel room when lit too.

 A short nap, and we left for some shopping and dinner...bought some lovely apples on the way..had a wonderful local traditional dinner with the omnipresent Ema Datshi, basically large green chillies in a cheese sauce (very similar ​

to the Chilli Con Queso, for those who love

​ 

Mexican

​).

Received a lovely wall hanging as a gift from our guide, one based on our puranas, and returned to our hotel for the night as next day was to be an early start.

10th. Oct 2016 Thimpu - Punakha - Paro

Had an early breakfast, checked out of ​​

​the hotel and drove to Punakha via the Dochu La Pass. The journey defies description, up the hill and down...7000ft is what we traverse, watch ​every possible weather...sun, mist, rain...watch the rapids in the river as we go, deep deep valleys which seem to call out to the high peaks of the mountains...buildings on these peaks which can be reached through some hair raisingly narrow and death defying paths...mountain goats nimbly prancing on narrow barely-wide-to-hold-his-hoof and beautiful mother nature blessing all her children benevolently.

The Punakha Dzong was one of the most ornate with bridges and paintings in brilliant colors, set against Mount Everest in the background, it truly was awe inspiring. 

The Dochu La Pass with its hide and seek weather...now you see it now you don't with Mount Kanchenjunga, hot chai in hand and an ethereal mist surrounding, you could be forgiven if you thought this was paradise, if not it, it certainly was a large slice of it.

The suspension bridge to cross the yawning valley can be approached through some un-paved up and down road so I was only able to get a second hand idea of it.

In fact a suggestion to future visitors would be to stay in Punakha at least for a couple of days.

We returned to Paro by 7 pm, only to find the Mandala hotel impossible to access for people like me with a bad leg, so a few frantic calls later , by the time we had dinner..things were arranged so we shifted  to a lovely resort with log cabins, and called it a night.

11th Oct 2016 - Paro

Some went for a trek to the Tiger's Nest, the most holy shrine in Bhutan where Rinpoche is supposed to have started his preaching, situated on a dazzlingly beautiful mountainside, it is home to tigers in the wild and an absolute gem. The rest of us went for a shopping trip to town and returned for lunch to the new boutique resort we had moved to. A short rest and we had a troupe of Bhutanese tribals giving us a song and dance performance of their culture and rituals...a bonfire was planned after a spa bath, unfortunately, rains drove everyone in. I had a fall and remained in excruciating pain for days after that.

12th Oct 2016 Paro - Delhi - Bangalore

An early morning departure to the airport had us huddling against the heavy rain..our guides who had been with us throughout said goodbye to us..and we bought a couple of things in the duty free, I a peach wine and liqueur chocolates for Ranga ( was missing him, needed him with me badly when I was in pain, comfort zone so to say)...had a scrumptious breakfast in flight and was watching the Mount Everest and Himalayan mountain ranges for over 40 mins of the flight ( a tip...ask for the E & F seats on your flight back), reached Delhi, went through the airport with my knee swollen like a football, in horrendous pain, feverish, topped with pills, in no mood to eat anything, and reached Bangalore thankfully, battered but not broken, by evening. By now all I wanted was to reach home to a hot meal and MY bed.

It was a good trip till I fell, then it was only in a haze of pain.

A few points to remember

The disparity in rates for Indians and foreigners unfortunately makes the locals prefer to serve the foreigners

Check and double check your bills..either the Bhutanese are very bad at Maths or are smiling cheats! Either ways don't take a chance

If you have orthopedic issues, be prepared to sit out a lot of places as most have access only through steps or slopes and bad ones at that.

Nature is breathtakingly beautiful and one should go to Bhutan only to revel in it at a relaxed pace...hurry and worry have no place in Bhutan!

Tashi Delek ! (Good luck and Goodbye!)

 

 

Everything is preordained

It is not important whether you believe in spirituality or not, the four principles of spirituality apply to all from the moment one is born and will remain there till the end!
Four principles of spirituality

The First Principle states:

"Whomsoever you encounter is the right one"

This means that no one comes into our life by chance. Everyone who is around us, anyone with whom we interact, represents something, whether to teach us something or to help us improve a current situation.

The Second Principle states:

"Whatever happened is the only thing that could have happened"

Nothing, absolutely nothing of that which we experienced could have been any other way. Not even in the least important detail. There is no "If only I had done that differently, then it would have been different". No. What happened is the only thing that could have taken place and must have taken place for us to learn our lesson in order to move forward. Every single situation in life which we encounter is absolutely perfect, even when it defies our understanding and our ego.

The Third Principle states:

"Each moment in which something begins is the right moment"

Everything begins at exactly the right moment, neither earlier nor later. When we are ready for it, for that something new in our life, it is there, ready to begin.

The Fourth Principle states:

"What is over, is over"

It is that simple. When something in our life ends, it helps our evolution. That is why, enriched by the recent experience, it is better to let go and move on.

Think it is no coincidence that you're here reading this.

If these words strike a chord, it's because you meet the requirements and understand that not one single snowflake falls accidentally in the wrong place!

Be good to yourself.

Love with your whole being.

Always be happy
Love like there's no tomorrow.
And if tomorrow comes, well, Love again.

My musing today...Oct 24th,2016

In life we make some of our most important decisions when we are least equipped to do so.

At 16, I have to decide which stream of education I want to follow, when I've most likely either loved or hated both science and history with equal fervor..

At 18, I have to decide whether I want to be a doctor/engineer/number cruncher/lawyer when all I want is a call from my boyfriend telling me how he can just not live without me! Or the next outing with my friends

At 21 or 22 I'm to decide my career goals, the company which I hope to join...when all I want is to laze, do nothing after sweating over books and exams for all these years... having no idea what I want in life other than a good time

In a few years after that if I'm fortunate it be that long, I have to choose my life partner, new family...which are to be for keeps, with if I'm lucky to know that person good, or else...omg! What a gamble!!!

And these 10 years determine the next 50-60 years of my life...

Somehow it's not right, parents will advise based on their experience, which could be right/partially right/wrong. So many things have changed, so much is flexible today, yet the above four have remained more or less intractable.

We spend more time doing research finding the right phone than the right life partner... mankind and it's created norms, society is very, very strange.

Sricharanam on a hill !

I'm sure you see the namam on the hill. This is the Skandagiri range just after Salem on the way to Bangalore. I took this pic from our fast moving Scorpio.
The namam and the Shankha and chakra are udbhava symbols and were spotted for the first time over 700years ago. Today a lot of Vaishnava pilgrims visit the place regularly.
In fact some distance from this closer to Hogenakkal falls is Chinna Tirupati...another hugely popular pilgrimage spot.

Freedom for working women...Really?

Are women sacrificing themselves at the altar of being independent?

Ask any girl today and she wants to be a professional in name it and that field. It is the norm Women have come out of their cocoon and want to shine in what has been a predominantly make bastion...the outside world, and they are scaling new heights everyday, achieving and conquering new frontiers effortlessly or so it seems. Herein lies the problem. When men work, they work. Period. Ok, a few nice guys will maybe lend a hand at home but it is not expected of them to do so, if they do it, it's laudable but if they don't it is not made into a big issue.

Not so for women. They are now expected to be super women, both at home and work, supermoms too and bring up exemplary children, all while being perfectly turned out and chilled out too.

A new worrying trend is men insisting they want working women only for wives. These men also expect them to be perfect homemakers. Women are getting sucked into this dual role, some flourish but many perish as they're unable to manage. And often children are the collateral damage. Independent women don't have it easy. It comes at a huge price of health, peace of mind and happiness. For those who are able to bridge the two effortlessly, it's paradise but this number is not as large as its made out to be.

A thought to ponder.