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Temples of Kashi - The Tilbhandeshwar Temple

The city of Kashi is filled with temples, big and small, old and new. There are temples at every corner, and you never know where you will stumble upon a small shrine. There are idols beneath what remains of trees (there are hardly any trees any more within the core area of the city), there are saffron covered forms resembling deities which seem attached to walls, an especially incongruous sight when the idol itself appears to be old, while the wall is evidently new…. And there are surprisingly large temples rising from what appear to be a bunch of houses. The city is sometimes colloquially said to be as old as time, and some of the shrines and temples are said to date back to times unknown, at least the deity itself, if not the structure. Not much remains of the ancient structures anyway. The city has seen more than its fair share of good and bad times. It has seen the heights of grandeur, and the lows brought about by destruction. The city that exists today has grown so haphaza...
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Wish you all a very Happy New Year!!!!




2009 saw me making quite a lot of trips, but the end of the year saw me cancelling a much awaited one. Lets hope 2010 brings along a lot more travel for all of us.

For the last few years, we have brought in the new year at Puttaparthi, Prashanti Nilayam, the abode of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and this year was the same. We spent a week there, and sorry, again no photographs. We spent the whole day at the ashram, and left the camera behind in the room!


The collage above is my first attempt at one, since  wanted to do something new this year, and I eagerly await your comments and suggestions. These pics were taken from the train on our way back.

The river you can see is the Krishna, and surprisingly, there was plenty of water, and there were a huge number of water birds too. We saw egrets, herons , sandpipers, and many others we couldn't identify. Among the other birds were the Kingfishers, Bee eaters, drongoes and robins, all of which I am proud to say, Samhith is identifying with ease!!!!


Comments

  1. MridulaJanuary 6, 2010 at 10:47 AM

    Wish you and your family a very happy 2010 Anu. May you travel more!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vamsee ModugulaJanuary 6, 2010 at 12:01 PM

    Happy New Year to you too Anu.

    I have not done much will collages, so I am last one to comment, but just a little suggestion.
    Did you try putting the big picture in the center and the little ones surrounding it?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anuradha ShankarJanuary 6, 2010 at 12:09 PM

    @ Mridula: Thanks for the wishes... wish u and your family too a wonderful 2010

    @Vam: I actually tried that first, but this seemed a little differnt:-))

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sankara SubramanianJanuary 6, 2010 at 1:52 PM

    May the Twenty Ten decade bring us lots of happy travels...

    The collage has come out well...though, to be fair, it lacks flair...Try using Picasa, that is if you upload your photos to Picasa Photo Album...their desktop tool...picasa...offers a great deal of interesting collage options, which you can choose depending on your taste and style...In a nut shell, picasa is the simpleton's photoshop...

    To respond to your comment on my blog...Talakad is open year around...Pancha Pathi festival draws in the maximum crowd

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anuradha ShankarJanuary 6, 2010 at 9:13 PM

    @ Sankara : thanks a lot... for the wishes, the suggestion, as well as the information!!

    i actually did use Picasa, but was wary of experimenting too much.. have a lot to learn!!!

    i used to think that talakkad was closed for most of the year,. now thanks to you, i can plan a visit sometime...

    ReplyDelete
  6. SoulSpaceJanuary 8, 2010 at 10:37 AM

    great pics...
    i love the Picasa collage options too...
    Kids are great at picking names and nature..faster than we do

    ReplyDelete
  7. ArunJanuary 15, 2010 at 12:51 PM

    Wish you a happy new year too. May 2010 turn out great for you.

    ReplyDelete

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