Skip to main content

Featured Post

Odisha Part 4: Chilika – Experiencing the lake, in and out of season

My first visit to the Chilika Lake in Jan 2017 was for content for a resort. It was peak season, and I would have loved to stay near the lake, but the brief was to stay at Puri and cover areas that could be visited from Puri. And so, I did the usual touristy thing, taking a boat for half the day. Which is why, on my next visit to Odisha, if there was one thing I was clear about, it was that I wanted to stay near the lake, at least for a day, if not more. However, unlike my first visit, the second was in end of May, and the season was long ended. There would be no birds, I was warned by anyone and everyone I spoke to, including the people at the stays I was considering. But those who know me, know how stubborn I can be, and so I persisted. I eventually decided to stay at two of the Odisha eco-tourism resorts, at Mangalajodi and Rajhans, keen on experiencing the lake, even minus the birds. I had expected it to be hot, but as it turned out, the rains turned out to be even bigger spoilspo...
Post a Comment

Vijaya Dasami 2009

After the nine nights and days of navaratri, the festival culminated with Dusshera, or Vijaya Dashami. For us, the highlight of the day was our visit to the Fine Arts Society, Chembur for Guru Vandana and Vidyarambham – where we pay our respects to our teacher and begin a new year of musical education, or rather, Samhith does, progressing from the junior music level to senior this year…..

I complete this series of festival blogs with my photographs of the Fine Arts Kolu, one of the best in this area….

Here is the main Kolu..






This is the side decoration – this time, Tirupati, with a cave underneath…. I couldn’t get more details about this since everyone was tied up with the Vijaya Dashami celebrations…..

















Here are some detailed shots of the dolls….






















Well, thats all for this year, folks.... Shall be back with something new... till, then, keep reading my blog and suggest topics for me to write about!!!!


Labels:

Comments

  1. DollySeptember 29, 2009 at 12:53 PM

    Your pictures are beautiful, and thank you for sharing your Navaratri with us. Days have flown by so quick. Did you go to see burning of the Ravan ceremony?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anuradha ShankarSeptember 29, 2009 at 12:58 PM

    @ Lost Wanderer : THanks a lot.. its been a pleasure...
    No, I wasnt able to go for the ramleela. since i was home waiting for some last-day visitors...
    this year, wasnt even able to take in the Durga Puja, since had to be at home,,,

    ReplyDelete
  3. A journey called LifeSeptember 29, 2009 at 4:04 PM

    wow .. nice grand finale to a very interesting and nice series.. ur insipiring

    ReplyDelete
  4. MridulaSeptember 29, 2009 at 8:26 PM

    Just an extensive and beautiful arrangement. Hope your son had a lot of fun.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anuradha ShankarSeptember 29, 2009 at 10:02 PM

    @ A journey called Life : Thanks a lot..... had a wonderful time sharing all that i saw around me..

    @ Mridula : yes, samhith really enjoyed himself..... especially noticing which were the new ones and what we could do next time!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. SoulSpaceSeptember 30, 2009 at 7:21 AM

    I enjoy the passion yu bring to your writing and how yu present it to your readers, it comes directly from yr soul..thanks...and thanks for leaving comments on my blog too...
    BTw..I am learning a lot from yr blogs..am trying to emulate it..hahah

    ReplyDelete
  7. chitraSeptember 30, 2009 at 8:58 PM

    Good pictures there Anu. Hope you and son enjoyed nav. well

    ReplyDelete
  8. sriOctober 1, 2009 at 1:15 PM

    You did best by writing about so many things about golu, decorations and wonderful pictures you have taken all along! 10 days of hard work, plus blog writing must have tired u down! Kudos anu! my wishes to everyone at ur famil and special wishes to samhith as he would get a day off on vijayadasami from reading :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment for me so that I will know you have been here....

Popular posts from this blog

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw...
10 comments
Read more

Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
4 comments
Read more

Review of Executive Lounges at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS)

During my recent trip to Uttarakhand , I was faced with a problem I had never encountered before. We were passing through Delhi, but we had hardly any time in the city. On earlier visits when I have had to change trains/flights at Delhi, I have always arrived in the morning and left again at night, visiting relatives in between. This time, I was arriving in the city at night, and leaving again early in the morning. There was hardly any time to visit people. I would only have a couple of hours with them before I’d have to leave again. For the first time, we considered booking a hotel, but there again, we were hesitant about the actual hotels, the costs involved, and the logistics of getting from the airport to the railway station and then back again from the station to the airport.  That’s when we remembered reading something about a corporate-managed lounge at Delhi station. We soon figured out that we could book online and pay by the hour. Besides, we also learnt that there wasn’...
2 comments
Read more