The temple of Jagannath at Puri is one of the four most important temples across India. Sometimes called the Char Dham – Badrinath in the north, Rameswaram in the South, Dwarka in the west, and Puri in the east – these temples mark four corners of our country, and each of these temples has a connection to Adi Shankara. He is said to have travelled to each of them, thus marking a sacred geography of India, long before the country actually existed. Among these 4 temples, 3 are dedicated to Lord Vishnu, while only Rameswaram is dedicated to Lord Shiva, though the lingam there is said to have been installed by Rama. Further, Shankara set up Mutts at 3 of these sites (or very close to these sites, like at Badrinath, where the mutt is at Joshimutt), while the mutt in the south is at Sringeri in Karnataka, quite a distance away from Rameswaram. Coming back to the topic, I have visited Rameswaram most often, Badrinath during my childhood, and Dwaraka a few times, but Puri had stayed out of re...
Its always fun to get a book as a gift, and it becomes a lot more fun when you get a book from someone you don't know! When I signed up for the' Perfect Picture Books by Post ' swap on Playing by the Book , both Samhith and I were excited about the whole process, and we sent off our book, waiting eagerly to see which book we would receive! We got our book yesterday , and I waited eagerly for Samhith to return home from school before opening it. Here is what we received.... We both love reading Eric Carle , and have a couple of his books, but thankfully, this one we dont have! Samhith opened the book and went through them eagerly, seeing the pictures more closely than the numbers themselves. We both loved the mouse seen in every pic, but he was intrigued by the sketches of the train and its coaches, especially those on each page. As to the book itself, he decided that counting from 1 to 10 was too tame for him, so he decided to first count all the animals, and then...