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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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Magic!

On our recent visit to Mount Abu, we walked to the lake to spend the evening. As we were awaiting our turn for the boat ride, a young boy came up to Shankar and said that he would show us some magic tricks. These days, I  don't have much patience with young chaps who accost us at tourist destinations, and would have ignored the chap, but Shankar said, "Come on, let's see what he does."
So off we went, towards a slightly less crowded section of the park, and proceeded to see just what is meant by 'sleight of hand'! Yes, that was a new term that Samhith learned that day. The young boy was so good with it, that we happily paid him more than we had thought of. But a bigger surprise was to come. As we left, I was telling Shankar that I should have taken a video, and suddenly, the boy turned to us and said, "Koi baat nahin, madam, main youtube par hoon. Aap Fateh Khan Jaadugar search kijiye... mil jayega! (Its ok, madam,I am on you tube.Just search for Fateh Khan Jaadugar, and you will find it!). Of course, I came back and looked for the video, and here it is. Unfortunately, it isnt all that clear and seeing his performance live was a hundred times better, but its still worth a look....


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  1. Prateek_bplJanuary 16, 2012 at 2:13 AM

    i had also seen his magic,it was awesome.........the boy is really good with his magic......hope best for him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anu ShankarJanuary 16, 2012 at 1:29 PM

    Absolutely!!

    ReplyDelete

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