Skip to main content

Featured Post

Temples of Kashi - The Kardameshwar temple

The absence of ancient Hindu structures in Kashi is something I have always lamented about. The shrines are certainly ancient, and that is something that has always attracted me to the city. However, I miss the beauty of the ancient structures that we see at other sites. This feeling is intensified when I see marble and concrete and tiles in temples that once would have been beautifully adorned with evocative sculptures, and worn by the passage of time, touched by the hands of seekers who came before. This time , this desire to see some remnants of an ancient Hindu structure in Kashi came true when I managed to visit the Kardameshwar Temple. The Kardameshwar temple is not one of the main temples in the city. It is part of the temples on the Pancha Kroshi yatra, a pilgrimage which takes one on a circumambulatory tour of the whole city. The temple is located on the outskirts of the city, on the western bank of a tank called the Kardama Kund. The Kardameshwar temple is one of the...
Post a Comment

Seasons Greetings



Wishing you all, all the very best for the coming year... and indeed all the years ahead!



P.S. That's our very first christmas tree... one Samhith and I decorated with much enthusiasm!

And this is Samhith's own work... with some of the ornaments we bought...... its a snowflake, in case some of you couldn't recognize it :D


P.P.S: And this is how the tree looked once it was all set up and ready... with the gifts under it, of course!!!!! 





Comments

  1. KPDecember 25, 2011 at 11:34 AM

    Season's Greetings and Happy New Year

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mridula DDecember 25, 2011 at 12:54 PM

    Merry Christmas to you and your family Anu.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PradeepaDecember 25, 2011 at 1:05 PM

    Fantastic decorations. Merry Christmas to you and your family, Anu.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ArtiDecember 25, 2011 at 2:36 PM

    Pretty decoration of the Christmas Tree. Merry Christmas to you and your family Anu:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. ZephyrDecember 26, 2011 at 6:30 AM

    It looks like a full grown fir! Lovely decorations and no guesses for what the gifts are :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sridharan SrinivasanDecember 31, 2011 at 7:20 AM

    Wish you too a very happy new year Anu..! 

    ReplyDelete
  7. NayakchitraJanuary 2, 2012 at 8:13 AM

    Nicely done xmas tree. Happy 2012 to you and your family.

    ReplyDelete
  8. RajeshJanuary 2, 2012 at 12:09 PM

    Beautiful.
    Wish you Happy and Prosperous New Year.

    ReplyDelete
  9. PN SubramanianJanuary 3, 2012 at 1:32 PM

    Wishing you, your hubby and Samhit a very very happy New Year.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anu ShankarJanuary 6, 2012 at 11:10 AM

    Thanks Pradeepa! Wish you a very happy new year!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anu ShankarJanuary 6, 2012 at 11:11 AM

    Thanks Zephyr! guess I am predictable that way :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anu ShankarJanuary 6, 2012 at 11:11 AM

    Thanks a lot, Sridharan!!! wish you a great year ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anu ShankarJanuary 6, 2012 at 11:11 AM

    Thanks Chitra! wish you too a great year ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anu ShankarJanuary 6, 2012 at 11:11 AM

    Thanks Rajesh! wish you a great travel filled year ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anu ShankarJanuary 8, 2012 at 12:16 PM

    Thanks so much, PNS!! Wish you and your family too a great year ahead!!

    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...
2 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