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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...
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Faces in the Crowd : Two strangers at Amritsar

For Faces in the crowd today, I have two strangers.... two people I clicked at the Golden temple, Amritsar....
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Bhimashankar - a blend of spirituality and nature

Among the 12 sacred shrines of Lord Shiva known as the Jyotirlingams, the one nearest to me was the one which eluded me the longest! The 11 others are located all over India. The one I visited first was the farthest –Kedarnath, which is over 2000 Km away! Bhimashankar is barely 200 Km from Mumbai, and yet I had to wait for years.
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Feathered Friends

There is one tree in our colony which is the meeting point of the birds. It stands on the edge of our common ground, giving a view of the temple, and a whole square filled with buildings. I have often wondered what it is that draws birds to this tree.... but recently, my thoughts have taken a different direction. I often see groups of birds perched on a particular branch of this tree..... A couple of weeks back, there were these three Coppersmith barbets....
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A Festival and a Press Conference

Being stuck inside a bus all alone can be scary. Especially considering the times we are living in. I wondered whether I would be better off getting out, but the situation outside did not look too good either. In sharp contrast to the interior of the bus, the outside was filled with people – loud, hooting bands of guys filling trucks, tempos, and whatever vehicles they could find. I decided I was much safer inside, with the driver and conductor alone for company. For the umpteenth time, I wondered what I was doing, late in the evening, stuck in a bus, on my way to a press conference I wasn’t sure I wanted to attend!
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Book Review: Thundergod : The Ascendance of Indra, by Rajiv G. Menon

There is something about mythology that attracts me. Having grown up on a steady diet of stories from Indian mythology, somewhere, there has always been an urge to rationalize the stories, to search for their roots, and somehow connect them to history. 
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Happy Republic Day!

Sitting in our room at Mashobra, every morning, around 10, we could hear the distant sounds of a band. The day we went on a trek, we learnt that the sound came from the Government school at Mashobra.
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Skywatch Friday - A Fiery Sunrise

The day after the spectacular moonrise  at Mashobra, the sun seemed to have decided that it needed to put up just as spectacular a display.....so, it was a fiery sunrise that greeted us... For more beautiful skies from around the world, visit the Skywatch page.
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