The Egyptian Mummy

I have visited several museums, but the visit to the Albert Hall Museum at Jaipur will be an unforgettable one. The museum houses some rare Egyptian collection; one of them is the Mummy. I saw It there… very close… with just a glass pane separating us; the Mummy and me. I have never been so close to something dead and so old like this…something belonging to 300 B.C. It was kept in a glass box and looked as if the mask was covered with dust and torn worn out cloth pieces… do the dead really come back? The whole experience was eerie, yet exciting!



Have you visited the Pyramids? Do you get to see the Mummies so close there?

The Egyptian antiquities collection was put together for the Jaipur museum by Emile Brugsch, curator of the museum at Cairo. A guide published in 1885 mentions that ‘as all articles are genuine and have been collected by one of the principal authorities on the subject, the student will find here all that is necessary to obtain a good insight into the subject of Egyptology.’

For more information on the Mummy, click and enlarge the shot below.



Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Coracle Rides at Hampi

... will continue.

Reading the fresh newspaper in the morning is rarely a pleasant experience these days. On 23rd Jan, the newspaper headlines read thus: Bridge at Hampi collapses, six feared dead. Just a month back we were there at Hampi, one of the World Heritage Centers in Karnataka. We were on the banks of Tungabhadra River to take a coracle ride to Anegundi, another historical place.

These shots were taken on 23rd Dec, 2008.

We had seen that work was in full swing to complete the bridge. It was interesting watching people with two wheelers crossing the river on a coracle, the bikes, their owners all. Talking to the coracle operators we could sense their concern about their means of livelihood once the bridge construction is complete. Some of the coracle owners for generations have been doing only this, ferrying people across. They know no other vocation.


The UNESCO had strong objections to the construction of this bridge as this modern structure would be an eyesore to the World Heritage Site. Bridging the two places would also increase the vehicular traffic which could result in slow damage of the monuments. The construction of the bridge had been suspended for nine years and work commenced only in Nov 2008.

The bridge on 22d Jan, 2009.

"On 22nd Jan, as the concrete was being laid in the middle portion of the bridge, it collapsed dragging in few of the workers. Everything was over in seconds." While I was there it never occurred to me to take a complete photograph of the bridge, never imagined such a tragedy would take place within a month.

My 12 year old, shocked on reading the news item was telling me, “What if the accident had happened a month back?” I could just give her a hug.

"Our pleasures were simple-they included survival."
- Dwight David Eisenhower

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Holiday Waste

By Holiday Waste, I mean the waste generated after the holidays. When this waste-line increases the results can be disastrous!

Journeying through India in the past few years has been a very pleasant experience. The monuments, architectural marvels and scenic delights are all preserved and taken care of so well. But then I did come across some eyesores too... particularly the water bodies. They are misused and left uncared, the result is waste getting accumulated in them.


Edible fish have ceased to exist in these water bodies due to continued bouts of hypoxia. Most of them I am sure are mosquito nurseries of these scenic sights. It was a shock for me to see the locals washing clothes at Agastyatirtha Tank at Badami in North Karnataka. I did try to talk to the locals; they seemed to be very casual about this pollution.



At other places like in Daulatabad in Maharashtra, the locals blamed the tourists. Much of the waste, the plastic bags and bottles are left behind by the holidayers they said. The problem needs immediate attention of the tourism industry.


How do you handle Holiday Waste?

After every festival or holiday we create a lot of waste stuff; left over food, dead batteries, wrapping paper, packaging, bottles, cans and more. Those that can be reused must be reused, if further reuse is not possible recycle them and then the final step, dispose properly. If only the tourists followed this meticulously, these sight seeing places can leave sweeter memories.

Look at this bird struggling to find a neat corner to sip water from. When will we learn?


Read more: Facts on Holiday Waste.
How to Reduce Holiday Waste

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Rajsamand Lake

After traveling for eight days in Rajasthan by road, through the deserts, hills, mountain ranges and forests, we finally got to see something pleasant and cooling to eyes. It was the Rajsmand Lake, a HUGE lake having a circumference of 7.5km. Water, as far as the eyes could see!



Thanks to Maharana Raj Singh I, India is proud of this second largest man made sweet water lake in Asia. The wiki says:

During World War II, the lake was used as a seaplane base by Imperial Airways for about six years.

Today its water is used for irrigation and the canal network services within the state and if good monsoons prevail this will continue.

(Do click and enlarge to view.)

The beauty of ornamental arches and the sculptures in the pillars and ceilings were lapped up by our greedy eyes. Strolling for half an hour in the marble steps in the bank of this lake rejuvenated and soothed our tired nerves. Wish I could stay back till the sunset to capture the golden glow of this beautiful lake.

(Do click and enlarge to view.)

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The Inspiring Pig

Do you know pigs are rated as the fourth most intelligent animal after chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants? Trainers find pigs picking up tricks faster than dogs. After a piglet is born, the mother sow eats so much that its weight doubles within a week. (…can relate to this?)

These shots of pigs and piglets were taken during our Rajasthan tour. Not very great shots, I know.



But I was inspired to put these up after reading the story of a pig that survived the earthquake in China. The pig named Zhu Jianqiang or Strong-Willed Pig became celebrity after surviving for 36 days buried beneath rubble after this year's Sichuan earthquake. It has been named China's most inspirational animal of 2008.

The pig survived on just rainwater and a bag of charcoal and his weight had fallen from 150kg to just 50kg. He was sold by his owner to become an exhibit at a museum to commemorate the quake. The latest about this new celebrity is that “it has gotten fatter and lazier by the day and doesn’t even bother to lift its face to pose for the photographers.”

Wonder if those who are trying to reduce will catch on to the rainwater and charcoal diet! Read: The Benefits of Charcoal. Maiji, a veteran blogger has recounted how charcoal powder was once prescribed to her by a doctor to cure her of her stomach ailment.

Coincidentally this was the second straight victory for a pig: 2007's winner was a sow that fought off a butcher trying to slaughter its “husband” mentions the China Daily.

(My sitemeter just recorded 10,000th visitor to my site. The esteemed reader was from New Delhi, arrived at my site with search words: Khichan. A BIG thanks to all my esteemed readers.)

Kumbalgarh Fort

Kumbalgarh Fort was a must see spot for us during our Rajasthan tour. Especially after we knew this is the longest continuous wall in the World, after The Great Wall of China. The Wiki mentions:

The fort has perimeter walls that extend 36 kilometers in length, claimed to be the longest in the world after The Great Wall of China.

“Attributed to Maharana Kumbha, this fort was built in 1443-1458 AD under the supervision of architect Mandan” mentions a board put up by the ASI there. This fort was built over the remains of an earlier fort built by Jaina prince Samprati of second century BC.

The light show of the fort after 7 in the evening.

The fort is located in the Aravalli ranges, at a height of 1100meters and so well camouflaged by the hills, that till you reach the main entrance of the fort you will not be able to sight it. A huge muscular fort, walls 25 feet wide, so well maintained and we were there at around 4 in the evening, gentle wind was blowing across, clear sky and a slow setting sun; what more could we ask?

(Please click and enlarge the pic. to view details.)

As we went higher and higher crossing the seven gates, the sights around and below got even more breathtakingly beautiful. And as is with every fort, this mighty fort too was full of tales, some sweet, some treacherous.

It was here Prince Uday Singh II spent his childhood after he was saved by Paana Dai, a maid. The Great King Maharana Pratap was born here. Maharana Kumbha was treacherously stabbed to death by his eldest son Uday Singh I, when he was meditating near the temple tank in the fort.





An inner fort, Kartargarh, has a palace, the Badal Mahal built by Maharana Fateh Singh (AD 1884 – 1930) after he had pulled down the old palace built by Maharana Kumbha. The paintings on the walls are still maintained well.



Some more magical moments. Please do click on them to enlarge and enjoy.



Standing there and admiring the architectural marvel I was wondering, how did they manage to get the boulders so high up? Can we recreate a similar structure with all our technology today?

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Praying Mantis

My tiny balcony garden is home to many species. Most of them are pests destroying my fruits of hard work. Some of my spare time goes into tending the plants and watering them. And this incident happened a few months back.

We saw this Praying Mantis perched on the wall so gracefully. All of us crowded around her, but she didn’t budge from that place or pose. Downloading the shots we noticed the bulge, it was quite unusual from the other pictures of Praying Mantis we saw in our Google search. My daughters were confident it was going to lay eggs.


Next day morning my daughters rushed to see whether the Praying Mantis was still there. It. Was. There. Out came the camera and click, click, click they went. They downloaded immediately to see if the shots came out well, they didn’t want to take any chance. The shots came out well. One look at the Praying Mantis’s face we decided not to disturb her at her most private moment.

Do you know their heads are flexible, permitting 300 degrees of movement, allowing a great range of vision?


The Praying Mantis was still laying eggs in to the egg case. We kept a watch on her from a distance. After her job was done, she flew off without turning back to see her egg case even once. After that day it was a patient ‘wait and observe’ for the next few weeks. Lot of reading and study went on: how long does it take for the babies to come popping out of the ootheca? What if they are at school then? I was given the responsibility of guarding it.


Then one day when the kids were at school, almost six weeks later, I noticed three tiny ones moving around. OMG! They have hatched! At least twenty five to thirty babies are expected from one ootheca. Have the others escaped? I was imagining how disappointed the kids would be to know the babies hatched in their absence. Rushed for my camera, placed one of them in my palm and here is one precious shot.

Ranakpur Jain Temple

The Ranakpur temple, stunningly exquisite, an aesthetic and visual treat; was it all true or just a figment of imagination?

We visited this beautiful temple while on our way to Udaipur from Jodhpur and I am glad we halted there. Spread over an area of approx. 48,000sq.feet, this temple is made of amber stone and situated at the base of Madri hill, in the enchanting valley of the Aravallis. It was built by two Jain brothers, Dharmasha and Ratnasha and the land was donated by the then Rajput king Rana Kumbha. The chief sculptor was Depa.

The initial plan was to build seven storied high temple, but even after 50 years only three floors were made, that too was incomplete.

(Do click on the pics. to enlarge and enjoy.)

The entrances are so beautifully carved, you may not want to step on it. Those two evil faces mean that you must leave your greed and evil thoughts outside and enter the temple with pure thoughts.


Once inside I felt I was in a temple of pillars, each pillar covered with rich carvings. The entire weight of the colossal structure rested on 1,444 pillars.

(Do click on the pics. to enlarge and enjoy.)

Click to enlarge and see this toran – the decorative arch carved out from a single stone. We were told that there were 128 such torans the temple, of which only three exist today. Imagine how much more beautiful the temple would have looked with those 128 torans.


The most beautiful sculpted creation I saw there was the idol of Bhagwan Parshavnath standing in a Kayotsarg meditation along with the 1000 hooded snake, Dharmendra and Padmavati.

(Do click on the pics. to enlarge and enjoy.)

The original beauty and splendor lasted only for 200 years. It was plundered and desecrated by the Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb. The magnificent masterpiece of a temple soon declined in to oblivion. The credit of this temple’s revival and resurrection goes to Shri Kasturbhai Lalbhai, the chief of Sheth Anandji Kalyanji Trust. Over 200 workers and artisans dedicated themselves to the reconstruction of the Great Temple. The color variation in the sculpted stones clearly distinguishes the old and the new work.

(Do click on the pics. to enlarge and enjoy.)

One of the lines of a legendary folk song is:
... Ranakpur temple deserves praise for its exquisite workmanship and magnificent architecture,
.. so eat a little less, but do visit Ranakpur to enjoy its beauty.

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