Dragons

Roaming in a Tibetan monastery recently, the dragons I saw there kind of revived my childhood fascination for them. I could see them everywhere there, in the beams, in the pillars, in the paintings on walls, even in the roofs as if leaping out of the pages of the books I read as a child.

I had always thought them to be real creatures who could breathe rain or fire. I was terribly disappointed when I was explained to that they are legendary creatures. How I wished this creature with a Camel’s head, Bull’s ears, horns of a Deer, eyes of a Rabbit, body of a Snake with scales of a Carp, and claws of an Eagle on paws of a Tiger was real! So many animals, all in one! How I wished then in my next visit to the zoo I would find one of them there, caged. No, not free, that would be dangerous.


The story of the life cycle of dragons fascinates me even today. Old Chinese believed that Chinese dragons have several different life stages and can live at least 6000 years.

The dragons are not dragons when they hatch from eggs at least they don’t look like one. For the first 500 years of life they live like ‘water-snakes’. Then from their 500th year to 1000th birthday they survive like fish slowly transforming to scaled dragons living in the seas and oceans. The naughtier ones among them overturned the ships and terrorized the people, the friendly ones helping out the lowly humans.


From 1000th year to 1500th year the growth is fastest, probably learning all the essential skills and magic of life. In the next 500 years they gain horns of wisdom. After their 2000th year they were believed to develop wings and the scales on their body reduced.

Stunned? Are you? Try sharing this story with your little children, nieces, nephews and some of you with your grand children. Do let me know how they have taken it.



(I am off on a small vacation, will visit all of you as soon as I am back.)

Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur

Jaigarh Fort, the final fort of Rajasthan that I conquered with my lens. The architecture of Jaigarh Fort is not of the artistic type and that is because the fort was built more for the security of Amber and Jaipur. It had more importance from the military point of view. Nevertheless it has a magic of its own, majestic and royal looks.

The fort was erected by Raja Jai Singh in 1726, top of a hill by the name of Cheel ka Teela (Hill of Eagles). All around there is a massive wall which has pathways and the view of the city around is mesmerizing. One gets the idea of the strategic location of the fort. Inside the fort are several palaces, museums, treasuries, granaries and even huge underground tanks.





The largest tank has dimensions 158ft long, 138ft. wide, and 40ft. deep can store 60,00,000 gallons of water. The Government of India made a search for the legendary treasures of Maharajas rumored to be stored here after emptying the tank in 1976, but nothing was found.

The Jaigarh Fort once served as the hub of artillery production for the Rajputs. The World famous largest canon is housed here. It was cast in the foundry inside this fort in 1720. A mighty destructive weapon no doubt, it was decorated with beautiful designs. The height of the wheel is 9ft.; you can well imagine the size of this huge canon. It is believed to have been test fired once. Well, now it looks better as a display piece.



This is my final post on Rajasthan for My World. Writing about my journey through Rajasthan in bits and pieces was like traveling again, reliving those experiences again. I enjoyed it very much; hope you all too enjoyed this virtual tour of Rajasthan. My future posts will take you all on a virtual tour through South India.

To see the World visit other participants at: That's My World Tuesday.

My Jasmines Bloomed Again!

My Jasmine has flowered again. And not just one or two, but hand full of them continuously for past two weeks. Bangalore does not have a definite spring season; therefore often we are not aware when summers have set in and spring has long gone.


This plant has bloomed consecutively for two years now. I still remember how tiny it was in the nursery, standing alone in the corner, with looks as if begging me to take it home. I almost fell for the single bloom it had then. A hardy plant, it didn’t demand too much attention from me. It looked satisfied with my occasional glances, and weekly nutritious drinks I made with my vegetable wastes.


Now in its full bloom, swaying in gentle breeze, it tried to say: Here, these are for you! Can I spend the dawn rolling in my bed when the fragrance of these tiny specks of beauty beckons me? I cast my greedy glances at it, “My dear Jasmine, I am of the wicked type, not loyal to you.”

Soon my fingers are plucking them out; I am intoxicated by the delicate fragrance. The night lamp that glowed dimly once, held my lure. Set beside the bedside, it has a different role to play now.

Visit Luiz Santilli Jr for the home of Today's Flowers.

How Many?

At a first glance, how many Painted Storks do you find?

There are two of them, one is preening itself and the one behind it has spread its wings to dry itself. Click on it to enlarge and see.

No, I had not positioned myself to take this shot. We were on a boat safari at Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary. We went around some of the islets there, each of them crowded with many birds of different species. I kept taking shots as the boat kept moving. Only after downloading the shots I saw the two birds aligned in such a way that in the first glance it looks like one huge bird with its wings spread. And this is one of my favorites!

Look at this picture below, how many can you guess in the first look?

I counted 20 Painted Storks in that.

Amber Fort, Jaipur

Another stunningly beautiful fort of Rajasthan made of marble and red sandstone.

It took two centuries of dedicated efforts by three kings, Raja Man Singh, Mirza Raja Jai Singh and Sawai Jai Singh to complete this gigantic fort. The fort is a fusion of Hindu and Muslim architectural styles.



We walked through the beautiful walkways surrounding the typical Mughal garden, the Jai Mandir(Hall of Victory) on one side and the Zenana Mahal(Queen’s Palace) on the other side. The picture below shows how water was used to cool the rooms in those days. Water conservation was in vogue in those days too. The drains, which are now covered with glass panes, carried the water to the garden.



At Sheesh Mahal we were stunned by the minute mirror work in the walls. We were told that the entire room can be illuminated with a single match or candle. Renovation was on at some of the places, the workers deeply involved in their work, totally unmindful of the staring visitors.



The best part of the visit to the fort is the elephant ride. However the day we visited, we witnessed the Brazillian TV serial shooting which was using all the elephants there to picturise a festival scene. You can see some of the colorful elephants here. The kids there got no ride that day.

Famous Hindi movie, Jodha Akabar was filmed here. The most unfortunate part is that this 16th century fort is neither listed in the national heritage sites nor is it protected by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI). The star struck officials of this fort keep letting out the monument for all kinds of shootings and the edifice is crumbling little by little. The latest damage done to the fort was by Salman Khan’s movie unit 'Veer'.

To see the World visit other participants at: That's My World .

Answers to Identification Parade

Last week I did a tiny 'Identification Parade' post of three species and the participation was overwhelming. Thank you very much for guessing and leaving lovely comments on that post. I enjoyed reading the wild guesses and deliberate funny guesses some of you made.

The bird that I couldn’t identify in my last post was identified as Common Prinia by Vamsee, who is an avid bird watcher herself.



The first shot of the Identification Parade, that of Guineafowl was answered correctly only by Deborah Godin and thyme.


It looks like the second shot that of the elephant was the easiest. Many of you could answer it correctly. It was the elephant’s forehead. The correct identifiers were Anya, Nessa, Sujata, Maggie May, Catherine, Maddy, alicesg, Ribbon, hitchwriter, Zlaek, Vamsee, Jeevan, Adrienne in Ohio, Karen, LuLo Designs/Blue Eyed Tango, Ladynred, Snap, Tammy, Reader Wil, Dora, Wonder Turquette, Syaa Fiqq, thyme, Sucharita, Kamini, Chikki, Willard, Happy Kitten and Manz.


The last shot again was answered correctly only by few. It was a Hippo. The first to name this correctly was Anya. The other readers were Deborah Godin, alicesg, hitchwriter and Kamini.

You may download these shots and put in your blog.

Doors of Silver

Doors made of silver! Doors for the Lord Himself!

I took these shots at Bhagamandala Temple in Coorg around 220 km from Bangalore. This huge temple complex has shrines dedicated to various Gods. The idols are housed inside these small shrines and each of these shrines has doors made of silver or are silver plated.

Luckily we were on time that day, the Puja hadn’t started and the doors were shut. Till the auspicious moment the doors of the shrines are kept shut. There was stillness all around and as the auspicious moment drew closer, the priests started ringing the bells. I took a few shots knowing fully well once the doors are flung open I will be pushed around in the crowd. The crowd around the door had slowly begun to swell.


And precisely at that most auspicious moment, the decibel level was at the peak. The doors flung open, the Pujaris(priests) were chanting mantras, and doing the aarati. People kept craning their necks to get that auspicious first glimpse of the Lord. I knew it was futile to focus my lens then. I too folded my hands, bent my head to seek His blessings!

Inspired by The Doors Archive by David McMahon.
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Sajjangarh Palace, Udaipur

There are so many WOW places in Udaipur, and with just a day and half in hand we were forced to choose between the sight seeing spots. We didn’t want to rush through all the spots just to mark them 'seen'. So the evening was set aside for the Sajjangarh Palace, located on Bansandra Mountain of Aravalli Range, 5km from Udaipur.




When Maharana Sajjan Singh built this in 19th century (it took 10 years 1874 – 1884), his intention was to use this as an observatory to watch the progress of the monsoon clouds over the surrounding regions. His plan was to construct nine floors observatory there. Unfortunately the King died young at a tender age of 26.

A very old painting of an artist's plan of the nine storey observatory.



The palace now stands three floors tall. It is popularly called 'Monsoon Palace' after the shooting of James Bond film Octopussy. The ground floor is converted into a museum, with a wonderful collection of pictures, paintings and old maps. Though a section of the palace is in a dilapidated condition, lot of effort is being taken on the remaining parts to maintain its past glory. The view from the higher floors is mesmerizing and the sunset that day was spectacular.

To see the World visit other participants at: That's My World .

Identification Parade

It is not really necessary to know the name of the bird to enjoy watching it. Even without the knowledge of the species it is interesting to observe how busily they go about their activities. I do observe then I try to take shots of it too taking care not to disturb it. But soon I find asking myself ‘what kind of bird is it?’



While taking a walk in a park some days back, I got the shots of this bird. Initially I was engrossed in watching its activities, it was not sitting still, constantly chirping and flicking its tail. And then it struck me to grab a few shots too, I was late, just two shots and the bird was off. Usually the sound and eyes help in identifying the birds, but in this case I didn’t have both. After some Google search of images of birds and Bird identification sites, I concluded it could be a Wren or Dunnock or neither. Can you identify the bird?

I have some shots here in this post, can you identify the three different species? I have zoomed in to the various body parts. Easy ones. Do give a try. Answers next week.

1.

2.

3.

For more critters visit Camera Critters.

Albert Museum, Jaipur

I spent good two hours there, at the Albert Museum of Jaipur. Camera charges were exorbitant like in the Meherengarh Fort of Jodhpur. And as if bent on settling of scores, rather the cost I clicked almost every article on display there.



Albert museum was constructed by a British Army officer, Colonel Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob in 1876, in the modern Indo-Saracenic style. It was named after Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. The building located in the Ram Nivas Garden in Jaipur was earlier a place of recreation for the royal families. Maharaja Ram Singh, the then king of Jaipur had noble intentions of using this building as the town hall for his famine struck subjects. Later his successor Madho Singh converted it to an art museum.






The exquisite collection antiques, miniature paintings, woodwork, metal objects, old traditional ceremonial dresses of the royal families, pottery objects, sculptures, and other arts & crafts... The Albert Museum, a true treasure house of culture and traditions and unknown hidden facts about the Rajathani people. An Egyptian Mummy too is exhibited there.

So true, the fact that, “Museums are the best place to visit to know about the culture, traditions and customs of a place.” Don’t miss this place if you are ever there.

To see the World visit other participants at: That's My World .

A Day For Laughing!

World Laughter Day, a day dedicated to laughter! Isn’t it a great idea?

When is the last time you had a good belly laugh? Today there aren’t enough reasons to have even a small laugh. Newspapers carry headlines which shatters one’s peace of mind. What do you do to unburden yourself from the daily tensions?

Dr. Madan Kataria says, “Try laughing.” You won’t go wrong with it. Laughter is a positive and powerful emotion that has all the ingredients required for individuals to change themselves and to change the world in a peaceful and positive way. “World Laughter Day” was created in 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement. It takes place on the first Sunday in May.

Starting the day with a good laughter exercise will help because it:

• Lightens the mood :)
• Packs you with positive energy for the day :)
  
• Reduces stress :)
  
• Peaks work performance :)
  
• Strengthens immune system :)
  

Some quotes:
As we grow older, our bodies get shorter and our anecdotes longer.
-- Robert Quillen (I think it is happening.)

The lovely thing about being 40 is that you can appreciate 25 year old men more.
-- Colleen McCullough (can relate better now :))

There are only two things a child will share willingly -- communicable diseases and his mother's age.
-- Benjamin Spock (mine are no different)

When you become senile, you won't know it.
-- Bill Cosby (i know that)

And the last one
Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out of it alive.
-- Elbert Hubbard