Budapest Parliament Interiors

As I mentioned in my previous post of Budapest Parliament, only three out of 691 rooms of the parliament are open to public. Disappointing indeed! After an elaborate (understandable) security check we were led inside by a smart English speaking guide. We were soon facing the dramatic, operatic entrance.



The beautifully decorated ceilings and a portion of one of the many staircases around.



Hungary’s most important national icon, the Crown of St. Stephen is on display here, guards around it for all twenty four hours.



We were led through some long corridors, most of the doors were shut. Remember the brass cigar holders? Those were spotted in the corridors. Finally we were shown the conference room through a window.

Our World Tuesday

Pink Lilies at Lepakshi

A little away from the Nandi in Lepakshi we discovered a small muddy pool. The pool lacked maintenance and all sorts of rubbish were strewn around it. It seemed to be crying for attention and care. I wish the Andhra Pradesh tourism did its part for the little pool.


The only pleasant sight was the pink lilies blooming in that pool. The lilies seemed to win the struggle of growing through clogged muddy water and reaching the sunshine and pure air above. Unstained and undeterred, they seemed determined to spread their fragrance and beauty all around. Isn’t that a message for us?

Today's Flowers

Faces of India - 45

A school boy dressed up as Indian Army's soldier during Republic Day celebrations.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country. See more here.

Nandi at Lepakshi

The statue of Nandi in Lepakshi, 120kms from Bangalore.



Statue of Nandi (the bull) is usually found at the entrance to the temple of Lord Shiva in a sitting posture. This one is one of the few colossal forms of Nandi. It is cut from a single granite stone measuring fifteen feet high and twenty seven feet long. The features have been sculpted with lot of care and the details though worn out a bit look good. It was built in the mid-16th century by Viranna and Virupanna, Vijayanagara governors of Penukonda, now in Andhra Pradesh.

SkyWatch Friday

My Bee Hive

For the past couple of months an interesting activity had been taking place in my little balcony garden. Sharing a few shots of it here.

Early November, 2011, one fine morning, as I sat reading a book near my balcony I saw huge swarm of bees heading towards my balcony. I rushed indoors quickly and through the glass pane witnessed the drama taking place on the edge of the roof of my balcony. Hundreds of them settled there, they seemed to be inspecting the place. Within minutes the buzz subsided and just few were flying around the spot. I guessed they didn’t like the place to build their hive.

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I was wrong! Half an hour later there were thousands, it was like a huge dark cloud. I was spell bound, never having witnessed such a scene before I was on a clicking spree from behind the safety of my glass pane. By evening they settled to form a huge lump and the next few days there was continuous activity. I somehow managed to water the plants and move away the smaller pots. For two months their activity went on. Their most active hours were between 10 to 11 in morning and then 3 to 4 in the afternoon. Watering and cleaning up the place was done during their rest hours. The beehive size grew bigger and bigger and formed a ‘L’ shape on the edge.

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My balcony got a new scent, not of flowers but of honey. It got sweeter each day. Each time looking at it I would wonder how much honey it will have! I had no mind to break it. One day three men came knocking on my door saying they will get rid of the bee hive from my balcony for Rs. 2000. I made it clear to them I was not interested in getting rid of the bees. By now I had started to like the bees, the smell in my balcony and the photo opportunities I was getting once in a while. The men were like: has the woman gone crazy!

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After lot of arguments like: this was the way they made their living, and they would give me honey for free and that they extracted it the cleanest way, I agreed. Soon they walked in with a bunch of some kind of leaves and dry hay in between those leaves. They set the bunch on fire and smoke rising from it disturbed the bees. What surprised me was that the bees seemed to have become docile. The men were removing the bees from the hive with bare hands and none of them were stung. A couple of them sat on my hands which were holding my dear camera; now I could neither react with a jolt lest I damage my camera, nor scream out of fright! One of them gently took away the bees. Whew!

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The hive was a thick one, which they cut with a knife and honey was oozing out of it. On an impulse I put my finger in the honey and licked it. It was sweet! It was not so thick like the one we get in markets, the Dabur variety, it was thinner and light golden in color. They extracted around 30litres of honey from that hive, I kept 5litres for myself and rest of it they sold. They even took a portion of the honey comb saying the queen bee was inside it.

The edge is now bare and I miss their activity which I used to watch often. How disciplined the bees were! Neither did I disturb them nor did they harm me. For some days the bees came searching for their home which I had destroyed, I do feel guilty… not sure whether I should actually feel so.

They must have made a new home somewhere else hopefully!

Our World Tuesday

Orange Rose

The shot taken in Lal Bagh flower show, Bangalore.

Orange connotes enthusiasm or an orange rose is also known as symbol of desire.
Interesting link on History and Meaning of Orange Roses.

Today's Flowers

Faces of India - 44

A cook, prepares excellent bengali dishes. She was too shy to look into camera.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country. See more here.

Budapest Parliament

An amazing architectural wonder, Budapest parliament is the second largest parliament in Europe. The Parliament was built between 1885 and 1902, at the time the largest parliamentary building in the world.

Some statistics on its dimensions:
- The building has a length of 268 meters and is 118 meters wide.
- The parliament house contains more than 20 km staircase, and 691 rooms.
- The elegant dome has a height of 69 meters.

Of the 691+ rooms only three are open to public! The tickets have to done in advance if you are keen to shell out the huge amount to see those three beautiful rooms. You will come out dazed seeing the dazzling opulence of the interiors, that is for sure!

SkyWatch Friday

Brass Holders, Budapest Parliament

Can you guess what that curved structure is? The shot was taken in the corridors of Budapest Parliament. Here is one more close-up. The curves are all numbered. Before scrolling down further give it a thought what could it be?


So? Could you guess? These are brass cigar holders. Smoking was once permitted in the corridors of Hungarian Parliament, but not inside the voting and discussion chamber. The politicians left their cigars on these grooved racks before they went in to cast their vote. The numbers on the rack helped them remember which cigar was whose. After returning from the debates and voting sessions they could pick up their own cigar without confusion.

Interesting! I thought.

Our World Tuesday

Pink Water Lily of Thailand

These lily flowers were blooming in a stone bowl in a resort garden in Thailand. I found the pink variety quite common there. My efforts to grow one have failed several times, though the purple one is flowering well.

Today's Flowers

Faces of India - 43

A cook at a roadside eatery.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country. See more here.

Esztergom Basilica, Hungary

The bright blue cupola of Esztergom basilica is visible from far. This gigantic structure kind of dominates the whole city of Esztergom. All other buildings around seemed dwarfed and we didn’t find it tempting to visit any other site after seeing this one church. The church is 118 meters high, with twenty two huge Corinthian Columns. The cathedral has a very simple facade. There are statues in niches at the main entrance and a dazzling green door.



Standing at the base of one of these columns, I craned my neck to look up at the ceiling, the sheer size of it left my mouth wide open. It was built on the remnants of a 12th century St. Adalbert’s cathedral that was destroyed by the Turks. It took 45 years from 1822 to complete the construction of this mammoth monument. The cathedral closes at 5pm, so we missed going up to the dome. We missed the fantastic views of the city from up there.

SkyWatch Friday

Published in a Travel Magazine

Another first in my life! My article on Holloko, an UN World Heritage Site of Hungary is published in a national travel magazine “Terrascape”. The article is in Jan 2012 issue of Terrascape.

Esztergom Cathedral, Hungary

Last year I must have kneeled in at least forty churches during my tour of the six European countries. Each cathedral beautiful! Hungary churches were no exception. Thankfully we did not face the ‘no photography’ rule in most of the churches. Today I look at these pictures of mine and I am virtually transported off to these interiors.



From Pannonhalma we drove to Esztergom. Esztergom was once the capital of Hungary. Steven, the first king of Hungary, was crowned here in 1000AD. The Basilica of Esztergom is famed to be the largest cathedral of Hungary. This cathedral ranks eighteenth in the list of large cathedrals in the world.



The interiors are gorgeous. The architectural details are stunning. The mosaic work and paintings on wall are so well maintained and looked quite fresh. I will be posting some more pictures of this cathedral in future blogposts. Hope you enjoy these.

Our World Tuesday

Peacock Flower

The Peacock Flower shrubs are in full bloom in my apartment complex these days. The showy blossoms are of different colors. I focused on this yellow one. The bright stamens extending away from the corolla seemed to make a nice composition to me. These actually bloom in clusters, but I focused on a single one. Experimenting with different camera settings, I wanted it to look as if it was emerging out of darkness. The shot was taken in broad daylight, I hope you like it.


Scientific name: Caesalpinia pulcherrima
Common Names: Peacock Flower, Barbados pride, Dwarf Poinciana, Barbados Flower-Fence, Red bird-of-paradise
Family: Fabaceae/Leguminosae (bean Family)

Today's Flowers

Faces of India - 42

A young village girl in the banks of Kabini, near Mysore, Karnataka.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country. See more here.

Raya Gopuram, Melkote

The four incomplete pillars of Raya Gopuram of Melkote look stunning against the bright blue sky. There are many folklore around this structure, one of them being: a sculptor was challenged to complete the construction of pillars and tower over it in one night. The sculptor and his team seemed to be doing well when his opponents fearing the sculptor would win, rang the morning bells at two in the night instead of five in the morning. The sculptor abandoned his work and the pillars stand incomplete to this day.



I took it just ‘another story’ associated to the place. The pillars do look incomplete with no tower built over it. It looks as if the work was abandoned in a hurry. It is also known as Gopalraya entrance leading to the hill. Climbing up the structure I found boulders scattered. Wasn’t this the same place where Aishwaray Rai, Miss World 1994 danced for the movie Guru? Amazing what lighting effects could do to a simple place full of boulders like this!

Do watch this song sequence "barso re", to see the place ‘Raya Gopuram’ where the sequence was shot.

SkyWatch Friday

Library of Pannonhalma Abbey, Hungary

Memories of the library of Pannonhalma Abbey stand out clearly in my mind. Walking into the library was like walking into a hall with huge walls made of books. They were stacked right up to the ceiling. Hard bound old books, their titles gleaming in golden color, I had to restrain myself from pulling out one from the rack there. These are collections from centuries; it is the largest private library of Hungary.



Books are the essential objects in the life of a monk, the guide explained. Education is a big part of their lives. Since this monastery existed from the times of origin of Hungary, the collection here is understandably huge. The Tihany manuscript in the earliest Hungarian language is here. The ceiling of the hall is painted beautifully with various Greek Gods and Goddesses. The student boarders and their teachers avail the facilities of this library.

Our World Tuesday

Happy New Year to all!

I wish A Very Happy New Year to all my dear readers and followers!
Without your support and encouragement blogging would not have been possible. Thank you so much for your constant support!