Manav Sanghralaya at Bhopal

We visited the 'Manav Sanghralaya' - a museum that had miniature villages and replicas of various tribes (current and ancient) and gave us a glimpse into the lifestyle of these tribes. This is what Sacred Groves of India has to say about this place:

Located on a 200-acre campus in Bhopal, the outdoor museum replicates plots of sacred groves from different parts of India, including the orans of Rajasthan and the devarakadus of Karnakata. The museum also celebrates the communities, festivals and rituals associated with each grove. Additionally, the museum has organized a traveling exhibition to build greater ties with local communities and organizations throughout the country, as well as a Sacred Grove Festival.

The pictures below were taken at this museum:






A desert village - but of course it is amidst green surrounding of Bhopal.








Note: Blogger seems to have slowed down and I am unable to post pics. Will upload more later.

More of Sanchi

Here are some pictures that show the ruins in and around the main stupa - some deliberately destroyed while others by time.









Inside the main Stupa
















A view from within the Stupa.













The Sanchi Stupa built by the Great Asoka














Another Stupa near to the main Stupa above.














The remnants from a destroyed monastery.















The ruins of a temple for The Buddha.

Sanchi - To be in every tourist's must-see

We visited Sanchi - a historical site some 40 kms from Bhopal. I had read about Sanchi from my history texts - that it was the site where the Great Emperor Asoka built the Stupa and a place that thrived as a center of Buddhist learning during his reign. Little did I realize then that I would actually be visiting this place. To say that the monuments were breathtaking would be the understatement of the year. I was thrilled, moved and left with no choice of words to describe what I felt when I saw, touched and felt the monuments that were built sometime between 250 BC and 2 AD. The oldest monument, the Sanchi Stupa, built by Asoka is timed to be around 250 BC. There were other monuments nearby that were built subsequently - even a small temple that is a sign of the wonderful architecture of those times.

Sadly, many of these monuments have been damaged. The sculptures at the entrance have been destroyed by invaders much later during the 10 and 11 century AD. They have deliberately chopped the heads of Buddha and his disciples. It is said that they also destroyed many other temples and monasteries that had been built around this place. What you see in the picture on the left is one of those where The Buddha seems to have escaped the fury of the invaders.

But then, this place is also known for some remarkable architecture and sculpture work all dating back to the period of Asoka up and until the 2nd century AD. The pictures here are proof of the meticulous marvelous work that the artisans have put in for their emperor.

Sanchi is a beautiful and serene location and had attracted pilgrims from across the world and still does. There were people from Srilanka and South-East Asia who were thrilled to visit Sanchi which they consider as one of the holiest Buddhist sites in the world. It is said that Asoka's son, Mahendran, and daughter Sanghamitra, began their journey of spreading Buddha's philosophy from here. Sanchi was chosen as the seat of Buddhist learning by Asoka because of its proximity to Vidisha where Asoka's wife hailed from.

The picture below shows the ruins of one of the monasteries where people may have lived during those times. There is a small pool like pond (most probably artificially constructed) right next to the monastery which I assume was where the monks took their bath.

I had goose bumps when I saw these sites - to think that people lived at the very same place 2200 years ago and that I was walking on the same ground that was probably tread by the Great Asoka.

Wannabe Manirathnam?

I tried some gimmicks with my digital camera - and this one came out reasonably well. Anyone might think that this photograph is by a wannabe Manirathnam!! :)

Bhopal, oh, Bhopal

It is almost after 12 years that I have crossed the Vindhya mountains to go to the other part of the country. It was a nostalgic trip, at least to me and Tanuja, when we saw the various places on the way - Balharshah, Nagpur, Itarsi and finally Bhopal. The narmada river had lots of water, but my memory says that 12 years back, it used to run almost to the brim at this time of year.

But then, the biggest surprise was Bhopal. I had only passed by this town while on my way to Kanpur, and my expectations from this city was it to be just like any other city like Kanpur, Patna, etc. Little did I expect that this small town, which is also the capital of Madhya Pradesh, is actually a lovely, sleepy and beautiful town with many lakes and lots of greenery. The city has many lakes - the Shapura lake is the one in the picture to the right. This lake was right next to my uncle's house where we stayed during this trip. The lake was very well maintained - I did not notice any pollution although I believe the water may not be potable - with parks and beautiful trees lining the banks of this lake. Come evening time and this lake buzzes with activity - people park their cars nearby or just walk to the lake and spend time walking and chatting. The vendors have a great time selling bhel puri, kachori and aloo tikki. The same vendors sell Poha and Jalabi if you go by the lake early in the morning and, boy, the Poha was absolutely delicious.

There was yet another lake - in fact The Lake in Bhopal called the Bada Thaalaab - this was a huge lake, almost 3 times the size of Hussain Sagar in Hyderabad and the water from this lake is supplied to the city. The authorities were being very careful not to get the lake polluted. We went by this lake in the evening and spotted dozens of swans - and these swans like to eat popcorn. You can see one of them enjoying the corn that I fed him.

The clip below shows a few more of these swans having fun near the water. They were so used to being around with people that they did not mind us getting near them, feeding them corn or even touching them. This was the first time my son was getting so close to birds and he was so excited that he insisted that he would feed corn as well. This bird actually snatched the corn right out of his fingers and he squealed with laughter and joy.

The city of Bhopal is a city for government employees. Wherever you go, you see one government building or the other and every place is named after a government quarters' building number - Number 9, Number 10, etc and the markets at these places are also referred to with this number. The only other markets which had distinct names were the 'New Market' (how distinct it this?) and the MP Market (or the Maharana Pratap Market). Bhopal is also a sleepy town - we had nowhere to go on a Monday when most markets were closed. And the next day being Gandhi Jayanthi (Oct. 2), most shops were closed on this day too. I was a bit surprised to see how comfortable people were in closing down their businesses. It is hard to see a shop closed two days in a row, in Hyderabad for example.

The Bhopal Trip Pictures At A Glance

You can see a slide show of the pictures from the Bhopal trip here. For a more detailed account on the various places that we visited, please read later posts on the blog.

In and Around Madurai

The trip to Azhagar Kovil, Pazhamuthir Cholai and Pillarpatti was an eye opener. I got to see some parts of India that I did not know existed.

Interestingly, on a sad note, the granite quarries are going to kill the ecology of this place. See the photos below to see what I mean.

Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple

A visit to Madurai is not complete without meeting the city's Queen and main deity - Meenakshi Amman. We wen to the temple and had a great time inside. Every aspect of the temple was worth a WOW! I could not take pictures of most places inside the temple - was not allowed to. But you can sample a few here in the album below:

Sivaji - The FLOP

The last time that I saw a Rajinikanth movie within the first one week of its release was way back in the early 1990s - the name of the film was Veera. I got the tickets from a Rajini fan club through a friend of mine. Needless to say, I was surrounded by Rajinikanth fans in the hall - each dancing and whistling whenever their hero danced or enacted one of his "style acts". The fans got into a delirium whenever he spouted his one-liners - punch lines as they call these in the Tamil film industry. The experience was truly magical. I am not a big Rajinikanth fan but I still made my way out of the cinema hall truly impressed with his ability to entertain the masses.

My recent vacation to Madurai gave me another opportunity to experience the Rajinikanth magic in the movie Sivaji - again within a week of its release. After seeing all the hype in the media about how tickets were advanced booked and that the going rate in the black market was to the tune of Rs.900/ticket, I did not imagine that I would be able to see this movie. But when a friend of mine, a die-hard Rajinikanth fan, offered to get me tickets to the movie, I was pleasantly surprised. I grabbed at it and within an hour some six or seven of us made our way to the theater in the heart of Marudai city.

To my surprise, I found that they were still selling tickets to the movie - Rs. 70 tickets to the balcony. The man at the counter also said that they will start selling the Rs. 50 tickets (the front bench tickets) after the balcony tickets were sold out. We had our tickets with us anyway and we made our way in and found seats that gave us the best view of the screen.

Very soon we realized that the cinema hall was not going to be thronging with people. The balcony was probably 90% full while the front bench seats were empty. When we looked down from the balcony we could see the entire hall below was empty - not a seat taken. And this was within the first week of the movie's release, on a Saturday for the Matinee show. To say that I was surprised and taken aback would be an understatement.

Now let us move on to the movie - Sivaji. It started off well with Rajinikanth being taken to prison - a very interesting but unusual start to a Rajinikanth movie. But the flash back tells you what actually happened to the NRI returned Software System Architect who wanted to invest his Rs.200 crores that he earned in the US to provide free education and healthcare to all. He faces stiff resistance from his chief rival Adiseshan. In addition, he faces the red-tapism in the government.

So far so good! But suddenly the focus shifts to Rajini finding his lady love - he prefers a girl dipped in Tamil culture. Then the movie starts dragging - the next 90 minutes is devoted to the tomfoolery of the hero wooing his lady love - the actress with dead-pan expressions Shriya - along with his sidekick Vivek. The sequences were utterly foolish, ridiculous and the attempted humour was completely lost on me. This 90 minutes of wooing included occasional switches back to the story line to show the kind of difficulties that Sivaji faces in realizing his dream. It appeared that the main storyline was sidetracked. Added to this is the disappointing music from AR Rahman - the songs were bland and it was difficult to figure out which language the lyrics were in. The background music was loud and a cacophony. The intended humour with Solomon Papaiya and "Patti Mandram" Raja were insipid and the reference to Papaiya's daughters (who were pitch dark in skin colour) as Shriya's alternative choice to Sivaji was in very poor taste. This was included in a film where Shriya rejection of Rajinikanth because of his skin colour was being ridiculed.

The second half was a shade better than the first half but the illogical sequences continued. The villain, who is powerful enough to change the government, pays up Rs. 100 crore to Sivaji to avoid his files reaching the Income Tax office. I mean - a villain so powerful, can he not get his files back from the IT office even if Sivaji hands them over to them? Would he be a fool to pay up such a huge amount to his arch rival? The other sequences where Sivaji uses force to make people heed and provide him with information was another unbelievable sequence. But credit to Shankar for trying to expose the ills of the society in the form of black money, hawala transactions, official nepotism etc.

The rest of movie where Sivaji bounces back, thanks to the Hawala transactions, and then gets killed by the Adiseshan only to return as another person named MG Ravichandran aka MGR, and the climax of the movie were as banal as it can get.

When the movie ended after a good three hours I headed my way out with a headache and not feeling one bit entertained. The movie was so disappointing that I found even die-hard Rajinikanth fans walking out during the song sequences for a smoke instead of jumping, whistling and dancing during the song sequences. I realized that the buzz around the movie was nothing but a media hype and that the movie was definitely a big flop despite whatever the trade pundits claim. A Rajinikanth movie running to empty cinema halls in the first week of its release is unprecedented and I could understand why the movie had failed after seeing the film - this was a film which had neither a strong storyline nor a powerful character for Rajinikanth. It cannot match the magic of his earlier films like Baasha, Veera, Annamalai, Padaiyappa where Rajinikanth had excellent author backed roles and the movies also had a strong story line with an excellent script.

To sum up - Sivaji was a total disaster.

Snaps from the real India :)

This is a set of pictures that I simply love. These are snaps of the real India - an India that sounds and feels real unlike the metros.

Below is a white lotus pond -


A water tank next to the Nallur temple - far removed from any urban activity.

A bountiful harvest season visible on the roadsides -



Banana plantations all along the Cauvery -

Muthupettai

We went on a boating trip at Muthupettai. This is a non-descript town on the shores of Tamilnadu and 1.5 hours drive from Tanjore. The sea enters the land around this place and forms a lagoon and the Koratai River drains into this lagoon. The lagoon is surrounded by a forest called the Anathiyathi forest and the land around this place is also marshy. The only means of transportation is a motorized fiber boat. The place is a santuary to migratory birds and the best season to visit this place is during November through February.

The ride started from the banks of the river and we slowly reached the lagoon and then the ocean was visible to us in its full breathtaking view. I could sense a lump down my throat when I saw the ocean and being surrounded all around by just water and not another soul (other than those on the small boat that we were in) in sight. What a lovely boat ride that was - for a full two hours - but for the sun and the kids that were with us, we could have spent the entire day going up and down that vast expanse of water (not that I relish the sea - but it truly was an awesome sight).

The Palace at Tanjore

When we started off towards the palace, we imagined grand palatial buildings with gardens and huge hallways decorated with paintings and other articles used by the rajahs of the Maratha -Bhonsle dynasty. But little did we realize what a huge disappointment it was to be. The palace was anything but posh. It did not appear to be the residence of a King or a Prince. It looked too middle-class like. Cement floors, non-descript walls and the articles on display were anything but expensive. I felt that the Rajah probably lived a life poorer than we do today.

But then I cannot discount everything about the palace. There were some good spots too as can be seen in the photos here. The paintings on the walls of the Nayak's Durbar or in the courtyard were wonderful pieces of art. It is but a sad state of affairs that some of these paintings are lost or are on the verge of being destroyed due to poor maintenance.



The palace also included a museum where one could see statues made of stone and bronze dating as far back as the 6th century AD. One interesting aspect that I could notice was that most of the stone statues belonged to the period 6-9/10 century while the bronze statue works belonged to the 10-13 century AD period. The statue of the Nataraja in bronze, made in the 12th century AD looks exactly the same as it does even today and is an amazing work of art.

The statue of Ganesha (Vinayakar) in the picture here belongs to the 9 Century AD.

Kal Anai

No trip to the Cauvery delta is complete if one does not visit the grand Kal Anai. It was even impossible for me to imagine that the Grand Anicut was built way back in the 2nd century and is still in use. It is the oldest water diversion project in the world that is still in use. When dam construction is being toted as a huge project today with all the mechanization involved in the construction process, wonder how long, and how many years, and how many people it would have taken to construct this massive structure across the Cauvery in the 2nd century AD?

Karikala Peruvalathan, whose leg was scorched in a fire when he was a young man, was also known to be a fearless warrior and a staunch shaivite. He is one of the architects of the chola dynasty which rose to even higher levels during the reign of Raja Raja Chozhan.

Tanjore Trip

I was able to take sometime off and go on a vacation after a long time. And this time, we decided go down South to Tanjore where my sister and BIL live with their son. It was a journey that will probably be termed as one of my best ever. We got to see places - temples, palaces (?), rivers, dams, lagoons, the countryside, etc. All in a matter of 6 hectic days.

I hope you will enjoy these snaps.

The snap above is that of a model of the Tanjore Big Temple. Unfortunately, I ran out of space on my digital camera the day we visited the Tanjore Big Temple. I did not want to miss out on this, so got to snap at least the model of this temple built by the great Raja Raja Chozha.