Once, this was a temple’s or garbha griha’s gargoyle (water spout). Details on the Makara are elegant foliage-like. It’s dated 11 Century Bihar, and can be found at India Museum Kolkata on the ground floor.
Makara: An aquatic mythical or pre-historic creature, depicted as half animal & half fish. It looks like a crocodile, with its long extended snout. Makara scuptures are found in many South Asian countries.
More on Wikipedia.
The color play is so electrifying and mesmerizing that you can watch the Aarti forever irrespective of whether you are a believer or not!
Look – Look at the Blue of the river Ganga, it is so electric! Especially along with the Oranges! Folks gather each evening here, at this Ghat, opp to an ashram aptly called ‘Paramaarthi Niketan’. At sunset, they sing Bhajans and perform the GangaAarthi. Earlier this ghat overlooked a big Shiva Murthi, installed in the river, which washed away a couple of days earlier in the floods. There is a smaller makeshift Shiva idol, whose pic I will share later.
The camera man you see in the centre of this, captures these videos and this Aarthiis telecasted LIVE each evening on Aastha TV Channel (hearsay). Most tourists in the area congregate here. You can see foriegners in White and humming along, Indians singing along, the students of the ashram; all very dedicated to the Aarthi. I noticed an especially devout fellow bang in the middle of all this; all eyes closed and trance like. Just after the Aarthi was done, the students formed a human chain or a human pipe – to safely escort the ‘guru’ the guy in long flowing tresses who is the focus of the cameraman in the pic.
Also, met a very nice Sadhu Ramu Baba, who insisted on English and sorta always kept appearing ahead of us! (?!) He revealed to us the secret nuances of visiting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram. Rishikesh, else, is very hip and very like the India shown in glossy foreign magazines. I live this Indian life partly and partly feel like a alien strange tourist here.
The City Palace museum at Udaipur offers a few hours of lookie before the mind goes entirely numb and you start to lose it!
But while you are there early on, and you have a decent camera, you are sure to capture these shots. These are windows into rooms that were used by royalty some decades ago. These have brightly colored walls with beautiful, really beautiful murals on them.
I find these places of history like wormholes in time. They transport you into their times, and you can freely imagine the king walking by one of these rooms, with this entourage debating various political stances they may assume. And imagine the overtly beautiful ladies looking down into the darbar hall, influencing some of these decisions with the dismissive wave of their fans or a subtle nod of approval.
Oh, Why do the worm holes work so well only in historical places you ask? Try walking down the streets of Udaipur and imagine the king, his entourage et all walking on the outside roads rife with Airtel Banners, SBI Atms, Hotels screaming discounts… Doesn’t work! Nada – Just not the right props.
Naga baba off Mana, 3Km from Badrinath in the himalayas. He is cooking some bendi for his lunch and offered to share with one of my friends as well. He is covered in ash to keep himself warm – its quite cold up here.
PS: This picture was dug out as I was writing a post for Six Items…
You can see all sorts of deer at Bandipur – barking deer, standing deer, sitting deer, eating deer, running deer…
This was a performance put up for benefit of the tourists. Imagine these colorful ladies in the courtyards of the white city of Udaipur! Fantastically and out of this world!
I like this young one here. As enterprising as our clever crow who dunks stones into a jug to drink up.
But the sacred bull dont look like he likes it much – perhaps he is tickled!
The person who had these was both applying the pattern on your hand as well as selling these. Pattern Man just coats the surface of the stamp with a die and plonks it on your hands and arms.
BTW, Find the odd man out in these patterns now…
Wanna Clue – Find the anagram of slulk!
A lady shows off her mark on the day of Lok Sabha elections of 09, in Bangalore.
A young boy, helping his mother.
