(Image courtesy: Citizenmatters)

Blame it on the Environment day or my active conscience pricking me; for the last few days I have been travelling by bus from office to home. So far it had been great, the bus service is more frequent than auto rickshaws in my route and there are several new Volvo buses, BIG 10 and JNNURM sponsored sleek ones. My bus experience has been pleasant, similar to bus travel in the Western countries.

Yesterday, however, it was a different tale. Waiting for nearly 10 minutes, I couldn’t find any new buses that could take me home. So I caught the next bus that came along with a sign board that said ‘Yelahanka’. The bus seemed empty. Unluckily when my turn came to board the bus, I could not spot any vacant seat. I bought a ticket and stood silently behind the driver seat, in front of the motor. So far, so good. More people came in and left the bus at next few stops but, alas, no place to sit.

At the Hebbal bus stop, several people rushed in through the front door. The bus was suddenly very crowded and I could hardly stand. It then dawned to me that it was a Doddaballapur bound bus & hence the rush.

It must have been a regular commuting time for them & they were waiting for this very bus.

A little boy stood beside me, stamping my foot whenever he lost balance. A lady kindly elbowed me when she had to find the right change for the ticket. Another girl, although tall, had to hold the bar in front me so that I could smell her armpit. I amused myself by comparing her oscillating hand to a car windshield’s wipers. After a few minutes of braving it, I gathered enough courage to request her to hold the rod above my head; she obliged to my request by moving a quarter of an inch.

So there I was, standing on one and a half feet, trying to keep my nose away from the moving hand, avoiding elbows and generally looking at the roof which was the only sparsely occupied space in the bus. It was then I spotted the Kannada translation for ‘LADIES’ label above the first seat. It said ‘LADIES’ & ‘Angavikalarige’ (for handicapped). Very true. We were handicapped for space in the bus. Oh, the painter must have been an enlightened soul!

This contest is organised by www.infinityF.com, open to all in Bangalore. It’s to be held on on Sunday, Apr 25, from 8 am to 8 pm. The rules of the contest are fairly simple. Each participant gets 4 themes. You can shoot from 8 in the morning to 8 at night, you can photograph any aspects of Bengaluru, in any public space, based on the themes. A participant will be allowed two photographs per theme. There is an entry fee of Rs. 100

For more information visit http://www.infinityF.com

However, Magadi, just like Bangalore is much older. It is famous for a temple built for ‘Magadi Ranga’, the Lord Ranganathaswamy, built during the time of Cholas.

As one enters Magadi, a street on the right lazily meaders towards the temple. The temple complex is typical of those times. At the right of the entrance is a kalyani with steps leading to the water. The courtyard is quite spacious, reminds one of the bygone era, where temples just like any public buildings were built with much importance to its design and architecture; unlike the temples that spring over footpath in the city today.

One has to leave the footwear near the entrance. Don’t expect old world charm from the folks here. They are very wise and would be happy to share the money that a city dweller brings in. Everyone from the lady who ‘guards’ the footwear to the gurkha and finally even the priest is out to get a few rupees.  Only the Lord stands mute amidst this religious marketing.

As I entered the inner courtyard, the inner gopuram was clearly old styled and different to the colourful outer one. Many temples have mixed architectural styles that show how the temple evolved during the patronage of kings during different periods.

Inside the garbhagriham, to my surprise the usually reclining pose of Lord Ranganatha is standing upright here! The priest then enlightened me that this Lord was ‘Pashchima Venkateshwara’, ‘west facing Lord Venkateshwara’.

The Lord here, however, was alone. The Goddess, Padmavathi was worshipped in a different garbhagriha. At the back of the main deity was a small reclining deity of Lord Ranganatha, who has made the place more famous than the standing lord. A boy priest gave me theertham(holy water) and mentioned that the idol keeps growing – atleast that’s what he has heard from the older ones. Hence the name ‘Belayo Ranga’ (growing Ranga). The explanation seemed to me more convincing about the priest than the Lord! The idol is so small that even the lord here has one leg folded!

No one knows the reason why this temple is more famous for the small idol of Ranganatha rather then the main deity. There is a story that this place was hastily renamed during the time of Tipu Sultan’s reign who knew only the famous Ranganatha who presided in Srirangapatna, his capital! Of course like all charming stories, it has no facts, atleast not that I know of. Here’s a link from Alemaari‘s blog that i liked.

Once a bustling town that flourished under Kempegowda, the place Magadi is now a sleepy town famous for its history. Don’t expect a flourishing tourism industry here like Hampi. Its an ideal place for a picnic or a hike in the nearby hills of Savandurga. For a decent meal, one has to come back towards the Bangalore City which is not more than an hour by car. One could also try Ruppi’s Resort off Magadi road, near the Dodda Alada Mara (Big Banyan tree).

]]> http://coffeenirvana.in/2010/04/16/magadi-ranga/feed/ 3 PD Kempegowda - II Magadi Ranganatha Temple Inner Gopuram Inside the temple Lord Venkateshwara Belayo Ranga http://coffeenirvana.in/2009/07/20/india-travel-exhibition-bangalore/ http://coffeenirvana.in/2009/07/20/india-travel-exhibition-bangalore/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:34:51 +0000 Poornima http://coffeenirvana.in/?p=450 ]]>

The venue for IITM (India International Travel Mart) event could not have been more apt. Set in the spacious grounds of Bangalore Palace, the summer home of the erstwhile ruler of Mysore, it exuded both royal comfort and verdant gardens that many urban dwellers desire. The huge garden in front of the palace was picturesque and so were the brochures that enticed the visitors and revealed how enchanting our country really is.

At the entrance, facing the beautiful lawns, were different types of horse drawn carriages, the automobiles of an early era. The exhibition stalls were set behind the Palace. Tickets were modestly priced Rs 20/- per head.

The stalls were huge and with many props that showcased the states’ attraction. While Andhra predictably put up a prop of the Charminar, Gujarat had a 4-winged frame in which each frame acted as a collage of attractions of a particular city. Kerala enticed both the elite and the backpackers. A set of stalls marketed affordable homestays while there were others which sold us dreams of luxury on a houseboat.

Karnataka’s section was designed after the Patadakkal temple. The Karnataka brochure encapsulated the state’s map & its attractions – beaches, waterfalls, culture, heritage, wildlife and adventure tourism – along with lists of travel agents and tour operators for the state.

Karnataka

The staff at the Puducherry (Pondicherry) stall handed me a brochure that showed that the place was more than just Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. I knew that the city was mentioned in Sherlock Holmes stories but did not know that Man Booker prize winner -‘Life of PI’ – revolved around this city. A handy map of the city centre is also given in the brochure.

I also loved the stall Wandervogel who specialise in customised tours and adventure tourism in the North East and Ladakh.

There were also magazines like Travel Media, Safari Plus and World Travel to name a few. The international stalls in the exhibition were interesting – Jordan, Greece, Dubai and Thailand.

It was a head spinning time browsing at the various stalls. Busy Travel agents and tour operators flipped in and out of stalls. Small business operators, families and individuals like me were also a part of crowd. Looking at the number of people who thronged the exhibition, I wonder if  the recession’s over.

The diverse places, exotic holidays, adventures and leisure all contained in the handful of brochures, I walked out happily.

About the event

Bangalore: 18th – 20th July 2009

Venue: Bangalore Palace Grounds (from the entrance opp. Mount Carmel College)

Tickets: Rs 20/- per head.

Website: http://www.iitmindia.com/

Among the many names the city has, Bangalore is also known as the ‘Garden City’. But you would be surprised to know that this city – during the time which Tipu Sultan fought fierce battles with the British – was a barren land. To know more about the evolution of our city’s colourful gulmohurs, jacarandas and the many rain trees read my article -  ‘Bangalore: how it became Green’ – published in Chillibreeze.

The Kote Venkataramanswamy temple, stands squeezed between the busy street and the sprawling gardens of Tipu’s Summer Palace in Bangalore.

Built in 1695 during the time of Chikka Deva Raya, the temple has witnessed a 300 year-old tale of the city. This was the period of the Mysore rulers, the Wodeyars,  purchasing the city from the Mughals and fortifying it. The word ‘Kote’ means Fort in Kannada language. Once the seat of Royalty, thetemple now stands in the commercial nerve centre of the city.

Tipu Sultan

During the brief rule of Tipu Sultan, a Palace was built adjacent to this temple. This was not exactly due to religious tolerance. Those were the days when the Kings were treated as God and it was usually the norm in those days to built the palace near the city’s temples. Tipu merely followed this norm!

The Temple has a huge Gopuram built in typical Dravidian Style. The passage leads to a mukha mantapa, navaranga, and an inner garbha griha (sanctum sanctorum). Though it has been a Vishnu temple since Wodeyars’ rule, there are some claims made by  scholars that the temple is much older and with Shaivite origins. The basis for this statement is the Girija Kalyana (Parvathi’s marriage to Shiva) carvings on the outer walls of the temple; which is rather odd in a Vishnu temple.

As I came out of the temple, I was also blessed by another ‘venkataramana’ at the entrance.

However on Vaikunta Ekadashi day, I dont think even this Venkataramana will have time for a photo shoot. In an otherwise busy street, devotees form huge queues to visit the Lord on this auspicious day.

I always had this curiosity about Main roads and Cross roads of Bangalore. The Mains are not exactly Main as they are often single lane roads running through residential neighbourhood. The Cross roads do intersect the Mains and are wider, two-lane roads with a conglomerations of shops, schools, garages that spill onto the side-walk, bhelpuri walla’s mobile shops, beggars and cobbler’s makeshift sheds. Whether it is Indiranagar’s 100feet road or Basavanagudi’s Bull Temple road, they all intersect Main roads. In contrast the Mains are quiet, narrow, single lane and sometimes unpaved roads with motorbikes or cars are parked on one side of the road. Growing up in this city, I assumed that Main roads are residential roads and Cross roads are bigger roads with sidewalks and are used for commercial purposes.

Thanks to my job in computers, I had an opportunity to travel to Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne’s history is associated with the English; very similar to Bangalore. The Cross roads of Bangalore can be compared to ‘Toorak Road’ and ‘St Kilda Road’ in Melbourne. Buses and trams commute on these roads and there are pedestrian walkways and traffic intersections. The shops and laundries are on a ‘street’ beside the ‘Road’, a concept similar to Bangalore’s ‘service roads’. An interesting twist here is that the name changes for a section of the street. So St Kilda Road becomes ‘Spencer Street’ as it enters the City Centre! This street has pedestrians walking, sidewalks lined by innumerable convenience stores, coffee shops and Boost outlets. Busy shoppers, street musicians, pub hoppers and beggars throng this road on weekends. My world of roads now included streets. To make the matters worse, every street in the city had a ‘little street’ running next to it. A ‘Queen Street’ had a ‘little Queen Street’. I was now thoroughly confused about the city planning with ‘mains’, ‘crosses’, ‘roads’, ‘streets’ and ‘little streets’.

My job also took me to Cardiff in Wales, UK. If you think that English town planning is confusing, you should see the Welsh. Cardiff is a young city. I lived in an posh block of flats in the uptown Bay area. I assumed the place will have a main and a cross or atleast a street. So imagine my surprise  when the address read ‘Lynton Court, Chandlery Way’. To call a cobbled route from the gated entrance to my apartment block as a ‘Way’ was amusing, especially since the distance was hardly a few metres. Its Welsh name was ‘Heol’ something. Heol is a Welsh equivalent for ‘Street’ or ‘Road’ or ‘Way’. I gave up.

Dictionaries came to the rescue. The Oxford defines a street and road as -

The terms may frequently apply to exactly the same thing. However, ‘road’ is a general term, whereas ‘street’ is narrower in sense and chiefly urban in application: a street typically has buildings on either side, and is paved or metalled.

Dictionary.com was more helpful.

A road usually runs between two more distant points, such as between two towns. A street is described as being a paved road or highway – in a city, town, or village, especially one lined with houses, shops, or other buildings. The implication is that if a street does not have these things, it will probably be called a road. When a town expands, sometimes what was formerly a road will become a street. The word road is the more general term, though, and can be applied to a street. Street is the narrower term.

Bangalore’s Cross roads can be compared to Melbourne’s streets. Our ‘MG Road’ and ‘Brigade Road’ are in reality streets! And the only street in Bangalore I know is Commercial street. Not convinced, I did some more research.

From Wikipedia, I learnt that road and street are used quite interchangeably. What about the Way or Avenue (Bangalore’s Avenue road is synonymous with shopping)’?

Yahoo had an answer.
A road is a one that runs between two given points for example going from one town to another.

A street is within a town, and lined with homes, buildings and is usually a paved street or highway.

A drive is a small road leading up to a private house (driveway).

An avenue is usually a tree lined street or cobbled street with rows of houses and pavements on either side.
A Way is a minor or smaller street off a road in a town.

A Court is a very short street usually leading to a court of houses in a compound.

A Blvd is a Boulevard is a widen avenue with scenery like trees, flowers and bushes on both sides and in the centre. It is landscaped and scenic. It has also lawn between the walking path on each side and the kerb.

To conclude from the many definitions, all the short roads, off the MG Road then should be Ways as many roads like the ‘Primrose Road’ were actually Ways that led to a bungalow and are now used as realty space for hotels or other commercial establishments.

Of all the terms used, Bangalore’s Avenue road takes the cake. Today, Avenue road is neither a leafy Avenue nor a Road but a Main street and serves as one of the city’s main commercial hub.

Just yesterday, we took this lane, as there was a traffic jam on the main road. I was going in this lane in a car after a period of 20 odd years and the infrastructure is still the same. The quality of the road not changed; footpaths never existed and never will. What had changed were the houses.

Bangalore’s real estate boom has made every inch of space very dear. So each owner has extended the house to the last inch available. The economy boom has helped each one of them acquire a car or a two-wheeler, which is parked on the street. What is gone is the lung space, the garden that beckoned so many immigrants to the city.

Some say that this is a common complaint by different generations that ‘it was better in their times’. Some others argue that gardens and lung space will not help in the economy of the city. Yet some more are emphatic in declaring that Bangalore needs a decent ‘skyline’. Agreed. But does that mean we have to become a Tokyo or Mumbai?

Atleast Mumbai has the ocean next door. I’m not even talking about traffic congestion, pollution, waste disposal or any other topics that become an issue in this rapid urbanization of cities.

I speak at an individual level. Sure, you live in a rented house, but can you not maintain a few plants? Have you ever poured water, to the tree the government had planted in front of your house, which gives some shade to your car in the summer? Can you not use cement and brick instead of glass? We both know that glass reflects more heat to the place and you’ll end up either buying an AC car or put an AC in your house – so in reality there’s no money saved.

Think about it. And while you are thinking, here’s an old article that provides statistics to my argument. For those who prefer pictures to numbers, flip through Paul Fernandes’ illustrations – ‘ The Morphing of Bangalore’ in Aditi’s book – Multiple City.
]]> http://coffeenirvana.in/2009/03/09/once-upon-a-time/feed/ 3 PD http://coffeenirvana.in/2009/01/28/my-first-rock-climbing-experience/ http://coffeenirvana.in/2009/01/28/my-first-rock-climbing-experience/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:25:49 +0000 Poornima http://coffeenirvana.in/?p=158 ]]>

Rock Climbing Basics

“See this piece jutting out at the top? Its called the ‘jug’, that one where you have to hold below the rock is called undercut” explained Ravi, our group’s instructor as the sun blazed down on the rocks at Turahalli, a forest reserve, just 10 kilometres from namma Bengaluru. The group had collected at Adigas on Kanakapura Road for a steaming but surprisingly not-so-good breakfast of Idlis. The instructors, Narasimha & Ravi, freelancers who practise rock climbing at Turahalli every weekend, arrived at the right time. They work with ‘Wanderers’, an adventure and outdoor events group for rock climbing programs.

Off the busy Kanakapura Road the instructors led us through a meandering road that took one away from the civilization to a hill full of boulders, shrubs and trees. This hill at Turahalli was our rock climbing venue. As we climbed towards the base of huge boulders, I took a photo of the nearby Kanakapura skyline. Huge apartment townships stood looming at the forest region. Civilization has suddenly raced up this area.

Rock climbing theory was over in five minutes. And each one of us had to practice it on a good sized boulder in front of us. Rock-Climbing-123 had started. The group was a potpourri of people from different professions, and age groups. While Suchitra was in her mid forties, Amrinder looked very young. She and her husband had come here for a getaway from the mall-movie-dinner kind of outing. The four member north Indian group were fun-loving, chiding each other and very adept at climbing. The Chennai based techie had taken a course long back and came here to refresh his skills. As we climbed, we found the foot holds and grips that we didn’t notice earlier. Narasimha offered helpful instructions –“Notice the possible holds”, “do not panic”, “if you bend your leg towards the rock, you’ll end up scraping your knee” – and patiently explained our mistakes as we reached the top. If climbing one rock took our breath away, the next one was harder. The feeling of exhilaration as you reach the top is hard to describe. While Narasimha was professional, Ravi took the friendlier approach. With his earnestness spiced with funny one-liners, he seemed a part of the group rather than an instructor.

Turahalli is a hill full of boulders of various sizes and shapes. It is a dry deciduous region full of shrubs and trees like the eucalyptus. This hill is the rock climber’s paradise. Every weekend there’s almost six to eight individual groups who come here to practise rock climbing. While some like us are novices, who come here to enjoy the experience, there are also professional climbers who practice here for international climbing events.

In recent years however, there has been land encroachments. Though the land belongs to the forest department, there are illegal layouts made by a nexus of local officials and developers. It’s nearness to the city had caught the eye of the land sharks. I just hoped that the recession has driven the developer away.

Our activity for the day had been climbing four different levels of boulders followed by a hearty lunch and then rappelling down a 40 foot rock face! If our climbing experience was tough, rappelling down the huge rock was just the opposite. Though the height was challenging, the strain on the climber is minimal. The rope holds the weight as you slid down to safety. The day ended with a 3 kilometre trek downhill towards the base. As we drove towards the city, I had to agree with Amrinder. It was indeed a better way to spend the day than the usual shopping or movie. And the view from the top the rock is breath taking!