Social Distancing....!

Asian Koel couple

December Music season: Fulfilling Evenings At Kalakshetra!

Koothambalam (auditorium)....Old one! (Image source)

The renovated Kooththambalam!

This clip is an elaborate one.  This group, Keremane artists are very famous, I was told. I saw this Yakshagana programme after a very very long time.  When I was a school going kid, I used to watch this program at Kodavooru, my village near Udupi...it was a whole night program.  I used to copy their dance movements like turning the palms upward downward and walking around the stage in circular movements. Swirling around on two knees...which is not easy! You can see all these things in the above video.  The story we watched was 'Kaarthaveeraarjuna Kalaga' by Keremane group.  The yakshagaana stories are mostly from mythology, but in normal coloquial Kannada/tulu languages. Sit on sand in an open maidan and watch from 8/9 pm till 6 am the next day! I am posting this link just to show how women characters are shown in this play.  All are men in women's dress: Women don't participate in Yakshagaana.

I went to the carnatic music  concert of Smt.Ranjani and Smt. Gayatri, the next day.  Pure classical music.  3 hours' non-stop music.  I think they are the best in this season.  The concert hall was too crowded.  Everybody was clapping often whenever a good piece of rendition was there.  They are very good.  We heard raagam taanam pallavi elaborately, which is very rare to be heard in the short duration concerts, here.  Thank god, this was 3 hours' concert and not 2 hour concert, 6 to 9 pm.  Got this in 'you tube', though this is not the one we heard there.

From their wiki:

Ranjani and Gayatri started their musical journey as violinists even before they reached their teens, performing in leading sabhas (music organizations) all over the country and abroad. Besides playing the violin duet, they have also performed along with musicians such as Smt.D.K.Pattammal, Sri M Balamurali Krishna, T.Vishwanathan.

Marathi Abhang!

This one is in raag Chandrakauns+Madhukauns...when I visited 'you tube' for their songs, I came across this beautiful song! The sisters seem to be very good in Hindustani raagaas too! Don't miss it. It is here!

One more song by Ranjani Gayatri sisters in raaga Yaman Kalyani. The rendition is very good. It is here!

An interesting anecdote about the sisters' unique sarees.  Many sisters wear sarees in same colour combination and sometimes similar jewellery too.  These sisters chose sarees like one will wear a pink saree with green border, the other one wear green saree with pink border (same design!).  You can see this in the links in 'you tube':) They don't seem to wear flashy sarees too, which is very nice! Hear their view here!

We heard Pt.Sanjeev Abhyankar's concert the next day.  He is Pt.Jasraj's student.  The raagas we heard at Kalakshetra were very good.  We could notice Pt.Jasraj's touch everywhere in his singing.  Effortless beautiful singing. Hear one song here:

Sanjeev Abhyankar, Hindustani music concert!

We were not supposed to take pictures or videos at the concert.  This was taken before the concert started.  I just wanted to post a picture of the stage arrangement at Kalakshetra.  Simple and beautiful.  It is not air-conditioned but the auditorium was cool with natural breeze throughout.  Neem leaves' smoke was distributed via a bamboo basket taken all over the auditorium; as a result, mosquito bites were not felt even though the doors were kept open.

(We had gone on a tour of Kalakshetra last year or so, and I wrote about it...have a look! Read more about this place here!)

I noticed one more thing in this music season: Normally, before concluding the concert, with mangalam, the artists sing light melodies like bhajans (Kabirdas, Purandara dasa etc.). Nowadays, Marathi abhangs are becoming famous. Most of them sing abhangs which are melodious to the ears. South Indians are opening up for all types of music let alone Carnatic music, nowadays, which is a good sign. You can read my earlier posts about my visit to the concerts here!

Did you go to any concert? If so, pl. mention in the comment section!

Going to Zakir Hussain(tabla) and Niladri's (sitar) concert next week at the Music Academi! Happy times!

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One Of The Most Beautiful Churches/Cathedrals, We Had Visited Last Year - Notre Dame De Paris (Our Lady Of Paris)

Coming back to write after a long break.  But the news about the spiral tower of Notre Dame burning, is compelling me to write...last year's Europe tour changed my views about many things.

We had the opportunity to visit many cathedrals in Rome, Venice, Paris etc. this time.

This cathedral, Notre Dame, was built around 1260 AD by Bishop Maurice de Sully.  Read more about this place here.

Very interesting information was that the great Napoleon Bonaparte's coronation took place here on 2nd Dec. 1804.  You can see a painting of the coronation here.

Now, to some photographs I had taken there, at the Notre Dame cathedral.

I took this snap as soon as we reached this place.  Huge building!

Photographed from a different angle. The two towers are sixty-nine meters high and were the tallest structures in Paris until the completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889.

The interior...the chapel was stunning!

Many beautiful sculptures were there on the left and right sides, depicting the stories from Christianity

The feeling inside the cathedral was overwhelming. Though we are used to praying in our Hindu temples, which are full of good architecture, mostly in stone, this place gave this feeling, well, maybe because it was an ancient building.  Peacefulness was there. The whole area was beautiful with lot of woodwork.  This is the reason I felt sad when I read about the major fire which happened just a few days back. Thank god, since it was under restoration now, many good sculptures and other artifacts were already shifted to other places.  I remember gaping at the spire but thought I won't be able to take a good picture of that, so, I don't have my photograph of the 90 meter tall spire which collapsed in the fire.  They say the renovation work is also a reason for the fire.  Might be electrical short circuit in some lift/elevator.

Anyway, read that the spire built by a 30 year old architect (The spire and the statues trace their roots to the mid-19th century work of a bold visionary who, at the age of 30, was commissioned to restore the cathedral and replace an old spire after years of neglect.) Got this information from the Washington post which also has got some videos of the fire (link). Feel very sad. 

This picture shows the real beauty, elegance of the spire before the fire: 

Picture courtesy: Shine.cn

The famous instrument, pipe organ is also saved, it seems.  I could not go up and see it closely since they played the instrument at a particular time.

This link has got some good videos played with this organ.

About this organ: 

One of the earliest organs at Notre-Dame, built in 1403 by Friedrich Schambantz, was replaced between 1730 and 1738 by Francois Thierry. During the restoration of the cathedral by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, Aristide Cavaille-Coll built a new organ, using pipe work from the former instruments. The organ was dedicated in 1868.

Many artifacts were saved before the fire spread to other parts of the cathedral. Because of the ongoing renovation, the copper statues that were normally on the now collapsed spire had been removed from the building a week prior.

Well, funds are pouring from all over the world to renovate the monument to its earlier glory.  Hope for the best!

A Soulful, Melodious Evening At The Music Academy, Chennai!

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On 31st January, '18, we had attended a concert at the Music Academy.  The famous Ustaad Zakir Hussain played the tabla and another famous artiste Rahul Sharma played the unique instrument, Santoor.  We had attended Zakir Hussain's concerts 3-4 times earlier and are great fans of him as a person and as a tabla player.  His talent speaks everything here, in this small clip:



Ustaad Zakir Hussain is the son of the very very famous tabla player, Alla Rakha who used to play with Pt.Ravishankar (Sitar) in those days.  He learnt to play the instrument from a very young age and got a Ph.D. degree from the University of Washington too.  We, Chennai audience, love to attend his concerts.  He is a very soft-natured person with great sense of humour.  He always engages the crowd with some funny antics in the tabla or body language too.  People  never get bored in his concerts! Read about the awards these artists had in the highlighted wiki link pl. 

Rahul Sharma...we had attended his father's concert (Pt.Shivkumar Sharma, the famous Santoor player) once, some 4-5 years back along with Pt.Hariprasad Chaurasia (Flute).  This concert in Chennai was the first one for Rahul Sharma, it seems.  He played raag Bageshri first and then the famous Kashmiri raag Pahaadi.

This unique instrument, Santoor (the original name is Shatha thantri veena ... veena with 100 strings). Pt.Shivkumar Sharma explains here:

In Ancient Scriptures of India there is mention of Shata tantri Veena which is known today as “Santoor”. This instrument got its present name Santoor with the Persian language influence in our Country. There are Hundred Strings in Santoor. It is a hollow box on top of which there are 25 bridges. Each bridge used to have 4 strings resting on it. To play this instrument, two wooden mallets are used. This instrument had been in use in the Valley of Kashmir for many centuries, in a typical type of Music known as “Sufiana Mausiqi” which means a music connected with Sufi philosophy.

The Journey of Santoor changed in early 1950’s when Pt. Umadutt Sharma, Father of Shivkumar Sharma, who was a very versatile Musician, a performing Vocalist, and Dilruba player but equally well versed in playing Tabla & Harmonium, saw this Instrument in Kashmir and thought of introducing Indian Classical Music on Santoor. He had an intensive training of Music under Pt. Bade Ramdasji a legendary Vocalist of Benaras Gharana. In early 50’s Pt. Umadutt Sharma was Music incharge of Radio Srinagar for a few years. During that period he did an extensive research on Santoor and started teaching his Son, Shivkumar Sharma the intricacies of Santoor.

Pt.Shivkumar Sharma has passed on his family's talent to his son Rahul Sharma. 

The father was a tabla player too and the son is a singer too like his grand father! Multi-talented family! The son is mostly into fusion music nowadays.  World music. He showed the taste of fusion music for some 10-15 mts. at the concert.

Pt.Shivkumar Sharma and Pt.Hariprasad Chaurasia had created some good music for Hindi films in the name of Shiv-Hari.  Rahul Sharma played some traces of those songs in this concert.  The songs in 'Silsila' are memorable.  Their favourite raaga was Pahaadi!



I searched for a good link of Rahul Sharma.  Only audio links were available, well, mostly.  This link is interesting.  Father and son with the Kanjeera player, Selva Ganesh (Ghatam player Vikku Vinayakram's son!).  Interesting!



I hear 'Sangeet Saritha', a classical music programme via radio in the morning (I should say the programme involves interviews VIPs in different fields of mostly music).  I had been hearing this for the past 30-40 years! Many music directors, Classical singers discuss about their music/musical journey for 15 mts. a day, for 13 to sometimes 20 episodes.  7.30 to 7.45 am every morning.  I jotted down some points when Pt.Shivkumar Sharma spoke and did a post on it.  You can read it here!

Stress reliever....hear this!

Hope to attend more and more concerts in the years to come and write about them here!

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The Walk, Movie....Wire Walking Between The Famous Twin Towers...My Heart Was Coming Out....Tension...

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Dhadak dhadak...my heart was banging inside me loudly...it is long time since I felt so afraid while watching a movie! This movie, 'The Walk (2015)' is based on a true story and I love movies based on true stories! The story is about how an ordinary 24 year old Frenchman Petit, who was a juggler/street performer, walks across the Twin Towers (World Trade Centre)in New York on 7th Aug.1974.  He walked on a steel wire tied illegally overnight from the top of one tower to the top of the other tower, holding a 25 kg pole which weighed 25 kgs. This, he did without taking any safely measures.  He was particular about it.  He refused to do so when his mentor, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley) suggested it. His friends also were very ordinary people from different walks of life.  He was there, walking on the wire at sunrise for 43 mts. kneeling down, bending and looking at his admirers, walking to and fro to escape from the police on top of the towers...it is real thrill watching him and he had a smile on his face all the time.  It was his dream come true, but for us who are watching the remake of the scene, it was fear and admiration for the man.   Watch the trailer first.  More than half of the movie is about how these normal people plan and the rest is how his dream comes true.  I seemed to breath properly/normally, after it was over.  I didn't know anything about the movie, didn't know the end too and I have vertigo too:). So, it was a real 'dhadak dhadak' movie for me!

Read more after watching the movie in Prime (Amazon). 




You can imagine after watching just the trailer, how scary it was to walk on a steel cable wire in mid-air.

Joseph Gordon Lewitt who has acted as Philippe Petit is an American and had to learn colloquial French.  He learnt some wire walking from Petit himself.  Wiki says:

"Gordon-Levitt, who had no formal high-wire experience, trained directly with Petit. By the end of the eighth day, he was able to walk on the wire by himself, and continued to practice while shooting. Along with a stunt double,  the actor shot the climactic wire-walking scenes on a sound stage; it had reconstructions of the top two stories of the tower and a wire approximately twelve feet off the ground, which was connected out across a green abyss and was anchored on a pole. To learn more about what it was like, Gordon-Levitt also walked the distance between the World Trade Center memorial's two pools, which are located where the Twin Towers stood before the September 11 attacks. He visited the original observatory once before, in 2001, during his first summer in New York City. "It was touristy but I wanted to go do it. I remember it distinctly. It felt more like being in the sky than being on a tall building."

Petit made random friends who came into his life one by one which is shown nicely in the movie.  They went on top of the Word Trade Center often as workers, visitors etc. to learn the ropes.  I liked the way they showed how this idea sparked in his mind of wire walking between the Towers which are 450 ft. above the ground.   It was scary to watch the morning fog blinding the wire when he was walking.  The 3D picturization is superb.  The director, Robert Zemerickis has done a superb job.  Until I watched the movie, I didn't know that tall structures sway slightly during strong winds.  Joints in between the wires...you should watch the movie to know what I am talking about! It is superb!

This is the great man, who walked in the air, Philippe Petit
(Pic.courtesy: Wikipedia)

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Cricket khelna mereliye mandhir jaane ki tarah tha....Sachin, A Billion Dreams!

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Watched this movie, yesterday and still thinking about it and pestering my husband by talking about the scenes! He is a cricket addict and I just watch it when India is at the winning stage:) He can recount ball by ball for matches of 10 years back! I talk about how short Sachin is, how tall Ashwin is:) But this movie even made me recount some of the scenes of the old matches in the film.  Some very cute home video clippings are also there in the movie.  We can see the real Sachin, a son, a husband, a father apart from being a cricketer.

I had watched the most dramatised movie 'Azhar' which was based on Mohammad Azharuddin, also a famous Indian cricketer who became famous for 'other' reasons and felt sorry for him in the end. Then watched a well-made movie on our another captain, MS Dhoni, 'MS Dhoni, the untold story' and liked it too. I like him more as a person! But this movie, also on a cricketer, touched me most.  Don't know why. I think I liked his whole family...liked his wife most.  She, being a doctor (MD in paediatrics), devoted her whole time to the family.  She talks often in the movie.  Cricket always came first for Sachin, family came later, she said (I had written a post on her here).  He was very close to his father and his brother played an important role in his cricket career. His brother introduced him to the then famous Cricket Coach, Ramakant Achrekar who asked him to shift to a school, which had a good cricket team. He stayed in his aunt's place and went to school and cricket coaching classes. His was a middle class family.  This was the changing point in his life. Achrekar was a tough coach and he used to give him one rupee coin whenever he finished the training session without getting out.  Sachin has got 13 coins which is still important to him.

The small boy who acted as young Sachin is very cute and acted very well.  Sachin was talking often in the movie, though some scenes were re-created.  Many clippings of important matches were shown throughout the movie.

'Sachin' name was chosen for him by his dad who was an ardent fan of Sachin Dev Burman, the famous Hindi film music director.  Sachin also is a music buff, he always played music in his dressing room, some songs played in repeat mode.  Our whole Indian cricket team was and is fond of Hindi movie songs.

As you know Sachin started his cricketing career at the age of 15 and then no looking back...it was a tough life for him.  Thank god, he met Anjali (I liked the way Anjali explained how it happened, in the movie) and married her in 1995 at the age of 22.  Thanks to the understanding couple, they stood together in their  unusual, hectic life together. They have got a son and a daughter.  Anjali was a great support, Sachin said in many interviews.

Sachin was the first cricketer to score 100 centuries in international cricket.  He had played many matches even after having multiple wounds in his body.  I think the post will be tooooo long if I start mentioning about his cricket career here.  Important occasions were included in the movie.

He explains how he got the news of his father's death in the middle of a match in New Zealand (I think!), came home and went back because the family wanted him to continue playing the match.  His family is a very close knitted family.  Very supportive to each other.

He is very conscious about his statements about other cricketers and members of the board, but tells openly in the movie how hurt he was when the announcement came about removing him from the captaincy and when he was again offered the post without discussing with him.

They showed Sachin's great fan Sudhir Choudhary as soon as the movie began.  Sachin made him to hold the world cup India won as an affectionate gesture later. He was taken along with the cricketers to the matches wherever India played, by our Cricket board.  You can see him in this trailer clip.

His dream was to win the world cup and hold it in his hands and he did it!  Felt bad seeing him going back to the dressing room after his last match.  His dedication to the game/playing for his country, ended. 







It was tough life for him from childhood until his retirement.  Let him and his family enjoy a happy, peaceful life.

AR Rahman's music is superb.  They are showing it on TV often now.  Watch and enjoy!



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Wordless Wednesday!

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5.57 am on Sunday, the 10th Sept.'17...Sunrise at Elliots beach, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

 

6.01 am on the same day!

 

6.03 am on the same day!

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You Never Get Bored If You Know To Enjoy Your Surroundings!

It was 2 AM.  Jhansi railway station.  We were changing trains on our way to Khajuraho.  Came here straight from Chennai.  Had to wait at the station to catch the train to Khajuraho.  It was drizzling quite heavily.  Cold.  We didn't get  any place to even sit down.  All the seats around columns were full:) At 2 in the morning, tea biscuit shop was making brisk business.  And this small restaurant was open.  Customers were trickling....But we were interested in watching the dogs at its doorsteps.  Very understanding dogs.  They never disturbed anyone.  They just slept on a doormat peacefully.  As soon as a customer went inside the hotel, they got alerted.  Immediately they will get up and wait near the entrance! Once the customer filled his stomach and left, the waiter cleaned the plate of crumbs near the doorstep! These two dogs rushed to eat them.  Again, waiting.  Sometimes they were getting a bit more food.  They never allowed any 'beggars' near the door of the hotel! Otherwise harmless!

Some more pictures from the station!

This one was roaming here and there all the time.  I saw one man catching its urine too! Holy water!

Gau moothra (cow's urine) was holier in the olden days because they grazed on grass and herbs.  Nowadays, they have to live on plastic and fast foods.  Hmmm...

The chaaiwaala was doing good business...coffee, gharam gharam chaai, biscuits, samosa, kachoris! Interesting!

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U Turn ... A Thriller Movie in Kannada To Remember For A Long Time, Which Is Unusual!

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A well-made Kannada movie, U Turn!

I like the way the letters are shown here! This is the story of people who try to use short cut by moving the divider slabs on a highway bridge and leave them outside the line, which might lead to accidents!

The movie starts with the leading lady, Rachana (played by newcomer Shraddha Srinath) who is an intern journalist with a daily, The Indian Express noticing a two wheeler driver removing the divider slab on the double road bridge (the story takes place in Bangalore), to take a short cut U-turn and save few mts. more of driving down, leaving the slabs haphazardly in the middle of the road.  She replaces them back and notices that an old man jotting down the vehicle number in a piece of paper.  She comes to know that he had the habit of jotting down numbers who disobeyed the rules. She collects all the numbers he had and returns to her office and discusses this issue with her colleague and asks him if any accidents had happened on the bridge at the spot where the slabs were moved from the divider line.  He promises her to check.  She thinks that this will make a good article for the newspaper. 

The director shows an incident in the beginning, how independent Rachana is and how she is eager to do something good in her career.  It was fun moment to watch the scene!

Through right contacts, she gets the address of the motorist via the license plate number.  She visits his place and rings the bell but nobody opens the door.  When she was entering her apartment complex later, a police man comes and inquires about her name and asks her if she went to the address (the motorist's) before coming home.  She says yes and was taken  to the police station.  The inspector starts questioning her rudely since the motorist Rachana visited had committed suicide on the same day she visited him. She explains her side of the story but the senior police officer rejects it but the sub-inspector who was there, believes her story.  He explains to the senior officer who states that so many murders were taking place and notices that all the numbers in her list were the numbers of the people who committed suicide on the same day they did the u-turn on the bridge....the story develops from here.

I and my husband watched this movie 3 days back and are still discussing about it and am compelled to review it now so that people who want to watch good movies can watch this! Well, very few question marks crop up after the end of the movie but still, the way the movie was made is interesting!

And this is a 'no song' movie! No love triangle too! Just a bit of attraction between Rachana and her colleague, that too, it was shown very decently and the police also are shown decently, which is rare!

The same director of this movie, Pawan Kumar, had directed the well acclaimed movie, 'Lucia' (his first movie!).  Both the movies, Lucia and U-turn were crowd funded and both were well received!

Now, to the trailer of the movie:





I came across an interview with the director of this movie.  Some of my questions which arose in my mind after watching the movie, are answered by him here!

Shraddha Srinath, who acted as Rachana, has acted very well here.  She is a lawyer, theatre artiste and now an actor! She got 'The Best Actress' Filmfare award for acting in this movie!

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A Tribute To Our Yoga Teachers On The International Yoga Day!

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We met our Guruji for the first time, the lady with the white dupatta! We admire her a lot!

I had been doing yoga for many years now! But only for the past 4 years, I do it very regularly, thanks to the teachers from the above yogashram.

The International Yoga Day was celebrated last Sunday itself by our centre, since this day, 21st June, is falling on a working day, Wednesday.   They had been celebrating for many years now.  But we, 6 of us who learn yoga at our complex itself (the teacher comes and takes 4 classes a week for 9 of us ladies on our terrace!) joined this celebration for the first time.  Our class is for an hour.  We usually do one set of Suryanamaskara, i.e. 12 nos., on 2 week days' evenings and 2 sets mostly on 2 days' (week ends) mornings since the weather will be cool in the mornings. When the teacher coaxed us to join the celebration and pushed us to do more sets, i.e. 4-5 sets for the past 10 days, we found it very difficult to do....or so we thought! Still we never dreamt of doing 108 suryanamaskaras and 208 aasanaas, AT A STRETCH! But we did! She, the teacher, had assured us that it would not be difficult since we do it with so many people around us!

Nearly 300 odd people, mostly women and some men, joined at the venue (Rani Meyyammai Higher Secondary School, Adyar) at 5.30 on the morning of 18th June, '17.  I noticed that more than 20% of them were above 50 years of age, myself included! More than 50% of us opted for doing both Suryanamaskara and aasanaas and the rest joined for doing just the aasanaas.  We were given token nos. and asked to sit at the allotted places on two floors of the school auditorium.  Though we were given juices and water bottles, we were asked to sip only water till the programme was over.

The programme started with our usual prayer.  On the way to the venue we were discussing about how much we might do and it didn't cross 6-7 sets! Our teacher Rathi Madam started the mantras and all of us started bending stretching, rhythmically...in a bit  slower pace than we usually do at our classes.  A 70 year old lady was doing easily in front of me! Some small children also were there...they were too fast and were waiting for us to finish! And all of us ladies from our complex, finished without taking any break! After shanthi aasanaa for 2 mts., we started doing aasanaas.  Till, nearly 100 aasanas we were fast and did without feeling tired.  Then we started looking at each other discussing if we should stop at 108! But we somehow finished 208 aasanaas!

Our ages were 64 (me!), 61, 56 and so on...we could do it at our age was because of the good teachers we had.  They never pushed us but coaxed us to do difficult aasanaas slowly.  If they taught tough aasanas one day, next class was with easy aasanas like spine relaxation, extra breathing exercise etc.  The 208 aasanaas we did after the main suryanamaskaara, have helped us to recover from the body pain fast later on.  All of us had thigh and back pain for a day or two.  We are back to normal on the third day and attended our usual class.

My friend saw a maami wearing brahmin type of sari and doing the namaskaaras.  She was very comfortable, it seems.

We hope to continue as long as we can!  I had written a post earlier too about yoga here!

Now, to some pictures from the Yoga celebrations:

Getting ready!

They gave us a prize too for being regulars in the class! We got medals for doing Suryanamaskara and asanaas, separately....altogether 2 medals each and a cup! We will display it in our complex and lure more ladies to join our class! IT IS GOOD!

Our namaskaarams to all our teachers!
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Wordless Wednesday!

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Overwhelming Taj, Beautiful Baby Taj And The Majestic Bibi Ka Maqbara...Tombs Of The Mughal Era - II

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View from the Mehtab Garden which is behind the Taj! All 4 sides of the Taj are identical!

This monument is such a huge one, famous one and everybody knows everything about it! So whatever I write will be a repeat! So, I will stick to only some which fascinated me very much. You can read and comment in the I part here!

The guide, Mr. Rizwan who did his graduation in History and was undergoing training to become a full-fledged guide, told us many interesting things.  One was that all the surrounding structures like minarets were built a bit slanting outward from the Taj so that if earthquake or some disaster came, they will not fall on the main structure!

One more interesting anecdote was...actually I noticed when I went there early in the morning...small small rings on the main dome.  Then asked the guide later when I visited again, who said that they were locking slabs with the rings.  So the dome will never fall down on the whole at the same time.  It will be easier to repair too if they come off in parts.  I had seen this system at the Pattadha Kallu temples in Karnataka, 7th/8th century, in a bit different way though...saw iron rings joining the stones.  The Taj is from 17th century.  The architect was from Iran! Fascinating! Have a look at the rings on the dome of the Taj:

Notice the small small rings connecting the slabs! The dome is 240 ft. high! We can see the beautiful design here too, lotus on the top and coloured designs at the bottom! False roofing is there inside the dome with beautiful designs on top and the sides!

As I told you in my earlier post about the Taj here, this structure is full of precious gems brought from all over the world. This link has more details. Many precious gems were stolen in the later years, British?.  Now, they are replaced with semi precious gems. The guide showed us how to check the really precious gems inside the mausoleum.  It was dark and cool inside but the crowd was too much.  Still, the man showed it like this. Non precious gems didn't glow! This is the reason the structure glows during the full moon day. The gems when light is shone, glitters brightly.

Mosque on the side of the Taj Mahal...Similar building on the other side of the Taj is Mehmaankhana(guest house)

The guide said that the Mehmaankhana was built first like a model for the main building.  Then it was decorated...looks beautiful.  Later on the masons/labourers stayed here while building the main structure.  These people needed a mosque to pray.  So, the other building was built in the similar fashion.  The colour red on both sides of the white Taj, accentuates the beauty of the Taj. 

Cleaning the walls of the Taj work was going on when we went there.  The guide said that what our Indian women use for facial is used here too, i.e. multaani mitti and herbs.  Multaani mitti (mud) is got from Multan, Rajasthan.  This link says:

The sticky brown mixture is smeared on the smut-stained marble surfaces of the 17th- century Mogul tomb and washed off with warm water after 24 hours.

The formula - based on a method discovered in a 16th- century Mogul journal, Ain-I-Akbary - has proved to have such restorative qualities that it is now being exported to Italy to clean grimy monuments there.

Archaeologists at India's most popular tourist site found to their astonishment that the substance, known as multani mitti, drew black and yellow impurities from the Taj Mahal's marble and left its surface gleaming white for the first time in decades.

K. K. Muhammed, the head of the Agra branch of the Archaeological Survey of India, who is in charge of combating the effects of pollution on the Taj Mahal, said tests had shown that the substance restored the marble to its former sheen.

Cleaning work is going on!

Cleaned area...

                                        

Click on the picture and look at the beautiful designs!

More designs can be seen in the wiki link!

We were here on 18th March '17.  We came here from Bharatpur bird sanctuary.  A bomb blast was there at the Agra station.  So, checking was stricter than usual.  The crowd was too much. Ticket cost was Rs.40 for us and Rs.1,000 for foreigners! People were asked to remove their shoes too for checking.  School children struggled! My tablet pouch with eye drops and alpenliebe chocolates were thrown into a drum! It was not there when we came back, but at least the security officer apologized:) We stood in the queue at about 5.30 and went inside around 6.45.  Taj view during sunrise was gone! We were made to walk barefoot from the platform of the Taj.  Feet were burning because it was a very hot day! Touts were roaming asking people to engage them as guides promising that they would take us to the grave area (which is open only for a particular period in an year!).  We gave our guide Rizwan, Rs.300.  He was quite good, but was asking us to buy sarees and other handicrafts in a particular store.  He told us frankly that he would get 5% commission! Well, it was a hectic but interesting day and next day I lost my mobile with many many pictures of the designs on the walls of the Taj and the Baby Taj! Lost the main gate photo also but an even better darwaaza photo of the Baby Taj is here:

Picture courtesy: Daniel Villafruela.

This was a memorable trip! If my readers know more interesting anecdotes of the Taj can post in the comment section...I would be very happy!

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Fotos(s) Friday!

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Nandi Statue at Pattadha Kallu, Karnataka (8th century.)!

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Overwhelming Taj, Beautiful Baby Taj And The Majestic Bibi Ka Maqbara...Tombs Of The Mughal Era - I

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The Taj Mahal! Overwhelmingly beautiful! Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built this as a memorial for his wife, Mumtaz in 1653.

At last it happened on 18th March, '17! I had been dreaming of visiting the Taj Mahal for so many years now and it was like a dream come true! I was just standing on the platform and gaping, really gaping at it for many minutes! I was expecting it to be an old/ancient monument now, hearing so many stories about it becoming dull because of pollution etc.  Though the monument is given mud pack etc. for cleaning it, part by part, it looked good for me even now.  Work is still going on, you can notice from the minaret being covered with scaffolding.  Detailed story with more photographs will come later, in another post!

A close up shot of the Taj! People look so tiny beside the structure!

We visited this place twice that day, once in the morning and again in the evening. Visited the Baby Taj in the afternoon. The entrance to the Baby Taj was beautiful and seeing the main building,  I was stunned by its beauty.  I felt it was the most beautiful building I have ever seen! Lot of intricate art work could be seen on the walls ...Hmmm...I had taken many many pictures of the  beautiful designs in my Mi5 mobile, but it was stolen that evening at the Taj Mahotsav festival there near the Taj:( The camera was very good in that mobile...

 'Mausoleum of Itmad-ud-Daulah' Agra....the most beautiful building! Every inch is with beautiful designs carved and studded with coloured gemstones. This was built by another Mughal Emperor Jahangir's wife, Nur Jahan for her father around 1628.

A close-up shot of the tomb! This is called the 'Jewel Box', 'Baby Taj' and also as the 'Taj of Deccan'!

This is also described as a draft of the Taj Mahal.  The walls are made up from white marble brought from Rajasthan encrusted with semi-precious stone decorations like cornelian, jasper, lapis lazuli, onyx and topaz formed into images of cypress trees and wine bottles or more elaborate decorations like cut fruit or vases containing bouquets. Light penetrates to the interior through delicate jaali  screens of intricately carved white marble. The interior decoration is considered by many to have inspired that of the Taj Mahal, which was built by her stepson, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. More details are available here!

Every inch is colourfully decorated!

Bibi ka Maqbara (Tomb of the Lady), Aurangabad, built for Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's wife by her son Azam Shah around 1661. The majestic building was built without much stone/gem work but looks simple and elegant.  Our guide said that this was built by Aurangzeb who was against spending his subjects' money unnecessarily!

The above structure resembles the Taj but in a simple way.  The architect of the tomb, Atah Ullah was the son of Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, the principal designer of the Taj Mahal. More interesting details can be read here!

My son took this panoramic shot....the place looks so beautiful!

I tried to club all the three mausoleums in this post! More pictures and details of the Taj will be written in the next post!

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P.S.: Part II is here!

The Movie That Made Me Emotional Today - McFarland USA!

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I watched this movie, 'McFaland USA', which was recorded from TV, just now! Felt emotional and wanted to write about it immediately!  As my readers know by now, I am a sucker for 'based on true story' movies! Have written a few posts on them too! This one also goes into that list!

I first watched Kevin Constner, long back, in 'Tin Cup' which was based on another sport, golf:) I liked him a lot then and used to call him 'Tin cup' actor, since I was not watching too many English movies then and was not familiar with the actors' names!

In this movie, Kevin Costner (as Jim White), plays as a football coach in an American school.  He loses his job because of his short temper and pushed to take a job in a small town High school, McFarland, California.  The Principal of the school also knew his background but needed a football coach very badly, offered the job to him.  The town was very backward, full of immigrant population,  so the school was getting second grade teachers who were reluctant to stay in the town and teach in the school.  Jim White's wife and their two grown up daughters were very reluctant to shift to an old small house.  They faced some goondas also when they tried to have lunch at a local restaurant on their first day of shifting.  They settled down reluctantly.

The children in the school were mostly Spanish immigrant children.  Insecurity made them rude to people/teachers.  They helped their parents who were mostly pickers (fruit & vegetable pickers in the fields) and the children helped them in the morning and evening.  The parents were of the opinion that the children can finish school and join them in their job full time. One father tells his son that too much reading will spoil eyesight! Jim White notices a boy, Thomas, running in full speed to school in the morning and run back home/fields in the evening. He was running like an athlete.  He talks to him but he is rude.  Jim White meets the Principal and asks him to give permission to coach children for the upcoming Inter-school cross country race.  The Principal says that they had never participated in those sports before.  Jim assures him that the children are good in running than any other, so they will win the race.  Jim thinks that the Spanish food which is full of carbohydrates and their hard physical work in the field plus running, will help them win the race.  The Principal agrees reluctantly.

Some parents are not happy to send their children for coaching classes since the time they spend in the field will come down.  Jim himself one day joins in cabbage plucking and experiences the difficulty in bending down and doing the work.  He is convinced once again that these children are very healthy and mentally strong too.  Then the team forms with 4 brothers from one family and others.  Jim buys them the first set of shoes, shirts and shorts, though he is not well off.  The white man and immigrant gap comes down because of Jim's friendliness with the children and their parents.  Slowly Jim shows them by blending with the locals that he was not like others who want to leave the town as early as possible.  He tells them that he will train the children to win the race and many more in the future. The locals are very innocent people and take Jim's family into their fold.  He forgets to get a cake on his daughter's birthday, but later on, the locals celebrate her 15th birthday grandly.

I loved the way Jim gave the children the reasons to join the team and participate in the race.  This will get them scholarships for joining colleges too (and they did join colleges in real life later!). I liked the way the locals raised funds to help the children buy shoes, dress etc. to participate in the race.  The whole town was celebrating the participation of their children in the race.  It was interesting.

They win this race (naturally!) and 9 more races later on. Jim was the coach for all the races. The story never got bored till the end.  Well, we have seen some sports oriented movies earlier too, but this one was very realistic.

Have a look at the trailer.  Watch it when it comes again in TV!





Believe in yourselves, team work will win the race, were the slogan for the game!
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A First & Hopefully, A Last Experience!

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Hot ice cream

My mobile was stolen when I was watching this person making 'Hot ice cream' and eating hot jalebi!

Even now, I am not able to believe how I was careless to lose my 2 month old Mi 5 mobile!

We were in Agra a few weeks back.  After visiting Agra twice in daytime, we were eager to attend the 'Taj Mahotsav', a 10 day festival of Arts & Crafts organised by the U.P. Govt.

It was nearly a very well organised festival.  Many police personnel and volunteers were seen arranging traffic and monitoring the crowd.  Many stalls were inside, from furniture to clothes to food court.  Announcements were going on to be careful about our belongings again and again. Still, my mobile which was in my hand, was stolen and I came to know about it while eating the hot icecream:) I always keep it in my handbag and hold it tight, fearing someone might steal it:) I had got a call from my son earlier and after speaking to him, was still holding it in my hand without keeping it inside, which was a big mistake.  Well...I lost it!

I searched in the shops I had gone earlier, though, I knew I won't find it there...then went and complained at the police chowki which was inside the festival area.  The inspector asked many questions and then asked us to go to the Agra police station and place an FIR.  Since it was late night, we decided to go in the morning.  Anyway, we knew and the inspector also hinted that once we lose our mobile, it is very difficult to get it back.

The police station was situated at just one Km. away from our hotel, which was on the same road of the festival area.  We, I and my son, reached the station by about 9 am.  I could not believe that a police station of the prominent Taj Mahal area looked so bad.  Have a look:

It looked decent from the opposite side!

One sentry was standing behind me, which was the door, with a rifle and spitting paan all the time.

The green grill door is the entrance to a dargah  (Dargah sharif...the name is there if you zoom it!). This dargah is inside the station!  The blue door seen on the right side, is the entrance to the Inspector's room. I felt very sad looking at it.  It was like an old store room with so many stacks of papers.  I think the floor was a mud floor.  It was full of dust and the Inspector was sitting there with a walkie-talkie on which he was getting messages continuously.  He had an assistant with him.

He asked us to give in writing about what happened the previous day.  The writer or someone, had not yet come.  He asked us to note down the mobile no. and then the mobile tracker IMEI number too.  (I had it in my husband's email, so, we noted them down.  Emailed airtel and the mobile company too).  I wrote down my husband's number for contacting me later.  He told us that the thieves just dismantle and sell them off or start using them after a couple of months! Since we had to leave Agra on that day itself, we needed some reference number.  He stamped our FIR paper and wrote down his mobile number, asking us to take down the reference number later.  I called him after a few days and took it.

Well....no sign yet, of the mobile (no, I am not a dreamer to dream of getting it back as it was!) but still, called him a couple of times.  This is the story of my lost mobile.  Now, to the situation at the dilapidated station:

I was sitting on the chair to write my FIR and then had to wait for sometime to meet the inspector.  Son had gone inside.  I was uncomfortable sitting and watching the thieves or somebody inside the grilled room on the right side which was the 'lock-up'. What we had seen in the movies were quite different!

I noticed many condemned motorbikes inside the compound.  Some young policemen were going here and there.  They looked neat though.  But the police station is not liveable.  This is such a prominent area...'The Taj' is in this area.  Many tourists visit this place.  What kind of protection can these people give? Even now I feel sorry for the people in the station.

I had blocked my number and got it back and it is in my old phone now! A new experience for me!

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