A RAY FROM THE SUN

My goldfish :`-(

2009-03-23T01:51:00.001-07:00

2 months back, I brought 2 small fan-tail goldfish home.
Cute little fellows just a couple of months old. We named them "sumathi" for bigger one and "kalamathi" for the slightly smaller one. The elder used to be at the middle of the bowl and quickly picks up the food as it is given. so the name.

They were very active chasing each other and playing with the plant and shells in the bowl. They could even recognize the hand that feeds them.
Every morning whenever we come into the hall, they come to the edge, dancing and begging for food. Any new faces, they hide behind the plant.
See how cute they are...

Today is a sad day.
Because of my negligence, both the fish are dead. :-(
When water is changed, we should not replace all the water, today by mistake I threw all the old water in the bowl. And when we put the fish in fresh water, the poor fellows started breathing hard.. and before we realized that some thing is wrong, the sad thing happened.

Now. no more fish/pets in home. I realized that we don't have any right to play with their lives.

2008-06-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

Cute designs of nature

2008-02-20T00:39:00.000-08:00

Want to know who this happy fellow is?
Click the photo.

This Spider is called Happy-Face-Spider. Found in Hawaii islands. Despite of the cute smile, this is one of the endangered species. No wonder it is protecting its eggs so feriociously

Wah.. Ustad.. Wah..

2008-02-10T20:15:00.000-08:00

This Saturday, Ambika reminded me about this concert, and I could not get the tickets online, all the day it was raining and I really had a strong desire to ditch the program. Evening, I had drove for 2 hrs in the pathetic Bangalore traffic from my house to Palace grounds. And 2 more hours of boring wait before the program could start. And drenched like a wet mop while returning. But it is all worth it. I am glad I didn't give-up and go back home.

The concert was wonderful. It was a pulsating performance by the maestros left us in a magical and exhilarating experience.
It is really wonderful watching Zakir Hussain play Tabla. I feel the 24 frames/sec perception of the human eye nor the 30 fps video camera could capture the his fingers dancing on the Tabla.
I had never seen a Santoor play before. Heard a couple of songs here and there. Padmashree Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma's subtle permutations and combinations of lyrical notes wafting forth from his 100-stringed percussion instrument is amazing.
The concert started with Pt.Shivkumar Sharma playing a welcome tune in Jhinjhoti raga. Pace started when Zakir Hussain joined him later. (I felt) It was depicting a river flowing down the Himalayan mountains, some times slow and calm and some times roaring and splashing. I donno if I have enjoyed it 100% because of the acoustics and my corner seat.
There were constant interruptions because of poor acoustics. “The sound from the speakers is reverberating, we are not able to hear what we are playing,” said Pt. Zakir Hussain repeatedly. After almost half the concert is over this issue was sorted out.
After a break, they played some romantic music in Pahadi raga, blissfully capturing the serenity of the Dal lake. This time, I moved to the center seat thanks to lot of impatient lot who left in-between.
At the end, I am not sure if the title "A Tribute to Bangalore" was any thing appropriate to this wonderful jugalbandi, nevertheless, we enjoyed. :)

On a picnic to see a Crore Shiva Lingas

2007-12-26T08:57:00.000-08:00

As my Mother described it, "This is as if we are granted the Vishwarupa darshan of Lord Shiva at the end of Kaarthika maasam".

Daddy was getting bored of staying indoors thanks to the chilling Bangalore weather and a stupid winter rain. He wanted to go some trip. The plans ranged from Udupi to Tirupathi to Dharmasthala and finally ended up doing a day picnic trip to a nearby shrines.
The cab came by 7 am. 1/2 hr late. Noticeably the driver is quite formally dressed. we picked up the breakfast that Mom prepared and lot of chips and other junk.
Went to Maratahalli to pick up my sister and brother-in-law.

Then striaght towards KR puram, Hoskote, Kolar,Kammasandra.On the way, there is a small shrine in a valley called Antara Ganga where there is a perennial spring of water pouring from a Nandi statue mouth. Driver suggested that we go to that place while returning lest we get tired in the trek to that temple. Thought that was a good advice and proceeded directly to KotiLingeshwara temple.

It is a relatively new temple and Siva lingas along the temple road already indicated what is in store for us... The plan is to host a total of 1 crore Shiva lingas. The temple office guy described the procedure for installing a Linga on our name and it looked simple enough. So far there are 85 lakh lingas around and out of which 26 lakh are installed. That is what I could make out from his speech.

The only thing you see entering the temple is the numerous Lingas all around you which come in all shapes and sizes. Some one commented that this looks like a park of Lingas rather than a temple that evokes Bhakthi, May be it is all in the mind. It has 3 temples One dedicated to "Brahma Vishnu and Maheshwara" And The main one to Lord Shiva and a small third one to Lord Venkateshwara. Just outside, there is a huge 108 foot long Shiva linga and a 35 foot Basava infront of it. Mom is completely overwhelmed and hence the comment.
The below one is taken by a Shiva Linga :-)

From there, we proceeded to next temple in Mulbagal.