With malice towards none

I stood transfixed in that Greek temple looking in awe at the Zeus-like figure sitting there with a slight bend over the back and a look which, in a way, tries to look through you and at the same time with an inherent kindness. I was standing there for a few minutes when a bunch of kids ran around the whole place making all sorts of noises. I was thinking 'he would've loved this'. Having a read a lot about his life and a lot of his speeches, I was sure that he loved children. But then I was distracted by his another 'inaugural address' on one side of the monument and started reading it. I know it already, but then it was a great speech with lots of passion. Then I started thinking over again. Why do I love this guy? What possibly attracts me to a 19th century politician in a completely foreign country?

I, for one, was never enamored by the country or its wealth. In fact, the first thing I noticed on that very cold first day when I walked to office 12 years back. in the streets of Omaha, Nebraska was a completely drunk Sioux Indian on the pavement. Then, I noticed them regularly on my way to office or when I go out for lunch, always drunk and evoking pity. I discussed it with some of my colleagues in office. I was either advised to mind my own or some sort of 'tut-tut'ing. Then when we drove to the unfinished, Crazy horse monument in the Black hills, I started to understand some part of the history of the region.

It was another day when I drove back from Philadelphia when I stopped at Gettysburg. It was full of greenery and it was hard to believe that it was the place of a great battle. I couldn't remember any of the details of the battle but was overwhelmed by the number of deaths the place has seen.
For all its loftiness of ideals and belief in 'manifest destiny', the country never did realize it till that tall man came through. He not only did manage to rouse the inner morality of human being, he had the perseverance to see it through the end and was able to pay it with his life. It was a simple tale that has been repeated with different people in different eras with almost the same tragic end.
What moves me in this tale is that it is a great lesson in humanity for us to realize that he did all this with a view to accommodate anyone who was willing to cross-over, even with not the purest of intentions. As he himself said, he lived 'with malice towards none' and it is an impossible ideal to live up to.

I often remind myself of this and try to think of my life in terms of these values and often I come short. On that day, when I stood on those steps looking up to his Zeus-like countenance, I also realized that it took another 100 years of relentless pursuing of the same ideals to achieve what he really wanted to achieve. On that same steps, 100 years after his death, stood another great man who talked about having a dream and died for the same cause.

Irrespective of the color of the skin or the language spoken or the country where one was born, his story tells me that there are some ideals that are common to humanity and it is worth one's while to fight for it and even die for it.

Weekends in February

Weekend - 1

A visit to the planetarium and the science exhibition.
There was not much of science to go around but the kids had a blast in the park and in the animals area. Here Vanathy posing with a pig.This was a rolling slide which basically rolls you off to the end. It was fun.
The pendulum swing was another hit with Sibi and Vanathy just feeding off each others force and playing for a long time. We just had to sit and watch (though we tried it ourselves later).

Weekend - 2

A visit to beach, Mylapore and Kapaleeshwarar temple.
The newly renovated beach looked much better than before and since we were near the light house area, there was relatively less crowd. Though J was anxious to get on the 'tiny wheel', she enjoyed it as much as the kids and later my mom joined the fun as well.
A visit to Kapali is something that makes everyone happy in the family for vastly different reasons. Shopping around the temple makes J happy and a ride in the MRTS makes the kids happier and for me, the temple itself is the source of happiness. May be not as much as the Parthasarathy temple, where the presence of Perumal himself is a joy but for the peace that comes with seeing Kapali.
Of course, Saturday and Sunday evenings are full of songs and dances in the temple praharam and this weekend was no exception. There was a Bharatanatyam performance by the local kids which brought a different kind of joy to the heart.
Vanathy enjoyed the performance very much and the day ended with dinner in Saravana bhavan.

Weekend - 3

The exhibition in the Island grounds.
After a long interval, I was able to see a sparrow in Chennai and didn't missed the chance to click it. This is in Royapuram. Incidentally, I was able to see one in our terrace as well.
We went to the Island grounds exhibition with Kannan and family. Mainly for the kids, the exhibition was boring and there is not much to do other than pickup some trinkets and in fact, there was not even decent food inside.
That's the ride of my choice. After holding Sibi on the horse for years, its the turn of Vanathy now and I doubt whether it is she who needs me holding her or me who doesn't like to be left out of the fun.
A view from the top of the 'giant wheel'. Napier bridge is in the background and the other rides and crowd in the front. Though it was good, it was late in the night and I was left feeling dizzy at the end of it.
Of course, the kids felt the other way. After a long day, we finished the day with a very late dinner in 'Dhaba express'.

Weekend - 4

Decided to stay back at home for the weekend..

வெயில் நிலா

1.
நானும் வானதியும் நேற்று இரவு மொட்டை மாடியில் உட்கார்ந்து கொண்டு நிலவை தேடி கொண்டிருந்தோம்.
வானதி - நிலா எங்க daddy?
நான் - இருட்டில் காணமல் பொய் இருக்கும்.
வானதி - sunனுன என்ன daddy?
நான் - ம்ம் என்ன? தெரியலே? sunனுன சூரியன்
வானதி - (சிறிது யோசனை) இல்ல daddy.. sunனுன 'வெயில் நிலா'

2.
(வேட்டைக்காரன் பாடல் தொலைகாட்சியில்) "நான் அடிச்சா தாங்கமாட்ட, நாலு மாசம் தூங்கமாட்ட... ஊரு போய் சேர மாட்ட"
வானதி - அப்பா, ஊரு போகலேன்னா அவன் எங்க போவான்?
நான் - (பேய் முழி முழித்துவிட்டு சிரிப்பு)

Kudli

The last part of our trip was to visit Kudli, a small village about 12KMs from Shimoga, where Rivers Tunga and Bhadra meet and start flowing as River Tungabhadra. It was about noon when we started to Kudli.
The road to Kudli was a national highway and can be appropriately called a national disgrace. The 10 kilometers took about 30 minutes to cross and we were told that the road is under construction and thats why it is in shambles.
Kudli is no different from the numerous villages dotting in our rural sides and the poverty is very much on display all around. The only big building seem to be the Shringeri mutt there. We went straight to the steps of the river.
I have seen some of the greatest rivers of the world flowing. I remember watching the Mississippi with awe from a cliff in North Dakota a few years back. The aarti in the dusky evening in Haridwar with Ganges flowing to the brim was a sight to behold. Back in my school days, I remember bathing in Kaveri near the Kadambeswarar temple in Trichy when it was in full flow. I also remember thinking of the description of Kaveri in 'Silapathikaram' while doing so.
While the rivers looked huge there was only a small amount of water flowing in both Tunga and Bhadra. One can clearly see the point where they were merging to become Tungabhadra. The awesomeness of a river in flow is either in the actual size of it (like Missisippi) or the spiritual tales associated with it. The first thing that cropped into my mind is that the Tungabhadra has seen some of the finest parts of Indian history and is still flowing as a mute witness to all that is happening around it.
The numerous temples on the banks, the kings who worshipped it, the lives of so many people living on and of the river. Tungabhadra should be having a thousand tales to tell.

We saw the river and the kids just jumped into the water. There was very little water flowing over pebbles and there are only a few buffaloes crossing the river and it was like heaven just sitting over the pebbles and playing with the kids. The entire trip was worth that one afternoon when we spent about an hour in the water with the kids. So many sights around and explaining to Sibi a bit of Vijayanagara history is what makes these trips worthy of taking the trouble to plan and do.
So after so much fun during the noon, we came out and what do we find next to a small lakshmi Narasimha temple is a small Hoysala temple.

I've never seen a Hoysala temple so far and I was able to recognize the Royal emblem of the Hoysalas on top of the temple and was happier to know that I am going to see one. It was a small temple with the Hoysala style pillars (which I recognize from the pictures I've seen) and only a very few sculptures left.

We returned to the Hotel after that and spent the afternoon dozing. Evening was spent in a modest Gandhi park in Shimoga and Jeysri went on a modest shopping spree in the much more modest bazaar area of Shimoga (saris, sandals etc). It was late evening and time to leave.

Shivappa Nayak palace

The 16th of January was like any other day and we had the car waiting for us at 9AM. The first stop was the Sakrebayalu elephant camp. It is very near to Shimoga and is open only till 11AM.

The entire route is full of betal plantations with Cocoa, Vanilla and pepper as climbers on the betal trees. That explained the richness of the villages around. Cadburys also has a cocoa plantation here.

So the kids were all excited to see the elephants and we reached there by 9.30AM. There are a total of 16 elephants in the camp and there was a small excited crowd watching the elephants bathing. I guess, they must've been used to this except that they are wild ones and are being trained in the camp.

The place is situated on the banks of River Tunga above the upper Tunga dam and there is a one-boat boat service available.

After spending some fun-filled moments, we took a 10 minute ride on the Tunga which was exciting.
The next stop on our way was the Shivappa Nayak palace in Shimoga itself. This is a small palace used by the Keladi nayaks as their summer sojourn.
Just before the palace, we stopped at a local Marama temple aka Mariamman temple out of curiosity and found that there is nothing different from our Mariamman temples in our towns.
The palace has good landscaped gardens filled with sculptures brought in from all around Shimoga. In a way, the palace is the local museum as well. We spent some time there looking at the sculptures. Sibi and Vanathy played a game with the cannon while we went around.
There were lot of kannada manuscripts on palm leaves from that period is on display and Sibi had fun looking at the weapons used and reading through the names on each of the sculptures.

When I saw a 'Ananthasayana' sculpture, asked Vanathy to strike the Ananthasayana pose and she did it extremely well.

There are no entrance tickets and apparently, the palace acts as a local meeting point for those who cut schools and wait for their mates. We saw quite a number of these people and not too many tourists as well.

Keladi

Next stop was the Keladi Rameshwara temple. The Nayaks of this area were named after this tiny village but ruled the area from Ikkeri. Again the only remnant of their rule is the Rameshwara temple here. The actual temple by the nayaks has been renovated and the core temple has been left as is and the entire praharam has been rebuilt in a modern way. No gopurams and as has been the case all along no crowds whatsoever.

This is a very small temple but is well maintained with a small praharam. May be, because the temple prahara has been re-built, the charm that Ikkeri has is missing here. Nevertheless there are some interesting sculptures that can be seen still. The Dwajastamba is an interesting piece which has small cultures of a rani and her consorts praying. Intriguing as no I checked with could find a rani who can be linked. Akkamma devi ruled a bit far it seems.

There were some snake carvings in the outer walls and I dont know what it means. But the empty praharams means the kids can play hide and seek and we relaxed a bit and after some time, J joined the kids in the play. It was fun.

We met a guy who came to the temple and a local resident. He took us to a small room in the praharam to show a couple of wooden men about 10 feet in height and told us that they will be taken out only during the 'rathothsava'. It seems when the temple was consecrated in the 16th century, two men were killed per some ritual and were granted this status to go in front of the 'ratha' during the festival times. I am thinking why I never thought to take a picture of the two and I do not have an answer. May be the details of the killings made me forget the camera, after all.

We spent some more time in the temple, while the kids were playing and it was time to leave. The eclipse ended by around 3.30PM that day and there was slow trickle of people coming to the temple. No tourists though.

We started our journey back to Shimoga and though I wanted to go to the Hosgonda Umamaheshwara temple, I was told the roads were bad and the temple itself is undergoing renovations.

While returning, Sibi started wondering why appa is taking him only to temples. J joined the conversation and both were discussing my grand father who used to take us on 10 day trips to Kerala, Karnataka only to see temples and probably some part of that bug is within me. Sibi was not very convinced and I have to tell him that the next day we will try to avoid temples.

So reached Shimoga by 6.30PM and all of us crashed for the day.

Ikkeri

We started back from Jog in the afternoon of the 15th January, 2010. Of course, we couldn't see any crowd on the streets and told the driver to go to Ikkeri Agoreshwara temple.

The tourist cab drivers usually have a set path to show the people and this guy is no exception. He started moaning that Keladi is off the path and it would be better go to Shimoga after Ikkeri. I kept insisting on it. So as a compromise, he thought, I will be happy to go to another temple on the way to Ikkeri. So he stopped at Varadapur.

Now, here is a place where it seems like a local godman, Sridhara swamigal, attained samadhi and the temple and the samadhi are in on a hillock. I am a modest believer and think of temples as places where I usually achieve some amount of inner peace. But I do not like most of these godmen and definitely its not in my plan to go find places where they attained samadhi and visit. So gave an earful to the cabbie and started to Ikkeri.

Ikkeri was the capital of the Keladi Nayaks, who were subordinates of the Vijayanagara emperor. They are just like the Nayaks of Madurai, in terms of their temple building and Ikkeri has a beautiful temple which they've built around the 15 - 16 century.

Today, Ikkeri is a small village where the only reminder of the past glory is this temple. Again, no crowds. The temple itself is a national monument and is maintained well by ASI. It is a small temple but nonetheless is breathtaking. Its architecture is different from the Hoysala temples, and there is more symmetry in the pillars and the squareness of the temple was amazing. After a brief darshan, we went around taking pictures and trying to capture the beauty of the place and temple.

The Nandi is big and very much polished. The symmetry of the design can also be seen in the jewels worn by the various dancing figure, in the upper part of the temple and the various entrances which had big elephants. Sibi kept asking for the Yali's and I was having hard time explaining why we couldn't find one.

One of the interesting thing to note is that I was able to find some erotic panels in the temple Prahara. These were small, hardly 10-12 inches by 10-12 inches panels, at the eye level in the prahara and there are very few and many more look like they've been defaced. I took a few pictures and before Sibi could ask any questions, moved on.

One thing that I always find amusing is to see that our ancestors at least till 500-600 years back, had no problems with openly depicting erotica on the panels of no lesser places than temples. The society has grown so prudish that even buying erotica in Chennai is impossible before everyone gives you the look. While Britain has outgrown the Victorian morals, we have taken custody of it. But then, given our population, whether we do need to have open erotic panels is actually a very valid question.