Dr. Subramanian Swamy on 2G scam

This is an hour video of Dr. Subramanian Swamy on 2G scam. You may just listen and continue your work. I was reading bits and pieces of Dr. Swamy's words on 2G scam. Thought of searching for some of his speeches and found this one among others.

It gives a look into extent of scam. For those who do not wish to support Anna for whatever the reasons, might want to see this since Dr. Swamy is always taking into courts and fighting against corruption.

Phishing E-mail for Income Tax Refund!

For those who are not sure what phishing is, click here. Basically, it is a method to get confidential information from you like bank A/c details or passwords etc.,

Well, I had received an e-mail today from Income Tax Dept. (somebody claiming so). I am pasting that here just to give a warning so that people do not get fooled and give away confidential information and being cheated in return.

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from: Income Tax Department refunds_portl11@incometaxindiafiling.gov.in

Dear Valued Taxpayer,

We have reviewed your tax fiscal payment for previous years and have resolved that you are qualified for a refund of the sum of 36,120.25 INR which is your accumulated tax excesses. Please submit a tax refund request and allow us to process it within 7(seven) working days.

To submit a request CLICK HERE

We appreciate taking the time to learn about our tax refund. It's one more way Income tax department can make your tax payment experience better.
Endeavor to fill in your Information correctly,to enable us make refund to your account without any delay.

Refund can be delayed for some reasons:

• Applying after deadline of notification.
• Submitting incorrect account information.

Tax Refund Department
Department of revenue,
Ministry of finance, India. 

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I knew it was phishing e-mail because of following reasons.
1. It was not from "incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in" but was from "incometaxindiafiling.gov.in"
2. Income Tax dept doesn't ask information through e-mail and more over if you take a look at the link, it was redirecting to some unknown website.
3. This week only I had got CPC processing status as Nil Tax Payable/Refund
4. Income Tax dept doesn't pay refunds of multiple financial years in single shot. (PS: As per my knowledge)

Hassan Travel 3 - Mullayanagiri

After returning from Manjarabad Fort, we freshened up and visited a previous day function of our friend's wedding. Before going to bed, Jagga said "We shall go to Mullayanagiri tomorrow. If we start by 5 or 5 30, we can easily go and comeback by 10 30 or so." I was very much interested to go, but was not keen on waking up so early! He had already been to Mullayanagiri and nobody else had been to there. Still, looking at his enthusiasm to take us, I couldn't deny and agreed half hearted.
 

Around 5 30 AM next day, I was woken up by his knocks on my room door. Now, the urge to visit the place overtook the need to sleep and within an hour, we were on the road towards Chikmagalur, at a distance of 61km. Early morning breeze welcomed us to SH57 and we stopped at Chikmagalur for breakfast before continuing towards the destination.

Chikmagalur to Mullayanagiri via Kaimara is about 22 km. The road after Kaimara to Mullayanagiri was very enjoyable amidst green coffee plantation and forest. We could see steep slope on one side and steep rise on the other side as the peak gets nearer. Most of the places, road is very narrow and two vehicles do not pass side by side, either one has to take reverse and pave way for the other. Over all, it was very fun but at the same time very risky and dangerous drive towards the parking lot, atop the mountain. Unless you are an expert driver and the vehicle is not new to you, do not attempt to drive on this stretch, especially on a misty morning.

 
Almost near the parking lot, there was one drunken driver who refused to take reverse and from the other direction, there were 4 vehicles, including ours, one behind another. After good 15 minutes of argument, he took reverse but we were already walking having parked the car roadside. We didn't want to miss the chilling experience by fighting with some fellas.

There are about 100 steps to be climbed at the peak. It was full of mist when we were climbing and we could not see the steep slope below (which, we were hoping to see as it was one of the views couldn't be missed). As we were climbing all of us' ears started paining because of chilling cool weather. Quite a bit crowd was already there by the time we reached.

Finally after an hour, we started back to resume our participation in the wedding! To end with, it was a Fantastic place, which, better be experienced than expressed in words.

Hassan Travel Loc 1 - Shravanabelagola
Hassan Travel Loc 2 - Manjarabad Fort

ಕಾವ್ಯ - ಹರಟೆ: ಕನ್ನಡ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್

ಆಂಗ್ಲ ಮತ್ತು ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಗಳನ್ನು ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ತಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯೋಣವೆಂದು ಅನ್ನಿಸಿದೆ. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ನನ್ನ ಎಲ್ಲ ಕನ್ನಡ ಬರಹಗಳನ್ನು ಇನ್ನು ಮುಂದೆ ಕಾವ್ಯ - ಹರಟೆ ಎಂಬ ತಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುತ್ತೇನೆ. ಬರೆಯುತ್ತೇನೆ ಎಂದರೆ ತಪ್ಪಾಗುತ್ತದೆ! ಬರೆಯುತ್ತೇವೆ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಬೇಕು. ಯಾಕೆಂದರೆ ನಾನು ಮತ್ತು ನನ್ನ ಅರ್ಧಾಂಗಿ ಇಬ್ಬರೂ ಕೂಡ "ಕಾವ್ಯ - ಹರಟೆ" ಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುತ್ತೇವೆ.
ನನ್ನ ಕನ್ನಡ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಓದುಗರು, ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ಕಾವ್ಯ - ಹರಟೆಯನ್ನು ಹಿಂಬಾಲಿಸಿ (Follow). ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ನಾನು ಬರೆದಿರುವ ಬರಹಗಳೂ ಕೂಡ ಹೊಸ ತಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಣಸಿಗುತ್ತವೆ.

Tribute to Steve Jobs

When I tuned to a news channel on 6th October morning, I couldn't believe Steve Jobs had died. It's not that he couldn't be died, for that matter, I knew he was suffering from a rare form of pancreatic cancer and I knew his liver was transplanted, but it was something which I didn't want to happen so soon. If one does not want 'something' to happen, then he would not believe at the moment when that 'something' happens really.

An year ago, I knew very little about Steve Jobs. Many of my friends were buying iPods and iPhones. I always thought they were not worth their price. Little did I know I was wrong. I was under the assumption that they were hyped until one of my friends presented me a third generation iPod shuffle. Along with, he handed over me a letter where in he had told me to use a wonderful product created by a genius, named Steve Jobs. I fell in love with it the moment I started using it. It's single LED which glows in different colors for different purposes, it's sleek size, single interface to go to next song, to previous song, to read out current song, to change the playlists and to inform how much battery charge is remaining and above all, amazing quality and effects of the music showed me to what extent I was wrong in assessing the Apple products. I became his fan.

What followed after was my interests in his biography. I went through about his way of seeing the potential of commercial success with the hobby projects, about his entrepreneurship, about starting Apple, coming up with Macintosh, about getting fired, starting new company, and taken over by Apple to have a very successful second innings in there, about his coming up with iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and becoming iCon. I also read about his being adapted, two fathers - one legal father and another one biological father, about two marriages, controversy surrounding his daughter, diagnosed with cancer etc., on personal notes.

Though he was mentioned in the same league of great CEOs like Henry Ford, he was always criticized for not spending his enormous wealth for philanthropic purposes as Gates or Buffett did.

One of my colleagues told yesterday he was going to buy iPhone 4S as a tribute to Steve, I thought I should offer my tributes by writing a blog post about him and this is the result!

Hassan Travel 2 - Manjarabad Fort

Having finished lunch at Hassan, we didn't go to hotel that was booked for us. Instead we continued on NH48 towards Sakaleshpur for our next place - Manjarabad fort.

It is on a hillock beside NH48 at a distance of 7 km from Sakaleshpur towards Mangalore. There is a village by name Donigal where trucks stop for a cup of hot coffee. The path adjacent to these shops, rather canteens, leads to Manjarabad fort. The fort was constructed by Tippu Sultan, then king of Mysore. Started in 1785, it took 7 years to complete.

Primarily, the star-shaped fort was constructed as part of defense strategy to see British Army from Mangalore. Also, it was used to store ammonium, horses, and a secret tunnel to Srirangapatna, capital of Tippu Sultan. However the tunnel is closed now. There were lot of chambers and we were told they were used to house horses, used as kitchens, bathrooms apart from storing war weapons. In the middle of the fort, there is a well/pond with 'plus' shaped stairs leading to it, which was the source of water back then.

It was drizzling when we went and we drenched. However we didn't quite feel it since our minds were filled by the spectacular view of western ghats the fort was providing.

This is Manjarabad fort from Google Maps, satellite view

After about an hour, we got back to our car and returned to Hassan.

Hassan Trip Loc 1 - Shravanabelagola

Hassan Travel 1 - Shravanabelagola

One of my friends was getting married on August 15th (what a co-incidence!) at Hassan. We planned to go by car on 14th morning itself and visit some places near Hassan. Since all of us had been to Belur and Halebeedu, we finalized on 3 places to visit. Shravanabelagola, which is just a few km off Bangalore - Mangalore highway (NH48), was the first one.

Shravanabelagola town is situated between two hills Vindhyagiri and Chandragiri with a tank in between, namely, Belagola meaning Bili Kola or white pond. Shravana or Shramana means Jain ascetic, meaning, lifestyle practiced to pursue religious and spiritual goals avoiding worldly pleasures. The town is named after this Jain ascetic and pond. The place is a Jain pilgrimage center as there is 57 feet monolithic statue of Gomateshwara on southern hill, Vindhyagiri facing North.

The statue, center of attraction, is the tallest monolithic statue in the world. The statue is carved beautifully as if anthills surround it and creepers encircle up to thighs. According to the information available, it was installed by Ganga King Rachamalla Sathyavaka's minister Chavundaraya in 988 AD. Gomateshwara or Bahubali was a son of first Jain Thirthankara, Purudeva. He was transformed after he won the fight for kingdom fought against his brother Bharatha.

When we left Bangalore it was 9 am and we stopped for breakfast at Hotel Mayura, Ballur cross. It was very expensive and the service was slow. From NH48, we turned left to Shravanabelagola at Hirisave, roughly 125 km from Bangalore. From there, it is 18km.

We trekked amid hot Sun and visited Basadis on top of the hill and tried our luck to encircle Thyagada Kamba, a pillar and if one encircles by his hands it is believed to be a lucky symbol. On our way up, we saw a lot of people climb up 2-3 times to offer some religious vows, many a times, holding children. After circling round the statue, seeing all 24 Thirthankaras and overwhelmed by the Majestic statue, we took some snaps of the inscriptions and started back.

We climbed down, had tender coconut water and started towards Channarayapatna, at a distance of 11km, (different road than the one towards Hirisave) and from there to Hassan.

Flopped Antharagange Trip

"We must go somewhere outside Bangalore", my friend called me. It was already 10 am and we had just finished breakfast. I quickly considered quite a few options and decided on Anthargange. Following a blog by someone I don't know, I thought it would be a nice trek with caves on top of the hill. But little did I know my plan would be ruined that day.


By the time we got ready and leave the Bangalore, it was nearing 1 pm. We didn't stop till a Shanti Sagar on the outskirts of Kolar. We had lunch there. It was good until my wife got a cockroach free with the lunch!
We almost finished our lunch, so we started towards Anthargange querying the route. I do not write the route here since we took too many alternate routes as many roads were dug up in Kolar. Finally we got a tarmac road to Anthargange, but by then, it was cloudy and very dark. Time was around 3 pm.

We reached Anthargange and parked our car. There is a police substation and a constable at the base from which there are steps to temple at a distance of approximately 300mts. He noted down everybody's name and sought address in detail. When I inquired about caves, he said there were no caves. We should not go beyond temple. There was a hillock range but it was the place of leopards There would be illegal activities going on and family people should not go. etc., To add to our dismay, drizzling started. Bottom line is our plan to trek and see the caves was shattered.

Anyway, being come so far, we thought of visiting temple atleast and return. There are too many monkeys in Anthargange. They literally attack each and everybody for the reason they only know. One monkey came and it almost attacked my wife and she, in order to escape, gave her bag to it. Monkey was confused on getting the bag without much effort, so it sat upfront scratching head. By then my wife realized her mistake and told our home key, wallet, everything was in the bag.

Now, it was our turn to attack the monkey and get the bag back. It was groaning but still sitting in front of us. When I tried to snatch the bag it tried to hit me and I took back my hand quickly. My friend was holding a stick with a lot of leaves so I told him to shove towards it. When money turned towards it in defense, I snatched the bag, this time very quickly. After that, we climbed up hurling sticks at monkeys.

 

 

We had not even reached the temple when heavy rain started pouring. We stood there for sometime watching rainfall. It was 4 30 pm when we got back to car and drove towards Bangalore.

I plan to visit again with proper route map to trek and reach the top and caves.

ದೇವದೇವರ ಮಹಾದೇವ ಸೂರ್ಯದೇವ

ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ನಾಗರಿಕತೆಗಳ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಸೂರ್ಯ ದೇವನೇ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗಿಂತ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ದೇವರು. ಪ್ರಖ್ಯಾತ ಈಜಿಪ್ಟ್ ಪುರಾಣದ ಪ್ರಕಾರ "ರ" ಎಂದು ಕರೆಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಸೂರ್ಯ ಅವರಿಗೆ ದೇವರಾಗಿದ್ದನು. "ರ" ಆಕಾಶದಲ್ಲಿ ದೋಣಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಗುತ್ತಾನೆ ಎಂದು ಈಜಿಪ್ಟ್ ನಾಗರಿಕತೆ ಹೇಳುತ್ತದೆ. ರೋಮನ್ ಸಾಮ್ರಾಜ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ "ಸೋಲ್ ಇನ್ವಿಕ್ಟಸ್" ಎಂದು ಸೂರ್ಯದೇವನನ್ನು ಕರೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಜರ್ಮನ್ ಪುರಾಣದ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಸೂರ್ಯದೇವನು "ಸೋಲ್" ಎಂದು ಕರೆಯಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದನು. ಗ್ರೀಕ್ ಪುರಾಣದಲ್ಲೂ ಕೂಡ ಸೂರ್ಯದೇವನು ಪ್ರಮುಖನು. ಅವನನ್ನು "ಹೀಲಿಯೋಸ್", "ಟೈಟನ್", ಮತ್ತು "ಅಪೋಲೋ" ಎಂಬುದಾಗಿ ಕರೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಪುರಾತನ ನಾಗರಿಕತೆ ಮೆಸೊಪೊಟೊಮಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ "ಶಮಶ್" ಎಂದು ಕರೆಯಲಾಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಸೂರ್ಯದೇವನು ಪ್ರಮುಖ ದೇವನು. ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಅಮೇರಿಕಾದ ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧ ನಾಗರಿಕತೆ ಇನ್ಕಾದಲ್ಲಿ "ಇಂತಿ" ಎಂದು ಸೂರ್ಯದೇವನನ್ನು ಕರೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಹೀಗೆ ಉದಾಹರಿಸುತ್ತ ಹೋದರೆ ಸೂರ್ಯನೇ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ದೇವನಾದ ಇನ್ನೂ ಹಲವಾರು ನಾಗರಿಕತೆಗಳು, ಪುರಾಣಗಳು ಸಿಕ್ಕುತ್ತವೆ.

ಹಿಂದೂ ಪುರಾಣದಲ್ಲೂ ಸೂರ್ಯದೇವ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ದೇವರುಗಳಲ್ಲೊಬ್ಬ. ಆದರೆ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗಿಂತ ಮಿಗಿಲು ತ್ರಿಮೂರ್ತಿಗಳಾದ ಹರಿ, ಹರ, ವಿರಿಂಚಿಗಳು (ಬ್ರಹ್ಮ), ಎಂದು ನಾನಂದುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದೆ! ಈ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯಕ್ಕೆ ಧಕ್ಕೆಬರುವಂತ ರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕುಮಾರವ್ಯಾಸ ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಅರಣ್ಯಪರ್ವದ ೭ ನೇ ಸಂಧಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅರ್ಜುನನನ್ನು ಇಂದ್ರನ ಆಸ್ಥಾನಕ್ಕೆ ಕರೆದೊಯ್ಯುತ್ತ ಇಂದ್ರಸಾರಥಿ ಮಾತಲಿಯು ಅರ್ಜುನನಿಗೆ ಭೂಮಿ, ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ಲೋಕ ಹಾಗೂ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಂಡಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ವಿವರಿಸುತ್ತಾನೆ. ಆ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ ದಿನಕರನು ಪರಮಾತ್ಮ. ಮಹಾದೇವರಾದ ಹರಿಹರವಿರಿಂಚಿಗಳು ಅತಿ ಬಲವಂತನಾದ ಸೂರ್ಯನನ್ನು ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಕಾಲವು ರವಿರಥದ ಚಕ್ರ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳುತ್ತಾನೆ. ಸೂರ್ಯ ಎಂದರೆ ಬೆಂಕಿ. ಸುರಪಥಿಯಾದ ದೇವೇಂದ್ರನ ಆಸ್ಥಾನದ ದೇವತೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಒಬ್ಬನಾದ ಅಗ್ನಿ ಎಂದರೂ ಬೆಂಕಿಯೇ. ಅಗ್ನಿ ಇಂದ್ರನಿಗೆ ನಮಿಸಿದರೆ, ಇಂದ್ರ ತ್ರಿಮೂರ್ತಿಗಳಿಗೆ ನಮಿಸುತ್ತಾನೆ ಹಾಗೂ ತ್ರಿಮೂರ್ತಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಸೂರ್ಯನು ದೇವನಾದರೆ, ಅಗ್ನಿ ಮತ್ತು ಸೂರ್ಯ ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ಆಗಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ! ಹಾಗಾದರೆ ಅಗ್ನಿ ಮತ್ತು ಸೂರ್ಯ ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ದೇವರೇ? ಹಿಂದೂ ಧರ್ಮದ ಜಿಜ್ಞಾಸೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇದೂ ಒಂದೇ?

ಪಾಂಡವರ ಧರ್ಮದ ಮಧ್ಯೆ ದ್ರೌಪದಿ ವಸ್ತ್ರಾಪಹರಣ

ಬಹಳ ದಿನಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಯನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿದ್ದೆ. ಧರ್ಮರಾಯನಿಗೆ ಶಿಕ್ಷೆ ಎನ್ನುವ ಶೀರ್ಷಿಕೆಯಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ. ಆ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗೆ ಉತ್ತರಿಸುತ್ತ ಹೊಸಮನೆಯವರು, "ದ್ರೌಪದಿ ಕೂಡ ಜೂಜಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಅವಳನ್ನು ಒತ್ತೆ ಇಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ ಆಕ್ಷೆಪಿಸಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಆದರೆ ತನ್ನನ್ನು ತಾನು ಸೋತ ನಂತರ ಧರ್ಮರಾಯ ಅವಳನ್ನು ಪಣವಾಗಿ ಒಡ್ಡುವುದು ಯಾವ ಧರ್ಮ ಎಂದು ಪ್ರಶ್ನಿಸುತ್ತಾಳೆ" ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಮೊನ್ನೆ ಮೊನ್ನೆ, ಕುಮಾರವ್ಯಾಸ ಕಥಾಮಂಜರಿಯ ಸಭಾಪರ್ವವನ್ನು ಓದಿ ಮುಗಿಸಿದೆ. ದ್ರೌಪದಿ ವಸ್ತ್ರಾಪಹರಣದ ಸನ್ನಿವೇಶವನ್ನು ಓದಿದಾಗ ಅಂದಿನ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಮತ್ತೆ ಉದ್ಭವಿಸಿತು. "ತನ್ನನ್ನು ತಾನು ಸೋತ ನಂತರ ಹೇಗೆ ಪರರನ್ನು ಜೂಜಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಒತ್ತೆ ಇಡಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯ? ಇದು ಧರ್ಮವೇ?" ಎಂದು ಕೇಳಿದಾಗ, ಭೀಷ್ಮಾದಿಗಳನ್ನೋಳಗೊಂಡು, ಆಸ್ಥಾನದಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ಯಾರೂ ಮಾತನಾಡುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಇದು ಏಕೆಂದು ನನಗೆ ಗೊಂದಲವಾಯಿತು. ಯೋಚಿಸಿದಾಗ ಒಂದು ಸಾಧ್ಯತೆ ಗಮನಕ್ಕೆ ಬಂತು. ಧರ್ಮರಾಯ ಸೋತಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಕೌರವನ ಕಿಂಕರನಾಗಿಯಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಆ ನಂತರ ಗೆದ್ದವರು ಹೇಳಿದಂತೆ ಅವನು ಕೇಳುವುದು ಧರ್ಮ. ಅವರು ವಡ್ಡು ಏನೆಂದು ಕೇಳಿದರು. ಇವನು ಹೇಳಿದ. ಇವನು ಹೇಳಿದ್ದನ್ನು ಅವರು ಒಪ್ಪಿದರು. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಧರ್ಮದ ಉಲ್ಲಂಘನೆ ಆಗಿಲ್ಲ ಅನ್ನಿಸಿತು.

ಇನ್ನು ಪ್ರಾಣಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಮಾನ ದೊಡ್ಡದು ಎಂದು ಎಷ್ಟೋ ಕಡೆ ಓದುತ್ತೇವೆ, ಕೇಳುತ್ತೇವೆ. ತಮ್ಮ ಪಟ್ಟದರಸಿಯ ಮಾನಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಚಕಾರ ಬಂದಾಗಲೂ ಧರ್ಮ ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾ, ಸುಮ್ಮನಿದ್ದ ಧರ್ಮರಾಯಾದಿ ಪಾಂಡವರು ಮಾಡಿದ್ದು ಸರಿಯೇ? ಧರ್ಮ, ಹಾಗಾದರೆ ಮಾನಕ್ಕಿಂತಲೂ ಉನ್ನತವಾದದ್ದೇ! ಇಂದಿಗೂ?!

Pyramid Valley

It was a Sunday evening, 24th April, and while sipping afternoon coffee, me and my wife thought of going to Pyramid Valley. Pyramid Valley is the world's largest meditational pyramid. However, we went not because to meditate instead to see the Pyramid itself. I am always interested in architecture, as I have said before. It is at a distance of around 28 km on Kanakapura road. The website has all the information.

When we reached Pyramid valley, it was cloudy and dark and we expected heavy rainfall any moment. At the entrance there is a map of the campus and we were asked to enter a hut like structure beside main reception. There a guy would explain what is meditation and its advantages in about 10 minutes. After listening to meditation tips, we came outside and walked towards Pyramid.

Pyramid, called Maitreya-Buddha Pyramid, has a base area of 160x160 ft and with height of 102 ft. Its external surface is covered by murals depicting various nature elements. It has a capacity of around 5000. There are beautiful murals and art work of Buddha in the lower hall, to remind him for his meditation techniques. It is said that the geometric design of Pyramids collects, radiates and stores cosmic energy and thus meditation done inside a Pyramid is thrice more powerful.

We sat quietly for sometime in Pyramid. There were many people meditating. Some were sleeping, though we were not sure whether they went to that state meditating or just that they were sleeping in pin drop silence.
We started back sometime later just when heavy rain started pouring on us.

For more information on Pyramid valley, click here.

Yana and Betthageri Beach

During Ugadi festival time, we had been to native and decided to go for a day's trip. My brother wanted to go to a beach. Only me and my wife had seen Yana and no one else had. So we planned to visit Yana and go to Kumta for lunch and then head to Betthageri beach for sunset and return home.

It was a Sunday, 3rd April, and we were on our way to Yana. Yana is a village in Uttara Kannada district amid Sahyadri hills (Western Ghats) range with presence of huge unusual rocks. These rocks are formed of crystalline limestone. There is a popular saying in Kannada "Sokkidre Yana Rokkidre Gokarna", meaning, one needs quite a bit stamina to trek to Yana and needs quite a bit money to reach Gokarna, since, for outsiders, Gokarna would be expensive enough. But today, this saying is not applicable for both of the places! After Kannada movie "Nammoora Mandara Hoove" (1997), Yana became more famous and now there is a tar road, going very near to Yana and the trekking distance is reduced to only half a km.

We reached Yana via Sirsi, and taking Kumta road, soon followed by taking a deviation to the right. The distance from Sirsi is around 40km. We first visited the temple, a Shiva temple. For "Pradakshine", one needs to go inside the gigantic rock. The path inside resembles cave and there are a couple of small rocks hanging in the narrow space in between the rock. We had tender coconut, banana before resuming journey to next destination.

There are two roads from Yana to Kumta, our destination. One route is via Mabage village and waterfall, called Vibhooti falls. I had been to there and have had a blog posted about it. Click here to read. The other route is taking the route towards Sirsi and take a deviation to Manjuguni after about 20km, which would join to Sirsi-Kumta road. We took the former route as it was nearer, 48 km. One can find many pages in internet about the distance from Yana to Kumta mentioned as approximately 25 km. But this is wrong and via the shortest route, Kumta is at a distance of 48 km from Yana. However, from Yana till Mabage the road is very bad with jelly (crusher stones) and to travel 7 km on empty road, we took more than half an hour! We had some food, packed from home, and went to Kumta. After a pit stop for coffee/snacks, we head towards Honnavar and took a right for Betthageri beach, roughly 10 km from Kumta on NH17.

Betthageri beach is very clean, as it is still remote. When we went there, there was nobody else, though some people came after us from neighboring villages after sometime. We played for an hour in the beach and just when the Sun started to set, it became cloudy and though we got nice views, we didn't get nice sunset!
 

We returned to home from there via Honnavar and Gerusoppa. It was a wonderful trip with full family after a long time.

Mysore - City of Palaces

When my in-laws came, we planned to go for a day's trip to Mysore. After estimating time for travel and food, we finalized 3 places - Srirangapatna, Mysore Palace and KRS.
Thus planned, we started at around 8 AM on March 19th, 2011. At hotel Kamat Lokaruchi, Ramanagara around 9 30, we stopped for breakfast and proceeded towards Srirangapatna and reached around 11 AM. Asking the route, we went to Sri Ranganathaswamy temple. There was an incident involving the priest regarding a photo taken inside the temple where photography was prohibited. Click here to read that.

Anyway, we came outside and went to Tippu's summer palace. Sri Ranganathaswamy temple is to the right if traveling from Bangalore and Tippu's summer palace, also called Dariya Daulat, is at the right side. The signboards are pretty well. The architecture of Dariya Daulat is beautiful. Photography is prohibited there, so couldn't capture in my camera. It is now converted to museum with many of Tippu's household stuffs, clothes, various portraits and photographs of his children, battle ground, fort and things like that.

 

We went to Gumbaz afterwards. Gumbaz is burial ground of Tippu's father, Hyder Ali. Now, one can find tombs of Tippu, his father, mother, wife and children there.

Our last place of visit near Srirangapatna was Sangama, which is the confluence of two branches of Cauvery. Of them, one is called Lokapavani and it is considered to be holy to take a dip and bath there. Many people give tribute to their demised parents at Sangama. However, we didn't like this place since somebody was worshiping and just beside that some fishermen were cutting fish into pieces!


We started from Srirangapatna and went to Mysore. We had lunch in a hotel near Palace and went inside Palace. Wow! I had never been to Mysore Palace, though had seen bits and pieces in media, and I liked it very much. A tour inside Palace along with nearby museum (then Palace before current Palace was constructed in early 20th century) took almost 2 hours. The architecture of the building (referred as Indo-Saracenic), a stoned structure, numerous photos and description beneath them, which tell us the story in brief, the gifts the wodeyar dynasty received, their household items - overall, it was fantastic.

We strolled for sometime, spending time in taking snaps, outside the palace and we left for KRS. Parking arrangement at KRS is good. I guess it is constructed recently. It was around 6 PM when we reached there. We took a walk and climbed up the dam to see the backwater and came back. It was 7 pm then and the lights were turned on, feasting our eyes. We started taking quick steps towards musical fountain, taking snaps all along and of-course exclaiming what we see. It took us almost 20-25 minutes to reach and watch musical fountain. We watched for some 15 minutes and we started back since we had to come all the way to Bangalore. KRS provided us an amazing sight and we had a great time enjoying there.

We reached Bangalore-Mysore road at Srirangapatna from KRS and from then, it was one stop journey at Kamat again for dinner before we reach home in Bangalore at 11.