Nanjundeshwara temple

Nanjangud -close to Mysore - is famous for its Nanjundeshwara (Shiva) temple. A 1000+ year old temple from the days of Ganga's. And seems to have had major royal patronage all through. It reflects in the grandeur of the temple, exquisite sculpture, two big wooden chariots, and idols of numerous kings & queens.

Anil, & me, visited the temple, on our way back from BR hills. Kabini flows close to the temple, and a dip there is the way to start. Cloudy day, so low light conditions, a test of your camera skills. What majorly stuck me, was the paint of the temple. A golden yellow paint of the Gopura's etc stands out.

My favourite shot.





Side view of the gopura.


Back of the gopura.

This huge wodden rath (chariot) had some amazing carvings. The Rathotsava here, is quite famous.

Liked this a lot.....didn't notice the background clutter....shud have kept that out....wud have been a nice pic.




Some erotica!

Yes, in the temple, the sculptures of Gods were simply amazing. There were lotz of Shiva Linga's, and idols of kings & queens. Anil bought some ladoos as prasad. And, as we opened the pack, crows quickly descended, and I got to feed them, they almost picked it from my hands.

My first visit, nice 70 minutes spent at the temple. Lots yet to be seen, and a dip in Kabini awaits. Need to visit it leisurely.

Deadly pictures

Seriously, a deadline @work....thats almost met....the rest of the team is still working....rather the PM etc are giving the final touches, and we chaps, are waiting for the release to be made.
Meanwhile, these 3 pics from Lalbaugh a fortnight back.

Need to identify this flower. Its from some kind of grass.

And these butterlfly's, a tamrind tree was full of them. I am happy that today is THE release day. Badly need to get out of the city. Bandipur or BR Hills ??

Perot, chalghatta & mummies

Chalghatta school, a nice looking govt. primary school with a small ground interspersed with Ashoka trees. The kids run around like prince/princess. They really own this school. 200 kids, make such ruckus, that some new volunteers go back home to terrible headaches (seriously, ask Leena).


The school has a fundu HM Mrs Mary Angela (left most), a superb PR person. And, another teacher Bhuvaneshwari, whoz fast becoming my favourite (rightmost lady). Bhuvaneshwari is real good at culturals, no wonder, we had so many children vying to sing/dance & perform.

Ha...oh..3 similar shots....lots of back light, so only this angle permitted decent shots. Hey, who are these lovely ladies ??? They are singing 'Hum honge kamyaab ek din'......well, Ladies & Gentlemen, Sep 2nd 06, over 20 employees from Perot systems dropped into interact with our kids. To keep matters simple, the 1st to 5th kids were let off at their usual closing time, and we continued interacting with the 6th & 7th. Amit, hardcore DSF volunteer, also happens to be a Perot, and so it worked cool for both parties ;-)

Event A was collage making. 8 teams with volunteers thrown in, and 30 minutes. The teams took on this with all seriousness, with volunteers majorly guiding them. And, soon we saw some lovely stuff.





Event B was to mummify.....yeah...seriously, take a kid and mummify....for bizzare reasons only girls got choosen....and boy...it turned out to be real fun.



My favourite shot of the day.

The kids were all real excited by now....and the volunteers strongly identified themselves with their teams & kids. I guess, the event had achieved its purpose.

Yes, kids got a double-decker box with pencils/scale etc and some nice snacks/Icecream.

Perot systems is also sponsoring a LifeSkills session here at the school for the 6th/7th on weekdays, conducted by Mrs Sadhna. A nice corporate-NGO partnership.

We still need people for the bread & butter stuff, my kids are pathetic when it comes to reading English. And Math ? not far either. So, if volunteering & making a difference at the primary level appeals to you, join us.

NBD Ramanagara

Notebook drive, a DSF initiative: Giving notebooks to govt. school children. On 19th & 22nd Aug, 5,500 notebooks were given to 1500 students in 19 primary rural schools around Ramnagara. On 19th, a gang of 30 volunteers, lotz from Accenture, distributed the books. A few schools were closed because of 'Nalkne shravan shanivaara', and these were covered on 22nd Aug. The pics, shot by Sunand, tell the story.