Day 12 - Dhola-re-Dhani

I know not much blogging between the birthday party and now...went to Shiridi and back, fell sick and did nothing but relaxing. Couldn't meet friends nothing..but to all that the last day at Hyd was fun...

We went to this place called Dhola-re-Dhani for lunch. It is a small replica of Rajasthan and is built in an attempt to expose people to Rajasthani culture. It was a great experience. Reached there around noon..after paying a few hundred rupees, we started our mini journey of rajasthan and its culture. 

We were greeted with a welcome drink of amalvaniya...it has a sweet and sour taste with some added spices. It was good. Then we wandered for a bit and saw a puppet show. it was fun. 

After that we wandered around to find a camel to ride on. Camel ride was fun. N thoroughly enjoyed it and so did I. 

after the camel ride we went to get some chow...washed our hands and walked into this elegantly decorated hall. there were small wooden stools arranged in triangles in four quadrants of the room. We sat down on the cushions laid down next to the stools. Silver looking paper plates were placed on top of each stool and equally shiny paper bowls were in the plates...lunch started..

there were many servers each serving a quadrant and type of food. started of with a serving of makki roti and a ton of ghee...and believe me the ghee was flowing. felt like we were eating ghee with roti as the side dish. we tasted various other rajasthani dishes and they were delicious. after filling our tummies and taking a few pictures. we washed our hands ate a lot of soonf (fennel seeds) and headed our way back home to head to the airport. 

Heading to Bengaluru...the people in Kingfisher airlines seems very nice. They let me take 10 kgs more without charging. Don't ask me how we got 10kgs more than what we took when we are returning. Any case, it was nice of KF airlines...As usual N started up a nice conversation with all the flight attendants and N was very thrilled when we got down every all the lady attendants said "Bye, Nikhil" and N whispered in my ears "Papa, everyone remembered my name!!!". I saw the twinkle in his eyes and so, thanks Mr.Mallya for recruiting such nice courteous folks...

Day 6 - Pranav's Birthday

Got to Bhagyanagaram around 9pm is yesterday. To overcome the exhaustion from driving from orugallu to bhagyanagaram, getting lost on the way to my sis and bil's house and getting back on track, we still had in us to sit and have my favorite drink...Whiskey on the rocks (no i wasn't sitting on the rocks :) )! I procured a Maccallan 15 yr old at the duty free shop of the good old, new Philly international airport. I was eying the drink and pining for the drink for a long time before I got it to my BIL. Now it was beckoning me to open it and savor the fine oak taste of the single malt exposing it's rich colors and smooth taste that lingers in the back of the throat a wee bit before we are ready for the next sip. Oops...i think i got carried away a little bit with all the Whiskey talk...that was last night..on to today.

N was excited to meet his cousins Pranav and Malvika. Pranav has grown a lot since we've seen him last...and he is going to be another year older today...yes, today is Pranav's birthday and him and family had a blast. Him and his friends had a sleepover the previous night and since they woke up they were hooked on to the computer playing games (of course N was glued to them at the hip) till Pranav's Mom (my sis) yelled at them to brush their teeth and get something to drink. It was fun watching them!

Of course Malvika the little one had to show her antiques of the day. 

Choooo cute...

Swing swing swing me more Nana..

innocent eyes

aww...why do u want me give you the comb mommy!! why.look at my innocent face..

Every one of the kids was equally excited about the evening...birthday party of course! The house was decorated with colorful paper and balloons. N was excited about decorating the house and of course he was a little helper. Of course the big boys were busy with their games. Before we know evening came around and the festivities began. 

First stop of the eve was at Runway 9, a go-karting and and laser tag place. All the kids (excluding my BIL and myself :( ) went to play a game of laser tag. my BIL helped N with the game and big guns played their own game. To my surprise the game was quick...now time to vrooom vrooom....


All the time when N was playing laser tag  only one thing was going through his mind...when will he get on the go-kart and go vroooming...The go-karting line was not long but took some time to get to do it. While we were standing in the line we donated some blood to the little blood suckers...mosquitoes...and by no means little. All the kids (this time BIL and I too YAY!!!) got their chance to drive the gas (petrol) powered go-kards on the smoked filled runway racing tracks. Since these little machines were fast N had a "instructor", that's what they called them anyway, drive him the kart. He seemed to have fun and so did I.

After go-karting we headed home for the cake cutting and party. Pranav had a blast and after the cake cutting, his friends decided to give him some birthday bums. Reminded me of my younger days :)

After the bums and funny face making competition...it was time to fill our tummies with yummy food...poories and bhaji and other delicious food. Ended with everyone being tired except the kiddos. Fun filled day!! looking forward to Shiridi trip tomorrow...







 

Day 5 - Back to Bhagyanagaram

After a great visit to Laknavaram and Ramappa it was time to head to Bhagyanagaram  to meet N's Shailu atha! Before we head out..we visited N's thathamma and muthathayya gaaru. N's thathamma wanted to feed him some food and brag about the fact that she was able to feed her muni-manavadu (great-grandson). From what i understand and have been told only a few lucky people can do that.

After all the good byes we we headed on our way. on the way we stopped at a tea dhaba and had some tea. Opposite this dhaba there was a temple and here is a pic i captured on my iphone..

Day 4 - Laknavaram Lake and Ramappa Temple

Itinerary of the day was to go to Laknavaram Lake near Warangal to see the "new" hanging bridge that was constructed in an attempt to make the lake area a tourist destination.

Enroute

The drive to Laknavaram was about 1.5 hours from home. The first hour was nice, going through many little towns, with lots of speed bumps but the last half an hour was on quite a bumpy road. It wasn't bad at all considering the visit to the place was fun.

The country side on the way to Ramappa Temple is also very beautiful and green in the month of August. August is the season for replanting the rice crops and the farmers were working hard, plowing the fields . So are the Oxs...

Laknavaram

We reached Lakhnavaram at about 1PM. It had been raining heavily the previous two days and was also drizzling the day of the trip. All that rain made the water muddy and brown. In spite of that, the lake looked beautiful and hanging bridge was good too from the top of the hill, where we parked our car. We climbed down the non-existent steps very carefully to get down to the starting point of the bridge. N was excited to see all that water and the bridge...

The hanging bridge is constructed on a lake spanning about 10000 acres and consists of about 13 islands or so, I've been told. The water is usually not as high as you see in this pic. All that rain had raised the water levels and the boat rides were canceled due to that.

We missed out on the boat rides but we did have "garam garam mirchi bajjis". N wanted to put the wood into the fire and the Mirchi bajji waala agreed to let him do that. While the bajji waala made fried bajjis, N added "fuel to the fire"...wood to the fire. We bought all the bajjis that the guy made and devoured them for every one was hungry and lunch was not served yet :)

The gang that visited the temple..Left to right 

N's Grandpa, N's Uncle, N's Aunt, N's Cousin Yashasvi, N, N's Chinna Baamma, N's Ammamma (my Athayya), N's Amma...and of course the photographer himself..yeh!

After the bajjis we wanted to find a place to eat lunch and decided to head to Ramappa temple, have lunch and see the temple...

Ramappa Temple, Warangal, India

I cannot do justification on writing up my own description of the Ramappa's Shiva temple, but here are some interesting details...it truly is an architectural marvel in those days and I think it is till date a marvel. We hired a tour guide, and he explained the sculptures, and believe me, they need explanation. It is one of the best Rs. 200 I've spent. The details of the sculptures are so rich, without someone who knows the details explain the significance of the sculptures, most won't comprehend the workmanship of those days.

Ramappa Temple

The temple was dated to have been constructed in 13th century during the period when Kakatiya ruler Ganapati Deva was the ruler. The design was conceived by Ramappa, one of the well known sculptor at that time, was constructed on a star shaped platform which was known to be the symbol of the Kakatiya kings. One of the most interesting facts about the temple is the roof of the garbhagudi (Sanctum Sanctorum) is made of bricks that float on water (although they look white from plastering by the Architectural Society of India to preserve the bricks). The reason for that is, the temple is constructed on a ground that is mostly sand and hence the temple had to be light. Nice thinking Ramappa...

Although I couldn't capture the  details of the Garbhagudi  as, like any other hindu temple, photography of the garbhagudi was prohibited, there is another interesting detail about this temple's garbhagudi. Usually in all the temples, without an alternate source of light than the sunlight, the garbhagudi is dark. In this temple, the garbhagudi gets the same amount of light as the temple's courtyard. The four pillars of the temple are placed in such a way that the sunlight reflects from the surface of these pillars and enters the garbhagudi. Another reason for the amount of reflection from the surface of the pillars is because they are made of granite and the surfaces are sanded very very smooth, an amazing skill, considering there are no stone sanders in those days. 

Right side of the
door frame

The garbhagudi dwara bandhamu (door frame to the sanctum sanctorum) has very unique features. The dwaram is sculpted from three rocks, left side of the door is from one rock, the top from one and the right side from another. On the left side of the frame is a sculpture of a lady that has a posture welcoming people into the temple and the right side to indicate the completion of the darshanam. This is all good, what is the speciality of the door, you ask? The left portion of the door frame has a tree sculpted, the trunk of which is hollow! Yes, hollow. Not only it is hollow it makes various musical notes when tapped at different sections of the tree. Carving such a hollow tree trunk from a single stone with the rest of the sculptures without any joins, in my opinion is amazing. 

There are three entrances to the temple, East, North, South. The three temple entrances have about 24 sculptures of beautiful Apsaras in various dance postures, connecting the roof and the pillars. These are meant not only for beautifying the temple but also meant for supporting the temple courtyard structure. As the tour guide described, the women in those days were, what we call today, fashionistas. They used to wear mini skirts and heels...and tops...well...you see for yourself!

The sculptures are very detailed. The intricate details of the jewelry that the apsaras have on them are sculpted very skillfully. Note, each of these amazing sculptures are carved out of single stone. It contains details in the face such as dimpled cheeks, chins etc. On the legs, the knee caps are even sculpted.



Mind blowing art!!

This apsara has a notable fact, other than the exquisite jewelry sculpted. Note the big toe of her right leg. It is bent forward depicting the stylish standing posture.  

 This one is "veta kanya"! yeah, women used to hunt in those days too. To appreciate the skill of the sculptors, here is a fact about this sculpture. Note the left foot...like in real life when we pull out a thorn from the feet you would see the a slight bulge on the foot, these details of the thorn being pulled out and the bulge in the bottom of the foot when the thorn is pulled out is carved into this stone. Amazing, right? I know.

The details of this one is equally amazing...this one is very detailed. This is another master piece, "Naga Kanya". This is the only sculpture that has a white face and the fierceness of the snake is depicted in her face and eyes. There are many other such details and I'll leave it up to you to figure out...




 
Observe this piece of art...see anything peculiar? If you haven't already noticed, three dancers are depicted in this sculpture...what is uncommon is, if you look closely, only four legs are sculpted instead of six legs to depict three dancers. Absolutely mind blowing...right?

The epic event of Gajaasura Samhaaram by Lord Shiva is sculpted onto the ceiling. This is just one of the epic events that I captured. There are also pictures of other events skillfully sculpted onto the ceiling of the temple courtyard...

Most of you must already know that the Nandis in Shiva temples usually face the garbhagudi but the Kakatiya's depicted the Nandi a little differently. Instead of the Nandi's face, Nandi's ears are facing the Lord, awaiting his instructions or commands. Interesting huh!?!?

One of the pillars of the temple courtyard. Like I said before there are four pillars in the courtyard of the temple with exquisite art forms. All the pillars of the temple are sculpted perfectly except one. The left east side face of one of the pillars has a fault..a big dimple in the stone. This is supposed to have done deliberately and strategically placed where it is, by Ramappa to ward off "dristhi" from people visiting the temple. You would notice it as soon as you enter the temple from the east side, which was the normal entrance in those days. (Note: this pic is not the pic of that drishti pillar)

On one of the pillars, Ramappa and team sculpted thirteen tiny little hole into the art work. Not many know the significance of why only 13 were carved. The holes are so tiny that only things that are 1mm thick would go thorough those holes..from what i have noticed. I used a small fiber from coconut shell to depict this fact..!


There are many more such interesting and amazing facts about this temple. Although this is a long article, hope you've enjoyed reading this...


Heading to Bhagyanagaram a.k.a Hyderabad.