Kempfort Shiva Temple

A landmark location in Old Airport Road, Bangalore is Kempfort Shiva Temple. During one of my recent visits, I took a few close ups of the magnificent and majestic 65 foot open air idol of Lord Shiva. Sharing the same here.

All of the Shiva photos were shot by me with Panasonic Lumix TZ3 camera in broad day light.

The mega idol is portrayed in sitting posture or padmasan, with all others spares in proportional sizes. There is also ganga on the 'jada mudi' of the lord (which was off when I captured these photos). I was told that, during various occasions the 'ganga' is set of and it looks even more magnificent to see water flowing from that height.... 

The full view of the lord. Click on the image (any image) to see their original size...

Few more views of the lord 

Look at the magnitude of the view from right beneath him.

Close up view of Ganga Devi on the topknot of Shiva (in Off mode)

A close up of the Jada Mudi, Trinetra, Chandra and Ganga..... 

Look at the curls of his hair....awesome is not the word

A close up of the his extra right hand - holding the trishul

The snake in his neck.

 The left hand holding the 'Udukkai'

A beautiful close up of the padmasan posture....

Note the shape of the thighs, the calf muscle and legs....they are so realistic... even the nails and the back of fingers in both his legs and hands....

The massive rudraksh garland... Each ball of rudraksh is made of many hundreds of normal sized rudraksh to get that size.....

On the right side of the Shiva idol, is a massive Ganesha

The huge moonjur with a big modak at the foot of Ganesh

Mysore Trip - Set 3 - Lalit Mahal Palace

The Lalit Mahal Palace, is very close Chamundi Hills (which we could not visit during this trip). We were told my its manager, that it was built in 1921 by Krishna Raja Wadiyar (1884 - 1940), the then Maharaja of Mysore, excusively for the stay of then Viceroy of India.


Below are few of the photo taken by me in the palace.


A view of the chandelier 

This carpet was stitched by our freedom fighters in the jail and was used in one of the halls. After independence, as a respect to all those freedom fighters, this carpet has been hung on the wall outside the main bedroom, which is now like the presidential suite.

A beautiful night lamp...in that suite....

Dressing table in that room

A teak wood cupboard in that room

Bath tub with shower setup used by the Viceroy

Myself and Rakesh in the teak + silk sofa in the main suite...

The Master Bed

The paneled lift with sofa..... wow!!!! what a feel it was to go in it......This lift was imported from Otis England and is still maintained by the Hotel in working condition.

The identity plate inside the lift..

This is the main stairway made of Italian Marble


Ashok John & I with Raghuraman Sir (2nd from left; next to me)

Mysore Trip Set 2 - Mysore Palace - Includes Rare Photos

Our Visit to the Palace

Mr. Raghuraman, who is part of SDM Institute's administration and a person who lived in Mysore for a long time, was nice enough to accompany us in touring around Mysore and had too many information about Mysore to share.

The palace, standing majestically, on that cloudy evening, posing for my Panasonic Lumix TZ3

Though I am a amateur photographer, I am a little fanatic about it and I am crazy about trying to get the best out of my sexy camera.....I was trying out the zoom of my camera and checking its reach - its a 10x optical zoom @ 12 MP, but can be stretched upto 60x @ 5 MP including digital. Trust me it is quite stable even at that zoom, if you are a little used to it....

I shall be increasing the zoom gradually in the next couple of snaps...

The gaurds of the palace..... you should see the carving of their body and the fury in their eyes...... You will thank god that they aren't real.....

Now comes the restricted section I was talking about. Thanks to SDM institute for getting permission to see this room....

There were two part for the room that we went..... Both were completely restricted and provided access on special approval only for high profile visitors......and they clearly said no snaps .....

They made us enter the first room, which was very dark. The guide (a history professor actually) came in and locked the door from inside first....Now the room was pitch dark... only with a very very strong smell of Teak wood & its varnish.

Then he switched on and we were awe struck to see a beautiful armory. It had all kinds of weapons including those of Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali.

They had the original boxing gloves (metal ones with sharp teeths). There was also a pair of weapon which can be contracted and expanded after piercing into someone's body. So, if it is pierced into the enemies stomach, expanded inside the stomach, twisted a little and pulled out.... it will come out with the complete intestinal system......you should see it to believe it......

The entire sealing was made of teak and one person is specially appointed for cleaning and varnishing it at regular intervals. It was shining as it it was only constructed yesterday......

The next room is where all the animals that were hunted by the Honorable Wodeyars were kept. Thankfully, the professor was kind enough to let us take a few snaps here.....

The first one is the head of a elephant, that the king hunted.

This was the pet dog of the wodeyar..... click on it to see it size......

Mysore Trip - Set 1 - SDM Institute

We went for a official meet on behalf of Custommerce - a tink tank forum organised by SDM Institute and Servion (my company), to identify & discuss major challenges we face in Customer Interaction related industries and arrive at possible strategies to handle such challenges.

Last year we had a special event for Middle and Senior Managers alone at SDM Institute of Management, Mysore.

We had a real nice time during and after the event.... A fews snaps and details are below.

We were privileged & enthralled to touch and feel a 1965 model Benz 200 in the premises of SDM.

A Quick History about Merc 200:

Following the huge success of the the 190 series (over 350,000 cars in 1961), Merc did a face-lift to it and announced a more powerful 200 series in 1965. It has a Fintail rear wings and angular styling.

This one has a column mounted gear, dual circuit brakes with front discs. It was petrol engined and had a twin-carb. It produced around 95bhp.

It was famously called as the "Fintail" 200.

Our team for a few snaps....

A beautiful Nataraja in their Cafeteria

The next set details aour visit to the Mysore palace and thanks to SDM management and Mr. Raghuraman, who was kind enough to take us to a few previleged sections of the palace (restricted to common public)