Saturday, October 30, 2010

A Different Bird I shot


(Click on the picture to see it in bigger size)

This bird was there in the sunshade of the building just behind my backyard and waited till I got my camera and shot it.... Waited there for me to take atleast a couple of shots..... before disappearing into the sky.......

My dad said it could be Rajali Eagle. Comment in if you know what bird it is!!!

For the original photo, in actual size, please click here

Monday, August 9, 2010

Around Bangalore - Part 1 - Melkote Cheluve Narayana

Been to small weekend getaway to Melkote and few other temples recently.


We started from Bangalore early on Saturday morning and the first destination was Melkote.


Melkote:


Thirunarayanapuram, as it is also called, is around 133 KMs from Bangalore, in Mandhya District and is built on Yadavagiri. The route after you take a right turn from the Mysore Highway is extremely beautiful with all trees and field, resembling the route between Thanjore and Kumbakonam.....So beautiful and so nostalgic.




There are two beautiful temples here. One is Cheluva Narayana Temple and on the top of the hill is 'Yoga Narashimhar Temple'. Before I go into the history of these temples... let me introduce you to the deities of the temple and shall gradually move into its history.


The presiding deity or 'Moolavar' of the temple is 'Thiru Narayana' and Processional deity or 'Utsavar' is call 'Selva Pillai' or 'Sampath Kumara' and is housed in Rangamandapa. Legend has it that, the moolavar was held in workship by Bhrahma and the Utsavar was workshipped by Lord Sri Rama and then by his son 'Kusha', in Ayodhya. Hence the utsavar is also called 'Ramapriya'. It is also to be noted that, this utsavar was brought and installed in Melkote by none other than Lord Sri Krishna.

Taken from internet

Taken from internet


During one of the early mughal raid in the region, the earlier yadavagiri temple was almost demolished and the mughal king took the Utsavar to Delhi. The moolavar was displaced and eventually went missing (actually was covered by sand and eventually engulfed by a snake house (paambu puthu).

During the early 12 century conflict between Saivaite and Vaishnavites, Ramanujar fled from Srirangam to escape the threat and possible arrest by the Chola king (quite possibly, 2nd kulothunga chozhan) who had turned into a fanatic Saivaite to Mysore and is said to have lived around here and Thonnur for approx. 14 years making it a very important vaishnavite pilgrimage site.

When Ramanujar was living in Thonnur or thondanur, it was mainly a Jain prominent area and was ruled by H.H. Sri Vittala Devarayan. It is said that the princess was suffering from a uncurable Delusion (siddha bramai), Ramanujar cured her. The most pleased king became a follower of Ramanujar and was eventually embraced vaishnavism. He got renamed as Vishnuvardhan.

It is also said that, the 12,000 jains living there wanted to test Ramanujar and he morphed himself into the 10,000 adhisesha from behind a curtain near the narashimhar sannidhi in thonnur temple and answer everyones questions and won them all. All 12,000 of them embrased vaishnavism. Due to the sudden formation of the community, they lacked 'Sriman' for everyone. Lord appreared in Ramanujar's dream and asked him to go to a nearby village called 'Yadavagiri' or 'Yadhugiri', as Sriman is available there in abundance.

Note: Even today, after almost 1000 years, sriman is still available in Melkote.

When Ramanujar and all his disciples did milk abhisekham to the snake house there, the moolavar thirunarayanar idol exposed itself from inside and with the help of King Vishnuvardhan, Ramanujar has the temple rebuilt. The lord came in Ramanujar's dream again and asked him to retrieve his utsavar 'Ramapriya' from the Mughal king in Delhi. Ramanujar went to Delhi, won over the king and the king showed him his entire collection of idol he had confiscated, but Ramanujar was not able to find Ramapriya idol.

The lord again came in the upset Ramanujar's dream and asked him to check the palace of the princess. When Ramanujar indicated that to the king, the much surprised king took him to his daughter's palace and there she was worshiping the Ramapriya idol. When Ramanujar brought it back, the princess also came along and became one with the lord. Hence there is a sannidhi for Bibi Nachiyar in the temple.


Taken from internet

That is the story of the Cheluve Narayana Temple.

The Vairamudi Sevai in the month of March-April is very famous here. The image of Selvappillai is adorned with a beautiful diamond crown and taken out in procession.

The traditional belief is that, this crown is not to be looked at, when it is not worn by perumal; Hence, before the sevai, the chief/ represented priest is blindfolded before he picks up the crown from its chest till placing it upon the head of the image of Selvappillai. Thousands congregate to celebrate this grand occasion each year and the beauty of perumal is magnified multitude times with the crown on his head.
Taken from internet

History of Vairamudi

Legend has it that, this Vairamudi was worn by Sriman Narayanan himself in Paar Kadal (Sheera Sagara or Milky Ocean). During early dwapara yuga, Prahlada's son, Virochana, who was a demon, like his grandfather, stole it and to it to the paadala loka.

Lord summoned Garuda to retrieve it from Virochana. Garuda fought Virochana and returned with the crown. When he was flying above Thanjavur, a big blue gem fell from the crown near Nachiar Koil and turned into a stream. The stream even flows today in Thanjavur and is called 'Mani Muthaaru'.

When Garuda was flying over Brindavan, saw Baala Krishnan playing with his friends in mid day sun. To protect him from the sun he spread his wing over him and placed the crown on his head, before returning to Sheera Sagara.

Lord Krishna, in the later years, took the Utsavar, Chella Pillai from Ayodhya and installed it in Melkote. He adorned the Chella pillai image with that diamond crown which Garuda gave him.

It is celebrated as a huge Bhramhotsava for almost 13 days. It is also said that the vaira mudi should not be exposed to daylight, so the same is brought under extreme tight security in a palenquin and is fitted on lord by the chief priest, who covers his eyes with a silk cloth till he places it on perumal's head.


Taken from internet


Taken from internet

I will follow this with the other related temples & places like, Narashimha temple, Thonnur, etc.....

Om Namo Narayanaya!!!!!

Disclaimer Note: I have indicated those photos taken from internet just below the photo. The credit for such photos goes only to the actual owners. Thanks a lot for allowing me to share it here. Incase you have any issue me using in any of the images that I took from net, please write to me seperately with reason and I will consider the same.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Took Delivery of my bike!!!!



I took delivery of my bike today!!! I couldn't take my eyes of her. Took it for a test ride before actually taking delivery, to ensure brake etc. was OK. Everything was just perfect and the ride was butter smooth.

Took it to the nearby Ganesha temple in the evening and did pooja. (The gurukal said "yagnyopavitham mandram" also in-between..... don't understand why??? ) He probably would have thought I wouldn't be knowing even ABC of madiram (from my looks!!!) or it is actually part of the rituals to vehicles in Karnataka.

Anyways!!! completed all rituals and took my wife for a big ride around Bangalore. Had dinner outside and came back!!!

I will write the dinner part separately in my next post!!! Please see the photos of my bike below. I know it is almost like part by part description....who cares..... I am just crazy about it now !!!

P.S. Please click of the individual images to see the enlarged view.....





















Saturday, April 10, 2010

My New Suzuki GS150R

After much of deliberation, research, discussions... I have booked my first bike, the New Suzuki GS150R - It did drive me crazy!!!!!

It is stylish of the lot and highly composite for a normal public. Its design is muscular, instantly attractive and it has a good built. I almost fell in love with it at the first sight itself !!!!!

The wolf-eyed headlight, the muscular fuel tank, its unique 6 gear transmission (with 1st down and rest 5 up shift pattern), the new digital speedo meter with gear indicator, the butter smooth ride are the catching features of this bike.

Fell in love for the second time when I took it for a test drive......

I chose the Pearl Nebular Black.

More on this, with actual photos and details after I take delivery of the bike today. Stay Tuned!!!!!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Create Invisible Folder

With this you can create and invisible folder that you can put on your desktop or withing another folder. You can’t see it but if you know where it is you can double-click it and view its contents.

1. Right click where ever you want the invisible folder to be, go to new, then click on folder.
2. Turn numlock
 ON, select the name, and hold Alt and press 0160, then release Alt. This should make a character that looks like a space, but it isn’t.
3. Now right click the folder you just made and go to properties. Then go to the Customize tab. Then press the Change Icon button. Scroll through the icons until you find one that has no image (a blank space in the icons, any one will do).
4. Hit OK and you have an invisible folder!

Now you can put anything you want in there… If you can’t find it, just select the entire folder/desktop and there will be a little blue rectangle below the invisible icon (the folder).

If you put it on your desktop it might show the folder for a second or two upon startup. For this reason I recommend putting it inside another folder.

Amazing MS Word tricks - 'Word' of mouth Gyan

Adding Horizontal Dividers in Word

To add a variety of horizontal dividers in Word, type three characters and press enter.

Hyphens ( - - - )

Underscores ( ___ )

Equal Signs ( === )

Hash Signs ( ### )

Asterisks ( *** )

Tildes ( ~~~ )

Type Out a Table in Word

You can create tables in Microsoft Word by simply typing out a string of PLUS SIGNS (+) and MINUS SIGNS (-).

Start the row with a PLUS SIGN (+) and then type MINUS SIGN (-) until you have the column width you want. If you want to add a new column, type PLUS SIGN (+) again. When you’re done type a final PLUS SIGN (+) and press ENTER. Word turns your text into a table. To add more rows to your table, move to the last cell in the table and press TAB.

Filling Word Documents with Pretend Text

If you want to fill a page(s) with text to test something like printing, but don’t want to spend time pasting the same phrase over and over,

Type in =rand(x,y) and press “enter“ .

Where x and y are replaced by numbers.
X would be the number of paragraphs.
Y would be the number of sentences in a paragraph.
The text that gets generated is ‘
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.’

Select a vertical block of text

Press Alt + drag

Quickly Replicate Text or Graphics in Word

Here’s a quick way to make copies of text or graphics in Word:

1.     Select the item or text you want to copy.

2.     Press and hold down the CTRL key.

3.     Then use the mouse to drag the item to the desired position.

A copy of the original item is made right where you want it. This is helpful when you’re creating a document that will include a lot of repeated text or images.

Quickly Change Font Size in Office

To quickly change the font size in your Office application (Word, Front Page, Publisher or PowerPoint):

1.     Highlight the text you want to change

2.     Press: CTRL+SHIFT+> - To Increase the size    CTRL+SHIFT+< - To Decrease the size

Use your keyboard to quickly change the case of text in Microsoft Word

Select the text you want to change and press SHIFT+F3. Each time you press the F3 key, the text case switches between Title Case, UPPERCASE, and lowercase.

Insert Current Date and Time in Word

You can insert the current date or time in a Word document using keyboard shortcuts. Here’s how:

1.     Position the cursor where you want to insert the date or time.

2.     Do one of the following:

To insert the date, press ALT+SHIFT+D.
To insert the time, press ALT+SHIFT+T.

Close all word documents without closing Word

Shift + click the File menu then select Close All

Shift + clicking on the File menu give one more option Save All

Return to the last place you were working

Return to the last place you were working or the place before that or before that.

Press Shift + F5 repeatedly to return to last 5 cursor positions (even if one of those positions is in another open document).

This one’s even cleverer, when you first open a document, press shift + F5 to jump to the last place you or someone else edited before closing the document.

Cycle through all open documents

To cycle through all open documents press Ctrl + F6 +F6 +F6….

It works for Photoshop and others applications as well.

Whether you’re saving a file or opening a file try these shortcuts

Alt + 1 Go to previous folder

Alt + 2 Go up one folder level

Alt + 3 Search the web

Alt + 4 or Delete deletes selected file

Alt + 5 Create a new folder

Alt + 6 repeatedly Cycle through all views

Alt + 7 Display the Tools menu

Determining the Formatting in Word

To determine what formatting is applied to a particular paragraph in Word:

·         Go to Help / What’s This?

·         When the cursor changes to a question mark, click on the paragraph.

·         Information such as font and size, alignment, indent, spacing and margins will show.

Reducing the File Size of Word Documents

If you have make documents using MS Word and you make many formatting changes for the paragraph, fonts, page etc., you will see your file size gets bigger. Microsoft Word saves files by blocking, so any change you made for your document it will create a new block with the new formatting and disappear the old block without deleting it from the file.

You can solve this problem.

1.     If you open your file and select File \ Save As and give your file a new name, it will save only the active blocks with out the old ones.

2.     If you compare the two files you will see a difference in size

There is, however, a much easier way.

·         Choose Tools

·         Options…

·         Open the Save tab

·         Uncheck Allow Fast Saves

This makes Word rewrite the entire document file from scratch each time it is saved. The save command takes slightly longer, but your files can be drastically smaller (especially if you’ve done lots of formatting changes).