Gods, heroes and other things.....

For quite some time, my mind has been facing a total outage. It refused to think beyond daily “things-to-do” and blogging was procrastinated to “better” times. But the entire buzz this weekend was difficult to stay away from, because it was marked by two very different events that showcased how Bangalore voraciously celebrated a contemporary event while still holding on to its roots, with equal gusto.

Bangalore’s traditional festival, known as the Oora Habba, was celebrated in certain parts of the city, where local communities please the Gods with festivities and rituals, to look after the well-being of the people.

Witnessing this was like taking a time travel back in history where hundreds of people, largely agrarian, used to pray for a good harvest. The sheer scale and splendor of the Oora Habba procession was a visual treat indeed!

 

 Hero worship has always been in our system. We have always reveled in the thought of some superpower saving us from “whatever that is troubling us” and therefore wonderful stories about super heroes and evil villains, were narrated and handed over through generations in the form of mythologies. And then came America unleashing its creativity and bringing us a whole new set of characters to worship and abhor.

 This weekend, true to its identity as the quintessential metropolis that balances traditional and contemporary, Bangalore hosted the Comic Con fest that brought together the best artists & writers of the country.

 

And for our own reading, we took back 2 comics. 

"Zeus and the rise of the Olympians" by Campfire (with its stunning graphics, this is already turning out to be an awesome read)

and the second one which I'am most excited about,

"Ravanayan" - a new comic book series by Holy Cow Entertainment, that retells Valmiki’s classic epic from the point of view of its antagonist - Ravana (finnnne, the man did get tempted, but there was more to him!). And from the look of it, this might make the "Avengers" seem small.

(Pic courtesy: http://www.holycow.in/ravanayan/)

Let the learning begin....

Many many years ago, on this full moon day, Lord Shiva, the first Yogi of the world, decided to become a Guru. Ofcourse, it wasn't an overnight decision. While many gave up on receiving Lord Shiva's attention, seven people stood up to this mission. After 84 years of intense sadhana, the Guru took notice of them and acknowledged that they were finally ready. Thus began the transmission of Yogic science.

We celebrate this special full moon day as Guru Poornima. The chosen day when immense learning happens, if we are receptive.

This day takes me back to the moment I took this picture of the west face of Mount Kailash. It was breathtaking with a rock formation at the front, resembling Nandi - the Gate keeper of Shiva's abode, and couple of stone formations resembling the seven rishis at the extreme right corner.

While enjoying this sight, shooting a picture was the last thing on my mind. I barely managed!

A slice of Paradise!

My next destination from Cochin, was Kerala’s most famous tourist destination popularly known as the “Venice of the East” – Alappuzha (pronouncing this requires some tongue acrobats and therefore you can keep it simple -  Allepey) J

According to one of the popular myths around its origin, Kerala  is believed to be reclaimed from the sea by Parasurama – a warrior sage also believed to be the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

And the legend goes like this - Parasurama kills all the male Kshatriyas (ruling caste) on earth to deliver the world  from their arrogant oppression.  After destroying the Kshatriya kings, he approaches an assembly of learned men to find a way of penitence for his sins. He is advised that, to save his soul from damnation, he must hand over the lands he had conquered to the Brahmins.

Therefore he starts from Gokarna (near present Goa), reaches Kanyakumari (Tamilnadu) and throws his axe northward across the ocean. The place where the axe lands is Kerala.

Flanked by the Arabian sea on one side and a web of rivers on the other, Allepey does seem like the place where Parasuram’s axe ACTUALLY fell,  therefore, cutting it off from the mainland. 

Finding a place to stay in Allepey during the Christmas/New year holidays, requires a bit of planning upfront. And of course all prices are premium at this time of the year.

Therefore after scouring through a bunch of places to stay, we zeroed upon the Casamaria Beach Resort based on feedback from tripadvisor.com.

Contrary to its fancy name, Casamaria is a simple place with basic home stay comfort. This place is run by a small team of friendly staff and I realized that the sheer warmth of this place was the reason why many visitors from within and outside India thronged here.

After a sumptuous lunch at the Dreamer’s café by the beach, our boat journey began right at the heart of the Alappuzha town.  And from here we proceeded into an unbelievable expanse of waters, the Punnamada lake, that forms part of the Vembanad backwaters, believed to be the largest inland water body in Asia.

The houseboats of Kerala are totally eco-friendly and made of wood, coconut fibre, bamboo poles, ropes and bamboo mats. And not a single nail is used in the making of these boats!

American adventure tourist Jason Williams while talking about his country boat cruise says “You slither through the water silently because you don’t want to disturb the mauve hyacinths among which the fish thrive….”

Life in Allepey is quite laid back and simple. However one should not misunderstand this simplicity with backwardness.

Legends apart, Kerala stands first in Human Development Index among the states in India.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. Only two countries in the world (Norway and Australia) have higher HDI than Kerala as per 2011 reports.

And all this with a much lower per capita income than the developed countries!

After a couple of hours on the boat, you can stop by one of the shops by the banks for some hot chai or karimeen or plain tender coconut water. And that is exactly what we did. The coconut vendor further entertained us with his giant pet and happily posed for the camera as well.

In about 4 hours, our backwater cruise came to an end, and indeed, I was wishing for more!