Back of the Blog - Indian Architecture by Takeo Kamiya

We all travel. If you are interested in visiting places which showcase India's heritage like us, then chances are that you need to do lot of research to get details about the place. These are places which are outstanding from Architectural perspective, places where we get amazed at the beauty of the buildings, sculptures etc.

Few years ago we chanced upon a gem of a book on Indian Architecture by Mr. Takeo Kamiya. A well-known Japanese architect, he has done yeoman's service in documenting India's architectural heritage in simple and lucid way with lot of pictures. Ever since we saw this book, it has been a constant companion when we travel. 

Here are few pictures from his book.

Chalukya Temples in Lakkundi, Karnataka

Bara Imambra complex, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

Palace with Clock tower, Murshidabad, West Bengal

Jami Masjid, Champaner, Gujarat

There is also a website which gives all details. Here is the link.

Architecture of Indian Subcontinent

But the book is useful and convenient. You can carry it wherever you go. Get one and you will not regret it.

Skywatch Friday - Srinagar (Kashmir) from Taj

Everyone knows that Srinagar is a beautiful place. No doubt about it. But we are not sure whether many visitors have had an chance to see the panoramic view of the city. One such place where you can get a fantastic view of the city is from Taj Vivanta hotel which is perched on a hill. We clicked this picture on a morning in August. Sky was overcast, else we would have seen the lovely Himalayas as backdrop. The best month to get a view of the city with snow bound mountains as backdrop should be early summer. The colourful roof of Kashmir houses add beauty to this picture. 

It reminds me what Muzaffar, our chauffeur in Srinagar said about Kashmir "Jannat hai saab" (It is heaven sir!). He is not wrong.

If you are interested to read on othere posts on Kashmir in this blog, please click on this link below.

Kashmir

Human Watching @ Lalbagh, Bangalore

Lalbagh is one place we go very often. Sometimes during the week and definitely on the weekends. A run in the morning in the cool and salubrious garden is energising. Though it gets crowded over the weekends, it is still a lovely place.

On one of the weekends, we thought we will walk around with a camera in hand. The aim was to capture the sights. It was a great experience and human watching can be interesting activity. You can see them in the following pictures. As the adage - A picture is worth thousand words - goes these pictures capture the mood of "morningers" in Lalbagh!

Next time around, when you are in Lalbagh, indulge in a bit of human watching!

Skywatch Friday - Sculptures in Melkote

Melkote or Melukote is a small sleepy town 120 KMs from Bangalore. 

It s a charming place blessed with lovely landscape, beautiful temples, a small hillock with a temple atop, holy tank which is ten times a modern swimming pool and exquisite sculptures on temple pillars. A place which still looks as if not touched by the so called "growth". It is a single street town. The life in the town revolves around the Cheluvaraya Swamy temple.  

We have been to Melkote many times. When we went there few months back, we marvelled at the panel of sculptures on the boundary wall of the terrace of temple. These sculptures depicts different deities from Indian mythology. When you look closely at the individual sculptures, you will appreciate their beauty. 

Many visitors to Melkote miss out this lovely museum of sculptures. Next time when you visit Melkote, don't forget to look up and look at them.

Road trip Vigenettes - Cricket bats from Kashmir

We all have played cricket and love the game. Did you ever remember where does the bat you use come from? I for one always thought that the bats were either from Meerut or Ludhiana. 

That was till we saw them in Kashmir! Lots!

When we drove down the highway connecting Srinagar and Jammu, we noticed shops selling Cricket bats near Avantipora. We are surprised as we never knew that Kashmir also manufactured Cricket bats. Abid, our driver said that we get some of the best bats in Kashmir. He has played club level cricket in Kashmir and missed out chance in Ranji team. So i had to trust his words. What is interesting is that Avantipora and surrounding towns are well known for manufacturing top quality Cricket bats from Kashmir Willow.

We could not go to one of the manufacturing units as it was very early in the morning. We could however see pieces of Kashmir willow piled up in the factories on the roadside. We stopped at a small shop to check out thee bats. They were quite good.

Next time when you are driving between Srinagar and Jammu do stop at Avantipora and check out how the cricket bats are manufactured. It is quite interesting. Pick up a bat for your little ones. They would just love it.

Back of the Blog - Mahanavami Dibba, Hampi

Today is Mahanavami or the ninth day of Navaratri. We were remembering our visit to Hampi and the "Mahanavami Dibba" two years back. 

"Dibba" in Kannada means "High Ground". This is the tallest structure and hence the first thing you see in the Royal enclosure. It looks like a ordinary elevated stage from distance. Go near and you will be surprised at the amount of detail that has gone on to its walls. A high stage built in the royal enclosure, this was used by the king to inspect the royal processions during Navaratri, which was celebrated as "Nada Habba" or "State Festival" by Vijayanagar Kings. We remember climbing up the stairs, which is is highly decorated on either sides with carvings of elephants, horses and other things. Once you reach the top, you have panoramic view of the royal enclosure. The most interesting part of the "Dibba" are the side walls which are nothing but lovely bas relief with sculptures showing the day today life in the kingdom. One can also see the envoys of China, Portugal and Arabia in these reliefs.

The festival of Navaratri was celebrated with pomp and splendour during the reign of great king Krishnadevaraya. It is believed that the king built this stage or Dibba for inspecting the royal procession during Navaratri and other festive occasions. These processions were the forerunners to present day Mysore Dasara procession.

On the ninth day of Navaratri, here is wishing you all best wishes on the occasion. Next time when you roam in the ruins of Hampi, don't forget to see "Mahanavami Dibba"!

For more posts on Dasara and Navaratri you may look at the following posts in this blog 

Dasara in India

For more information on Hampi, you may look at the following posts in this blog

a) Karnataka Heritage Trails

b) Hampi wonders and Sandur splendours

Skywatch Friday - Dal lake, Srinagar

Dal lake in Srinagar is truly beautiful. It is so huge that it looks almost like an ocean. Bound by hills, it must rank as one of most prettiest lakes in the country. The house boats anchored at different places, shikaras moving slowly on the lake adds to the beauty of the lake,

We took this picture from Nishat gardens. It was evening and sky was overcast. There was a lone shikara anchored in the lake and it was a lovely complement to the arch in the foreground.

Watching a wrestling match in Mysore Dasara!

It is Dasara time. Mysore is all glitter for the next one week. The royal city is at its best during this time. The Palace is gloriously lit. There is a festive atmosphere all around. The city is decked up. If you don't mind the crowd, this is the best time to be in Mysore.

There are many things happening in the city during this week. The classical music concerts in the palace, the dasara exhibition and stage performances, sports meet, celebrations inside the palace and the grand finale on Vijaya dashami day when Goddess Chamundeshwari is taken in procession through the streets of Mysore.

One thing that has caught the fancy of people of late is the Dasara Wrestling competition. Started by Wodeyars during their reign of Mysore, it is one of the biggest championships of Indian-style wrestling (“Nada Kushti”) in the country, it attracts wrestlers from the entire State. Wrestlers from other States also come here to participate. Every year it evokes tremendous response from spectators to watch muscle-flexing wrestlers from across the State fight for supremacy in traditional bouts. On an average, 26 traditional bouts will take place every day and 400 wrestlers compete for the coveted prize.

Not many visitors make a trip to Devaraj Urs stadium where the wrestling bouts happen. But it is worth every second to feel the intense atmosphere of local community and be part of them.

The traditional wrestling in Mysore is a dying art. There are very few passionate wrestlers trying to keep tradition alive. One can visit the "Garadi" or "Akhada" (wrestling school) in the city. Royal Mysore Walks organise visits to these places. You can look at this link in this blog for more details.

Heritage Walks in Mysore

This time when you are in Mysore don't miss watching a bout on muddy floors of Devaraj Urs stadium. We found two interesting photo feature on Mysore Wrestlers by Nitin Vishwas and Raghuram Ashok. Here is the link for it.

Wrestlers of Mysore by Nitin Vishwas

Muscle Men of Mysore by Raghuram Ashok

Photo courtesy - Muralidharan Alagar. You can visit his photostream for some brilliant pictures and his photography blog here.

Light and Life 

Poetry for Eyes - My journey in Arts and Photography

Skywatch Friday - Vistas of Kashmir Valley

The drive from Srinagar to Jammu is a pleasure.

Though we could not do Mughal Road, which was our first choice, we were surprised at the amazing vistas on the regular route from Srinagar to Jammu.

We could not resist to stop and click this one.

Back of the blog - Coffee Corner, Kottigehara

Back of the blog. Here we will share tit-bits and snippets on India Travel which may be useful for a traveller in India. It may be some new information about the place, a new cuisine one can explore, a bit of history, a funny anecdote or a good travel book. Anything connected to Travel in India. 

We are coffee aficionados. Give us good coffee and we love every sip of it. The pity is one does not get good coffee everywhere. What do you do when you are on a road trip but want to stop for a cup of coffee?

You have an excellent place to stop over if you are driving in Western Ghats between Chikmagalur to Mangalore.  It is "Coffee Corner". We tasted it first when it had just opened. That was three years back. Coffee was fresh and typical South Indian filter type. Ever since, we stop at this place whenever we travel on this road.

We were driving on the same road few months back and stopped over again. It was raining cats and dogs and a good cup of freshly brewed coffee was all that we needed to get energised.

We were not disappointed. The coffee was as good as we had years back. 

You will not miss this spot. This place is between Mudigere and Kottigehara before Banakal if you are coming from Mudigere. The signage is prominent. 

Stop over next time when you are driving on this road for a refreshing cup of coffee. 

In search of Sulemani Chai in Bhopal

We were in Bhopal for a day during our long road trip to Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. A day wasn't sufficient to explore this lovely place, which still retains its old world charm. Bhopal is still laid back and is similar to Lucknow or Hyderabad to some extent. 

Apart from sights of Bhopal, which are lovely, it is also famed for its Nawabi cuisine. Bhopal Khansama is not well known like Hyderabad or Lucknow. But for connoisseurs of good food, it is an amazing place to explore. 

Being veggies, we were at a disadvantage when we moved around the food streets of Old Bhopal. This is a paradise for Non-vegetarians. We knew this. But we were now in search of the authentic Sulemani chai of Bhopal. It is different from Sulemani chais you get elsewhere. Our search ends at Itawar Chowk in Old Bhopal at Jamal Bhai's chai ki Dukaan. 

There is big crowd of chai drinkers at the dukhan. Chai served from a huge samovar something unusual for anyone familiar with the way chai is made in North India. It almost resembled the famous "boiler" which is used in Tamil Nadu in South India for making tea. The tea is sweet and salty, served with dollops of cream! It tastes heavenly. We have one cup first followed by another!

Food street @ Old Bhopal 

We asked Salim to pose with the Chai! 

Kheema roti under preparation

Kebab Bun - Delicacy of Bhopal 

Better do it the way Bhopali does. Eat a "Kebab bun" - another unique dish of Bhopal - or a kheema samosa and wash it with Sulemani Chai! 

Don't miss it when you are in Bhopal next time!

Please check out the Related posts in this blog which may be of interest 

Sumptuous Bhopali breakfast!

A Checklist for Gourmets' travel in India

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