Barbarika, son of Ghatothgacha

The legend begins with the Mahābhārata. Barbarika also known as Khatushyamji was a grandson of Bhima. He was the son of Ghatotkacha (who in turn was son of Bhima) and Ahilavati. Even in his childhood, Barbarika was a very brave warrior. He learnt the art of warfare from his mother. God Shiva, pleased with him, gave him the three infallible arrows (Teen Baan). Hence, Barbarika came to be known by the appellation Teen Baandhaari, the "Bearer of Three Arrows". Later, Agni (the god of Fire) gave him the bow that would make him victorious in the three worlds.

When Barbarika learnt that battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas had become inevitable, he wanted to witness what was to be the Mahābhārata War. He promised his mother that if he felt the urge to participate in the battle, he would join the side which would be losing. He rode to the field on his Blue Horse equipped with his three arrows and bow.

Krishna disguised as a Brahmin and stopped Barbarika to examine his strength. He baited Barbarika by mocking him for going to the great battle with only three arrows. On this, Barbarika replied that a single arrow was enough to destroy all his opponents in the war, and it would then return to his quiver. He stated that, the first arrow is used to mark all the things that he wants to destroy. On releasing the third arrow, it would destroy all the things that are marked and will then return to his quiver. If he uses the second arrow, then the second arrow will mark all the things that he wants to save. On using the third arrow, it will destroy all the things that are not marked. In other words, with one arrow he can fix all his targets and with the other he can destroy them.

Krishna then challenges him to tie all the leaves of the peepal tree under which he was standing with these arrows. Barbarika accepts the challenge and starts meditating to release his arrow by closing his eyes. Then, Krishna without the knowledge of Barbarika, plucks one of the leaf of the tree and puts it under his foot. When Barbarik releases his first arrow, it marks all the leaves of the tree and finally starts revolving around the leg of Krishna. For this Krishna asks Barbarika, as why was the arrow revolving around his foot? For this, Barbareek replies that there must be a leaf under his foot and the arrow was targeting his foot to mark the leaf that is hidden under him. The first arrow pricks Krishna's leg and mark the leaf that is hidden under Krishna's foot. This becomes a weak spot of Krishna. (When Krishna revives Abhimanu's son Parkishit, he looses half of his strength making him even more weaker. Later, a hunter by name Jara hits at Krishna's foot mistaking him for a deer leads to the death of Krishna. In other words, this weak spot on Krishna's foot was first created by Barbareek's arrow.)


Of course, the third arrow does collect all the leaves (including the one under Krishna's foot) and ties them together. By this Krishna concludes that the arrows are so infallible, that even if Barbarika is not aware of his targets, the arrows are so powerful that they can still navigate and trace all his intended targets. The moral of this incident is that, in a real battle field, if Krishna wants to isolate some one (for example: the 5 Pandava brothers) and hides them elsewhere in order to avoid them from being Barbarika's victim, then Krishna will not be successful as the arrows can still trace the target and destroy them. So, nobody will be able to escape from these arrows. Thus Krishna gets a deeper insight about Barbarika's phenomenal power.

Krishna then asks the boy whom he would favour in the war. Barbarika reveals that he intends to fight for the side whichever is weak. As Pandavas have only seven Akshouni army, when compared to Kauravas eleven, he considers that Pandavas are weak and hence wants to support them so that Pandavas will become victorious. But Krishna asks him, did he seriously gave a thought about the consequences before giving such a word to his mother (to support the weak side). Barbarika guesses that his support to the weaker side will make them victorious. Then, Krishna reveals the actual consequence of his word to his mother:

Krishna tells that whichever side he supports will only make the other side weak due to his power. Nobody will be able to defeat him. Hence, he is forced to support the other side that has become weaker due to his word to his mother. Thus, in an actual war, he will keep oscillating between the two sides, there by destroying the entire army of both sides and eventually only he remains. Subsequently, none of the side is victorious as he will be the only lone survivor.

The guised Krishna then sought charity from Babarika. Barbarika promised him anything he wished. Krishna asked him to give his head in charity. Barbarika was shocked. Perceiving that all was not as it appeared, he requested the Brahmin to disclose his real identity. Krishna showed Barbarika a vision of His Divine Form and Barbarika was thus graced. Krishna then explained to him that before a battle, the head of the bravest Kshatriya needs to be sacrificed, in order to worship/sanctify the battlefield. Krishna said that he considered Barbarika to be the bravest among Kshatriyas, and was hence asking for his head in charity. In fulfilment of his promise, and in compliance with the Krishna's command, Barbarika gave his head to him in charity.

Barbareek requested that he wanted to see the battle till its end, and his wish was granted. Thus on the 12th day of Shukla Paksha of Falgun month, he gave his head to Lord Krishna (SHISH DAAN). The head was placed atop a hill near the battlefield from where, Barbareek could watch the whole battle.

When the battle was over and Pandavas having won, they argued amongst themselves as who was responsible for victory. At this, Lord Krishna suggested that Barbareek's head had watched the whole battle, and who else would be a better judge. Barbareek's head suggested that it was Lord Krishna who was responsible for the victory, his advice, his presence, his gameplan had been crucial. He could see only the Sudarshan Chakra revolving around the battlefield which was hacking the Kaurava army to pieces and Draupadi assuming the fearful form of Mahakali Durga was drinking bowl after bowl of blood and was not allowing even one drop of blood to fall on the earth.

Lord Krishna, pleased with Barbareek's great sacrifice, granted him the boon that when Kaliyug descends, he would be worshipped by the name of Shyam in his form. His devotees would be blessed just by pronouncing his name from the bottom of their hearts.

His head was then buried in Khatu. Milk started to flow out of a cow's udder when she reached the spot. Later, the place was dug up, and the head appeared. The head was handed over to a Brahmin who worshipped the head for many days. The King of Khatu had a dream where he was inspired to build a temple and install the head. Subsequently, a temple was built and the head "SHISH" was installed on the 11th day of Shukla Paksha of Kartick month.

Abishek

I was just watching 'Koffee with Karan' season 3 first episode with Aish and Abishek and I realised that if you take Abishek without his family name of Bachan, if we put aside the serious Abishek in 'Guru' and look at Abishek just that tall man you see that he has a unique personality of his own. He is such a fun loving guy and I am glad to see him like that. Why in the world are directors offering him serious roles, just because his father is famous as an angry young man. I think his body language is good for comedies. He is a natural at that why not offer him such roles, hollywood has tons of comedies where the leading man did all the comedy scenes and I think those are the roles which would make a mark. Just take an example of the angry young man Amitabhji himself, his most famous scenes that people still act out are his comedy act of a drunk 'satte pe satta' and his broken english scene from 'Namak Halal'. I would only imagine Abishek in one such scene and it makes me smile. Even the recent angry man Ajay Devagan had great success from 'GolMaal' that he is launching a third movie of it. Sanjay Datt who was famous for action movies is now only referred to as Muunna bhai. I think if Abishek switches to comedies it will do him wonders ... Just saying...

Love and Hate

Love and Hate are synonomous with each other. You cannot hate someone you haven't loved at some point of time. Because hating someone is not easy, it takes lot of energy and lot of knowledge of the other person to not to forgive then for what they have done. Yes to dislike someone, to strongly dislike someone is not even close to hating someone. When you dislike someone it gets easy for us after sometime to forgive them, but if you love someone and they hurt you then it leaves a mark, a hole in your heart that stays forever and that hole reminds us of their betrayal so much that to hate them feels natural. No the opposite of Loving something cannot be hate.

Kit Kat Ad

The Kit kat Ad caught my attention. We really need to take a break in life to admire its beauty and awesomeness. ( have been watching 'How I met you mother' recently). Life may show you something weird and wonderful. So take a break and watch this Kit Kat ad

The A team

Absolutely aWEsome movie. The guys, Hannibal and his boys are insanely good.
The movie starts in mexico where colonal H. Smith a.k.a Hannibal picks up murdock who is a crazy capitan of the sky. The helicopter chase was good...

When Colonal decides he has to recover plates from bad guys in Bagdad who are minting US currency, he goes against his superior and enters Bagdad. Though he recovers them, the plates were stolen by Pike, one of their own, and the A team was sentenced 10 years of prison. But there are no prison walls that could hold them in.

Hannibal and his men escape from their respective prisons, in style, if I might add, and are heading towards Frankfurt. There is this amazing fight sequence, (highlight for the entire movie, must watch, ) that is going to keep you on the edge of your seat. They find out that the man they trusted was the one who set them up. So the plan to expose the truth.

But clearing their name was not that easy. Though they caught the bad guys with 'Distraction, Diversion and Division' and handed the govt. the plates,
they are still wanted by the govt., still at large and if you are in trouble and no one else could help you, and if you could find them, may be you can hire

The A - Team

I give it a 7/10

Hey could be a sequel.

I know directing an ad is not an easy task.
So much to convey, so little time
but some people do it the best.
The new ad I like is of Anchor tooth past



This is the full Ad

Love the switch from remix to the classic and back again according to the situation.
How do they get these ideas.

When an ad starts I tend to change the channel but I can watch this ad any number of times. Its FUN
It just proves concept is important not which star is endorsing the product.
Enjoy

Show your True Colours

The problem with teenagers now-a-days is that they are trying to look like and be like someone else. No one, not just teenagers, no one should be like someone else. God made us different for a reason. Everyone is unique and everyone is beautiful and everyone is like a thread in a tapestry. Each have a unique destiny. Lives may intertwine like the threads of a tapestry but every thread has to follow its own path and find its own destination, thats how the beautiful tapestries are made. Fine yourself, find out your true colour and shine 'cause your color is as beautiful as the rest.

Clueless Aisha

Anil Kapoor Films Company's Aisha is finally out. This Abhay Deol and Sonam Kapoor starer seems to be the remake of Alisha Silverstone's "Clueless". Which itself is the modern take of Jane Austen's classic novel "Emma". In 'Clueless' Alisha has hard time keeping herself from interfering in other's love life. She considers herself to be sort of a matchmaker destined to make lives better. The spoiled little rich girl and a born socialite, has a challenging new project when she encounters a shy looking new student in their midst and decides to turn her 'cool'. Things start to get messy when her 'project' starts to mess up her life by stealing her popular boyfriend and flirting with her father's intern on whom she nourishes a secret crush .

I think Sonam could carry off this look perfectly. She has the perkiness and the bubbly personality the character requires. The title score is catchy. Good Luck Sonam looking forward to seeing you on the big screen.

The Magical Rain

It was raining outside and the sun was still shining high above. This is such a rare occasion. Everything around me seemed so beautiful. There are water drops on the leaves and there are droptlets hanging from the railings on my balcony. Everything around seemed wet from the rain and everything seemed to gleam as the sun rays touched them. I counld feel the warmth of the sun on me while the cool breeze nudged the rain to shower me with its flowery rain. Its absolutely magical this feeling, happiness and a sense of well being crept into my heart as I experience this rare and happy occasion. I scanned the skies for I know there will be a rainbow over me somewhere and there it is, peeking from between the puffy white clouds. How could it it not be? it was such a magical day today. It was not a full rainbow but it shyly peeked at me and said hello. I smiled to myself, there are quiet few moments in life when you feel hopeful for no particular reason. Sometimes it seems that everything is so perfect and nothing but good can be the outcome. I know that someday just like today, just when I least expect it something magical and amazing will happen in my life, the sun will smile at me and if I look for it, I will always find my rainbow.

Jane Austen character

Huge fan of Jane Austen, never really found the time to read her books (not lack of intrest but lack of time) but her stories are simply inspiring and they shoot right to your heart. Her heroins are strong and bold and are passionate and her heros are always the 'gentle men' LOL... but seriously she does have characters that we all could relate to may be that's why they are classics.
I was browsing through and I found this site to determine which jane austin heroine I am and it turns out

Take the Quiz here!

You are Marianne Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are impulsive, romantic, impatient, and perhaps a bit too brutally honest. You enjoy romantic poetry and novels, and play the pianoforte beautifully. To boot, your singing voice is captivating. You feel deeply, and love passionately

Surpricing isin't it? yeah... it came as a surprice to me as well...
I don't even know the keys of a piano and my singing could shake the ceiling.

Well.... who knew ... right?
take the test yourself and find out if you are who you thought to be.

Jaipur

I wanted to go to Rajastan like forever. I mean it was like some sort of fairytale land filled with golden sands and colorful people. The majestic palaces that still dominate landscape take my breath away. Its magical and wonderful to imagine the regal lifestyle of the people who lived in those palaces. The mysterious 'paradas' of the royal women and the tales of their beauty. The courage and valour of those rajput men all seemed scenes straight out of a story book. If you could you should visit this place atleast once at a time.

We just had a day to visit this fairyland and we made the most of it.

There is this tree in front of our apartment, a big gorgeous tree with pink flowers which blossom every other month. I love to watch this tree grow, grow right into my balcony where I could easily touch it. I love the way it sways when the wind blows, how its leaves wave at me in the morning when i wake up, how after a rain when I go out into my balcony the leaves shiver and I am showered with a perfect drizzel. I love the feel of fresh oxygen rushing into my lungs when I sit out with my book. Trees are special save them, this one infront of my house is my friend make one yourself. Plant a tree, watch it grow, feel its love, Save the planet...

You never fully dressed without a SMILE

A smile is something beautiful, something special, something warm, something caring, and is the mirror of your heart.

A person who smiles pleasantly is the best person to spend time with. We see many people smiling artificially, officially, mechanically and ofcource periodically but what good is it? A smile should be true and you get that true smile when you have a beautiful and careing heart. Keeping your mind clean of all unnecessary thoughts brings you closer to that smile. A smile is all a baby needs to make her the most lovable thing in your life. That innocent and beautiful is the only thing that is true in this world, a warm feeling that touches everyone who feels it coming at them. All the make-up you put on yourself could not attract someone as with a sweet smile, you cannot practice a sweet smile, we cannot immitate a capturing smile, That smile that radiates in everyone comes when we radiate ourself. Feel good about yourself, never feel bad about yourself cause everyone is special, - I knoe people hear it all the time but its true now as it was true the first time it was said. The uniqueness you have is the thing that makes you different from others and that is the ONLY thing that makes you special. Knowing you are special makes you happy and that would allow you to glow from inside and brings out the smile that you wear as the most bright, beautiful, and sparkling ornament. So remember you are never fully dressed without a beautiful and heartful smile.

Prince of Persia - sands of time

Imagine a brave young boy, who dares to face the soldiers to rescue his friend. That would be our hero in making, Dastaans gains the kings favor and becomes one of the Princes of Persia. His courage and strength gains him the title 'Lion of Persia' in the seige against the Holy city of Alamut. The city of Alamut has a secret that is closely guarded by its princess, Tamina. No prizes for guessing what it is...
Dastaan get hold of 'a' dagger which is 'the' dagger the princess sent away with one of her guards. Tus is Dastaan's half brother and the heir to the throne wishes to marry Tamina princess of Alamut and to have the city as his ally, though Tamina refuses at first, she accepts the proposal after seeing the dagger with Dastaan. But the King is not happy with his son Tus for raiding the holy city, and he offers Dastaan to marry the princess. At that very moment the King burns because of he effect of the poisoned cloack which Tus gave Dastaan to offer to the King. Well the princess helps Dastaan escape... Yeah there is a surprice.
Well the princess has her own agenda - to kill Dastaan and get back the dagger but during her attemt to kill him Dastaan accidentally finds out the true nature of the dagger and has an out of body experience. He thinks Tus was after the dagger all along and had framed him, so he plans to show the dagger and its powers to Nizam, the brother of the deceased king. Tamina explains that - any sand - won't do, only special sand in the catacombs of Alamut can be used to turn back time. They head back to Persia but have a run in with the merchant-bandits who conduct ostrich races to make more money. After escaping from them the prince and princess reach Persia in time for the funeral of the king and here Dastaan finds out that it was Nizam who was to blame for all his problems. (yeah! i knew that when the king died- Tus was not on the poster but Nizam was)

Anyway since Tamina escapes with the dagger Dastaan once again starts to find her this time he wants to get rid of it. Nizam sends the hassasins after them. Once again Dastaan and Tamina finds themselves imprisoned by the bandits, this time Dastaan saves them from the vipers and makes friends of his captors. They try to destroy the dagger by putting it from the place it was made but the hassasins take it anyway. Next is the sand for the dagger, as Nizam and his men, tunnel through the catacombs Dastaan and Tamina try to get the dagger back. The action sequence follows where Prince of Persia, jumps a lot of impossible jumps and finally finds Nizam piercing the crystal that holds the sands of time. He let Tamina fall into the depths to save the world from destruction (pretty heroic don't you think). He travels back in time, to the seige of Alamut and exposes Nizam as a fraud. Tus apologises to Tamina and proposes that Dastaan marry Tamina. Dastaan presents Tamina with the dagger as a wedding gift. She find his lack of interest curious and the sun sets in Persia (and no one ever knows what Dastaan went through after all the heroics).

All-in-all an OK movie. Nothing in the story that you cannot predict. The stunts were totally unreal. I hoped that during the seige of Alamut Dastaan faces some unexpected situations so that we know that Tamina has used the dagger to save her kingdom but failed. Why she would not use such a useful weapon to save her own kingdom is a weakness in the story. Watch this movie with friends for a nice time, but it no Pirates of the Carribian.

I give it a 5/10

Happiness is a choice

Happiness is a choice, its your choice.

You decide if you wanna be happy or not. People tend to blame others for their sorrows or tend to curse fate for their bad luck. But does anyone know that happiness what within you. It is not something that can be obtained from any outside source, it's always within you. People may give you gifts to make you happy but the choice to be happy is a gift you give yourself. The feeling of happiness is a blessing you don't need expensive gifts for that all you need is a positive mind. Stop thinking negative of everything around you, stop thinking the world is out to get you (like it has nothing better to do), stop thinking of yourself and think of others, when something sad happens find your happy place. Everyone has a happy place, a happiest moment in their lives that makes them all fuzzy and warm inside. Find that place and always try to make more of those.

There are two kinds of people in the world, people who go on a vacation and fuss about bad weather, bad hotel service, long distances of walk but there are those kind of people who think of this weather to be their special fortune, a bad hotel does not deter them cause they are going to enjoy the outdoors, and long walks means to be able to spend time and talk with their loved one. All you have to do is make yourself happy witht the situation and you definately be happy. Oh! and forgetting the bad memories will help a lot. Some times it's okay to forget.;-)

Prince of Persia Game

This used to be one of my favorite. With the Prince of Persia movie coming up I once again looked back on the game and still found it interesting. Hope you enjoy it too...


Arcade Games

IRON MAN 2

The movie begins from where the last one ends, when Tony announces that he is 'Iron man'. Watching this telecast in Russia an old man dies and his son, Vango, takes it upon himself to kill Stark and duplicates stark reactor to design himself a fancy new electrical whips. The Iron man's intro in the movies was smashing when he "drops in" at Stark Expo. Stark gets served right after the Expo. A committee is set to discuss about Stark and his weapon. Tony explains that he and the Iron man are not seperate and explains how he alone had achieved world peace with his suit and also exposes his business rival, Hammer's failed attempts to build an army of Iron men for "the US military". Though Tony is his usual arrogant self, there is somthing that is bothering him. The battery core is slowly intoxicating Tony's blood. As the blood toxication increases Tony becomes more and more self destructive. He appoints Pepper to be the CEO of Stark Enterprises with out telling her why. Hides the fact of his blood toxication from his best friend Rodes and Pepper. Agent Romonaff of 'Shield' replaces pepper as Tony's assistant. When Tony skips a corporate pary to race in a derby he comes face to face with Vango. The action sequence that follows is exciting. Pepper brings Tony his suit and he defeats Vango, Vango tells Stark a few uncomfortable truths about Tony's father. Meanwhile Hammer understands that Vango could replicate Tony's reactor and smuggles him from the prison and asks him to build him a new army. Stark and Rodes get into a fight and Rodes takes off with one of Tony's suits and trades it with Hammer for better weapons for the army, though he removes the reactor befor he hands it over to Hammer. Fury from SHIELD offers Tony his father's old material to cure himself from palladium poisoning and it works. Hammer gets his army and hosts an Expo but Vango has plans of his own. Vango Invites Tony to the Expo and launches the whole army of Iron men on him. But Rodes and Tony defeat them. Pepper get Hammer arrested and he swears vengence so we know who the villan in Iron man 3 is going to be. All in all a good movie with good entertainment value.
I give it a 7/10
Watch it...

The Volcano that erupted in Iceland

The volcano that has erupted in Iceland has caused a lot of trouble to millions wether it be airlines or travellers or even the common employee. There is no saying where the chain of trouble it has lead. Due to delay in flights many areas have suffered. Mother nature is warning us better note the warning. Because if she wants to do something about it there is no stopping her.

Hogenekkal- The Niagara of India

The recent trailer of 'Ravan' reminded me of our trip to Hogenekkal waterfalls, where the river Cauvery comes down in a gorge in a beautiful array of waterfalls. These waterfalls always find their way into movies from Roja songs to Abishek's dive into the water in Ravan, due to their exotic location. They can be found in the middle of a forest where the sandalwood theif Verappan used to be holed. The hills surrounding this gorge create a scenic location very exciting and adventurous.

NH4 Highway

Its a beautiful place for a picnic on a weekend if you are in Banglore. A haven for lovers and an adventure for the tourists. There are two ways we can reach these falls one is fron a village near Mysore and the other is from a village in Tamilnadu as it is comparitively near to Banglore.


We started off early in the morning at around 6 for a one day trip. Hogenekkal is around 180 k.m drive from Banglore on the NH4 highway.It was durin the Sankranti festive occasion that we took the trip, so we had the pleasure of seeing how the locals celebrated this festival. The villages were decorated and every village we passed through seemed to have a local fair selling lots of sugarcanes, bamboos, earthen ware, bangles, and lots of other household items. It was fun to watch these locals indulged in festivities and pujas being performed.

Idols you would find in the villages on the way

Beyond these lushous green, bountyful villages lie the forests of Hogennekkal on the border of Karnataka-Tamilnadu. The terrain is hilly with deep valleys and dense forests rich with wildlife though u may not encounter any on the road as animals usually avoid noisy areas. But some tourists report seeing elephants at a distance. A toll fee is collected for entering these forests. One thing is we have to pay a lot of bribe to reach this place. They charge a min. of rs. 10/- just to pass through. Though I don't think these many toll gate are by the govt. we had to stop before entering the forests and before entering the village near the falls.

Once we enter the village we immediately find ourselves in the center of the village there we find the Tamilnadu tourist development hotel which is the biggest and only decent building here, but I suggest you not to go there. It does not have minimum amenities and the food there is disgusting, service horrible. The restaurent is a single room with 2 or 3 tables and can serve about 10 people at a time. If you are a vegetarian then it would be wise to bring your own food and snacks. But if you are not and you love fish then step out of your car 'cause you are in paradise.

Yummy... yummy... fish.

This place offers a wide variety of fresh water fish. Stalls line up serving fish and parathas. These fish maranated in ginger, garlic, chilli and salt is served deep fried and on freashly cut banana leaves. They are absolutely amazing and melt in your mouth and I can assure you you couldn't stop at one. But hold on... its not lunch time yet. I would recommend you do not eat yet. If you are soo tempted and your mouth's watering just by looking at them them I suggest you order a take away, You could snack a little later I know the right place. Trust me... you wouldn't want to eat yet. There are also other stalls selling everything from towels, tee shirts, shorts, shampoos, soaps etc. If you are planning to have a swim you better pack these thing 'cause they cheat with the prices. A swim in river Cavery is rejuvenating. It is said that these waters have medicinal properties. The Forests here are full of medicinal herbs which enrich these waters. A massage is also recommended and you could find professional massagers here.

The calm waters before the falls are the best place to take a swim

The next phase of the journey is to bargain with the boat men. They would just surround you as soon as you get out of the car and charge you around rs.1000/- but if you good at bargaining and it's just the four of you, like us, you could get himdown to rs.400/-. You could ask the govt. official but he is of no help. So roll up your sleeves and start bargaining.

Then he would take you to his coracle ( which is a round boat made of bamboo and could carry 8 people at a time.) which is called 'teppalu' in telugu. He would take you out and drop you off on the other bank The ride is short then we got off on the other bank thinking we must have over paid but the ride is not over yet... The tour has just started...

We went in an un season so we could not see the full flow of the falls at the gorge, but the advantage of going in an unseason is that we could go right down these falls without getting tripped over.

The falls of Hogenekkal

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