Maleficent

 
 




Maleficent - was a beautiful fairy of the moors outside a kingdom.

















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Dodda Alada Mara - Big Banyan Tree

After exercising our vote early on Thursday morning we had the rest of the day for our self so me, my husband and my parents set out to have an early lunch in my favourite restaurant Royal Andhra Spice in Rajarajeshwari Nagar. The food here is excellent, the chicken 65 is lip smacking and the non-veg thali they offer is value for money. After a delightful meal we stil had half a day to spend so we have decided at a whim to visit the Big Banyan tree near Kengeri. Every tourist blog in banglore refers to this place but they do have mixed reviews, some say it was too long a distance to visit a tree and there is nothing much to do there, others write that this place is worth the visit since we are free and in no hurry we decided to check the place out.

Google maps is the best App on our phones, it is the best way to reach destinations we have not been to before. Earlier we had to stop at every fork in the road and ben in the street asking for directions but with this app. we are there without a glitch.

Directions: This big banyan tree at Kethohalli of South Banglore taluk is 28 km from Bengaluru city and a little outside Kegeri. If you are driving on Banglore-Mysore highway you cannot miss Rajarajeshwari Medical College to your left and if you go further we find a road between Rajarajeshwari Dental and boys hostel and Rajarajeshwari Engineering College to our right. This road is the Dodda Alada Mara road, follow this well paved road to the big banyan tree.

On the Dodda Alada Mara rd we find many nurseries full of blooming roses and many beautiful flowers. The banyan tree itself spreads across 3 Acers of land which has been developed into a park for visitors and serves as a picnic spot. Inspite of spreading through such a vast area this mammoth tree is but the fourth largest banyan tree in India. The tree, they say, is around 400 years old, although the main trunk is dead aerial shoots that grow down into the soil forming additional trunks have kept the tree alive and still growing. The dept. of horticulture has taken the responsibility of preserving the tree and made necessary arrangements to provide the propping roots enough support so that they could grow strong and establish themselves. The tree appears to be a grove of trees providing shade and shelter to its visitors. Despite it's many adversities the tree is still strong and the jetting branches reach out of the park area are a true testment for its will to survive. 







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Star World on Tatasky

After a busy morning of cooking and sending my husband to his office I like to sit infront of my TV with a hot cup of chai and hit fav. button on my tatasky remote and there comes on my TV my absolutely favourite channel Star World since it was started, but today I couldn't find it. Why has sky removed the telecast of the channel without notice?

It seems that acting on a complaint from subscribers, the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has issued notice to Tata Sky to explain its position on discontinuation of two NEO channels from its package and charging extra money for a premier HD channel allegedly in violation of service agreement.

NEO has also separately moved TDSAT to prevent Tata Sky from blocking its signals. NEO’s contract with TataSky was coming up for renewal but the DTH major was not keen to renew it they could not come to a mutually suitable understanding on the commercials as any viewer of the NEO channel has already known since 2 months.

Tata Sky has been accused of depriving its subscribers from viewing the NEO channels that they had already paid for.

I wish they would resolve the situation soon. I would like to watch my fav shows on star world or move to another service provider.

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Mutyalamaduvu

It was a Sunday morning, and we were totally free of engagements (which by the way is a very rare case). We decided to go on a long drive, just me and my husband cruising in my car. Went to Bannergatte but did not want to stop there so we drove further...we knew that there is a picnic spot somewhere in Anekal called Mutyalamaduvu. In Kannada language, Muthyalamaduvu means Pearl Valley

It is a beautiful gorge with a sleek little ravine flowing through it and surrounded by lush green forest infested with mischievious monkeys with their devil may care attitude. Although it is a picnic spot you might want to be careful with your food these little devils could gang up on you, so I suggest you have your food before descending the gorge that way you can enjoy  the place in peace. The tourisim of Karnataka has provided us with minimum facilities and gazibos to sit and eat.

The  stairs leading to the ravine is not long and ends up near the temple of Shiva on the right and a beautiful waterfall that ends up in a little pond. Here the water from the falls slides down the flora of the place creating an illusion of a sting of pearls, hence the name Pearl Valley. The source of this water is the Onakanahalli Tank located nearby.

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Vanity Fair

I read a lot ...
that being evident from my past blogs I would like to add I am also a big fan of period romances.
Big Big Fan...

I watched Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon, it was a lovely movie about a woman Becky Sharp who would do whatever it takes to survive, and that survivor instinct made her lose her love and life. Society, be it at that time or this frowns upon an ambitious women. They could not swallow the fact that a woman could outwit a man, infact several men. I wanted to read the book so I got into it. When I read the book I found out the author has a deep insight into the woman's world which only a few men are privileged to have. He understands woman on a level that normal people don't... he understands smart and ambitious woman and that is rare. Being a woman I myself could say that I have seen several woman who lost all ambition after marriage and I have seen woman fighting for their rights and equality and COMPLETELY lost their peace of mind. But I think that the author knows what a success is for a woman.

Here is a paragraph from the book I find insightful...

'The best of women are hypocrites. We don't know how much they hide from us; how watchful they are when they seem most artless and confidential; how often those frank smiles which they wear so easily, are traps to cajole or elude or disarm - I did not mean in your coquittes, but your domestic models, and paragons of female virtue. Who has not seen a woman hide the dullness of her stupid husband, or coax the fury of a savage one? We accept this amiable slavishness and praise a woman for it: we call this pretty treachery truth.

'
 
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Iron Man 3 Story

Just came back from watching Iron Man 3
WOW!!!!!!!!
What a movie though I watched it in 3D there are not many 3D  effects that will awe you except for a few snowflakes and ashes. But the story is too good that who cares if the 3D effects are not.

Tony is reminiscing his past actions, a party in Switzerland where he met cool scientist and a geeky scientist and 'creates demons' as he puts it.

In the present day Iron man is turned by the govt. of USA from a cool WARMACHINE to Iron Patriot to eliminate the latest threat to westren civilization, a terrorist leader named 'Mandarin' who causes a series of explosions of whose origin and material still eludes the govt. While Tony is suffering from anxiety attacks whenever the "New York" incident is mentioned. To save the love of his life Pepper Pots he keeps building and building new models with updates and enhancements, and totally ignores the love infront of him.

Pepper meets the geeky scientist Aldrich, who Tony leaves stranded on the roof top that day in switzerland, but now he is fully transformed and Wolah!...handsome. Happy, the faithful bodyguard of  Tony warns him of the presence of a handsome stranger who is getting close to Pepper and offers to keep a closer look on him and his associate. Happy finds something really important about the explosions that are going on everywhere, but he himself gets seriously injured in the explosion. This makes the Iron Man very mad, he gives a public statement, no a cristimas card to the Mandarin saying that he would take his revenge.

The next day Tony gets a visit from Maya, the sexy scientist he met in the same conference in switzerland. But then in a awesome attack on his mansion Tony loses everything, his house, his super cool cars, and he gets out only with his new prototype M42 something....which is yet to be tested for action. He shoots up into the sky and lands... more like crashes in a remote village of tennisy, there he finds out more about what is causing the explosions and the fight that follows is another utterly original action sequence.

 Maya tells Pepper that Aldrich is working for Mandarin and she came to warn Tony, but in truth they are both working together. Rodes who is now the Iron Patriot is sent on a wild goose chase around the globe to find where the Mandarin is transmitting from, get caught by one of his 'soldiers'. Meanwhile in Tennesy Tony finds out that his anxiety attacks are getting worse, but with the help and encouragement of his little friend Harley, he finds out that the transmissions by Mandarin are coming from Maime. While he leaves Jarvis in Harley's garage to recharge, he ventures into the mansion in the coast of Miame to find Mandarin. When he enters the mansion he finds something very shocking about "The Mandarin" that changes his whole view of this gruesome affair of series bomb blasts.

Pepper is taken hostage and so is the president of USA. But as always the Hero saves the day and kills the bad guy? Or does he?...umm........Oh! I cannot keep it a secret Tony is not the one who finally kills the bad guy, infact he is seriously beaten by him.... That's it,

That's all I am going to say for now. WATCH IT you will Love it.

The movie has some original action sequences that will keep you on the edge of the seat.
Tony's witty one liners are especially brilliant.
Might I say he has improved his Physical appearence a lot,... I mean A LOT

Quotes:

Rodhes : If you cannot save the president WITH the suit, how are you going to save Pepper without it.

Jarvis : Sir, I am doing my best considering you gave the address on national TV.



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Puri - The land of the Lord

We started for Puri at 7:30 in the morning and reached it at around 9:00. Our trip advisor suggested we visit Puri first. May be he thought it was good to visit the temple in the morning or may be, he must have thought with fresh mind and body we will be more forgiving of the shabby state of affairs at the state’s most sacred temple. Puri Jagannattha temple, the pride of Orissa is a revered place not only for the people of Orissa but all the Vaishnavites around India. It is one of the ‘Char dham’ (Badrinath, Rameshwaram, Dwaraka, Puri) piligrimage a hindu is expected to make at least once in a life time. I have come to expect more from such a pilgrimage centre, but was disappointed to find it in such a pitiful state. Lack of proper information is one of the major concerns. Non-Hindus are not admitted into the temple. On reaching the temple we found that no mobile phones, cameras, handycams, umbrella’s or even water bottles are allowed inside the temple. Well and good, but they failed to provide a good locker facility, as tourists we were carrying all these things and when they asked to leave these things with some undesignated people outside the temple, who kept them in ragged old sacks along with our slippers. The people who are appointed to take care of the valuables were properly named or designated or at least wearing a shirt, so pardon me for not feeling safe to leave all my valuables to them.

Then there is a NO ENTRY sign at the front entrance and nowhere that says how to enter the temple. After enquiring several police and security officials whose knowledge of English was practically nil, with some broken Hindi we managed to find out that there are two more entrances to the north and south of the temple high walls. As we entered the temple through the northern entrance the first sight we encountered was that of ‘bats’. Would you belive it! Bats in a temple! that is still receiving pujas regularly. A few focused lights in strategic locations could have eradicated the problem, but I guess the famous temple is little low on funds to spare for a few bulbs. The path leading to the main temple is sticky with spilt ‘bhog’ (the holy rice offering). When we finally reached the temple our view to the Lord was obstructed by a group of people and priests animatedly debating on some issue, completly ignoring that they were inside the temple complex and are causing great in convenience to the piligrims. When the voices began to raise we tried to enquire some novice priests about the issue, but due to language problem we were unable to understand them then we asked them how we were supposed to see the Lord with people standing there. At that point someone, very rude mannered fellow started pointing at the exit and kept pointing in another direction. We were disgruntled to be shown out of the temple without seeing the Lord. But it turned out that he was pointing us to another door to the sanctum sanctorium from where we were able to see Lord Jagannatha in full view. This was one of the instances which make us rethink our own view of the world around us. We thought the person to be rude but all he was doing was trying to do was steer us away from trouble and point us in the right direction. Thank you Lord for a well deserved lesson, we learn something every day.

All in all Puri was a rollercoaster of experiences. We go in expecting a grand experience but are faced with a humble temple complex with very little pretension, surrounded with quiet many minor temples. But the larger than life idol of the Lord was awe inspiring. When we entered through the south entrance my gaze immediately fell on the dark looming figure way right in the sanctum sanctorium. The idol of Lord Krishna or Lord Jagannatha as he is called here, with wide penetrating sight immediately captures our utmost attention. Every temple has its own customs and traditions, here in the Jagannatha temple devotees raise both their hands towards the heaven and praise the Lord calling out ‘Jai Jagannatha’. The comparatively shorter figure to the left of Lord Jagannatha is that of Subhadra and to her right is the imposing figure of Bala Bhadra (Balarama), who is considered as an image of Lord Shiva. Hence they proudly present to us a temple which holds the Siva Kesava in the same sanctum sanctorium.

Together the triad of brothers and sister are the reigning deities of this holy land. Each year they are honoured by a grand festival called Jagannatha Rath Yatra in the month of June which attracts a lot of tourists and piligrims alike. Each year many logs of wood is gathered here to build a grand chariot (Rath) for the honourary deities visit to the city. Millions of people pour into the city of Puri for a glimpse of deities on their outing. The wood that is used for the chariot is the one that is used to to cook bhog around the year for the Lord. Though the excursion merely stretches to the end of the grand avenue called the ‘Bada Danda’ right in front of the temple. The preparation of bhog is also a must see event. Earthen pots of different sizes are piled up one over the other and get the food in all the pots is cooked evenly and at the same time.

Travelling with my husband is a challenge on its own. Being a typical South Indian he prefers, no, insists on having rice for his lunch and dinner, moreover being a vegetarian his choices of restaurants fall from many to quite a few. Though he loves sweets, he will not tolerate any amount of sweetness in his curries or dal, so I always keep a lookout for restaurants, which could accommodate at least a few of his requirements. A fellow passenger from our train journey to Orissa was a South Indian like us now residing in Orissa. He suggested that we should stick to tiffin, snacks or Chinese because we will not find Orissan meals to our taste. So when I spied ‘Hotel Grand’ a few yards away from the temple on the first floor of a shopping complex. I immediately steered my husband in that direction. The air conditioned room room was a welcome relief on a hot day. Though they did not have tiffin there was a limited selection of Chinese so we ordered fried rice and curd rice. The fried rice was good but the curd rice was a bit sweet and then we understood why Reddy sir told us we might not enjoy Orriyan food. It was always sweet. Oriyans prefer sweets. Their Rasgullas are finger licking good. So good, that it is said that even Lord Jagannath offers Lakshmi Devi to enter the temple. Truly the favourite of the Gods. They enjoys healthy amount of sweets in their diet, well... who doesn’t; but they also have a thing for sea food maybe not near the temple. To enjoy the sea food of Puri we need to head towards Puri beach.

Puri beach is a busy area bustling with hawkers with strings of pearls of all shapes and sizes, (which could be original or cultivated) gem stones, souvenirs made of sea shells, conches, little replicas of the Puri temple, models of the famous wheels of Konark temple, hand bags, applique work umbrellas and wall hangings. It is difficult to find peaceful stretch of beach in Puri so if you want to have a peaceful beach experience head towards Konark....

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