BANDE MAHAKALI TEMPLE IN CHAMRAJPET BANGALORE

 BANDE MAHAKALI TEMPLE  is a higly popular and visited temple in the city of Bengaluru Bangalore and is a magic of the chieftain of Bangalore under the Vijayanagar kings  SHRI. KEMPEGOWDA whose touch of administrative class made many contributions to the city and the basic foundations of the city can be attributed to him.

KALI  is a highly worshipped Goddess in India and it is apt that people of vision envisaged such temples across the length and breadth of the country, Many such temples were refurbished and renovated by successive rulers. This temple is also result of such enterprise. BANDE in Kannada means rock. There are more than three major hard rock formations in the vicinity of this temple and this temple could have got its name from these rocks. Some say it is because of the word BANDI which means vehicle in Kannada and in yore it was a place flocked by travellers travelling to Mysore from places like Vellore where they took shelter in this place .However the rock theory has more credence. KEMPEGOWDA thought it prudent to use the hillock on which this temple is situated as a WATCH TOWER  considering large number of population flocked this area. Since there are many hillock in this area the entire place is safe from many incursions from inimical people because a watch over the township called GAVIPURAM where this temple is situated can be made on all sides. The word GAVI means cave in Kannada. This area must have had many caves that offered shelter to travellers who were guarded by sentry who used the watch-tower to pre-empt any aggression. Many of these caves must have been privately owned and rented for public use. Organised robbery was a common affair during these times and a place is vetted and authenticated for safety from marauders.

Water from all these hillocks empty into the Kempemanabudhi lake nearby which feeds the VRUSHABAVATHY RIVER downstream. The name of this lake must have been KEMPANNA BUDHI KERE which has morphed and changed with time. BUDHI is a respectful kannada word for a LAND LORD  ....KEMPANNA refers to SHRI KEMPEGOWDA. THIS PLACE IS NOTHING BUT THE CLASS OF  KEMPEGOWDA.

This is a highly thronged temple in the city. How to reach this place?This place is GAVIPURAM EXTENSION near Ramakrishna Math in CHAMRAJPET AREA. IT MUST BE THREE KILOMETERS FROM lalbagh metro station. MANY PEOPLE TAKE AUTO FROM THIS METRO STATION AND BACK.This place is also adjacent to Hanumanthanagar and Srinagar and also the BULL TEMPLE and BUGLE ROCK are not far away.

When you enter the temple premises to the left is an entry to the sanctum sanctorum.. If you walk straight on the hill you see the watch tower on the left side and the Kempabudhi kere can be seen ahead. Many rocks on this hillock are being eradicated through modern means to create space for people but the lake is clearly visible from this point and also the horizon of the city with tall structures.

KADATHUNADAN KALARI SANGAM KALARIPAYETTU

 

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KALARIPAYETTU is an important martial art of Malabar with a history of many many centuries. Warriors of Malabar both men and women used the training they received in the Kalari at various junctures in history largely in the area of Ambush warfares. Kadathunad the modern day VADAKARA was in ancient times a key Kalari hot-spot. These warriors were also used by the VIJAYANAGAR kingdom to secure its borders from intrusion along the Thungabadra river. The Kalari military training schools were shut down by the East India Company.

There is need to revive this domain in the modern day world. Scanning through the net I found an institution in Manantavady which is dedicated to KALARI. The general administration and other Governmental agencies must study how this ancient tradition can be used fully in modernday progress and upkeep.

They say the Chinese martial art forms of Karate and Kung-Fu have their origins in this Martial Art.Atleast the schools like this one must be given support that they might need.

SIR GARFIELD SOBERS WITH K N TILAK KUMAR JT. MANAGING DIRECTOR OF DECCAN HERALD

In this file photo is seen Sir Garfield Sobers in a seated pose with the young K N Tilak Kumar ..photo taken in Chennai by an Englishman Mr.Leslie Wilson Sr  sports writer of DECCAN HERALD whose son is also in the back-ground of this photo during a visit to Chennai in 1966-67 when a team of students from St. Josephs European High school made a visit to Chennai (Madras) during a test match.

ASHOKA PILLAR JAYANAGAR BANGALORE

 

BULL TEMPLE IN BANGALORE

 

Where is the Bull Temple in Bangalore ?

It is in the Basavanagudi Area on Bull Temple Road. Jayanagar is another place close - by

What is this Bull Temple?

It is a temple dedicated to BASAVA  largely created by the artisans of the Vijayanagar Empire  and is in one of the hard rock hills near modern day Lalbagh.A hard rock has been chiselled into a Bull.

There are other temples near this Bull Temple which is worth seeing once.

LEELA MANIKKKOTH - THE FLAMBOYANT DOCTOR AT ITI HOSPITAL

 During our times at the ITI Hospital we had a doctor by name Leela Manikkoth who was good at her profession and did a good job at the hospital. Much later she had opened a clinic in the jubilee building on Old Madras Road. I did meet her once in the corridors of this building when I had gone there for some work.

There is  a professional link between her and our family - that she was a student of  Dr.  Madhavan Nambiar   at Manipal. Dr. Madhavan Nambiar is the son of Dr. P C Nambiar  from our family connections.

She brought a rare charm and aura to ITI hospital which simply cannot be forgotten.

THE GLORIOUS HILLY TERRAINS OF BANGALORE

 The larger city of Bangalore has its own set of hilly terrains which are unique and special, largely settlements of the past which has become modern townships with its own characteristic features. The VRUSHABAVATHY river flows close to these terrains at some places and these terrains feed water into the VRUSHABAVATHY  and other lakes. The very nature of these hills must be a source of large amounts of water.

When we exit the city of Bangalore from the modern day city Market towards Mysore there are mountainous formations on both sides of the road. To the left side was once upon a time a large chain of mountains which culminate at the big hill seen inside Lalbagh. The hill seen within Lalbagh is of solid rock formation and is a source of many streams and lakes. But the chain of hills that run almost parallel to the Mysore road are not hard rock formations but of hard soil making it more useful for human habitation. These hills could be called the LALBAGH HILLS  considering that they originate at LALBAGH. To the right of the modern day Mysore Road when facing towards Mysore are also many hill formations which could be seen as an extension of the MAGADI HILLS.

Along the extension of the LALBAGH hills are various townships of modern day Bangalore -very different from the rest of the city because they owe their origins to hill formations and have large amount of vegetation and age-old trees and flora. The place is salubrious largely because of altitude and water formations and depict a domain where environment and development have gone hand-in-hand.

To my understanding the starting point of this region of Bangalore would be the ASHOKA PILLAR in JAYANAGAR which descends into BASAVANAGUDI and then to BANASHANKARI and then to HANUMANTHNNAGAR  and then into GIRINAGAR also encapsulating a place called AVALAHALLI AND THYAGARAJANAGAR and into HOSAKEREHALLLI adjacent to the VRUSHABAVATHY river  and the hill formation deeply descending into RAJA RAJESHWARI NAGAR  all upto KENGERI covering many Kilometres. No place in Bangalore has such a stretch of Hill formations. In most of these sectors there are no high-rise apartments though they can be seen today at HOSAKEREHALLLI..

Many of  these hills are  getting ravaged towards HOSAKEREHALLI for modern day  life styles but the entire stretch could be called the modern day hilly side of  the city.

CROSS BAR TELEPHONE EXCHANGE

 https://youtu.be/JqkuApbN9Dc

CROSS BAR TELEPHONE EXCHANGES

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MY MIRACULOUS ENTRY INTO REC NIT CALICUT

 

16th of June 1982 was a very happy day for all of us who had studied science stream at Sathya Sai College because most of us had done very well.I got 83 in Chemistry which I think should have been 90 even today in which case I would have got seat to study Electronics at KREC Suratkal but this did not happen. Many of my class mates we were all together; Shailendra Khare, Santosh, Bhaskar, Sanjay Dawar, Ramprasad and few others.

It must have been around 10 AM.For all practical purposes there are no buses during these times from Kadugodi to K R Puram railway station ; so all of us decided to walk to Hope Farm which we did.Waiting for bus at Hope Farm Santosh mildly made a comment at me. Didnt you apply for seat in REC in inter-state quota. I said NO. He told me 18th is the last date to apply to KREC Suratkal for inter-state quota and all you need is to submit a postal order of Rs.15.I did not know where this place Suratkal is and he told me it is in Mangalore and post will only take one day to reach this place. On a BMTC bus from Hope Farm to K R Puram Station I decided to do something about applying to KREC for inter-state quota.

The time must be around 12 noon and I hurried from the Railway Station bus stop towards my house and on the way picked up a cycle for rent and told my mother that I have to apply for inter state quota and I need Rs.15/-..and she readily complied with a rare scent of optimism in her face.

I rode the cycle to the post office writing a covering letter and making the Rs.15/- postal order. The time must have been 2:00PM 16th of June 1982. The mail exits from Dooravaninagar at 2:30pm and it was a close shave.

To Mangalore the mail would reach the day after if there was no postal delay which is 18th June 1982 and the last day to apply for out-station REC seats.If everything goes well the return mail with prospectus and the forms must reach on 20th June 1982.I spent sleep less nights from the 16th to the 20th.On the 20th morning around 10 AM I hired a cycle again and decided to ride towards the post office and as fortune would have it I met the postman infront of the Murugan temple in Vijanapura and asked if there was any mail for me and ...............LO..............    he removed a large parcel and handed it over to me and it was from KREC Suratkal with the application forms.My joy knew no bounds. It was as-if I already  got a seat at REC. Miraculous last moment gamble which paid off. Sometimes optimism pays rich dividends.

The rest is history....with the confluence of other factors I got a seat at REC Calicut .My missing a seat in the first instance at KREC Suratkal had largely been compensated through the inter state quota.

I was destined to meet S V Giri, Srinath Shetty, Jerald Harry Dsouza, Gayathri Bhat and Arvind Poal Masaji  and many others at REC NIT Calicut and live for more than four years in the hills of the Western Ghats where this institute is situated.

D NARENDRA PRINCIPAL 0F SATHYA SAI COLLEGE IN 1980

 

TO THE LEFT IS SHRI NARENDRA AND TO THE RIGHT IS SHRI NANJUNDIAH ANOTHER KEY PERSON DURING THESE TIMES.

Shri. D Narendra  was the Principal of SAYHYA SAI COLLEGE in 1980.I used to enjoy a good relationship with him  and even went to his flat once for some purpose. His son Bharath was also friendly with me.

I remember Shri D Narendra because he was a good teacher of English language. In addition to being Principal he used to teach English both prose and poetry. I used to get good grades in English because of his excellent and experienced teaching.

In retrospect he was a good Principal and went about his chores very well.

DEEPIKA M SUNIL

 

DEEPIKA..THE ELDER DAUGHTER OF MY BROTHER SUNIL

ANANTANARAYANAN MY SENIOR AT SATHYA SAI COLLEGE

Anantanarayanan used to be my senior both at Lowry Memorial High School and at Sathya Sai College in Whitefeild. He joined Sathya Sai College along with Stanley another senior of mine at Lowry School.Sathya Sai College had a penchant for students from Lowry Memorial School  due to similarity in operational culture and had affiliation to the American ethos and way of life.Sathya Sai College at Whitefield had few American professors on its rolls like  Dr. ALLWYN DRUCKER.

Anantha as we used to call him was a moderate success at Lowry Memorial School but was a big success in the Commerce stream which he took up later being a rank holder all-through his five year stint at Sathya Sai College. In the BCom exams of Bangalore University to my memory three students would always figure in the rank list, Anantha Narayanan, Kiran Vaid and Deepak Melwani.

He used to be our inspiration though we studied the science stream. His sister also was a student at Lowry Memorial School.In Lowry Memorial School Anantha had a class mate B R Suresh and another person whose name I dont recollect.B R Suresh I cannot forget because they used to call him B R Dumma because he was a very fat person. AnanthaNarayanan would play table tennis also well.

On being inspired by people like Ananthanarayanan even I got 52 rank at the Pre-University Board in Karnataka state in 1982.I should have got a better rank because I got only 83 in Chemistry which I think even today should have been atleast 90. Had I got 90 I would have got seat at KREC Suratkal in the first list itself which I didnt.

leg bye cartoon

 

SAI BHAJANS

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YEH RAAT YEH CHANDINI HEMANT KUMAR SONG

 

KOI HUM DUM NA RAHA HINDI SONG

 

MY GREAT GRAND FATHER KOTTAYAM KADANKOT CHINDAN NAMBIAR

 

This is a rare and priceless photograph of KOTTAYAM KADANGOT CHINDAN NAMBIAR, the father of my Grand Mother. A unique person in many ways and of compassionate and constructive disposition and a true Genius of sorts. I was for a very long time trying to get a glimpse of his persona which has happened now and some facial similarity with me cannot be totally over-ruled and a stern countenance even which I carry.

His ancestors are from the Kottayam village in Telicherry about which I had written earlier. He is the second generation of people who made the village of Cherukunnu their home. His immediate ancestors fled the township of Kottayam in 1800 ad or so from the hegemony of the East India Company who took control of Telicherry and its surroundings. When Kottayam Kadangot Chindan Nambiar was nine years old his uncle built a traditional Naalu Kettu house in Cherukunnu extending their dynasty in Cherukunnu in Kannur or Cannannore which exists even today.

K K Venugopal who was the Attorney General of Govt. Of India is a grand-nephew of Kottayam Kadangot Chindan Nambiar. The people of this clan are well mannered and development oriented building artistic houses with professional finesse. Dr. K C Nambiar FRCS who was the Dean of Stanley Medical College Madras is a nephew of this person.

YOUTUBE CHANNEL

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DR. ABDUL KALAM MEMORIAL RAMESHWARAM

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Few kilometers before the township of Rameshwaram Government has created a memorial for Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam former President of India and exists adjacent to the highway. It is a well maintained place with artefacts and murals.

The temple town of Rameshwaram is the birth place of Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam and it is apt a memorial be constructed here. Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam was an extra-ordinary Engineering and Scientific person before becoming part of Government as President of the Country.

Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam is some-one engineering graduates must be proud of as he is a global embodiment of  Management, Science and Engineering..largely home-grown and self made. Any one travelling on this highway must visit this place as a tribute to his persona. He is respected both in the country and globally and is an example of what Indian Education system as we see today can engender considering that he had his entire education within the country.

The Government of India must be praised for erecting such memorial as it sends the right signals to posterity.

 

REVIVING ITI THROUGH CHINESE HELP

The public sector ITI could be brought to glory and action through Chinese help and participation; Sudden technological and market impacts owing to globalization could be seen as reasons for stagnation of Telecom giants like ITI. Chinese participation in revival of  Public Sector could be seen as a weird concept. The idea is to get back the old ITI which had some thirty thousand people working in it with dynamism and purpose.

Why the Chinese? Point 1 they are our neighbour with land connections which involves lesser supply chain costs; Point 2 they have a population as that of India when combined creates a large market for wired and wireless telephony; Point 3 the Chinese have designs which are less costly but of Quality and time need not be spent for re-design; Point 4 large amounts of Chinese Telecom work can be out-sourced to India creating scores of  employment in the manufacturing sector , Point 5 a combined work and technological force that the two countries can engender in the Telecommunication field can supply extra-ordinary telecom products to nearby continents. Seen from any angle a co-ordinated action can benefit both the countries and even the world at large.

Times have changed and so have markets, technology and paradigms and  some of the foundations created in the past must be preserved ,nurtured, maintained and developed even if it is with outside support and help which might be the need of the hour.

THE STROWGER TELEPHONE EXCHANGE

 

ALMON BROWN STROWGER

SINGLE DIGIT STROWGER EXCHANCE

My father spent a sizeable amount of years within the ITI complex adjusting Strowger exchange switches. This is the first automatic exchange system and an electromechanical device. Building telephone and their exchange systems in the past era was cumbersome because it involved various kinds of switching devices. My father was very good at switch adjustment so much so that he did lot of overtime.

The concept of Strowger exchanges has become obsolete but still admirable in many ways as it used stepper motors to achieve the activity of switching. There are single digit ten line exchanges to multi-digit exchanges and the optimum exchange had fifty lines.

It had two motor actions , the first one in the vertical way and the secondary in the rotary way. Suppose you dial the number 26 the motor went first two notches upwards and six steps in the rotary motion creating switching. A two digit switch could give fifty switching connections and multiple such switches could be arranged in a serial way to get larger number of telephone connections.

Considering that the number dialled in a complex exchange is 89765432 ..the first switch is 89..eight times vertical motion and nine times rotary motion which links to the secondary switch with 76..same way seven times vertical and six times rotary and so on and so forth until the final telephone connection is obtained. The same kind of concept is implemented in solid state exchanges of today.

Why I write about Strowger exchanges. They were invented by a swedish man Strowger who ultimately paved way for the large telecommunication networks and organizations of today spanning continents. Using modern day material and electromagnetic insights we must see if the Strowger concept can be erected and implemented successfully in certain specific situations and not abandon it totally. I still think it is a solid technological concept and device which can be re-developed on modern lines of manufacturing and thinking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_O5ZGLrbwA

RAVI VARMA NA KUNCHADA KALEYE BALE...KANNADA SONG

 

HIMAVAD GOPALASWAMY TEMPLE GUNDLUPET

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HOTEL SANIHARA LAKKIDI WAYANAD BUDGET HOTEL IN WAYANAD

 

HOTEL SANIHARA; LAKKIDI  ;WAYANAD 673576 WWW.THESANIHARA.COM

04936-296999  ;   8547296999 / 9446108699

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THE GLORY THAT IS WAYANAD

 

KANTHAPARA WATER FALLS MEPPADI

EDAKKAL CAVES

BANASURA SAGAR DAM

LAKKIDI ULTRA PARK

                                                           LAKKIDI VIEW POINT

    

POOKOT  LAKE

WAYANAD MAP

The district of Wayanad in Kerala is adjacent to the Western Ghat mountains with the district of Coorg or Kodagu on one side and the districts of Kannur and Kozhikode on the other.The territory of Wayanad has historical significance even during very ancient times and was originally a Jain town before  Islamic and Western Invasions.

The life-line of Wayanad is a highway that connects Mysore to Calicut as of now that crosses the Bandipur forests and the first town to encounter is Sultanbattery called Ganapathivattom in ancient times. The highway passes through key towns of  Kakavayal, Meenangadi,  Muttil,  Kalpetta, Chundale,Vythiri, Lakkidi before opening into the Ghat roads leading to the town of Adivaram on the foot of the ghat mountains towards Kerala and then to   Tamarassery,   Koduvally, Kunnamangalam and finally Calicut. Calicut is also called Kozhikode. Mananthavady is another key town within Wayanad towards the north of Kalpetta.

Kalpetta is the key and central town of Wayanad and the the other places could be seen as sattelite towns of Kalpetta.Kalpetta is a fine town with the back-drop of a precipice of the Western Ghats.Meppadi, Pulpally and Panamaram are other towns inside Wayanad.

There are many tourist attractions in Wayanad.

1.The Kanthapara Water Fall: This is precisely at a place called Meppadi on the Wayanad Ooty road. You must understand some aspects of this waterfall. Point 1 - it is three kilometres from the mainroad inwards and goes through a residential stretch.Point 2- It is a relatively small waterfall and ideal for water sport and  water related activities..during rainy seoson the water fall could be aggressive.

2.The Edakkal Cave:There is only one cave here possibly used by Jain Monks as residence to be safe from wild animals because it is up in the mountain.Trekking up the mountain to the cave is an adventure. Precisely there are two phases to this climb. In the first phase you climb a hill which is mountain climbing with high gradient at some stretches. In the second phase you have to do rock climbing to reach the cave carefully ascending through rock structures and the Government has also put srair-ways here. Never take the phase 2  of the climb if you have infants and very small children.

On the top is a single cave which is formed between rock formations , a room the size of 100ft by 50 ft. Climbing to Edakkal cave is more of an adventure than a tour.The Edakkal cave comes off the road from Kalpetta to Sultanbattery.

3.The Banasura Sagar dam : This dam is something special few kilometres from Kalpetta at Padinjarethara. It is the largest natural reservoir in the country trapping water from the many hills around.It is not an artificial dam and could be source to the Kabini river and hydel power plant also works with water from this reservoir.

4.The Ultra Park in Lakkidi: A man made adventure park basically for adventure sport. There is a skywalk here made of glass up in the air which gives a view of places around.

5.The Lakkidi view point : A spot at the opening of the ghat section from where the entire expanse of the ghats and its roads can be seen with a view to the foot-hills.

6.The Pookot Lake: A natural lake near Lakkidi the size and shape similar to the lake seen in Kodaikanal with boating facilities.

WAYANAD SEEN FROM EDAKKAL CAVES

 

BANASURA SAGAR DAM WAYANAD

 

LEE KUAN YEW

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LEE KUAN YEW

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GHAZAL RAFTA RAFTA WO MERE

 

MY TRYST WITH NIIT

In 1991 or so I used to be a student of  NIIT for nearly one year which was a life changing experience. I used to work as a electrical maintenance engineer in Graphite India during this time.There were many computer training institutes around the country from 1980 to 2000 ,according to me the sole reason for the vibrancy of the Indian economy because these institutes retailed education to the advantage of many sections and sectors of the populace.

NIIT read NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY was one of the earliest in this feild followed by many others thereafter. NIIT used to run news-paper ads almost every day attracting scores of students across the length and breadth of the country.

I decided to respond to one such ad and strayed into the NIIT center in Richmond road one evening on my way back from work and was given a test. Swarna Mohan a product of BITS Pilani was one of the counsellors and I decided to do a course in Cobol. The fee was Rs.6000/- in all and I must record that my mother was more than enthusiastic to provide the finances.Anything pertaining to learning and education my mother used to be pro-active at funding it. For all practical purposes I was a student at NIIT for one year ..the classes were three hours duration I think thrice a week. Ajith Sowdas used to be the course co-ordinator.

NIIT did one good thing for me.It converted me from a Electrical Engineer who used to work in dusty shop-floors of factories to a different domain of air-conditioned rooms. I headed the Information Science department of a MBA college for more than a year thanks to the experience at NIIT. Swarna  Mohan my counsellor of these times later was the HR head of NIIT. There used to a cultural fest of NIIT every year held at St. Josephs European school.

Why am I so enthusiastic of recording this experience. We in India must create more of such retail educational courses at relatively low fees which would be a big game-changer for people. The entry requirements must be made bare minimum to the extent of an interview. Basic computer science, the english language, advanced computing subjects , finance and a host of related domains  can be served through the retail sector from relatively congested out-fits of all cities where in a professional way education could flow and dissipate unbounded and unfettered  to the strategic advantage of all stake-holders.

DR, HANUMANTHU CHILD SPECIALIST AT ITI HOSPITAL

During the 1970's and 1980's the child specialist at ITI hospital used to be Dr.Hanumanthu. Iam not able to forget this person for some reason. Any child getting into the hospital would be directed to him. Very often there used to be a large queue of children waiting outside his office to see him so-much-so that they had to give him a larger consulting room up-stairs.

He was basically a tamilian and used to speak both tamil and english. He used to get annoyed sometimes seeing a large queue outside his office ,but went about his chores well.Seeing me as a kid he had predicted I would grow tall which I eventually did. He used to often give a pill periactin to children.

Somewhere I got to remember this person and thought of making a record of the same.