Live Life Everyday

Picture 1: Boats lined up at the Triveni Sangam, Prayag, Allahabad with pilgrims and tourists.  I have been to Allahabad last week and saw the site of the famous Kumba Mela at Prayag, also known as the Triveni Sangam. Hundreds of thousands of people come, as their forebears had come for thousands of years from all over India, to bathe at the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical river, Saraswathi. Having visited in the winter season, I was fortunate enough to see migratory birds from Siberia playing and feeding in the Yamuna (See Picture 4). A dip at the Triveni Sangam is believed to break the cycle of rebirth and save one's soul. References to these ceremonial baths can be found in the accounts of Chinese Pilgrims who visited India some thirteen hundred years ago and even then these Melas were ancient and lost in an unknown antiquity. When you approach the Sangam from land, what welcomes you is a massive fort built by the great emperor Akbar. T

Thrikodithanam Mahavishnu Temple  was built during the reign of the second Chera Empire in 800 AD. There is a stone fortress called  Bhoodathan Kotta  around this temple. According to local legends, the fortress was built out of a single stone, overnight, by a spirit ( bhoodam ). There is also a beautiful lake in front of the temple. Devoted to Lord Vishnu, Thrikodithanam Mahavishnu Kshetram, alias Adbhuta Narayanan Temple, is one of the five Pancha-Pandava temples in Kerala and among the 108 Vishnu temples in India. This 9th-century temple is located at Thrikodithanam in Changanacherry, 25 km from Kottayam. Adbhuta Narayanan is the chief deity and his idol along with consort Karpagavalli, in standing posture, is made of an unusual black stone called Aanjana-kallu. The temple also houses the idols of Lord Shiva, Lord Krishna, Ganapathi, Narasimha, Nagadevas, and Kshetrapala.The temple structure is an architectural excellence adorned with beautiful mural paintings. The temple sanctum

 It was in 1805 AD, that the famed Diwan of Travancore Veluthampy Dalava made a market place at Changanacherry. The market was inaugurated by the exchange of an elephant. Now this market is one of the largest markets in Kerala and is the best attended in all of North Travancore. The chief trade is in rice, pepper, dry ginger, areca nuts and piece goods. Towards the memory of the centennial celebrations of the place in 1905, the people installed the " Anchu Vilakku" (Five Lamps) seen near the Boat Jetty at Market Road.      The lamp signifies the 'unity in diversity' of the local ethnic and religious sects - a truly fitting tribute to the ethos of Changanacherry.       Anjuvilakk                               

What is my inheritance? To what am I an heir? To all that humanity has achieved during tens of thousands of years, to all that it has thought and felt and suffered and taken pleasure in, to its cries of triumph and its bitter agony of defeat, to that astonishing adventure of man which began so long ago and yet continues and beckons to us. To all this and more, in common with all men. (Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru)

An interesting story: *Where do birds go to die?*           Strange question, isn't it, but the answers are even stranger, or probably there is no answer at all.  The world is populated with flocks of birds, but strangely, one never sees bodies of dead birds lying around.   Rarely one does see bird remains left behind by a careless cat or a pigeon killed in flight by the sharp kite string during the makar sankrat kite festival. But, lying around dead from a natural cause? Never! So do birds live forever? When no answer comes to mind, what does one do? Well for many unanswered questions one does ask Google! That’s exactly what I did.  *Guess what? Google had no logical answer!*  To find the answer to my question, I browsed bird watching sites skimmed through ornithology resources but with no luck; just vague and funny answers.   Then I came across a very interesting article on ‘Dying Pattern of birds” and cited below was a controversial theory by Late Cork Bishop Cornelius Lu

Dear Black Money, I am your weaker sibling, white. How are you? I am fine here in India and I hope you are enjoying your stay in Switzerland. I am writing this letter as I have heard that you are coming back to India. Is it true ? If it is, then I will suggest you to please reconsider your decision. Black, do you remember the days when we were together and there was no difference between you and me. We were simply, Money without any discrimination of black and white. But then some corrupt politicians and cruel businessmen separated us forever. Since that day, you have been growing in numbers and I am left on the mercy of salaried employees who do not have the privilege of you. People often call me No.1, but it’s you who went places- from Mauritius to Dubai to Switzerland, while I was locked in FD, Post Office or in PF. While I suffer from high rates of Income Tax, Service Tax, VAT, Property Tax, Entry Tax, you are immune to each one of them. You will be glad to know that today