March Elephants....March.

Temple Festivals of Kerala epitomize royalty, grandeur and carnivals of India. And one of them is the Guruvayur Utsavam (festival) celebrated at the Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple in Guruvayur – known as the ‘Dwaraka of the South’- in Kerala starting from 5^th of March.

This March, the little town of Guruvayur will bustle with activity as it celebrates the Guruvayur Festivals – Patahadi, Dhwajadi and Ankuradi that last all month. The Temple would be richly decorated by fresh-cut flowers during day and with multi-coloured blinking lights – thousands in a row at night and the streets would be lined with flower and light decorations with spiritual music in Malayalam playing at every nook and corner. Fireworks, decorative arch-ways, bunches of coconuts and plantain trunks which are planted by most doorways is what Guruvayur experiences every March.

Remembered for the elaborate ‘pujas’ in the Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple and the majestic Elephant parades in which Elephants adorned with ornate golden caparisons (nettipattam) parade along with hundreds of Lord Krishna devotees and the temple priests doing the drum-roll in the festival procession around the temples, the Guruvayur Festivals in March are dedicated to Lord Krishna and are much-awaited by the locals and tourists. During this month the Temple hosts several cultural programs daily. It is a feast to the eyes and the experience takes you to a whole new level of spirituality even if you’re not a Hindu.

Known to have more than 60 captive Elephants which are an integral part of the Temple Pujas & Processions, the Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple Board has constructed an exclusive, one-of-its-kind Elephant Palace to house these regal beings of which Gajarajan Guruvayur Kesavan is the most popular and celebrated elephant for his devout behaviour. Beside pilgrimage people from all over the country visit Guruvayur Temple during this festival because of the unique Elephant Race (Aanayottam) which marks the commencement of the festival where all the elephants along with their respective mahouts race against one another on the streets of Guruvayur.

Besides partaking in the celebration of the Guruvayur Festival, rheumatic patients also pay homage to the temple’s residing deity – Lord Krishna as it is a strong belief that doing so would relieve them of their suffering and ailments.

The summer when we bathed Elephants

When families of three long time friends go on a trip it is a ride with unlimited fun and joy.  That was how one of our trips to Karnataka was.  Summer of 2010 we visited Dubara forest as part of our trip.  We had toured Coorg of Madikeri for two days and left for the Dubara Forest visit around 8 pm on 21 May 2010. We checked in to the already reserved cottages of the Jungle Lodges and Resorts and it was a dark and cloudy night.  We sat outside the cottages sharing horror stories, scaring the kiddos and having a blast of time.  We retired late and woke up early to see the Elephants before it gets hot.

Our cottage was on one bank of the river Cauvery and the Elephant camp on the other. The river was very pleasant, pure and quite.  The trees on the banks of the river were very old and a tree was actually a hybrid of 2 different types and had two kinds of leaves.  We sat under this tree and had our breakfast and after that went on boating to the Elephant camp.

The activities planned spaced across 3 hrs and we did not know how the time went by.  The Elephants were of different sizes and ages and so well trained, behaved and cute. I think Elephant is the only animal that looks cute despite its size.  So to begin with we joined the Naturalist (Trainer) in bathing a couple of Elephants.  He allowed us to oil the trunk, forehead and legs first and asked us to scrub using a tight scrubber.  Children were so excited that they fell all over the place and scrubbed the friendly animals.  When it was time to wash them off, the moment kids started pouring water on them with huge mugs they started showering us in turn using their trunks and it was so much of fun.  We had heard that The Elephants in this camp are well trained and are very human friendly and were pleased to experience more than what we had expected. 

After the bathing came the riding, initially it was scary to get on them but a little help from the Naturalist motivated the kids to go ahead, all this while the trained kept loading us with the daily routine, eating habits and sleeping habits of the Elephants.  It was an informative and enjoyable tour.  

The most interesting part of the day was feeding the Elephants.  Their diet includes porridge made of the flour of Ragi (finger millet).  It is cooked in huge bowls, so huge that I had never seen before. And each time the animal gobbles football sized porridge. We all were allowed to feed it with the instructions of the naturalist.  And it was a great experience to see them eat so much so fast, the tongue of the elephant is so big and thick it felt strange to touch it. And with that the three hour activity of one group was done with and even we were very tired, hungry and ready to leave after all this. 

Yoga-Power in the Yoga-Capital of the world!

It’s raining ‘yogarians’ in Rishikesh this March 1-7 as the International Yoga Festival is going full throttle with the world’s top Yoga-gurus and disciples converging for a trip up the yoga-lane.

What began as a handful of ‘Yoga hope-fulls’ in 1999 is today, an International Yoga Festival – an international event that is much awaited by yoga-enthusiasts world over. Participants range from students to practitioners from 30 countries in this week-long conference, where the ‘Yogacharyas’ and spiritual leaders give discourses and demonstrations of Yoga and highlight its practical implementation and its benefits in our current fast-paced lives.

Jointly organized by the Uttarakhand Tourism Department and the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, Kundalini Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Power Vinyasa Yoga and Kriya Yoga among others are to be taught in a rare yoga festival where all forms of World Yoga are showcased in a single international event in Rishikesh.

Some of the presenters at the Yoga International Festival are:

Shankaracharya Swami Divyanand Teerthji – commentary on the Holy Scriptures.

Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswatiji – teacher of Vedanta.

Swami Ramdevji – pranayam & yoga.

Padmashri Bharat Bhushanji – yoga.

Swami Yoganndaji - Sukshma Vyayam Yoga.

Radhanath Swamiji (American born) – community development & yoga.

Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa – from Los Angeles, California - Kundalini yoga, meditation and pre- and post-natal yoga training.

Manouso Manos - Iyengar Yoga

Andrew Cohen – spiritual teacher from USA.

Rujuta Diwekar – nutrition and Iyengar and Sivananda yoga.

Marla Apt - from Los Angeles, California – Iyengar Yoga.

Janet Bray Attwood – yoga.

David Wei – Yin & Yang Yoga.

GabrieIa Bozic – from Munic Germany – Jivamukti Yoga.

Emy Blesio – from Italy - Yoga, Pranayama, and Meditation.

What is in your sky tonight?

Ever wonder?

Does it intrigue you enough to make you head to your nearest Planetarium and explore your sky? Were you ever curious about finding out whom you share your skyline with? Did you ever imagine how your sky looks through the eye of a powerful telescope which zooms in celestial bodies which are many light-years away?

My curiosity was evoked so I headed out to the Birla Planetarium in Kolkata.

I did see literature on space-exploration and did hear some intellectual voices preempt the Show content but the actual Space Show out-does all verbal and written descriptions. This picture is truly worth a thousand words and more.

Even before the show had begun, I must highlight the ambience that is created by the physical aspects of the planetarium which creates the right ambience and mood to explore, understand and enjoy the Space. It is 688-seater planetarium with directional seats which allows you to recline back and watch the full spectrum of the sky in 180 degrees-pan. Footsteps are muffled by the thick wall-to-wall carpets. The circular room was air-conditioned and dimly lit. all this heightened my anticipation of what’s to come….

The initially invisible hostess made her presence felt on the mike when she announced that the show would commence in 2 minutes. All piped-down and reclined back and gaped at the sky in silence as the light were turned down and the hostess introduced us to OUR SKY.

It was like nothing before. Simply awesome!!

I felt like an astronaut who drifted from his spaceship and was loosely floating around in space. The telescope zoomed in images of the stars and other space-rocks which were light-years away and magnified them on our concave screen. By the way, one ‘light year’ is a measurement of time wherein it represents the distance covered by light in one year. That’s zillions and zillions and zillion kilometres away! Whoever thought of that!

It so easy to get lost in space…..literally! And I was for those 45 minutes during the show.

The outcome?

Carl Zeiss Home telescope with a tripod…..in 1 year flat!