Had a veg salad at Namdhari’s for dinner yesterday, and was I surprised or what. The quantity is large, and the quality of the vegetables are good. Lots of sprouts, bean sprouts, corn, spinach, cabbage, carrots. I tried two of the dressings – coriander and mint, and mayo and garlic. Did not use too much of the dressing, for that would contrast the purpose of the salad.  The salad is served with a piece of soft bread – which is also very good.

On the whole, a very fulfiling meal. I did not think, a salad could fill me up, but the quantity here is such that, I left with just-about-a-full-stomach — which is by far the best feeling one can get after dinner (not stuffed, nor empty).

Ratings:

Ambience — 4 / 5 (The ambience is very sparse)

Food taste – 5/5

Quantity – 5/5

Service – 5/5

Appearance of the food – 5/5

 

Visited the beautiful temple of Darasuram (about 5 km from Kumbakonam). The temple is one of the two temples built by the Raja Raja Cholans (I and II), which have striking resemblences to the big temple in Tanjavur (the other one is in Gangai-konda-chozhapuram). The temple has now been taken over by the Archeological Society of India (ASI) for preservation and restoration. More info on wikipedia here.

The ASI has really done a nice job landscaping the outer periphery of the temple.

Restoration work being carried out by the ASI.

Notice the similarity of the Gopuram to the Big temple in Tanjavur.

Lot of greenery around the temple.

Legend: The temple kurukkal (priest) gave us a run down of the legend of the temple. The white elephant of Indra (Airavatha) was cursed by someone and became black. The elephant then, came to Darasuram, took bath in the temple tank, and then did abhisheka to the Lord, and Lord Shiva gave papa-vimochanam, and turned him back to his regal white color. Hence the name of the diety – Airavatheshwara. Lord Shiva’s consort name here is Periya nayagi.

A shot of the famous Mahamaham Kolam (tank) in Kumbakonam. The rain had just stopped. A little bit of photo editing magic (soften portrait) was added to add a nice warm feeling to the picture.

Wikipedia link to Mahamaham.

Just prior to Firefox 1.0 arriving, Mozilla’s Scott Collins, a veteran of Netscape and evangelist for the Mozilla team, said this to Linux.Ars:

“I have hope that we will be a mainstream browser and that people will use Mozilla. That’s the thing I learned to lust after as a programmer. It’s not my ability to solve one problem, to plow this field, but the ability to build a plow that every farmer uses. The ability to make something that touches not ten people, not a hundred people, not a thousand people but a hundred million people. I want Mozilla to be there again. IE is a browser with no soul. I want it to be Mozilla because I think that people who care deserve a browser with a soul.”

Quoted from lifehacker article on History of firefox.

Beautiful. I am bowled over. That quote personifies passion. Passion to be the best!

This thing is amazing. I just read this in the online version of the IEEE Spectrum. Omer Yosha, the inventor, has invented an air piano. Wonder what is an air piano. It basically is a piece of wood and a sheet of plexiglass. He has some sensors which detect his hand at three different levels, and plays different notes accordingly.

A note about Yosha:

Omer Yosha is a formally trained musician who plays guitar and sings. He left his home near Tel Aviv to see the world, traveling dusty paths in India and busking in the streets of London before settling in Berlin. The German capital is wide open, its energetic art and design scene spurred by a polyglot, multidisciplinary mix-and-match mind-set and cheap space. — IEEE Spectrum

There is a video in the above link – which is awesome.

I found one more video that I found on youtube.

In my most recent trip to Kumbakonam, on a fine sunday morning, I took in my brother-in-law’s scooty ES. My objective was to go to the Ramaswamy temple nearby. Why Ramaswamy kovil – that was the easiest my wife could give directions to – take that small road that you see from here, go straight until it hits the temple walls. Park and go in. How easy could it get? So thats what I did.

Ramaswamy temple - Kumbakonam

The temple is beautiful. It has Sita-Lakshmana-Bharatha-Shatrugna-Hanuman-Rama in Pattabhisheka kolam (Coronation ceremony). The idols are huge – eac of them 7-8 feet tall. And the temple is pretty old.

Ramaswamy Temple

The Ramaswamy Temple which depicts the paintings of Ramayana is another important Vaishanavite temple in Kumbakonam. The greatness of Ramaswamy Temple is said to be the only temple where Lord Rama,Goddess Sita are in the same platform and Lord Hanuman is playing the veena instead of reading the Ramayana. The entire deity is said to be made from Saligrama monolith. The Temple is filled with intricate carvings in its pillars.

Excert from wikipedia (src)

After seeing this temple, me being me, I decided, I will take a different route back home. And Kumbakonam, being Kumbakonam, if you get lost, you find more temples. While I was gazing blankly around for landmarks, while driving, I found Someshwarar kovil. This was my next stop. The main deity is named Vyazha Someshwarar. It has however come to be known, among locals, as Ezha Someshwarar (poor Someshwarar). Popular folklore is that, this used to be a rich temple, until some other temples (like Ramaswamy temple) came up near by. And then, people stopped frequenting this temple as much, and it became poor. Looking at the size of the temple, it has nothing to do with our defenition of poor though.

Someshwarar temple

While going around the temple prahara, I happened to see another gigantic temple, next door. So I asked an old man sitting inside the temple, and he said, that is the Sarangapani temple, and that was my next stop.

Sarangapani temple

This is another huge temple. The main deity Saranganathar is seen in reclining pose (like Srirangam). Then satisfied with the number of temples for the day, I headed back home.

Some other awesome links about the above temples:

http://sankriti.blogspot.com/2009/05/kumbakonam-temple-visits-iv.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbakonam

http://www.saigan.com/heritage/states/tn/kumbak/sarangap.html

Shot during my trip to Kumbakonam over the weekend. This was a bus trip. Caught these mostly on the way there – early morning Tanjore district pictures as usual.

One of the hundreds of temples that line the sides of the winding roads of Tanjore district.

One of the many tributaries of the Cauvery river, brimming with water - a beautiful sight to see.

Can there be a green, greener than this ? Almost flouroscent green. No post processing done.

All pictures shot using my Nokia 7210 Super Nova mobile phone.

No post processing done, except for addition of borders.

I have been in the search for a good Veg Burger in Bangalore for a while. And no, I do not mean the factory made McDonalds burger. Yuck. Have gotten bored of eating the “exact formula based burger”. Last week, happened to have a pretty good burger at the food court in the Forum, Koramangala. In the Shiv Sagar booth, there was a burger on display. And it said 50 bucks. So I said, what the heck.

Review:

It was pretty good actually. Deep fried patty in between the buns. But not dripping with oil. Long oval buns. Not the usual small burger buns. Sesame topping was there. The burger was cut in two, so it made eating easy. Fresh slices of tomato, cucumber, onion, green peppers, and guess what, beetroot, on top of the patty. Some sauce in between – most probably mayo.

The burger was indeed juicy (just the right amount). Not oily, and made a perfect eat.

If any other Bangaloreans have any perfect veg burger joints, let me know in the comments !

Last week, I happened to visit Ranga Shankara, a theatre for plays in Bangalore. I went to attend a play named “Proof”. One of my team guys brought up the idea. We had just gotten a milestone done at work, and we thought, it would be a good break. Went with the whole team.

Ambience:

Firstly, the theater ambience itself is amazing. In the bustling midst of JP Nagar Phase II, there is this quiet little theatre. The foyer and lobby are well decorated in terms of ambience. A spiral staircase leads you to the theater entrance upstairs. There is a small eatery in the ground floor (try their sabhudana vada. It is amazing!). The theater itself is a circular room with amphitheater style seating. Long rows of simple bench like seating. No fancy push back seating. Comfortable, and open. The stage is a wooden stage. No audio equipment separates the stage from the seats. So its just the actors and you – face to face. Acoustics is superb. No mics. It requires professional actors, who can ‘throw’ the voice out to the audience.

Play:

Brilliant in one word. No wonder it won the pullitzer. After watching so many masala movies, where you can predict the next scene. this was very refreshing. It is a 2 act play (15 min break in between). Very good suspense. The story line is simple, but takes a couple of twists and turns, at the right moments, which keeps you wanting to see more. 4 actors, and one stage setting (no sets to change in between). The actors did a splendid job. It was definitely a refreshing break from the monotony of work, and in general from the humdrum of life.

If you want to read the synopsys ofthe play, read it from wikipedia here.