Visit to Hebbal Lake, Bangalore

Lilly Flowers at Hebbal Lake

On an invitation from my bird expert colleague, I went to Hebbal lake.  I have been planning to visit this place for a long time, but finally covered it after being in Bangalore for a long time.  We heard that there are pelicans and other migratory birds like Ibis here at this time and we went on to explore. We started early since our aim is to see birds.  Reached there around 6:30am and the part was open.  During day time (post 9:30am) there is an entry fee charged for casual visitors.  Early morning visitors for birding and morning walk are free. 

Lepakshi Veerabhadra Swamy Temple, Andhra Pradesh

While returning from Belum Caves (Read about this in my previous post), we stayed in Anantapur at Hotel Sapthagiri Balla.  It is a very good hotel in this town with attached veg (Chutnees) and multi-cuisine (Spice) restaurants.  After a nice rest, we had breakfast at the attached Chutnees restaurant (buffet breakfast was included in the room charge), we started towards Lepakshi.

Lepakshi is a small village located in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.  It is around 120km north of Bangalore.  The Veerabhadra Swamy temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is located here.  The temple is built in Vijayanagar architecture style and has excellent sculptures built by Vijayanagar empire artisans.  The temple also has a repository of mural paintings of Vijayanagar kings and gods.  A reference to this temple is made in the 'Skandapurana' as one of the hundred and eight important Shiva temples. This temple is a visual treat to anyone interested in historic sculptures and architecture showing the skill of the our predecessors.

Birds of Kainkondrahalli Lake, Bangalore

Kaindondrahalli Lake is next to my apartment and still I seldom visits this. It has changed from a dumpyard to a beautiful lake due to BBMP renovations with help of local residents and a private contractor.  People who used to go for morning walk told me there are lots of birds in there.  So I finally decided to take a trip with my Camera.  Below are some photos of birds I captured.  I should be visiting more often.

Updated: 14-July-2012 with new photos

Birds of Cubbon Park, Bangalore

Eagle at Cubbon Park Lake

Finally, I took out time after a long time to blog.  It is really sad that my last post was in April this year.  So much time has gone and looks like I have been too busy.  Last week had few long weekends due to Diwali and Karnataka Rajyotsava.  We were sick in turn and couldn't make use of the long weekends.  We finally decided to go out and went to Cubbon park yesterday.  My brother from Chennai was here for the holidays.  My sole intention was to take some bird photos.

Gagan Chukki Falls, Sivanasamudram

Our trip to Mysore on last October long weekend was the first pleasure trip after we got our daughter. She has almost reached a year and is ready to join me. En-route to Mysore, we visited Sivanasamudram (also called Sivasamudram). I heard about the water falls from one of my colleague and decided to check it out.

River Cauvery flows through this place towards its journey to find sea and creates two waterfalls called Gagan Chukki Falls and Bara Chukki Falls. The best season to visit the falls is around July-August when Cauvery river is full. There was not too much water this time of the year, but it was good enough to enjoy.

Sivasamudram is located in Mandya district in Karnataka state where the Cauvery river splits to two and forms a small island and the two water falls called Gagan Chukki (90 meters) and Bara Chukki (69 meters). Both the falls are only km away from each other. We visited only Gagan Chukki falls since we had to reach Mysore by that night. From Bangalore, the falls is around 135 kms.

ISKCON Temple, Bangalore

It is a very modern temple which a futuristic architecture. The ISKCON Temple is situated in North Bangalore near Mahalakshmi Layout and Rajaji Nagar. It is around 7 Kms from Majestic. They seems to have plans to build a new one in Kanakpura Road.

The temple is on a hill top having magnificent view of the surrounding which includes few other temples. Camera is not allowed inside the temple and hence some of those views (especially in the dawn and dusk) are to be seen directly. Before entering the temple you have an option (yes, you can bypass this) of going through a 108 stone passage chanting Krishna praise. Then you go up to the temple where there are some supplementary deities and they are simple and beautiful to see. Passing this level you reach the majestic center hall of the temple. The roof of the temple is decorated with paintings from Krishna's life. The deities are made of gold (I guess plated) and are beautiful to see. The enclosure is also covered with Gold. (Update provided by an anonymous reader: The deities of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna Candra; Sri Sri Krishna Balaram and Sri Nitai Gauranga are made of Panchaloha with brass outer layer.)

You can also see the statue of the founder of ISKCON and get to buy a wide range of literature on Krishna including the famous Bhagavat Gita is many languages.

Night view of ISKCON temple

Once you come down after darshan, the feeling of visiting a temple ends and you enter into a miniature "Mall" with all kind of shops selling artifacts, souvenirs and food. You do get different items to buy here normally not available in a shop outside. They also run a charitable organization towards which many of the sale proceedings go. When you get down from the temple, you are provided with a bowl of "Prasadam", normally very delicious porridge.

The CAR parking fee is Rs.10/- and they do security check before allowing people inside the temple. There is no religious affiliations required to enter the temple and people of all religions are welcomed there.

ISKCON also conducts a charity program called "Akshaya Patra". I came to know about the full scale of operations recently and was impressed at this. They do noon meal program for scores of school children in and around Bangalore. Meal for lakhs of children are prepared in very modern hygienic environment.

Read more on this at MustseeIndia.com

Lalbagh Flower Show, Bangalore

We visited the annual flower show on Independence day at Lalbagh Garden, Bangalore. They had a similar flower show during the Republic Day which I could not visit. The entry fee for car was a high Rs.200. Other than the official flower display, there were many shops setup by local nurseries which offered a variety of horticulture ranging from fruits, plants, flowers and bonsai. In spite of the high entry fee there were huge crowd to see the show.

The attraction of the show were two glass houses one showing off a variety of desert plants and the other showing an enormous number of flowers arranged in many innovative patterns. The picture above and below shows the flowers on display inside the main glass house.

I like this one. In fact a good one for wallpaper.

Vadamalli (Globe Amaranth)

There was a second glass house (I have not seen it before) which was housing a variety of cactus plants. These beautiful thorny plants are a treat to watch and particularly so when they were arranged neatly the way it was done here.

Kotilingeswara Temple, Karnataka

Updated: 29 Dec 2009 after a subsequent visit.

It is stated that there are 87 Lakhs (8.7 million) Shivlings in this temple. They are looking at 13 Lakhs (1.3 million) more to reach one crore (10 million) shivlings at this temple. Devotees can sponsor installation of Lingas.

The Kotilingeswara Temple is situated at Kammasandra near Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka. You can reach here by taking the Old Madras Road from Bangalore. Follow the OMR till BangaKolar when you have to take diversion just before Kolar towards Bangarapet. After crossing Bangarapet (around 6 kms) the road will split to Kolar Gold Fields (right) and Kotilinga Temple (straight). Follow this road and you will see the temple on the right side after 3-4 kms. There is also Karnataka Tourism direction boards along the way at many places. The distance is around 115Kms from Bangalore. On our second trip on Dec 29th, we saw the roads are getting widened and the traveling distance has reduced by an hour. It took us 3.5 hours to reach the temple with ample breaks in between. You can also reach here by train to Bangarapet station and then by taxi/bus.

This is a unique temple where you see Shivlings everywhere you turn. The main temple complex has two temples, the main Shiva temple houses the first Shivlinga installed here and the other has Shiva, Vishnu and Bhrama deities. You can see many shivlings all over the temple complex.

There is an outer complex which is bigger and houses the remaining shivlings. There is a huge 108ft high Shivling (suppose to be the biggest in the world) and a 40ft high Nandi within this complex (picture above). There is also a temple housing Ganesha and Hanuman.

Free meals are provided to the pilgrims everyday in the noon. More details can be found at http://kotilinga.org/index.htm




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