A monolith of gigantic proportions!

Shravanabelagola is a place worth visiting while at Mysore or at Hassan. The monolith of Baghwan Bahubali or Gommateshwara is the main attraction here. There are two stony hills called Chandragiri and Indragiri. Chandragiri is famous for the Chandragupta Basadi built by the Gangas. Indragiri is famous for the Chavendaraya Basadi and the gigantic statue of Gommateshwara. He was a King who renounced his kingdom and spent the rest of his life meditating till he attained Nirvana. The statue was carved out of the black granite of the hill and is a picture of serenity and composure.

The town has been a prominent centre for Jain art, architecture, religion and culture for over two millennia.

As you approach the village of Sravanabelagula from Hassan, you will get the first glimpse of Gommateshwara standing tall over the temple like this:

The steps leading to the temple on top of Chandragiri Hills.

Once you are on top of the hill and outside the temple you can only see the face of Gommateshwara.

As you walk around the temple you can see his head from behind.

Once you are inside the temple, you can see this gigantic statue.  

His feet alone is 10 feet long! 

Look at the great symmetry! Flawless sculpture! The size? 58 feet high and 26 feet wide. Amazing talent, those sculptures were able to do this in such a gigantic proportion so many years back without any sophisticated instruments! 

A close up of Gommateshwara. He is quite good looking!

Just flowers

I was recently in Hassan of Karnataka on a Sunday. Hotel Ashoka there maintains a beautiful garden with lot of flowers. If you have your 50mm lens or a macro lens with your camera and you were to be in a nicely maintained garden nothing like it.

My experiments with 50mm lens which my daughter gave me. 

Sometimes when you change the POV, what you see is entirely different!

Hibiscus is a great plant with different variations!

Rose is a delight of photographers!

Sometime very simple objects look great in picture!

Just grass!

Dried wood.

I thought he will fly away before I click, but he didn't!

Plain leaves can also look great!

What plant is this?

Last supper

Last week I was in Kolkata, the city which I love for its heritage.  In fact I lived there for nearly seven years and the charm of Calcutta grew on me! (I prefer to call it Calcutta and not Kolkata!) I used to take pictures of various things while I was there. This time when I went there from Mumbai, I had a Sunday with me - the entire day to be spent to my liking!

I have read Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ few years back and was very much convinced by the arguments put forward by him in that novel.

I went to St. John’s church and took some pictures. Since I went there a little late there was no one and the church was open. So I went inside the church to take the picture of ‘Last Supper’ painting which is hanging inside the church. As I wanted I was able to take a good picture and came to my Hotel Hindustan International happily.

This is the restored version of great work of German neo-classical painter Johann Zoffany hanging on the walls of St. John’s church in Kolkata. This painting is believed to have been painted in 1787. 

While I was processing my picture I noticed something striking in the picture which was very different from the original Last supper painting of Leonardo Da Vinci’s.

Take a look at both the pictures and I am sure you will notice the difference, especially if you have read Da Vinci Code!

‘The Last Supper’ - original painting of Leonardo Da Vinci.

'The Last Supper' by German neo-classical painter Johann Zoffany which is in St. John’s Church, Calcutta.

Some points which come to my mind:

In this painting the lady is seated to the left side of Jesus, in the original painting she is to the right of Jesus Christ.

Unlike the original painting in which Mary is leaning on to Saint Peter - here she is leaning on the shoulder of Jesus Christ.

 

This person is definitely a female and not an effeminate man as generally claimed of Apostle John. (Take a look at the close up of this person!)

Jesus and this person are wearing totally different coloured dresses. In the original painting Jesus is in red robe and blue cloak, Mary Magdalene in a blue robe and red cloak, mirror image of each other!

All these points go in favour of Daniel Brown’s The Da Vinci Code?  

Finally, I would like to mention here what Sigmund Freud once said about paintings - “The artist should not be held responsible for what subsequently happens to his works”.

The picture of the original painting was taken from: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DaVinci_LastSupper_high_res_2_nowatmrk.jpg

Relationship. . . . Great relationship

I was not getting sleep yesterday night (May be the cup of tea which I took late evening was interfering with my bio rhythm!) and I was tossing for long in my bed. Not surprisingly, I was thinking about many things and one led to another and finally I landed on the word ‘relationship’. ‘Relationship’ and ‘Great relationship’ to be more specific. What makes it different? I was trying to find the real difference between the two words.  What makes a relationship great? What it means to me? 

According to me a relationship, - is a state of mind or a mindset. I would like to call it a state of mind as it happens in the Mind! 

Relationship to me is the act of relating to another human being. This, more often than not, occurs through a genuine conversation, a personal story or very importantly an exchange of a shared feeling. Stepping beyond those boundaries to extend an act of kindness, a show of genuine interest or to simply exude positive energy in a sincere J can make a relationship a great one! 

If you have one with whom you have a great relationship, then you are lucky and fortunate, if not, too bad, you are less fortunate!

Does Peter Principle apply to fine arts?

This morning I was listening to Dr. N Balamuralikrishna’s Nagumomu Ganale, which is a live recording of his rendering in Indian Fine Arts Society, Madras in 1961.  It means that this song was recorded half a century back! Hence this post. 

Way back in 1968 Peter Principle was first put forth by Dr. Laurence J. Peter a psychologist, which, later on he published in his book called ‘Peter Principle’. He observed that in an organizational hierarchy, every employee rises or gets promoted to his or her level of incompetence. The Peter Principle is based on the notion that employees will get promoted as long as they are competent, but at some point will fail to get promoted beyond a certain job, because it has become too challenging for them. Employees rise to their level of incompetence and stay there. Over time, every position in the hierarchy will be filled by someone who is not competent enough to carry out his or her new duties. Dr. Peter explains it in simpler terms, "The cream rises until it sours." So this is Peter Principle.

I now come to fine arts, South Indian Carnatic music. I am a great fan of Dr. N. Balamuralikrishna and I have been listening to his music over two decades now. May be more! In my opinion he is a genius and no one living today can be compared with him! Musician par excellence!

My observation of him over the years now, made me think that Peter Principle probably works in fine arts too.

I have a collection of a single song sung by Balamuralikrishna in different places spread over 38 years. The song is Nagumomu ganale set to Ragam Abheri. He has sung the same song in different places over four decades! The first one was recorded in 1961 and the last one in 1999.  Spread over 38 years or four decades!!!

The one recorded in his early days are superb and you can actually feel the enormous effort that has gone into the song. His popularity as an acclaimed Carnatic singer was not big in those days. He was climbing up the ladder of his career during those times. As it was recorded in the early stages of his career naturally his repertoire would have also been limited.  Ironically with all these limitations the net effect of the songs that were recorded in the early stages of his life are brilliant!

But the same song recorded after he became an acclaimed singer and internationally popular are not so good! (What I actually mean here is that lot of songs that are recorded recently are not so good when you compare them with those recorded during his early days)

Is it because in later stage of life after one reaches the top, one starts to think that whatever he sings will automatically be appreciated? Or do they become complacent? Or because in the later stage he started to experiment more because he no longer fears anything as he has already reached the top position? Or he has become more creative and fears nothing and in that process fails more often?  Or is he indulging in more ‘sondha sahityams’ – own compositions, which are yet to become popular? Or finally is it because they reach the level of incompetence as Peter would say?

Whatever it is, in my opinion there is no one comparable to Dr. Balamuralikrishna and he is the best in today’s South Indian Carnatic music. As my daughter would say “He is God level”

(The above pictures were taken from internet and not taken by me)

Here, the parts are equal to the sum!

Generally it is said that the sum is greater than the parts. But in case of Taj Mahal, the parts are equal to the sum!

Every bit of Taj is a work of masterpiece! Everything is symmetrical and crafted with at most precision!

 

 

Taj Mahal - different point of view

When I visited the Taj this time, I wanted to shoot it from a different angle, having exhausted all the conventional angles during my previous visits!  Many of the conventional angles are still irresistible.

In Agra I went to a place called Mehtab Bagh. This is a garden which is on the other side of the river Yamuna exactly opposite to Taj Mahal. From here one gets an uninterrupted view of the back side of Taj Mahal. I must say this place is a photographer’s delight! I was unfortunate in the sense that there was very little water in the river Yamuna. Had the river Yamuna been running full, I would have got the beautiful reflection of the Taj, especially after 2 PM, when the sun is shining bright over Taj. Perhaps there is always a next time and the next time I would be luckier!!!

The Garden complex, situated on the opposite bank of the Taj Mahal, is also known as “The Moonlight Garden”. Three hundred fifty years ago, when the Taj was built on the Yamuna's south bank, this garden was also laid just across the river. It was laid alongside the northern waterfront. It seems this place was once an oasis with fragrant flowers, shaded pavilions, fountain jets and reflecting pools but it ceased to exist in the due course of history. Slowly, the site became barren.

This place is not known to many in Agra itself! I asked many people but no one could tell me how to get there. Finally I got an auto guy who immediately understood the place   I was asking about. So I gladly fixed him and left the hotel at 6:30 AM, so that I could get some nice shots of the Taj when the sun is just rising. But when I went there the atmosphere was totally different and the Taj was  completely covered by early morning mist! As the sun rose, the Taj was getting slowly exposed from the clouds or mist and the sight was awesome! Wow! That was much better than what I had expected! I am sure anyone who sees the pictures I took would agree with me.

Then, I went to the same place in the afternoon by 4 PM and took the following shots.