I salute our brave Armed forces and our Prime Minister for destroying terror camps in Pakistan.

I am happy and smiling. Proud of our Prime Minister and our Armed Forces for exterminating terrorists and their long existing training camps in Pakistan, last night. Hope our neighbor being called a terrorist State and shunned by the world would now refrain from terrorism and treachery. Similarly may the traitors in our country, some politicians, some perverted intellectuals, ungrateful students and a section of the media working senselessly 24X7, 365 days against our Central Government and our Prime Minister refrain from dirty politics and play a constructive role.

I salute our Armed forces for their bravery and Sri. Narendra Modi, our Prime Minister, for his leadership.

About Roadside Food.

From childhood; we are told,

Roadside food; is not good.

But this rule gets broken,

When you are on a highway,

And you are hungry,

And impressive eateries seem far away.

Any Roadside Dhaba or eatery,

Would end your mealtime worry.

The ambiance may not be grand,

But the freshly prepared food is good!

No, at times very delicious!

No harm has ever befallen us!

Lovely background of flowers!

A lovely background!

Of greenery and flowers,

Created by loving hands,

Of my husband,

As an ornament,

For our house,

And for our amusement…

Paves way for pictures,

With us in front;

Of this lovely establishment,

To remember this happy moment,

With my granddaughter,

Even after many years.

- N. Lalitha Raghu.

Our rhythmic facebook posts today, connected to Hyderabad weather.

NEVER BEFORE SEEN RAIN IN HYDERABAD:

Rain makes everything beautiful,

But flooding is extensive trouble.

Hyderabad’s ongoing dark, cold and rainy evenings,

Call for such colourful, hot and yummy servings!

Rain, Rain Go Away, Hyderabad Is Flooded.

I love rain,

Not cloud bursts,

Not flooding,

Not if it hurts.

Our city is not planned,

To handle incessant rain,

So Rain, Rain Go Away,

Come again some other day.

Look at these pictures,

One with birds and us,

Full of vibrant life,

Soaring with joy.

And the other picture,

Flooded with water,

And with none of us,

And looking so gloomy.

So Rain, Rain Go Away,

Come Again Some Other Day,

In moderation,

And satisfy all our needs.

Rest in Peace Bravehearts of Uri.

In one of the worst casualties suffered by our Army in recent times, lives of 18 of our soldiers serving our nation with great dedication and bravery were lost in a cowardly attack by terrorists, on 18th September 2016. This was at a Military base in Uri or Baramulla District. Another 30 soldiers were injured.

The attack has left us shocked and grieving. Intrusion of terrorists from our neighboring country, the epicenter of terrorists, a country ruled by psychopaths, has become common. Our soldiers are preventing attacks by them and eliminating them but once in a while they manage to sneak in and cause damage. I wish our country will be successful in correcting and containing this barbaric neighbor. May the decent countries of the world join us in our effort.    

The names of the soldiers who laid down their lives in defense of our country are engraved in the above poster. May the souls of these martyrs rest In peace. 

May their grieving families be mercifully supported by God and our Government agencies. Let help and honors in every possible way be provided to these families to minimize their grief.

Let us forever remember the unselfish sacrifice of these heroes and pray for their families. Let us also pray for the success and safety of all our security forces.

The 4 terrorists responsible for this ghastly tragedy were immediately eliminated by our Army.

May the breeding of such terrorists – the filthy monsters, end soon.

After Rain, Monster Jam In Hyderabad Leaves Commuters On Road For Hours.

Heavy rain during peak hours yesterday caused one of the worst-ever massive traffic problems in twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.   Heavy rain always causes problems to commuters in twin cities but last evening’s problems were shocking, not only every main road but all secondary roads and lanes witnessed traffic snarls. I was at home and worried as our children were trapped in this jam. I was monitoring the traffic situation on TV, it was pathetic, due to water logging, bad and narrow roads, irresponsible driving by some and vehicle breakdowns. It took our son three and half hours to reach home from his office, a distance of 18 kms. And it was much worse for our daughter-in-law, it took her four and half hours. Only comfort was that they traveled together in this unusual journey. Our daughter-in-law started from her office at 5:30 pm and took one hour to travel a distance of 6 kms. to reach my son’s office and together they reached home at 10:00 pm. Lucky for them their Car had enough fuel.

All concerned Government agencies, the Traffic Police and GHMC-Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation  staff did their best to ease the situation but in spite of all efforts by them traffic problems continued well beyond 10:00 pm.  This fire fighting approach by them has prevented a much worse experience for commuters but won a bad name for them and the City once again.

Rain is not to be blamed for this situation. Rain is essential and we all love it. Lessons have to be learnt from yesterday’s situation and the infrastructure should be developed to overcome such problems in future. And most importantly the villains, almost all the Auto Rickshaw drivers, State Bus drivers and the senseless Car and Two-wheel drivers responsible for crisscrossing and interrupting smooth flow of traffic should be very severely punished.        

Balapur Ganesh Laddu–2016, auctioned for Rs. 14.65 Lakhs!

The famous Balapur Ganesh Laddu weighing 21 Kgs. was procured today by Skylab Reddy of Keesara in a fierce auction for Rs. 14.65 Lakhs! Last year it was auctioned for Rs. 10.32 Lakhs. Year after year its popularity and price is going up. At the end of this article you can see a list of year-wise price of this popular Laddu Prasadam.

Balapur village is a suburb of Hyderabad City. Balapur Ganesh Utsava Samithi started celebrating Ganesh Chavithi in a grand way from 1980. And since 1994 the Laddu kept in one hand of the large Ganesh idol on Ganesh Chavithi festival day is auctioned eleven days later, on the day of Ganesh Nimajjanam/immersion. The idol is taken in a procession in the village and brought back to the Pandal and then the Laddu Prasadam is auctioned amidst thousands of locals and visitors. The auction is always very fierce and interesting. This year it began with 24 persons participating and the amount kept rising and finally it was given away for Rs. 14.65 Lakhs. This amount is used by the Utsava Committee for the development of Balapur.

There is a very strong belief among people that Balapur Laddu brings good luck to the highest bidder and his family. People talk of the prosperity and happiness that has come to previous top bidders.

After winning the auction the bidder would normally distribute the Laddu Prasadam among his family, friends, relatives and community. He would also shower some of it in his fields as it is believed to enrich the soil and enhance yield.

On this day, there is full coverage of the events at Balapur by all regional TV channels and people enjoy watching the bidding process.

After this Balapur Laddu tradition became popular, auctioning of Ganesh Chavithi Laddu Prasadam has become very common throughout the Twin Cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Auctioning is taking place at hundreds of community Puja Pandals and even at residential colonies and flats. And here too the auction amounts are quite significant ranging from few Lakhs to thousands of Rupees.  

Sri Mangueshi Temple.

During our recent visit to Goa, we visited the ancient Mangueshi Temple which has a very interesting history.  The Temple is very popular locally and among religious tourists. So I decided to write about what I have seen and learned about this popular Temple.

First of all, it is a very beautiful and large Temple. It is the Temple of Bhagwan Manguesh, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Hence the Temple is called Mangueshi or Mangeshi Temple. It is situated 22 km. from Panaji, at Priol in Ponda Taluka of Goa.

This Temple was originally at Kushasthali/Cortalim, a village in Saxtty/Salcette for a very long period. But in the year 1560, as the Portuguese invaded this place and began converting people to Christianity, the idol of Lord Shiva/Manguesh was shifted to the present location which was then ruled by a Hindu king. Since then the Temple has been rebuilt and renovated a few times. The most recent renovation took place in 1973.

The Temple is intricately designed and proportioned. The Temple architecture consists of several domes, ornamental walls, pillars, and arches. There is a beautiful Nandi/bull and a beautiful seven-storey Lamp tower/Deepa Sthamba inside the Temple complex, which you can see in the attached photographs. Inside the Temple is a spacious hall called Sabha Griha which can accommodate over 500 persons. The décor here includes magnificent chandeliers. At the centre of this hall is the Garbha Griha/Sanctum sanctorum, which houses the idol of Bhagwan Manguesh.

According to legend Lord Shiva played a game of dice with his wife, Goddess Parvati Devi and lost all that he possessed. Having lost everything he wandered and came to the Kushasthali area in Goa. Goddess Parvati came looking for him here. Then Lord Shiva disguised himself as a tiger and frightened Parvati Devi. Startled, Parvati Devi shouted for help saying “Trahi Mam Grisha”, which means “O Lord of the mountains save me”. Lord Shiva then transformed into his original form and the divine couple returned to their abode happily.

The words “Mam Grisha” came to be associated with Lord Shiva and over time the words got transformed into Manguirisha and then Manguesh.  And the place where this episode took place was marked by the building of a Temple there. And the Temple was called Mangueshi or Mangeshi Temple. And as I explained above this Temple was shifted to its present location in 1560.

Srikanth’s Birthday Party – 2016.

Today is my son, Ch. Srikanth’s birthday. It was a very special day as his eight month old son; Ch. Atharv joined him in cutting the birthday cakes and entertained us with his fascinating actions and smiles. Here are some photographs of this memorable occasion:

The Pineapple Upside-Down Cake is baked at home and the Chocolate Cake is from my son, Ch. Srinath living in Birmingham, U.K.

A home baked Pineapple Upside-Down Cake and a bought and gifted Chocolate Cake…filled with love both were good. But which one did everyone like the most?

The home baked Cake.

Is the sensational discovery of Proxima b turning out to be a case of sour grapes?

A week back on 24th August 2016; after having found ample evidence, astronomers and scientists have announced the discovery of an Earth-like planet called Proxima b orbiting the Star called Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri is the nearest Star to our Sun. Its diameter is about 1/7 of our Sun. And the planet Proxima b is about 1.3 times the size of Earth and it is 4.22 light-years from us. In astronomical terms 4.22 light years is a short distance. Proxima b appears to be rocky and might be warm enough to host liquid water, and thus be habitable. This sensational news was very widely covered by print and electronic media. The possibility of water and life on a planet so close to us was quite thrilling and reminded me of a popular science fiction novel 'A for Andromeda'  which is based on extraterrestrial intelligence. My previous blog post was on this novel and I mentioned in it that I would be writing on the discovery of Proxima b after clear details are available.

It is no doubt a great discovery, opening up avenues for more research, inventions and discoveries. The initial news was very thrilling. But as I got to know more details I am disappointed. The most important point being 4.22 light-years means 40 trillion kms. or 25 trillion miles. It is said that the fastest rocket made so far travels at a speed of 50,000 km/hour and that would take 81,000 years to reach this new discovery! That is 162,000 years for a to and fro journey! So astronomically calling it a short distance is OK (to view and study) but certainly impossible to reach as any new greater speeds of travel may not be able to reduce 81,000 years of travel to something practical.

And now coming to other details and life on Proxima b, those facts too are not very encouraging. Proxima b is 95 percent closer to its Sun – Proxima Centauri than we are to our Sun. This planet doesn’t burn up and is expected to be warm because Proxima Centauri is a much smaller Sun, but there is always the risk of the Sun’s flares and powerful X-ray and ultraviolet radiation affecting the planet. Proxima b orbits its Sun every 11.2 days and it is said to be ‘tidally locked’ to its Sun, meaning that only one side receives sunlight and the other side would remain always dark and cold.

Though I wish there is some form of very superior, civilized, loving and peaceful life form existing there, this hope is fading as I read more about this discovery.