ಕ್ಷಣಪ್ರಭಾ - Kshanaprabhaa

Continuing on from the 5th part:  http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.in/2013/09/long-weekend-getaway-part-5-kundadri.html After the Kundadri exploration, it was time to plan the night stay for day 1, and since we had decided not to go back to Agumbe as that would have costed us a lot of time the next day in our travel towards Jog Falls, we had decided to go to Sringeri and stay there. Ashok, the auto driver dropped us at Bidaregudi , a town 15 kilometers away from Sringeri, and guided us about the bus timings to reach Sringeri . By the time we had a hot cup of coffee at Bidaregudi, the bus was there, and we ended up at Sringeri at 7:30 in the evening. We visited the Sharadamba Temple right away, and had the Prasadam at the temple as our dinner and proceeded to take rest at the lodge we had booked on arrival. The next day early in the morning, Karthik and myself payed another visit to this serene place of Bhakti, witnessed the Puja offered to Sharadamba and Vidyashankara and var...

Continuing on from the 4th part:  http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.in/2013/09/long-weekend-getaway-part-4-agumbe.html We had the option of going to the other famous waterfalls near Agumbe, the Onake Abbi Falls, but the Dodda Mane folks were quick to let us know that the number of leeches we would encounter there would be ten times of what we saw at Barkana Falls. We thought we had seen enough waterfalls for the day, and decided to have lunch at Dodda Mane, take rest for about an hour and head towards Sringeri where we had planned to stay overnight. The Dodda Mane lunch served by Kasturi Akka was heavenly, and having trekked along in incessant rain and braved the leech attacks, we definitely needed that. But just as we were planning a slow evening after coming back from Barkana, the auto driver Ashok had planted the seed of taking us to the Kundadri Hillock , where we could witness the evening mist, enjoy the ride to the top, visit the 17th century Parshwanatha Tirthankara's t...

Google came out with this doodle on the 97th Birth Anniversary of Carnatic Music Legend M. S. Subbulakshmi: http://www.google.com/doodles/m-s-subbulakshmis-97th-birthday Surely, they could have done better. First thing that turned me off was the Sari in the MSS depiction in letter 'g'. The caricature is nice, but that gray dull Sari is not what you associate MSS with. She was graceful and humble and was personification of great Bhakti in her simple, yet colourful Silk Saris. And the Tabla, as my friend pointed out, was probably a very rare accompaniment in MSS concerts. Tabla is more of a Hindustani percussion accompaniment, but we can consider it as indicative of the Meera Bhajan recitals of MSS. But Tabla is a pair of drums, not one. The two of them would have perfectly fitted the "oo" part of the word Google. Ghatam could have become the final 'e'. By the way, what are those meaningless concentric circles representing 'G' and ...

Yes,  what a series , what nail biting test cricket and for those who watched the series between Pakistan and Zimbabwe, although the scoreline read 1-1 in the end, it was clear that Zimbabwe won 8.5 out of 10 intensely fought days of cricket. I was looking forward to bring out the ratings of the Zimbabwean players for this series, since most players would be getting good ratings for a change   . Here are the score cards: Match 1 Match 2 So, here are my analysis and ratings - out of 10: Tino Mawoyo: 5 Coming back from a long injury lay-off, there were question marks on his form and fitness, but Pakistan is a team he should not mind playing even if he is woken up at the stroke of midnight, what with the 163 not out and all that. He did struggle in the first test, and got a rough decision in the first innings of the second one to make matters worse, but boy what a knock in the second dig and what a partnership with Hamilton Masakadza. That was t...

Continuing on from the third part:  http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.in/2013/09/long-weekend-getaway-part-3-agumbe-jogi.html The next stop after the Jogi Gundi Falls was the rain forest trek to the nearby Barkana Falls , which is formed by the Sita River gushing down - one of the highest falls in the country - in the top ten to be precise - a curtain raiser before we went to the big Jog Falls itself. The auto driver Ashok took us a couple of kilometers further from Jogi Gundi Falls, and brought a "Guide", a local student who was happy enough to help us navigate through the forest to reach the falls. We were supposed to walk from there through the dense forest, to reach the destination. With incessant rains throughout the last month or so, the path was soggy throughout, and there were leeches, quite a lot of them, welcoming us gleefully. The choice of wearing the shoes instead of slippers for the trip (for the three of us, Thomas, Karthik and myself) was vindicated / looke...

Continuing on from the second part:  http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.in/2013/08/long-weekend-getaway-part-2-dodda-mane.html Just as we eased into the rainy day at Agumbe at Kasturi Akka's Dodda Mane, we were also wondering how to achieve our plan of visiting the three waterfalls in and around the town. As if they had understood our thoughts, Kasturi Akka and her family members suggested that we can get the help of Ashok, an Auto driver who regularly carries the tourists around the town, to the falls and the hills. As the Independence Day march past went on, he was ready for us to get into his auto, with plans to take us to the first of the waterfalls, Jogi Gundi. It was close by, about 4 kilometers from the town center, and the vehicle could go all the way, except for a couple of hundred steps inside the lush green forest, where every tree was drenched and dripping with rain water. We also had another team of four Agumbe explorers who started from Dodda Mane in Ashok's a...