Spiritual disneyland and more..

Went to Bangalore over the weekend and here's a series of random photos from the city..

Starting with a strange amusement park like temple... the main attraction at the Shiv Mandir near Kempfort is undoubtedly the giant statue of Lord Shiva.

But besides the shear size of the statue there is nothing spiritual about this temple!

It's almost like a religious theme park - it even has a cheesy theme walk based on Lord Shiva life complete with animatronics - and like in most theme park you have to buy a ticket at each stage!

First a ticket to get in to the complex - extra for the camera; another ticket for your shoes; another to see the animatronics; then there are the actual temple rituals (which also involves money) and of course endless possibilities for making donations..

This is not the first time I've come across such blatant commercialization of spirituality! I had recently written about similar commercialization of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai.

Another place that comes to mind is the huge Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar - there the temple has real theme park like rides (mini roller coasters and all) in its sprawling gardens.

So as cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad get richer religious organizations are forced to find innovative ways to get the attention (and money) of the nouveau riche!

Moving on .. a series of images from in and around the 'lung' of Bangalore - Cubbon Park:

a small little temple near the Park with a huge Parrot hovering above it's entrance;

a statue of Queen Elizabeth at one of the parks entrances...;

some beautiful rain trees inside;

the violently coloured State Archeological Museum;

and a few images of the Vijay Mallaya's UB City

It's strange that the architectural language of power across the world is soo similar.

And as for the mall in UB City - it's as expected stupidly unaffordable!

If you really wanted your new Louis Vuitton Bag I understand that it makes no sense to buy it here - it's cheaper to actually fly to Dubai or Singapore (or probably even Paris) and buy it there and you may still save some money!

Here's a new office building just across the road that I found a lot more interesting than UB City..

Moving further..

a modern classic from MG road..

There a whole bunch of these amazing driving tips on Brigade road. I wish all city municipalities shared Bangalore's sense of humor! : )

The beautiful LIC building designed by Charles Correa.. I just love the sheer concrete walls

This is probably his most successful office tower - the building is fascinating both at an architectural and urban level. The massing of the towers sits amazingly well within the Urban grid, with the two set of towers popping up at the main cross roads commanding unobstructed views from quiet a distance!

Another interesting traffic related sign post!

The next three images are of an atrocious building on St. Marks street..

it is one in a series of new buildings cropping up across the country

designed by architects who went to the Architectural Association (AA) in London to do their course in DRL and then worked with Zaha Hadid (or someone like her) and has come back to India to unleash this monstrosities here..

to my mind - just a lot of visual noise and extremely pointless!

Outside a new mall ..

Ulsoor lake - one of the many many lakes of Bangalore..

And to end this posting from this great city - photos of the swanky new airport

This is probably the best airport in the country

(though I haven't yet seen the new Hyderabad airport - which I hear is even better)

Very simple, efficient and well designed..

Lastly an image of the airport taken while my flight took off back to Bombay..

See you soon Bangalore!

Ganpati bappa morya!!!

It's Ganesh Chaturthi time again and I've been spending the last few days walking around different parts of the city (Bombay) checking out the various Ganpati Pandals.
The Pandal is a sort of temporary shed made by neighbourhood communities to house the idol of Lord Ganesha often amidst a mythological setting, complete with decorative lights and festive music.

This being the most important festival of the city is celebrated with a lot of pomp and show! But certain parts of the city take the extravagance to a completely different level. For example a visit to the Ganapati Pandals at Lalbaug and Bhuleshwar is amongst the most anticipated yearly events in the calendar of most Mumbaikars!



Here the community Pandal is scaled up many times over in a never ending competition to make the years largest Ganpati idol in the most elaborate of settings -
sometimes complete with integrated laser shows
AV displays
or even moving Idols (with the most basic of robotics).
But over the last few years things have changed, and surely not for the better. Here's a few instances:

The whole festival enterprise has become a lot more capitalistic (this was always there but now its really insane). Ironically a lot of the Pandals I saw were sponsored by the city's powerful builder lobby who are involved in some of the most blatant land grabs in the very areas that house the people who supposedly form the 'community' that owns these Pandals; thus forcing them out of their current houses which sits on prime real estate! So once these communities move - will there Ganpatis go with them?

Those not sponsored by the builders (or the construction industry) were sponsored by the scary ranks of right-wing politicians - the same guys who have been demanding to throw out non-Maharashtrians from - what is supposedly - India's most cosmopolitan city.
To add to this the recent string of terrorist activities that have held this city captive (culminating with the deadly attacks at VT/Taj and other locations last year on 26th Nov) have given the organizers of the Pandals a freehand at turning the audio-visual shows in these Pandals into highly politicized propaganda against all 'outsiders'. The air in most of the Pandals were extremely negative and instigating!

I really hope that these unfortunate trends are only momentary and the festival will soon return to being a more tolerant collective celebration of the birth of the supreme god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune!

Janmashthmai in Rotterdam ?

Saw a strange sight today (Actually I’m seeing this for the second time since I’ve come to Rotterdam) … the celebration of Lord Krishna’s birthday- Janmashthmai - by a small Surinamese community. This community has Indian origins (some of them trace back there last generation to live in India up to 6 or 7 generations) .. However, over all these years and literally half way around the world in South America this small community has managed to hold on to some rituals and habits that still connect them strongly to there motherland. Almost all of the older people and a few young people still speak a sort of Bojpuri language… like all true Indians ..they love Indian Food.. Indian Gods .. Indian Festivals (hence this celebration) and not to forget they also love – Bollywood!!

Now the story goes something like this .. these Indians were taken there are slaves by the Dutch .. And after they gained there independence from the Dutch .. the Dutch government offered them a chance to come and live there lives here .. (mostly in the bad parts of their cities – for example here in Rotterdam in the South) .. And long story short – here they are in Blaak plaza celebrating an Indian festival – which most of their kids have no idea what it is ?? or what for?? But the free Indian food and sweet they give to everyone who comes makes it all forgivable..

So how does a Indian community from South America .. now living in Holland celebrate one of their most important festivals – besides the free food, a small ‘Indian’ bazaar, the odd golawala, the good attempt to have a nicely decorated rath for Krishna , they ask none other than Anuradha Paudwal to sing bajans for them …

Yes that's her singing in the middle...

And if that wasn’t enough they even have lord Ganesha himself – in flesh and bone standing with the most bizarre of backdrops (the ridiculous cube houses of Rotterdam)

Though I’m not at all a fan of elephants on streets, I have to say they blend in better back home in India.