Kapaleeswarar Temple Festival

Just for effect - Tried sepia toning on photoshop a pic I have posted earlier on the topic.

Chennai Beach fishing

Fresh fish being fried on the Marina -- Chennai Beach.

But for that to happen the fishermen need to leave at dawn.

Here is a style of fishing at sea that one can watch from the shore. I think this net is called the `peruvalai' (big net). Beach goers can usually see these nets piled up in a big mound on the sand. It is loaded on to the catamaran first, in a carefully arranged layer...
then with one end trailing the fishermen set out to sea...
setting out... the catamaran goes following a big U route, and the fishermen trail the net out in a big `U' and come back to the shore with the other end... I would guess the net would be a few hundred metres long...
Once on the shore two teams of fishermen drag the net in, a process that takes more than an hour.
And well on time to keep the snacks ready by the time we hit the beach later in the day.

Kaziranga again

A camera shy rhino darts for the cover of the tall grass.

Here are a few more shy types -

An elephant runs across a forest track for cover. Check out the comments section in the previous Kaziranga elephant pic for an explanation,

An irritated elephant - does not like being photographed.

Another takes cover in the grass.

A rhino mother and calf. Kaziranga, I guess, is a rare success story in conservation. My friends and I saw quite a few mother and kid pairs.

More Kapaleeswarar festival images

The chariot drivers bringing up the rear.

As the devotees pull the chariot from the front there is another bunch - quite jolly and boisterous -- bringing up the rear. If you are wondering what the poles are for...

It is to balance themselves on the beam they use to lever the wheels around corners and out of potholes... (And a foot note: Objects in a 20 mm lens are closer than they seem to be. When that beam thudded down as I tried a tighter shot, the shock of the weight hitting the ground was too close for comfort. My toes cringe each time I recall that sensation.)

The wheels...

Like I had mentioned in the previous set of pics, an island of concentration in the midst of the milling crowd.

Kapaleeswarar Temple Festival

The Kapaleeswarar temple car at the `Arubathimoovar Thiruvizha.' I managed to visit the festival only on the day of the temple car procession. (Check out some of the previous years' pics under the same labels.) The first is a wide angle shot of the temple car with the crowd.

A devotee offers a prayer. You can see many doing this, each an island of concentration in the hurry and crush of the crowd.
Hands go up in prayer, others applaud, the crowd screams `Kapali, Kapali' as the car starts moving.
A close up view of the temple car a representation of a horse drawn chariot driven by `Brahma' the creator. I wanted to crop out the name board of the Internet cafe in the background, but let it be - some vague notion of Chennai being a mix of the modern and traditional.
The ornamentation at the rear of the temple car.

Kaziranga

It was a misty morning at Kaziranga Sanctuary, my friends and I were on elephant back, when we came on this pair. The mist, the trees in the background, the greenery, the mother and calf... it was so peaceful.


This one below, a cow elephant in the swamps at Kaziranga. She had just finished a big meal of the grass and was getting up to leave. The egrets around her were feasting on the insects that were exposed by all the grass she uprooted. The mynah on her back was busy pecking away at the dirt on her back.
She would grab a clump of grass with her trunk, swish it around in the water to wash away the mud and before putting it into mouth. We were in a open-topped jeep on a track about 50 feet away.

Rathas, Raattai and wheels in Lithuania

A tourist touches the feet of `Ardhanarishwara,' form of shiva at the five `rathas' complex at Mahabalipuram.
I happened to strike up a conversation with a tourist from Lithuania who was also interested in photography.
Here is a bit I thought was interesting.
What is a ratha, he wanted to know.
Chariot, I said.
In Lithuania, `ratha' means wheels, he said.
Wow. We have a word`Rattai,' which means a spinning wheel, I said.
In Lithuanian, ratha stands for all sorts of wheels. Also, the similarity could be because the root of Lithuanian is believed to be sanskrit, he added.
WOW.

Kaziranga, Assam

What are you staring at me for? He seemed to ask.

At Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary, Assam, my friends and I saw this guy -- wild buffalo -- munching on the greenery. As soon as he saw us he froze, stared at us for nearly a minute, giving us time to take as much pictures as we wanted, before moving away.

But not all the natives of Kaziranga were that considerate.

This pair below -- Red Jungle Fowl -- were strutting sedately along the forest track, a few feet ahead of our vehicle...

when suddenly one guy seemed to blow his top... the action was over in a flash.
It was lucky that I was just getting them into focus when the action happened. Sadly, I did not have time to fine tune the focus. Decided to post the pics anyway.
The two frames below happened in less than a second...


For those interested, the Red Jungle Fowl are the ancestors of the domesticated versions we see today.

Birds in Pallikaranai

This year there seems to be more than the usual numbers of birds -- especially pelicans and painted storks -- at the Pallikaranai Marsh. Here, flocks of grey pelicans and painted storks, are perched on the towers that carry power lines across the marsh. The grey background is the early morning mist and smoke from the garbage being burnt there.

Gotheborg in Chennai

The Swedish vessel, Gotheborg, moored off the Marina in Chennai.
A lovely sight awaited beach goers on Wednesday morning. This tall ship, a replica of an 18-century vessel, was anchored a few hundred metres from the shore. The view seemed to show an idea of what Madras Beach must have looked like a few hundred years back.
Took this pic at about 6.30 in the morning.
As I kept clicking away, the words from the song in Puratchi thalaivar's movie, Ayirathil Oruvan, `Adho andha paravai pola vazhavaendum...' came to mind.
Check out this interesting site for details about the ship and the voyage - http://www.soic.se/engelska/inenglish.4.1e228bcf782be0db97fff408.html

For a Great Site and a Thank You

A Post dedicated to a great site I enjoyed visiting. Thank you, Sticky in Chennai - http://stickyinchennai.blogspirit.com/



A picture of the meditation hall at the Namdrolling Monastery, near Coorg, Karnataka. The meditation hall has 60-foot tall, gold plated statues of the Buddha, Padmasambhava and Sakyamuni.

The Buddha...
Padmasambhava...
and Sakyamuni

Birds in Pallikaranai

City folks... ...and the country cousins.

Actually, these are the same flock of Rosy Pastors taken at Pallikaranai Marsh to the south of Chennai. They were flitting around busily... perching on the tower for a few seconds, flying away to land on the trees only to flit back to the tower moments later. Bird watchers say these are migrants from Europe.

2007

WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Pic: Three drongos at the Pallikaranai Marsh, Chennai.

The Other one

A pic taken at the Other festival - A performance by Navtej Johar and Ajay Panchal (in the air) - Abhyas Dance Ensemble.
I had been wanting to take pictures at a dance performance for a long time - tried one or two and never got the lighting right. This time, thanks to a friend, got a front row seat and this is one of the few pics that I liked. The focus is off but this was the best I managed.

A Butterfly

(A post just to assure myself blogger beta is working.)
Saw this one recently in Coorg - the butterfly must have been nearly a foot across wingtip to wingtip. Big enough to occupy the frame even when I used a 20mm wideangle lens. I waited until it started fluttering its wings to make sure it was for real!

Finally!

Thank You all for the suggestions. Finally managed to get back on line with a post. Thank You all once again.

Stamp of Chennai - 9

A post I planned to do on Madras Day - but finally managing to do now - a belated birthday post.
The special cover above was released by India Post on August 22, 2006 to commemorate the founding of Madras on August 22, 1639, the day when the Nayaks of Vijayanagar Empire granted a piece of land to the East India Company - the land on which the EIC built Fort St George, which even today is the seat of power.
A great special cover - one because it is nicely done - senior philatelists say that the Postal Department decided to release this cover in the last minute and the cover was designed and readied in about two days.
But the other important reason is the great stamp that they decided to put on it - a stamp released in 1986 to mark 200 years of General Post Office in Madras. That made the cover a double treat for stamp lovers.

So I decided to include the first day cover released in 1986 and a special cover, which has another painting of the GPO released on April 26, 1984, to mark the centenary of the GPO building. Before I get on to the topic of my post, here is a related material, a special cancellation of the Fort St George with a painting of the Fort and the beach front in the days of the East India Company - the cover was released on February 5, 1978 - I think on the occassion of the Tamil Nadu Philatelic Exhibition.

Finally, to the topic at hand: Why a stamp of the General Post Office on Madras Day cover? Often the Postal Department does not always stick a related stamp on a special cover - it could be any stamp on any cover.

But here is some info from the information sheet released along with the GPO stamp.

"It (Madras GPO) was opened on June 1, 1786, in a building on the beach in Fort St George Square. It was shifted to a building in Fort St George on October 1, 1837, commonly called the Old Bank near the North Gate (vide notification in Fort St George Gazette dated September 20, 1837."
Above are two pics - it is nearly impossible to replicate the view we see on the stamp. First Line Beach Road is crowded and the road too narrow to get a full, head-on view.

But back to the subject of the GPO - "Madras GPO is one of the three unique offices in the country called as Presidency Offices, the other two being Bombay and Calcutta." The GPO moved to this building in April 26, 1884.

Subsidiary post offices were opened at Vepery and Royapettah after a gazette notification dated March 25, 1834 for "transmission of letter to Madras GPO on payment of 1/2 Anna over and above the regulated postage.

Madras GPO was from the beginning a pioneer Post Office in providing better postal facilities to the public. The postage rates in Madras Presidency were cheaper than at Calcutta up to 1837 when uniform postage was introduced all over India."

On its working: "There was a boat contractor to bring mails from steamer to harbour. No other person except one Postal Official on duty was allowed in the boat. The mails were carried from harbour to GPO in bullock cart with 3 `Coolies' accompanied by a Postal Official.

On opening on June 1, 1786, the staff at Madras GPO consisted of Postmaster General, 1 Deputy Postmaster General, 1 Writer or Native Assistant, 5 Sorters (Clerks), 1 Head `Peon' and 10 `Peons' (postmen) for distributing letters. A Deputy postmaster was appointed from Masulipatnam, Ganjam, Tanjore and Anjango. The Postmaster General had the control of the whole establishment.

The present site of the GPO building was actually a site of warfare and it was called as `Aber Cromble (Crombie) Battery."

I give up.
Tried all the suggestions on blogger help and have not been able to post images on blogger beta. Guess I will just have to wait it out till the thing is debugged.

MADRAS IN STAMPS - 1

Madras in Stamps - 1

Stamps and year of issue (L to R) ROW 1: University of Madras - Centenary of Indian Universities, 1957; Thiruvalluvar - Philosopher, saint, poet 2nd-1st century BC, 1960; Subramania Bharati-Poet, freedom fighter, 1960; High Court of Madras - Centenary of High Courts, 1962; Srinivasa Ramanujan - Mathematician, 1962; Dr Annie Besant - Theosophist, 1963.
ROW 2: St Thomas, 1964; Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan - philosoper, educationist and diplomat, 1967; 2nd International conference and seminar on tamil studies - 1968; Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao - journalist, 1969; C.N. Anna Durai- politician, 1970; V.S. Srinivasa Sastri - educationist, 1970; Sir C.V. Raman - educationist, 1971; Tanguturi Prakasam - freedom fighter and the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, 1972.
ROW 3: Church on St Thomas Mount, 1973; C. Rajagopalachari - Statesman, 1st Indian Governor General of India, 1973; Kandukuri Veeresalingam - social reformer, 1974; V.V. Giri - 4th President of India, 1974; Theosophical Society Emblem - centenary, 1975; Bicentenary of 16th light infantry (Vijayanta Tank), 1976; K. Kamaraj - politician, 1976; E.V. Ramasami - Social Reformer, 1978.

Madras in Stamps - 2

A series of five images that show a collection of commemorative stamps on topics that directly relate to Madras and Chennai. Starting from 1957 with the stamp of the Senate House of the University of Madras (Check out Stamp of Chennai - 8), which I think was the first on a Madras subject post-independence, up to the stamp on L.V. Prasad, the founder of Prasad Studios.
They are all here - Educational insitutions, academics, religious leaders, philosophers, politicians, actors and industrialists, and stamps of statues, buildings, monuments and industries - and the list will grow.
Apart from this there are also the special commemorative covers, which I will post at some later date.
If any more stamps need to be added please point out the ones left out.
These images will be the topics I hope to post in the Stamps of Chennai series with pics and additional information.
Madras in Stamps - 2

Stamps and year of issue (L to R). ROW 1: C. Rajagopalachari - taking oath as Governor General, 1978; Rajah Annamalai Chettiar - banker and educationist, 1980; Bicentenary of Madras Sappers, 1980; Map of South East Asia showing Madras and Penang linked by the Indian Ocean Commonwealth Submarine Cable, 1981; Durgabai Deshmukh - Social Reformer, 1981; Madras Medical College, 1985; Bicentenary of Madras General Post Office, 1986.
BLOCK of four stamps shows early congress leaders.
ROW 2: S. Satyamurti - Congress leader, Martyr, 1987; Madras Christian College, 1987; J. Krishnamurti - philosopher, 1987; Rukmini Devi & Dancer - exponent of art and culture, educationist, 1987.
ROW 3: Dr Rajah Sir Muthiah Chettiar - educationist and philathropisy, 1987; B.N. Rau - architech of Indian constitution (and a genius mathematician), 1988.