Statue of Unity

 Sardar Vallabhai Patel has been wronged then and now too .
The man of action who managed the supreme feat of uniting more than 580 princely states ruled by many  eccentric and  some wise kings, before we got our freedom .
Many were reluctant to forego thier wealth nd  pleasures and did not wish to join with India .
Many of these kings had no qualms in accepting British soverienity and its residents who controlled them as long as thier luxuries were continued .

There were some sensible and  honest empires like Travancore  but had to content with a powerful and obsessed Diwan ,Sir CP who felt the kingdom should continue ,giving wrong advice to royal family .
Hyderabad nizam  wanted to join pakistan .

Junaigadh and the portugese in Goa were taken using the army .
Hari Singh of Kashmir signed his kingdom to India legally though shortly after Pakistani rangers attempted to attack Srinagar .

Each were dealt in different ways with both sticks and sweets but Sardar brought them all under India  to sign instruments of acessions to join union of India .

He should have been our first Prime Minister considering his experience and popularity amongst legislators , but an ambitious Nehru used his hold on the Mahatma to make him the first deputy PM and Home minister .
He was asked to unite all princely fiefdoms onto a new country .
Sardar held no grudges ,but finished his given task most efficiently .
He was sidelined by the Nehru dynasty when alive and  even his memories were erased from history .
We did read of his contribution but it was not to the extent of his service to the nation .
The nation for decades was mesmerised by the Gandhi dynasty of the Nehru family .

It needed a Narendra singh Modi to unearth the Sardar .
The decision to make a huge statue of the Sardar was naturally met with lot of opposition .
Many wanted to know why a country like India should spend crores for resurrecting a dead hero by erecting a statue out of proportion in size in a God forsaken tribal area  difficult to even reach.
and it sounded true then .

There were many ways memories could be preserved instead of spending such millions .
Could a country with so many needs like ours spend huge money on such edifices .
What it needed was hospitals universities schools houses and food for its downtrodden .

Strangely crores were being cheated from our wealth by being spent on these counts .
Most political parties spent extravagantly or gave freebies using public money .

It was these worthies who were crying from rooftops about this wasteful statue .

But Modi as CM of Gujarat in 2013 was sure it would be a remarkable step forwards to the benifit of the  nation and today we find he was not wrong .

It would not only correct the wrong done to a great Indian , it would also bring patriotic fervour .
How to erect such a mammoth statue
and why  here ?
Again Modiji had the answer .
It would be near the Sardar Sarovam dam a dream for the  Gujarat born Patel .
The plan was to make it the biggest statue in the world and it would face the dam.
The Sardar gazing at his dream fulfilled .

The dam too had been delayed for years thanks to the left oriented activists like Medha patkar and Arundathi Roy .
They obstructed it for many years inciting a few tribals .
Today the dam has brought benifit to millions in 3 states and many tribals too .

The next decision was to find the sculptor

Ram Sutar  had made a statue of Sardar in Ahmedabad airport .
It was decided to select that statue form but many fold huge in size
Ram was 93 years old but with help of  son took responsibility .

The huge statue would be built with iron pillars as its skeleton embossed by copper platings and concrete .
Its structure needed great technical attention as it would stand in an earthqauke prone zone .
It needed to withstand huge winds considering its size of a hill .
Its base feet in sandals was smaller than its body and head hence its center of balance had to corrected .
It would rise to 182 meters ie 597 feet .
 while most statues in world were smaller .

The number of seats in Gujarat assembly were 182 which was why it was selected .

An appeal was sent to farmers to donate used iron agricultural equipments to use it for foundation symbolic of getting the iron needed to make iron mans statue from those who toiled the earth from his land .
More than 130 metric tonnes were collected and 103 used to make the foundation
The world wide tender was won by an Indian company Larsen and Toubro to build execute and maintain the statue ,approach bridge ,surroundings for 15 years .
More than 4000 labourers 250 engineers toiled for years .
The copper smelting was done in China shipped in containers and by road to its remote site .
Slowly it grew .
A viewing gallery was planned in around 44 floor approximately in second button from top of sardars coat .
One went up in a high speed lift .
Hgher floors were for maintenance only.
One could go up by escalators or lift to reach Sardars foot .
Everything was disabled friendly
Even the km and half walkway had moving horizontal escalators .
There were many toilets in site something one hardly sees in such places in India .
There was free drinking water booths .
A big AC food court
The base had exhibits museums theater etc
 Souvenuir shop
Free shuttle took one to dam butterfly park cactus park ,childrens nutrition park which were surrounding attractions .
Hotels restaurants shopping malls were built .
Artificial illuminated trees on roadside neon lit wide roads transformed the remote place into a fairy land .
In one year more than 2.18 million people visited .
School children were welcomed with discounts so that they learnt our true history
They came in droves.
A laser show at 7pm free for all showed Sardars life and inculcated patriotic fervour .
It has been a huge sucess .

In time the edifice will be surrounded by water for boats to ply around like in statue of liberty .
The whole area is transformed now .
The tallest statue in world is a sucess story indeed .

Photo story two

Photo story ...

It was snowing
The chill stole up my windcheater and into my bones gnawing it like with a chain saw .
A RAW agent in New York cannot use cold as an excuse .
Extremes of climate was part of an agents life
Drawing a loaded weapon aiming it and hitting targets cannot point at frozen fingers
Excuses and apologies dont exist in the vocabulary of the profession
The targets dont understand them
They know only one chance the thin thread between life and death
I hardly fit the role which was exactly what was needed
I looked every inch an academic Indian who had come to 53 avenue 24 th street for another dreary meet .
The ubiquitous Indians seen on the Manhattan thoroughfares .
They were there all the time
With families towing grinning at selfies in Times square
Gingerly holding a Manhattan cocktail and wincing at its bitter Bourbon in the crowded bar
Bouncers watched somberly as scantily clad girls moved around hunting for prey
The smoke inside the bar was more than the flakes outside.
As its warmth descended down into my bowels a glow suffused on my homely face
Anything to beat the cold
The wait in the Brooklyn bridge for hours was a torture till i saw the short Japanese walk briskly giving me a camera to shoot his picture like any tourist would !
Only difference after that he just walked away while the camera found its way into my windcheater and now to give it to the lanky huge Russian bartender was my job .

The cocktail was half empty when he sidled up to me with arched eyebrows
Idrastinikov
He grunted wheezily while i extricated the chip in the camera and slid it near my glass
With the deft of a magician he took it and left the scene
I looked around

The crowd was behaving no different
An indistinct Indian nursing a cocktail in a Manhattan bar made no news which is precisely what I wanted
Merging into crowds was our USB drilled into us during our years in training !
One minute we are there and then a crack of a shot and we disappear like Houdini .

The satellite phone I had was tiny the latest
i took it as it trilled
And just said two words
Cocktail good
Thousands of kilometers away sitting in an old Delhi office an obese officer tapped into his laptop an indistinct coded message
Mission accomplished

Photo story one

Photo story

He belonged to Kerala IB ,stood first in IPS came up the ladder and was now Exise Commissioner  .
Hardly do they need to get into action .

They have enough men and some women to be the operatives .

But this was big .

And he wanted to nab the king of the racket himself .

The December chill of Dubai drilled into his bones
He stepped out of the dhow into colourful Deira .
Walking through the spice markets he reached the Gold souk .
He sat on an iron bench .
His eyes were covered in glasses.
The crowd milled around ,
And then he saw an indescript man in a pathan suit .
He was only 5.5 in height and gave no indication of shortness .
The man came out of a shop with a small package .
The inspector walked ahead
The cold end of a berret 200 was pressed into the Dons  flank.

In 2days scene shifts to Borivilis  excise office
The yellowed walls of a cracked balcony is the scene .
The short man was tilted almost on his back
He was left hanging with his fingernails 22 stories high
The Suburban train chugged below the refuse strewn railway line
It wouldnt be a happy death he knew
So he confessed
The commissioner smiled
A job well done
The short man too  sighed of relief

Thuravoor Mahashethram

In our scriptures lord Vishnu has taken ten avatars .
Narasimha is a man lion ..human amphibian combination.
Asura or demon Hiranyakashipu had always hated Vishnu who had destroyed his brother Hiranyakha as a varaha or pig avatar in a previous story .
All these may amuse people why we have such umbelievable stories but most Hindu religious stories arenot just that .
They have several layers of truths meant for several levels of intellectuality and spiritual accomplishments .
At times these demons are in our mind and its our conscious self the divine spark which needs to take these avatars to root them out .
There are not many temples with narasimha avatar as its deity .
One of those is in Thuravoor on road from Aroor to Alleppey ...
Hiranyakashapu has some much powers he gets from Brahma after his long hard penance.
He cannot be killed by man or animal neither during day or night or inside or outside house or building .
Very wise indeed .
But then he forgot who he hated was .
So the Lord took a human animal combo came oit of a pillar in midnight sharp neither day nor night .
Prahalada had told his father Hiranyakashapu Vishnu was everywhere when asked in pillar or in rust .
The temple was supposed to have existed for long .
Records exist from 2 to 4 th century .

The Ollikara mana is the traditional namboothiri family who were the temples custodians for centuries .
We did meet one lady from the family who invited us to her ancestral wooden house close to the temple with small idols inside too ..
Though the Travancore Dewaswom manages the temple these days .
Since it was in border of Cochin kingdom and Travancore and Trivandrum royal family owned it there was an unwritten law that the day Travancore raja visited the temple they would need to return it to Cochin .
So no Travancore kings ever came to the temple .
Sri Chitra Thirunal in 1957 was first king to do so and he too walked on a red carpet to symbolically keep with the promise .

The temple is unique as it has two sanctum sanctorums with two deepastambhams
One for Narasimhamurthy and other for Sudarsanamoorthy
Sudarsanamoorthy existed from first century but Narasimhamoorthy was built by a chera king in 7 th century .
One is sqaure and other round .
Fine carvings decorated thier walls
The Narasimha murthy sanctum has low roof and one needed to bend while walking inside .
Sastha was outside and also naga idol was on one side with a folk singer .
Lamps are built all along the outer wall and a huge pond is seen in the temple ..

There also is a huge elephant pandhal the biggest in Kerala

Hyderabad the heaven of foodies

HYDERABAD THE HEAVEN OF FOODIES

The Asafi Jahi dynasty ruled the Deccan for 7 generations .
Strangely this magic of destiny too had something to do with food .
Asaf Jah was travelling down to Deccan .
Hepaid his respects to sufi saint Nizamuddin Auli who asked him to partake his simple meal with him and served him Kulchas .
Asaf jah quickly ate 4 kulchas as it was very tasty .
He apologised to the saint for devouring food but saint asked him to take more and Asafi Jah had seven kulchas .
The saint blessed him and told him you will rule Deccan for 7 generations from now and thus came with Qutb shahi dynasty or nawabs of Hyderabad and a grateful Asaf Jah made the Kulcha a part of Hyderabad kingdoms national flag .
So a place with food in its flag should be the mother of food places .
And it is .
Over the years the influence of local and foriegn cuisines and influences melded to form an unique Hyderabadi cuisine .

During the pre 17 century Vijayanagar reign it mostly Telugu cuisine that dominated.
Once Deccan sultanate rebelled from Delhi there was influx from Turkey and Arabia  .
Dastarkhanna or food on a tablecloth in Turkish called Dastar became famous .
The use of saffron rice and kebabs is from these Turko persian influences .
The Arabs too contributed to the famous Haleem, a wheat mutton gruel legendary of Hyderabads breaking fast in Ramadhan fasting days but also seen all around the year .
The Telengana ,marathwada,Karnataka influence is seen too .
Kalyana Biriyani is seen mostly as a karnataka influenced flavoured biriyani where smaller rice is used ,unlike Hyderabad Biriyani ,it uses tomatoes .

Now just a list of major to eat in Hyderabad most of which we did .

Haleem
....lukmi   made of mutton kheema a snack
Tahari ..mutton with rice
Pathar ki Ghost...type of mutton khabab made on a stone
Hyderabadi Kichdi
Tala hua Ghost
Faludas and shorbets
Qubani ka meetha
Sheer kprma
Firni
Hyderabadi Kichdi
Baagar ee baingan

Of course Hyderabadi biriyani uses Lucknowi dum pukht nethod to slow cook its exotic mutton and fine long leaved Basmati rice spiced tenderly .
Paradise restaurant since 1953 today has a lot of franchises .
Bawarchi looks like a poor mans paradise in ambience but its tastier in its Biriyani than  the paradise one .
The paradise one too was superb .
We had some excellent juicy kebabs both in Bawarchi and in Paradise .
Baingan e barar is at times accompany biriyanis made of brinjal
The MLA Potalam Biriyani with its strange name in the Spicy venue in Jubilee hills where authentic Telengana Andhra cuisine was served .
It was an big thin  omelette with finely flavoured prawn mutton kheema biriyani inside.
One potalam will easily serve 2 as we left behind half our potalam .
The thali itself had pooris many chutneys pickles and curries called pulusus .
The steaming white fine rice was served with a dollop of ghee first to be taken with some dhal .
This opened the taste buds wide .
Later came sambhar called Pappu charu or pulses curry .
After this the thin soup like Rasam
Later thick white curds
To me a sprite and to my wife a thick creamy lassi .
Rayalseema Ruchulu is another famous place for Andhra cuisine .
When we come to desserts too Hyderabad doesnt lack behind
Qubaini ka meetha
Sheer korma
Firni
Faludas
Osmania biscuits
.
Of course home made delicious ice creams unlike any we had tasted was found in famous ice cream in Nampully in an old building .
One sat in the open watching the milling traffic and metro passing by as one dipped into the delicious flavours .

Irani tea outlets are very famous all over Hyderabad .most have red coloured highly flavoured tea boiling in kettles and very invigorating usually taken with osmania biscuits .
Osmania biscuits named after the nizam is both salty and sweet made of butter and flour .
Its crunchy
Next to Charminar in old city you find an Iranian restaurant Nimrah chai .
It has the most delicious cookies bread and bun and cakes .
Huge crowds occupy the front .
Iwent in and selected a huge jam bun
It was warm fluffy and smelt nice .
With the red colured chai ,the snack ,some osmania biscuits transported us  upto heaven .

Earlier in morning arounŕd 8 am we asked for Govinds the famous dosa place near the Charminar ,no one seemed to have even heard of it
Finally we reached a junction with many people waiting for a dosa in front  of a small cart and Govind was the primma donna joking laughing and at same making excellent dosas .
Ours  was so grand
Much smaller than usual dosas this was auburn in colour crisp on edges and as filling had onions cut vegetables.
By the time we left Govinds dosa more than 2 of them and some vadas had lodged in my gut with an excellent red coloured chai to wash it down .
I heard theres an upmarket Govind dosa in another part of city though we didnt try it .

One definitely cannot ignore the home made ice creams well known in Hyderabad .
In Nampully theres an old antique building which has a vast open ground in front owned jointly by ice cream shops there.
We sat in Famous ice cream .
The ice creams were soft succulent and tasted Home .
We did see exotic pans .

Finally if I dont mention Karachi biscuits in a Hyderabad food post I am doing injustice .
During partition days a family migrated from Sindh in pakistan to Hyderabad and brought their baking skills by opening Karachi biscuits .
The sheer variety of choice of cookies cakes biscuits bun breads etc is astounding .

And thus Hyderabad i declare is one gateway to heaven

Paradise Biriyani

And to end our Hyderabad food odyssey where else but in Paradise the legendary Biriyani outlet .
Started in 1953 as a cinema theater canteen it grew into a symbol of Hyderabadi biriyani though some say it aint so great and its poor cousin Bawarchi is as good .
With many franchises managed by corporate governance Paradise shows Biriyani is big business .
Would have loved to see their kitchen and preparing biriyani in thier kitchen but then was wondering if they would permit maybe come next time with my SLR and label myself as PRESS .
We ordered some lovely chicken kebabs as starters came to know kebabs were first made in Turkey and Persia and were grilled meat or chicken of course smothered in spices in India .
The kebab was juicy fresh and mint chutney was invigorating .
It sort of prepared our taste buds to the primma donna of the show the Mutton biriyani .
We ordered double masala one
My advice dont do that as the masala was bit jarring
Better to have without extra masala
Best part is the fine basmati rice
The flavours were exquisite
I do like a bit lime or tomatoe in my biriyani for a slight sourness but in hyderabadi biriyani tomatoes arent welcome .
No dry fruits too
The raita was bit watery
The mutton pieces in biriyani need to be boneless chunks well cooked it should come out in layers
This was cooked well but had bones in small pieces too
I mentioned this to the waiter as the biriyani didnt come cheap .
So my verdict Paradise is real good as a biriyani outlet
Thier kebabs too are tasty
But as they become busy they should not find short cuts too .

Srisailam temple

It was such a huge ancient temple but no cameras or mobiles allowed inside
So these from outside hardly worthy of the grandeur inside .
Situated 215 km from Hyderabad the route travels through a tiger reserve a couple of hills and a dam .
On reaching the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam  tiger reserve the largest  in the country of over 3500 sq km  checkpost a cloth bag was given for Rs 20 to every vehicle.
All our plastic waste is to be put into it and to be emptied in bins on exit of resereve .
We can give the empty bag and collect 20 Rs.
I felt this a great idea of avoiding litter
Same can be used in many public places ,zoos,resorts,hill stations etc .
There was also a small map showing sitting resting places every 4 km for people to picnic if they want
Only in these spots can they eat.

Srisailam is atop a 450 mts hill .
Deep in a gorge flows river krishna .

Itook around 4.5 hours with
tea and lunch stops added to reach Sri sailam from Hyderabad .
The temple was atop nallamalai hills on right side of Krishna river in kurnool dt Andhra pradesh .
The temple is mentioned in ancient writings but only in 12 century was it officialy etched in stone .

This is from premilas post...

Srisailam Malikarjunaswamy (one of the 12 jyothirlingas ) darshan this evening🙏
It is said that this holy Kshetram exists from time immemorial.
In Krithayuga demon king Hiranyakasyapa  is said to have done penance here . In Tretayuga Lord Rama and Sitadevi have said to have consecrated the linga here. In Dwaparayuga Arjuna and the Pandavas during their exile are said to have had spent some time here worshipping the deities . In Kaliyuga Adi Shankaracharya and other great saints are believed to have worshipped here .
The present Garbhagriha where the Jothirlinga is said to have been built in the 13th century and  at present this vamana gopuram is gilded with gold plates which glitters and adds beauty besides the magnificent 4 big gopurams and the beautiful designs on the walls .
The Bhramaramba temple here is said to be the portion of the neck of Sathi Devi during Daksha Yagna episode  and is said to be a Shakthipeeth
Whatever be the mythology antiquity or history of this temple the serenity peace and happiness within has to be experienced than told . What a way to end 2019 ! Namashivaya 🙏

The town was quite and we walked along lonely roads to the temple which was quite big .
Inside Mallikarjuna temple it was just beautiful with gold plated gopura of sanctum sanctorum .
There were pujas going
An air of serenity pervaded the place and a small of pure ghee lingered in the air .
The prasadams were made in ghee .
We then were taken in