The golden triangleof Gwalior- M.P.

For people who enjoy discovering heritage sites off beaten tracks , the  ‘golden-triangle of heritage’ close to Gwalior is a visual treat. It comprises three historic sites resurrected   remnants of6th-9^th century relics.

   Situated 30 kms  north of  Gwalior, these three sites, The Bateshwar temples, The fortess of Garhi-Padaavli & The Mitawli temple form an invaluable trio for history  students and  tourists alike.

Our journey began at around 0930 hours on a pleasant, partially cloudy monsoon day. We took NH3, turned towards Delhi. A few kilometers ahead we left the highway  and  let the AH 47/NH3and smaller  unwinding country roads  lead us to Shanichara temple, another  historic  site of importance  and  landmark on the  road to the  famed trio.

I must admit the well kept road sans pot holes(inspite of ongoing monsoons) were a welcome surprise. Rice fields, tiny knolls and  lush greenery made for a  spectacular view and  peaceful journey. The  dusty roads  within  tiny villages were slightly below average but that was hardly  a dampener given the exotic sites that lay ahead.

 We happened to  skip the Bateswar  temples  initially, owing to the inconspicuous approach road and tiny hoarding announcing  their presence and  also to the majestic  fortress of  Padavli that beckoned us from afar.

 PADAAVALI

This enormous tall fortress was built  by the  Jat Ranas of Gohad  in the  19^th  century  around the  remnants of the  ancient temple  of  padavli dedicated to Lord Shiva. Archeological studies suggest the Padaavli temple was built on a raised platform close to the10^th century.   The temple  was obliterated.  

We marvelled at how the solid stone platform was built with such precision in those  times. Only the intricately carved mukhamandapa- entrance stands erect till date.  The intricate carvings depict episodes from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Krishna leela and Dashavatara in stone, successive layers of these stories in stone were placed below the other in the inner walls of the dome of the main entrance.

The Ranas made use of the remnants of the old temple to fortify the structure. It then housed primitive artillery and shells of the 19^th century Rana army. The ASI guide seemed to know the history of the  temples and the  significance of the carvings. It was heartening to know that the ASI has been working on the restoration of this site at regular intervals. The presence of security guards and the guide’s justification for it did prove t.he area unsafe for relics…..

BATESARA OR  BATESHWAR

We were tempted to proceed to Mitawali but  decided to go 50 meters  back  and  check out the dusty path we left unexplored earlier. As  we dove down the  what seemed like a little used path,another work of art in stone  from the bygone  era stood before us. A rectangular complex  built on a  raised platform of  stone blocks, identical in shape. The finesse was extraordinary , every edge of stone coincided forming a perfect straight line. Even this sight could not hold our interest for long though because as we looked  ahead, we were awestruck by the splendid sight that came up.  Within a  cosy cove of shrubbery and  green knolls, a tiny low lying valley held a cluster of  6^th century temples! Numerous manadapas stood along side each other in parallel line formation.

The  temples too were  well encased within a compound  wall built by the ASI. Yet again we felt thankful that the  ASI  had  taken over this spot and  taken pains to resurrect it. The effort  spoke for itself. Walking into this  amazing  labyrinth , we quizzed the  caretaker, who turned out to be the ASI appointed ‘supervisor’( as he  called himself) of the  place. The  following facts tumbled out from him and the  security in-charge of the place.

1.       These are remnants  of 6^th-9^th century temples of the Pratihara period when temple art was still in initial stages, this  fact is attributed to the flat ceilings of a few  temples of the cluster.The others have curvilinear shikharas over the sanctums.

2.       The ASI  discovered this place( an intresting  tale, I  shall narrate  later)* when  most of he temples were buried  under 6-7 feet of  mud. The  temples having been built on a  low lying  area, got buried below loose  earth owing to tectonic disturbances.

3.       The main characteristic features are  two  stepped tanks built  around naturally occurring water bodies  at the  base of this hill.

4.       As the excavation progressed fully ans partially buried temples, gateways,amlakas and  brahminical icons all masonry in  stone  lay  strewn around.

5.       The painstakingly  slow work of  restructuring  the temples  and resurrecting them began in  2005 and still continues. As work progressed the partially buried temple bases retained their  original  color while the  shikharas  are  many shades darker due to exposure to the  sun, wind  and monsoon over the years.

6.       These temples too have shiv-lings in their sanctorums and ornately  carved walls. In ancient times these huge slabs of  stone  carvings were held in place  by iron clamps which corroded and  weathered  away. The  present day restoration has replaced the iron  with  steel clamps while trying to incorporate the original mix of naturally  occurring  sandstone and  herbs in the vicinity to hold the non-clamped slabs together.

7.        After having been identified and  resurrected the main temple draws huge  crowds of  shiv- bhakts on the occasion of Shiv ratri. How do they deal with the  crowd and protect against pilferage? The security in-charge  a former dacoit from the ill famed Chambal gangs swears by his loyalty for these temples of lord Shiva. He claims having rescued many an ASI officers from the  clutches of former Chambal dacoits who  have  now turned modern day extortionists. We said in lighter vein that we ourselves were tempted to pick up a small piece of carved rock. His menacing look and cold blooded response of,” jaa nahi payenge aise karke” was enough  for us to reassure him quickly of our joke and harmlessness.

MITAWALI

L eaving  Bateswara temples we proceeded towards the famous MItawali temple. A dusty bumpy pot hole ridden stretch of 2-3 kms lead us to the base of this tiny cliff covered with  greenery. The climb up the hill led us to ‘poetry in stone part-II’

1.       The hills flat top held a circular ring shaped stone structure built on a raised stone platform with a sanctum  in its centre. The area within the ring can easily accommodate 70-100 people at a time.

2.       The ring comprised of 64 identical rooms approximately 3 feet by 3 feet in size, each dedicated to a yogini-forms dedicated to Lord Shiva but associated with tantric practices.

3.       The structure is said to have inspired the ring shaped architecture of our Parliament, but there are no  records of the British having  visited this place.

4.       Though devoid of a proper guide the place did get its share of ASI attention , when steps  to the top of the hill were   re-built  in  stone. The view from the top is breathtaking.

5.        We were surprised at how these mammoth slabs of stone were lugged up the hill In those  ancient times.

*Bateswar- The Supervisor at the Bateswar site claims, that the site was excavated by a senior archeologist of the ASI Mr. KK Mohammad who later rose to head the  branch. It is believed that Lord Shive himself appeaed in Mr. Mohammad’s dreams guiding him to the place.

The security guard and former dacoit says he managed to prevent  friction  between old time  dacoits and  ASI personnel working on the project. The  Shiv-linga has special powers he is ready to swear by.

Phone-exchange!!

 

 Driving back  home early morning at 6, after having dropped hubby at the  railway station  a very  different kind of  ring  tone  greeted  my ears. It definitely  wasn’t  my  phone’s … so  what & where  was it coming  from I was thinking  as  I searched frantically in  my  purse, the  sourceof the sound  & Lo!  The  big  daddy of  surrogate  father’s had happened. No  no this isn’t about  Aamirs & Shahrukhs fathering children  from  surrogate mothers.  I only  meant,  the  biggest Faux pas(surrogate father)  happened, me  and  hubby  had  exchanged our phones  accidently in the  hurried early morning  departure of  his…..

What  followed was a  string  of  funny, amusing  and  minorly irritating episodes! Unlike the  idea  cellular advertisement,  we  do not  need to discover  each other’s tough  days. It  seemed quite  a herculean  task to inform  each  and  everyone of our  friends about this  exchange, so we let it be known only  to our  parents and  siblings. The rest would  discover and  not  mind speaking  to the spouse, we  have a  huge set of common friends as it is*.

Around  mid morning my friend called up on my  phone to find my hubby at the other end. She was  expecting  trouble shooting  help from me  about the  cake  that she’d  baked that wasn’t rising! Ater some well intended leg pulling  from my hubby,  she  called me, chided me for having  taken the idea advertisement seriously and after she got her  fresh tips for baking she  hung  up. Another friend of mine  gave  my  husband  a  detailed critique of  my blog post!

Next, I get this call  from my  husband’s colleague, so his customary greeting  led me  to believe, as he introduced himself on the  phone  and  before  he  could  launch into a tirade, I  put the  disclaimer forth loud  &  clear, phones  exchanged I declared, please replace the  last number with an 8 and  you will reach him. Not  withstanding,  he said  he  wanted to talk to me about the kids school. He  had just come into town and his son  was apparently in my son’s  class. Glad  to help I waited for his  queries only to realize there  seemed to be some  mismatch of  school or  class. “Excuse me,  are you  sure  it’s me  you  want to speak with? I’m Ms.N” I told  him.

“Oh No!I’m really  sorry ma’am I thought I  was  speaking with mrs.S!Oh, this is Mr.N’s phone! I thought I had dialled Mr.S!” 

 Now who the  hell is this  Mrs.S  who answered my  husband’s phone, I thought!!  Much to the  caller’s consternation he  had to explain Mr.& Mrs. S’s  identities. Thankfully for  my husband, I knew the S’s.  Apparently my  husband  had been  on an assignment  where he and  Mr.S had shared my huisband’s  phone number, so the  confusion. Again a  slew of  calls  from hubby’s work placeleft me exhausted.

My husband  on the other hand found  himself talking to many  ladies since that day.Whatsapp was another  source of entertainmet  for him and me  alike. All the ‘ boys’-jokes  and  girly fun were  reaching the unintended destination but was enjoyable  I must  admit.  My hubby had  a whale of  a time teasing  me  about  why my haircut was the  topic  of  discussion, or  how  my  friend had called JLT,’just like that’. I  wanted to tell him JLT= hottest  gossip in town, but  restrained myself  from letting  this code of girlie language be  known to him. I immediately  launched a   counter attack of  how  sexist and anti-feminine all the  typical boys-jokes exchanged by him & his gang of  friends were.

Me & hubby went through this  ordeal of having to exchange essential numbers. Me asking  for numbers of the dhobi, software vendor amongst others and  he asking for numbers of his  colleagues  at work, travel agents etc.

 Most people attribute this exchange to my mischevious  son. I tried  explaining  callers initially but just gave up later on and resigned to the  fate that my  son has earned another tag to his kitty of naughty pranks!!

Hubby  will be back this  weekend  and  weapons  restored to their respective owners. Until then take  a  breather   Gals, once I’m back on circuit there won’t be any respite on thelocal gossip scene.

·         Me and  hubby  solemnly pledged to not make a mention of content send by a person on theonly- boys/ only- girls groups on  whatsapp to anybody even their  spouse.

·          (only I’m allowed to reveal all once ina  while ;P)

 

 

 

VIBGYOR: Just trash it!!!

VIBGYOR: Just trash it!!!: Waste generated by the burgeoning human population of the Earth and its ever increasing energy consumption have made the endeavour of fin...

Just trash it!!!

Waste generated by the burgeoning human population of the Earth and its ever increasing energy consumption have made the endeavour of finding another inhabitable planetary neighbour for humans, gather momentum.

 When tragedies like the recent Himalayan  tsunami in  Uttarakhand  occur we are dazed,  we  marvel at  & curse natuer’s fury in the  same breath. We then  immediately start a  blame game, making a scape goat out of authorities and  years of neglect.

 Conservation of Energy and reduction of waste are the need of the hour. Unfortunately, we continue ignoring these. Focus should be on minimizing wastage and optimizing the energy sources available.

 Innumerable methods of effective garbage disposal  are  available  at hand, be it landfill methods, incineration, biological reprocessing, enery recovery, wate recovery, recycling, waste minimization.   The main entity unavailable is our  lack of will and  implementation to  do the  needful. Barring  a  few metropolitan cities,we the  educated  masses are clueless about waste segregation.

 Trash and muck  dumped on  roadsides or any empty plot of land is such a common sight everywhere and not even a flutter of  eyelids from us humans  around. So many people unabashedly quote civilizations of the ancient past to justify or take  pride in spitting and squatting publically,  while conveniently forgetting the eco friendly  ways of  living that our  ancestors  followed.

Cities  are bursting at their  seams with an ever increasing population to sustain, resulting in indiscriminate infrastuctre development. We all know these facts, we contribute to  them.

 A recent survey by the  Reader’s digest shows how the most exotic of  locales  like Mt.Everest and  Bahamas are also being littered by mankind with all sorts of  garbage! What is truly appalling is the  fact that nearly 13,000 miles surrounding Earth are crowded with garbage. In addition to large objects such as inactive satellites and parts of launch vehicles, scientists estimate that millions of smaller bits of trash—flecks of paint, fragments of metal, even a lost glove and camera whiz around our planet at up to 22,000 mph. The bits regularly fall toward earth, but they burn up in the atmosphere before making landfall. Space trash can be dangerous, though—NASA frequently replaces space  shuttle windowsafter unfortunate collisions with the tiny garbage. 

Our attempts at damge control or environmental recovery are marginal. Afforestation for example, cannot be relentless tree plantation of  a species that do not naturally occur in a place.

In reference to the Uttarakhand Tsunami, what came to light was a  fact that environmentalists have  been  crying foul about  since long. The naturally occurring ‘Banj’(Himalayan Oak) has been allowed to be replaced by the ‘Chil’(pine tree) of the  Southern slopes of  Uttaranchal over the years. While ‘Chil’ provides resin and timber, thereby increasing  revenue, it damages the  ecology extensively. The  pine needles that fall, do not  sustain any undergrowth and land becomes barren as a result it is unable to stop soil erosion during floods. The naturally occurring and fast depleting  ‘Banj’ on the other hand is extremely beneficial. The fallen  leaves  of the ‘banj’ become  mouldy catalyzing  under undergrowth which holds soil and  allows  rain water to percolate slowly into the Nothern  plains(the granaries of India). The ‘Banj’ also  makes good fodder for the animals but  doesn’t yield anything substantial for the coffers like  resins or timber. This being  a small point in the  case of environmental  neglect has had colossal repercussionsthat we endrued recently. 

Development  and  maintenance of  ecological balance  can go hand in hand though may not form an ideal money making  situation always. Tourism in our hill states  has  rapidly increased. We choose to build  cement jungles to meet this  ever growing  demand. In ignoring  wood  and stone as building options, we make the environment warmer as cement generates  heat increasing the  ambient  temperature of the  localized area. We eat into river beds, not only do we build along them , we  dump construction debris in the river bed. The river left with very little  room to flow engulfs the population on its edges.

Pristine and lush green carpeted mountains as tough peeping through their

 

curly locks of clouds and  mist greeted me at Kasauli. I  was experiencing bliss wrapped in nature’s embrace when a glance  at the garbage in the valley  below made me cringe!

 Through with our careless and energy inefficient ways of living, we might just end up turning the new planetary habitat we find into another unliveable garbage dump. This option is a few centuries away and hopefully we would have mended our ways by then, making migration to another planet unnecessary; just a sightseeing trip there should be fine.

Just trash it!!!

Waste generated by the burgeoning human population of the Earth and its ever increasing energy consumption have made the endeavour of finding another inhabitable planetary neighbour for humans, gather momentum.

 When tragedies like the recent Himalayan  tsunami in  Uttarakhand  occur we are dazed,  we  marvel at  & curse natuer’s fury in the  same breath. We then  immediately start a  blame game, making a scape goat out of authorities and  years of neglect.

 Conservation of Energy and reduction of waste are the need of the hour. Unfortunately, we continue ignoring these. Focus should be on minimizing wastage and optimizing the energy sources available.

 Innumerable methods of effective garbage disposal  are  available  at hand, be it landfill methods, incineration, biological reprocessing, enery recovery, wate recovery, recycling, waste minimization.   The main entity unavailable is our  lack of will and  implementation to  do the  needful. Barring  a  few metropolitan cities,we the  educated  masses are clueless about waste segregation.

 Trash and muck  dumped on  roadsides or any empty plot of land is such a common sight everywhere and not even a flutter of  eyelids from us humans  around. So many people unabashedly quote civilizations of the ancient past to justify or take  pride in spitting and squatting publically,  while conveniently forgetting the eco friendly  ways of  living that our  ancestors  followed.

Cities  are bursting at their  seams with an ever increasing population to sustain, resulting in indiscriminate infrastuctre development. We all know these facts, we contribute to  them.

 A recent survey by the  Reader’s digest shows how the most exotic of  locales  like Mt.Everest and  Bahamas are also being littered by mankind with all sorts of  garbage! What is truly appalling is the  fact that nearly 13,000 miles surrounding Earth are crowded with garbage. In addition to large objects such as inactive satellites and parts of launch vehicles, scientists estimate that millions of smaller bits of trash—flecks of paint, fragments of metal, even a lost glove and camera whiz around our planet at up to 22,000 mph. The bits regularly fall toward earth, but they burn up in the atmosphere before making landfall. Space trash can be dangerous, though—NASA frequently replaces space  shuttle windowsafter unfortunate collisions with the tiny garbage. 

Our attempts at damge control or environmental recovery are marginal. Afforestation for example, cannot be relentless tree plantation of  a species that do not naturally occur in a place.

In reference to the Uttarakhand Tsunami, what came to light was a  fact that environmentalists have  been  crying foul about  since long. The naturally occurring ‘Banj’(Himalayan Oak) has been allowed to be replaced by the ‘Chil’(pine tree) of the  Southern slopes of  Uttaranchal over the years. While ‘Chil’ provides resin and timber, thereby increasing  revenue, it damages the  ecology extensively. The  pine needles that fall, do not  sustain any undergrowth and land becomes barren as a result it is unable to stop soil erosion during floods. The naturally occurring and fast depleting  ‘Banj’ on the other hand is extremely beneficial. The fallen  leaves  of the ‘banj’ become  mouldy catalyzing  under undergrowth which holds soil and  allows  rain water to percolate slowly into the Nothern  plains(the granaries of India). The ‘Banj’ also  makes good fodder for the animals but  doesn’t yield anything substantial for the coffers like  resins or timber. This being  a small point in the  case of environmental  neglect has had colossal repercussionsthat we endrued recently. 

Development  and  maintenance of  ecological balance  can go hand in hand though may not form an ideal money making  situation always. Tourism in our hill states  has  rapidly increased. We choose to build  cement jungles to meet this  ever growing  demand. In ignoring  wood  and stone as building options, we make the environment warmer as cement generates  heat increasing the  ambient  temperature of the  localized area. We eat into river beds, not only do we build along them , we  dump construction debris in the river bed. The river left with very little  room to flow engulfs the population on its edges.

Pristine and lush green carpeted mountains as tough peeping through their

 

curly locks of clouds and  mist greeted me at Kasauli. I  was experiencing bliss wrapped in nature’s embrace when a glance  at the garbage in the valley  below made me cringe!

 Through with our careless and energy inefficient ways of living, we might just end up turning the new planetary habitat we find into another unliveable garbage dump. This option is a few centuries away and hopefully we would have mended our ways by then, making migration to another planet unnecessary; just a sightseeing trip there should be fine.

Culinary Disasters!!

Experiences of a first time cook in the kitchen.

Culinary disasters!!
‘The way to a man’s heart is through the stomach’ they say, true, but I would like to add the way to a woman , child or anybody’s heart will follow the same route… Indeed a satiating meal, followed by a scrumptious dessert will make anybody happy.

So, as a new bride, setting up a kitchen and whisking up a palatable meal, posed as huge challenge to the then 23 year old me. I was always my Mother’s helping hand in the kitchen, yet I was never truly interested in the goings on. Only when the responsibility of setting up home and hearth descended upon me, did I realize the missed opportunities. Many will identify with the beginning of my culinary journey that I will share with you now.

 (There are exceptions to the likes of me though-people like my mother and brother have an inherent talent for conjuring up delicious fare from
the simplest of ingredients.)
Neo-matrimony is, well….spicy and tasting (testing, pun intended)time for patience and taste buds alike.
 Married five months, we purchased our OTG and I was more than
eager to try out or rather repeat all the baking I had assisted my mother with. Hubby dear was gone for a month in another town with some official business. His colleague and  a dear friend of ours, was to join him for work there. What better opportunity than this, I thought, to send some homemade cake for hubby.

I set to work with the most basic, tried and tested cake I used to bake. Feeling rather proud about putting the food processor to use as against the manually operated egg-beater in my mother’s kitchen. 'It’ll all be done in a jiffy', I thought pleased as I was placing the cake dough in the OTG. When the set-alarm rang I was expecting a golden brown fluffy cake to be ready. But alas!it was but a spectacle of ruins in my OTG!!

Just then the  door bell rang  too! I opened the door to find hubby’s friend,who had come to pick up the goodies. Now, our residence being a 1BHK, the OTG was in the living room and to my horror the transparent door of the OTG, displayed an inflated grotesquely cracked pancake!!
Our friend walked up straight to this horror and remarked.” Not bad for a first try…this is the first time I’ve seen a moon-crust cake!!” So saying he proceeded to cut a slice from the piping hot disaster, like a cordon bleu proclaimed, ”hmm… ok, look, why don’t make something else for him, my departure has been postponed, I’ll be flying out tomorrow. I’ll come again in the evening”. Yet he polished off some more of the thing and left. His comments only added insult to injury… I was devastated, how could my tried and tested recipe not have worked out?!!
I gathered my wits and started afresh, chiding myself at having wasted so much of sugar and flour… this time I around I wasn't the complacent ‘I bake flawlessly’ proud. Paying attention to detail, I baked a heart shaped cake and it came out perfect… I felt relief. I had baked a perfect cake in my own Kitchen, without anybody else’s assistance WOW!

 But my joy was short lived… our friend-the courier, spread the news about the 'MOON crust' cake that I had baked to other colleagues, and Lo! all of them with their spouse in tow, started trickling into our flat to taste the disaster or ‘new-kinda moon cake’ as they were all calling it! I wanted to wring this courier-friend’s neck at that point of time!!!

Now, I couldn’t have laid out that disaster to be sampled by the crowd. Very hesitatingly and sadly I brought the heart shaped cake. It was welcomed with “OOhs-AAhs” accompanied by jibes about being in the ‘extended honeymoon period'. I felt like my heart was being sliced out as each person cut a piece out of that heart shaped cake! Stop being melodramatic I told myself… They all must have guessed my state of mind and did not eat any more than half of the cake. I packed the rest and handed it over to the friend. Thankfully the friend did not go around hunting for the original ‘moon-crust’ disaster,my secret was safe.He then quipped,"hey what incentive do I have ? I’m only a courier? I’ll eat a bit of it too en route".
I wasn't one to be bothered by this statement, given that the cake no longer retained its romantic shape. But I realized that my anger for the friend had dissipated too. 
Even Though I was busy at office myself, evenings were lonely and with hubby away for a month all these people brought in cheer laughter and gossip too Their teasing and ragging felt good, a sense of belonging to a fraternity.

 It has been 15 years since that episode and I now bake and ice colourful theme cakes on demand from my kids and others and when people praise them, I remember my first baking disaster and
feel blessed. Thank God for perseverance and patience and encouragement  from friends and family, I could achieve what I had only dreamt of.

SOLDIER- SAVIOUR

While writing a  review of ‘Man  of Steel’ it suddenly  struck me  that the title is appropriate for  our personnel in uniform who have steely dedication and warm hearts as they rescue thousands from  the fury of nature in Uttaranchal. They are working  round the clock, planning rescue strategies by night and  implementing them in the day, as the weather permits.
Ignoring their personal safety, braving adverse weather conditions, personnel of India's uniformed forces have been racing against time to save lives in devastation-hit Uttarakhand, driven by a sense of purpose and motivated by the hope in the eyes of the hapless survivors.

Rescue operations
Personnel of the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force (IAF), ITBP, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and NDRF have been toiling in the Badrinath and Kedarnath regions and some other upper reaches of the mountainous state to rescue thousands of pilgrims stranded due to flash floods that have hit the area.

According to media releases a group of 101 persons, including 21 children, were safely evacuated by the special operations C-130J aircraft, on June 20, 2013. This aircraft is customized for covert special operations and is capable of landing at makeshift and short runways. The IAF has so far flown around 150 sorties and evacuated over 1,400 people from places, including the worst-affected Kedarnath-Gaurikund axis. IAF Mi-17 transport helicopters flying continuously rescued foreign tourists and Indian civilians from the Gangotri area at Dharasu in Uttarakhand state on June 22, 2013.

Relief & rehabilitation efforts

 The  efforts  by  the  Indian  personnel in  uniform  are manifold as is evident  as  more reports  of  rescue and relief efforts come in. The rescue over,  focus then shifts towards tending to the  injured and  helping the evacuees re-establish contact  with their  families and  sending them back home safely.

Military helicopters have been dropping emergency supplies  to thousands of people stranded by flash floods.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), has set up camps at various places to provide food, medicine and shelter to those affected. The Indian Army has launched what could be one of the biggest human rescue operations ever in the country, in Uttarakhand. It has been carrying out reconnaissance to examine the feasibility of making a larger helipad at Gagaria on Hemkund Sahib axis so that large number of people can be evacuated using MI-17 helicopter. Efforts are also underway to repair the bridge over Alaknanda between Govindghat and Ghagria on Hemkund Sahib road.

 The Army has opened road up to Uttarkashi after clearing 16 landslides. Communication nodes have been established at Gaucher, Harsil, Joshimath and Rudraprayag to enable people to contact their families. 30 Satellite phones have so far been inducted, 20 more are likely to be inducted for use by stranded pilgrims. Medical personnel of the Indian Defence Forces are tending to patients at a make-shift field hospital that tore through towns and temples in northern India and neighbouring Nepal.

We as  a nation are still coming  to terms  with the aftermath of  this  natural calamity. The role of  utmost importance  played by the  defence personnel has come to the fore yet  again. The same set of  people  whom we, the  general  public  remember only on national holidays. Many a times we debate  about the need of maintenance and upgradation of the forces. It would  be  unfair  to  remember them only now, in face of this adversity.  The routine tasks that they carry out as they guard our  borders, in extreme climatic conditions and  treacherous  terrain  on  a  daily  basis are  just as laudable. Kudos to these people in uniform!

 

 

Review- Man of Steel

The Warner Brothers come back vehicle “Superman Returns” (2006) failed to create  a sensation at the box office. In a  renewed effort  for the Kryptonian hero’s return they hired “Dark Knight” miracle-worker and producer Christopher Nolan and writer David Goyer hoping to create magic  at the  cash  registers. The  attempt has  been partly  successful in terms of terrific action sequences and the  conventional yet  convincing origin and journey of ‘Superman ’from Krypton to the Earth.

What is new this time is the  extent  to which the  troubled mind of the hero is delved into, his  inner turmoil in coming to terms with his  superpowers has been presented in a realistic manner. Events move back and forth through Clark Kent’s difficult childhood, his troubled adolescence, and his seemingly aimless young adulthood. Kevin Costner’s portrayal of the friendly non-interfering modern American  dad, guiding superman  through  his dilemma  is very natural and doesn’t seem like ‘acting’ at all. Also Costner’s protective streak as the father who wants to save his  son’s  prowess from the public eye, lest he come to harm is very understandable.

  Diane Lane as Clark’s adoptive mother is endearing and  natural in her performance. She comes across as how a tough and loyal farm wife would be in reality. She too, like her husband supports their strange, adoptive son helping him find his way.

Lois Lane played by Adams is again a realistic personification of  the nosy reporter, her inquisitive streak intact as in the comic books, albeit a little closer to reality than before.

 Coming  back to story, the change of mind  of earthlings have  towards  Superman, the debate in their minds , their doubts of  this ‘alien’  creature with  super powers & their gradual acceptance of him as a fellow galactic  being  have  been presented well.

What must have stolen many a  heart (apart fromCavill’s  looks) was a bit of humour  in places, like Superman  allowing himself to be handcuffed to see Lois Lane in prison. Personally for me, the ‘non-homo-sapien’- Supeman’s take on human  psychology  was very close to reality …while  he  admitted that Zod was untrustworthy, human beings were highly unreliable as  well. So true!

  The cinematography retains a  young watcher’s interest  initially, especially superman testing his prowess after revelation of Kal-el’s  journey and arrival to the Earth by Jor-El’s image.  Later during the heavy fight and action sequence however, the subtlety of the previous series is lost. It  gets buried beneath the film’s spectacular CGI special effects. Some of those scenes seemed horrifyingly similar to those of 9/11. The story loses grip because not only do the  special effects become  repetitive, but also these heavy dose devastation packed action sequences leave one drained. The mind-numbing destruction overstays its welcome. Ultimately, one  wonders that if the villain General Zod’s end was such an  easy accomplishment for Superman as wringing the neck of rag-doll, why were the human beings in the story & audience outside subjected  to the endless wait for good to emerge  over  evil!!

It is a film  with decent special effects but prolonged  and repetitive  scenes. Happy watching for the  die-hard ‘Superman’ fans, as for the others who have a choice, please go in for the  movie  running  at the  other screen. Patience is the password for parents of die-hard superman-fan kids to endure this imagery of  destruction!