MIRACULOUS CHANDNI CHOWK, AND SPICE MARKET, DELHI

Chandni Chowk - the chaos and miracle juxtaposed. 

I have no idea how things work in Chandni Chowk.  It is a place in Delhi, where you can get almost anything, everything. 

Be it fashion jewellery, dress materials, camera stuff, mobile, music equipment, shoes, goggles, spices, dry fruits, street food, sweets,........................................................ endless. 

There are shops in a row for wedding cards making only.  There are shops for paratha, jalebi, ............... It is literarily end less. 

There are people everywhere, Tourists included. Famous Red Fort is just on one side of the Chandni Chowk. Historical Gurudwara and the temple are standing together for ages. 

It is difficult to walk on the pavement or footpath or on road. You have no choice but to move along the crowd. 

It is busy brisk life in the open.  In the middle of it the authorities have started the renovation job of the whole road. 

Government has a grand plan to turn it in to  an wonderful shopping experience with wide roads, and plants and what not. Work is going on.

I really do not know how authorities and their workers work over there, no idea as to how system works here, basic civic amenities like water, electricity, sanitary system, sewage. It is mind boggling to see sea of people here. 

Look at these two picture of electricity system and the sea of people here.

PC : Internet

PC : Internet

Believe me --- this is not on just one or two poles. It is like this almost through out the area. This is how it is. 

I am an electrical engineer and once upon a time I was incharge of a rural electricity area in Goa, where things were not this terrible. 

Read The blue coloured board in the middle of the picture. It reads "NO HAWKING, NO SQUATTING"

Now look at the picture below, it is just in front of the board, by the order of the  Dilli Sarkar. I feel pity on the authorities. 

In the middle of the utter chaos, a street side circus show is in full swing.

You have to visit Chandni Chowk to believe it. You need to stand anywhere and pause to relish the surrounding.

Some how things work - how ? Miracle. 

Chandni chowk is perfect example of miracle and chaos juxtaposed. 

I went around shooting mouth watering street food stuff. 

Yummy Jalebis first.

My wife is fond of jalebis. I just showed her the picture. She started salivating and announced that she had already planned a visit to chandni chowk with her friend next week.  Hmmm.... I did not know the plan. 

Next on some savoury.

Some more for those who are heath conscious : 


The Carrot and Moolangi are real  juicy and tasty especially during the winter.  

I believe my photos speak for themselves. Hence I did not caption them. Hope you agree. 

Next time when you are in Delhi - do take time out for a day, visit Red Fort. Chandni Chowk is just across the road. 

SPICE MARKET 

If you want to spice up your Delhi experience you can visit " Spice market" which is 10 to 15 minutes away from Chandni Chowk on Cycle rickshaw. It is close to old Delhi Railway Station. 

Spice market is another miracle street. You will see shops selling all kinds of spices, dry fruits. Whole street is full of spice shops and its support system ( carts, people, loading unloading of bags, .......) 

In between, lots of street food - Jalebis, pakodas, nuts, Gol Gappa.....and what not besides dry fruits and spices.

 An elderly people, may be brothers selling fresh spices and some vegetables. 

Kind of Dosa or Dosa Roll on street. Locally it is called Cheela

Gol Gappa

All fried and spicy

Deep Fried Pakodas

People walk all over in all direction 

A make shift communication centre for public I guess. 

Talakaadu Temples

This is continuation from my previous post of Somanathapura. 

I finished my photoshoot at Somanathapura by 0945 and headed towards Talakaadu. 

In the region the bus service is not so  frequent. Shared autos ply quite regular and less expensive. I took a shared auto from Somanathapura to Mudukutore. Again another shared auto to reach Talakadu. I was there by 1100 hrs.

From Somanathapura, one can reach Talakadu via T Narasipura as well. 

It is about 25 km and takes 45 minutes.

Talakadu does not seem to have any decent place to stay. Better to stay at Mysore. 


History and Legend :

Talakadu has close relationship  with erstwhile kings of Mysore Wodeyor dynasty of Karnataka. 

Origin of the city of Talakadu is lost in time. However earliest reference is that it was called as Dala Vana pura in Sanskrit, built by Ganga line of kings (247 - 267 AD) as their capital. By 11th century, Chola dynasty occupied Talakadu.  Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana took over the city after 100 years or so. Hoysalas retained it up till 14th century. It was then ruled by Viajayanagara Kings or by their feudatory kings.  
Here is the legend. 

In 1610 it was conquered by the Mysore Rāja under the following circumstances. Tirumala-Rāja, sometimes called Srī Ranga Rāya, the representative of the Vijayanagar family at Seringapatam (Srirangapatna), being afflicted with an incurable disease, came to Talkād for the purpose of offering sacrifices in the temple of Vaidyēsvara. His second wife Alamelamma was left in charge of the Government of Srirangagapattanam ; but she, hearing that her husband was on the point of death, soon after left for Talkād with the object of seeing him before he died, handing over Srirangapattanam and its dependencies to Rāja Wodeyar of Mysore, whose dynasty ever since retained them. It appears that Rāja Wodeyar had been desirous of possessing the jewels which was the property of the Rāni, and being unable to obtain them, and eager to seize at any pretext, he levied an army and proceeded against the Rani. Rāni Alamelamma thereupon went to the banks of the Cauvery, and throwing in the jewel, drowned herself opposite Mālangi, at the same time uttering a three-fold curse,-"Let Talakād become sand ; let Mālangi become a whirlpool ; let the Mysore Rājas fail to beget heirs." The latter part continues to affect the royal family.

Thereafter the town of Talakadu is covered under huge sand dunes. 

Note : The above history and story - courtesy wikipedia. 


What ever the legend says, one thing is sure that said area is surprisingly filled with huge sand mounds. Very strange. Near by river Kaveri bank is like a beach. Kaveri river must have flooded and pushed the sand onto cover the town. 

The temples what we see today are said to have been excavated and many more are still unearthed. Many of them are in sand pits. Four Temples are currently visible and open for public. 
Vaideshwara and keerti Narayana are very beautiful and prominent. Other two are smaller ones. Once in 12 years a great "Jatra" happens here it is said. 

Temples are majestic, beautiful deities and worshiping is allowed. 

The nearby Kaveri bank is more commercialised. Lot of tourists / picnic crowd. 

Crowd has no sense of Swach Bharat. 

Now I show best part - the pictures :

If you want to take river ride, go for the raft. Learn swimming before you attempt it. No life jackets. Rafts are locally  made out of Bamboo. 

Sri Keerti Narayana Temple. The structure in front is "Mahadwara"

Temple from a distance.

Closer view of " Mahadwara" Main gate. 

Sri Vaidehwara temple.

On the way back, I again took shared auto to reach Narasipura. From Narasipura I took a KSRTC Bus to reach Nanjnagud by 1430 hrs.

The trip was good filled with legend, history, mystery, kings, curse and I took lot of beautiful pictures. 

Somanathapura Temple near Mysore

Location of Somanathapura:

It is about 35 km from Mysore, should take about 45 min.  There are many KSRTC buses I guess. 

I had to find my way from Nanjangud, since I was staying in Nanjangudu. 

I took a bus from Nanjangudu to T. Narasipura.  Tirumanakudalu Narasipura. From T Narasipura I took another KSRTC bus to Somanathapura. Narasipura - Bannur route passes through Somanathapura. 

I left Nanjangudu around 0630 and reached Somanathapura by 0800 hrs.  Buses are not so frequent. Road is good. If you have your vehicle, drive on. Nice green patch, full of paddy field. 

Somanathapura is a sleepy town.  I got down the  bus to see many local villagers sitting under trees looking at me as I was a total stranger. 

There was not a single guy around who was a tourist. I felt happy since there would not be any crowd and I could take pictures with out any hassle. 

I asked some one about the temple. He showed the main entrance of manicured garden with an iron gate just few mtrs across. 

The board says - Entry Time is 0830 hrs to 1700 hrs. 

Hmm..... 30 minutes I had to wait. There were small tea shops and I sat sipping a glass of hot milk and waited for 30 minutes. 

Entry Fees :

Rs. 25 per person - Indian. Rs 300 per person for foreigner. Rs 25 additional if you want to make videos. You can not make videos with an actor.  No photoshoot with people I guess. No pre wedding photoshoot I guessed again.

The place is a heritage place and managed by ASI, and is maintained well.  The temple is now just a heritage place and no Pooja, worship.  After taking Darshana of the deities I felt bit sad, that no worship, no Alankara, no Veda Ghosha, yet felt blessed seeing beautiful Idols of Sri Venugopla, Sri Janardhana, Sri Keshava. 

The temple is amazingly beautiful. Resembles Sri Channakeshava Temple at Belur.  

It has three sanctum sanctorum ( Garba Griha ) for three deities and a common hall (Navaranga). 

Pictures speak more than words.  So enjoy the pictures.

The Temple was built some time in 13th century by Hoysala kings. Somanatha was an high ranking officer at Hoysala kingship, who built the said Temple. 

The temple outer wall has beautiful sculptures depicting the Hindu Purana, Itihaasa events, gods and demigods. I could not recognise many sculptures but could not stop complimenting the architects, builders, artisans who built such a beautiful temple. So much of detailing and work they had to do to build the marvel. 

Sri Vishnu.

Beautiful Sri Venugopala - one of the main deities.  I did not get the good images of other two, due to poor lighting. 

Natya Ganapati

Sri Vishnu relaxing on Shesha. 

Another Devi statue 

A Brahma Statue

Statue of Varaha ? 

Rows of Elephants, Horses and foot soldiers

Sri Vishnu with Laxmi

Mahishasura Mardini ?

Intricate carved ceiling inside the temple. there were many more. I could get only few good images.

Every statue is differently carved. So nicely designed and placed. 

Most of the statues are defaced in one or the other way, most faces are disfigured, unfortunately. Whoever vandalised the temple, were surely filled with hatred or they were absolutely stupid not to appreciate such beauty. 

It was good to be early at the temple. I took good round of temple and clicked clean pictures. By 0930 hrs group of tourists started to arrive. 

With crowd around you get such pictures and editing them is a painstakingly long process and in the process, the picture will lose the quality. 

Above was no crowd but look at the guys 

There were lot of foreign tourists along with local crowd.

Time for me to move to my next spot - Talakadu. I had planned to cover two spots on the same day.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Talakaadu - next post.

In the region the bus service is not so  frequent. Shared autos ply quite regular and less expensive. I took a shared auto from Somanathapura to Mudukutore. Again another shared auto to reach Talakadu. I was there by 1100 hrs.

An architectural marvel standing testimony of the rich culture of the bygone era. 

The skill, knowledge and will to build such land mark temples with such great details are something which is beyond our comprehension  in today's context.