Indian Trinkets

  Brass Lamps. Put Oil and a Cotton Wick and it burns. Used for worshipping. Then there are bells and so on.

The shells are used by Indians to Blow and make a sound during Pujas.

The Brown Balls Necklace is called "Rudraksha Necklace supposedly a sacred necklace of 108 beads to utter the name of God 108 times .. This may not be original. You can do a Wikipedia search on Rudraksha.

Slide Show Below

More Coming

I suppose my South India Tours are over as I am moving over to North. But there are plenty photos still to be posted- of South India. Eg
Kovalam, Kerala
Allepey or Allepuzha, Kerala,
Kochi, Kerala
Masinagudi, Tamil Nadu
Ooty
Tuticorin
Karaikkal
So on.......
And thereafter
Panchmari, M.P.
Jabalpur
Gwalior
etc...
India is too Big.... Takes a whole lifetime to see it all!

Wild Life Protection

This is the bane of Indian Population! And yet the Western Countries like it because we are their solution to recession. While our wild life dies due to reckless driving by multitudes of vehicles and people!

This was on the Tirumala Road.

Papa Vinasanam

Papa Vinasanam

This is after Tirumala- another place to see for the devotees who visit there.

Actually the word is in Tamil, but this is one of those rare words of Tamil which has some Similarity to Sanskrit and hence easy to understand. Papa= Sin. Vinasanam= Destroy. Basically it means the people believe that if you bathe in the water your sins get washed away. Well call me crazy but this is something like I can commit murder and then come and bathe!! Oops! But believe it or not we humans are crazy. All over the world all cultures have such some beliefs that do not make any sense. But then that is why we are Humans! I guess!!

Akash Ganga Teertha
Another belief that most people have is that any water coming out from nowhere is a sign of God. This water is called Ganges of the Sky- because it is in the Tirumala Hills.. and real Ganges is thousand Kilometers away.

Road to Tirumala

Tirumala is a range of seven hills. From Tirupati bus station every 15 minutes there is a bus that goes to Tirumala, a distance of 22 kms to the top of one of the hills where the Famous Lord Balaji Temple is. The road is very picturesque and here are some photos.

Here they actually check the cars by asking people to come out and even have a luggage scanner.

People actually walk up the hills too- and for them these sheds for walking exist.

Tirupati town from above the hills.

Slide show below and pictures of some places inside Lord Balaji's Temple City at Tirumala are here. Natually we are not allowed to take photos inside the temple.

Lord Balaji Tirumala

The Lord Balaji Temple Dome from far using my Telephoto lens. It is fully covered with real Gold Folks!
Lord Balaji is Krishna of North India. Same God you find in ISKCON people worshipping all over the world.

This is the richest God in India with a total collection in donation of more than Rs 1 crore per day.

One cannot take camera inside so you have to do with this from me. Do not think the temple is small. It is only the main dome from afar. The temple is a huge building and the temple city TIRUMALA is India's Answer to the Vatican City, except that the latter is treated as a country and this is just a place in a city called Tirupati in the state of Andhra Pradesh in a country called India.

The size of the Prasad or Offering to God tells it all !!
"Prasad" means  any food offered to God in worship. God is supposed to eat it and bless it. So you eat it later with reverence. Here it is the Famous TIRUPATHI (Tirupati) Laddu (sweet called "Laddu")

Ok. Here are some photos of the Temple City or Town - very much self sufficient with its own adminstration etc.

This was round. I had eaten a part before I remembered to take the Photo. This is not sweet but good! This is also got from the Temple.

Look at those solar panels. This town run by Tirumala Deva Trust (TTD or something like that) and feeds more than a lakh devotees free every day when there is peak rush. They also hve houses to house the devotees who can book their stay in advance. Max one day they can stay.

You have got to see the Laddu Counters to believe it. I went to the temple in the night paying VIP entrance fee of Rs 500/- (that itself is another story. as I said even in VIP category you are different types of VIP. - Basically here VIP means you are not free devotee and so you can avail one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening on Monday to Friday only when it is called VIP break- no free entrance allowed. Hence you get less rush. But do not fool yourself. I was lucky because this was exam time!

You even have a SUPERINTENDENT LADDU! IMAGINE the HR of this Organisation!! Maybe the so called HR professionals can take a leaf out this and learn something.

Here the Ratha or Chariot is taken and people can sit around and see.

This is the backside or behind.. or whatever...

They are offering Coconuts here. Hundi means? Well whatever you understand..

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams

Oh My God!
Tirupathi!
Lord Balaji's Temple!

• Tirumala!  The place where the Temple town is.
• Seven Hills! The hills, one of which bears Tirumala.
• 600 Yrs old!! The temple structure made of stone.
• 60,000 Pilgrims / Visitors on an ordinary weekday when there is NO RUSH to max 100,000 (One lakh) on rush days Or is 3 lakhs!!
• 1.5 Crores (10,000,000 INR) collections in cash alone from the "Hundi" (Collection Pot or cloth made collection bag) per day. Forget the other daily contributions flowing in every day from all over.
• Gold plated temple walls.
• With its Gold collections suspected to be the second largest, if not larger than Indian, Gold Reserve in India.
• A Laddu (round sweet - Tirupati Laddu attains the size of a tennis ball!) distribution area with counters looking like bus ticket counter on ground floor and first floor
• 20 Kms by road if driving, 8 kms if walking from Tirupathi Town to the Temple area on the seven Hills.
• 1 to 1.5 kms height of the  hills.

Stupendous!
I am here! At Tirupati.
I never go inside any temple for one simple reason.. the Crowd!! and of course I also subscribe to the belief that I do not have to visit temples to meet God!
But I came here for work, and due to our connections here I was taken to the Temple and WOW WOW WOW!
When I went inside  awe filled inside me!
I was carried away to a different world!
Amazing!'
I cannot explain without photographs! Because without photographs you will not realise what Tirupathi Lord Balaji's temple is!
I will try to collect photos from booklets sold outside and shoot my own photos from outside and host them here.. but for now.. enjoy the information.

In conclusion I can only say folks.. Tirupathi or Tirupati is the nearest Answer of India to Vatican City! Because it is complete in itself and has a separate administration and earnings and so on.

The only difference is that Vatican City is treated as country while Tirupati is very much a part of India  and also state of Hyderabad!!!

Here are some links
and some more information. These are the official sites.
Pilgrims can visit Tirupati very easily. Everything is well arranged.

You can see the photos exhibited by them since I have none.... here

Let's see if I can get some photos next  Yesss.. I got some photos they are posted in my next post here!

Juhu Chowpatty Mumbai

Some more pictures and the slide show finally.

The Spirit of Juhu ehh? Guess So!!
Here is the SLIDE SHOW... and
here are the other posts. And here. And Here you can see the Food Stalls in Juhu Beach.

Foods of Juhu Chowpatty Mumbai India

Pao Bhaji Stall... Pao means quarter Loaf of Bread (Pao = Quarter. In Mumbai Hindi Pao means the bread you see at the back.. just below the red tomatoes... tthe small round curves are actually one piece of pao each.. all currently joined but before cooking is torn off and heated in butter.. the vegetable is cooked and eaten with the pao.

This is the Bhaji or the Vegetable cooked and eaten with Pao.

Pani Puri (Name used in Mumbai) or Phoochka (Name used in Kolkata) or Gol Gappa (used in North India). It is nothing but a small round "Puri" (Round Bread made from Wheat Flour by kneading with water and a little oil and then deep frying in oil just enough to make them swell). This Puri is stuffed with boiled potato (mixed with some spices as per taste) and then filled with Tamarind Water to eat in a gulp!
Of course the sweat of the server will make it tastier!!  ;-)

Bhel Puri. this is a Mumbai Special. But here you do not get just Puri. In fact here is a mixture of many things.. hey!! better eat it.. it is very difficult to explain the cooking in English when the items are NOT at all English, I say!!.. Just know these are all for the Tongue !! !!

Juices anybody? Or Syrup Water????

Now here is a decoration for you below!!

The fruits above are sour and tasty.. I forget the name!
The ones below are of course Raw Cut Mangoes with Red Chilli.

Other Juhu Posts are here and here and slide show here