However, they had a pretty good sampling of the stone carvings that were on display outside the building and I did get several pictures of those. Here are a few pics of the outside stone carvings (remember you can click on each picture for a larger view):
This dam/waterfall is one of several on the Cauvery River. We had to take an off-road trip beside the river for about a mile or two to get to this falls. It was a popular site since several families had come to visit the falls and play in the water.
We also visited another falls that was at a small park with picnic tables and a few small businesses that cooked and served fish from the river. Here's a picture of the other falls:
There were many Indians there swimming and playing in the river and the falls. There were also several guys there taking people on rides in home made wooden boats. These round wooden boats had been tarred on the bottom so that the water would not leak in. Here's a look at a few of them moored up along the side of the river:
My friends Naveen and Lokesh convinced me to take a ride in one of the boats. I was reluctant at first, but I'm glad they talked me into it. It was a great ride. Here's a pic that the driver took of us in the boat out in the middle of the river:
The driver's name was Swami. He could handle that boat very well and he could paddle at a very fast pace. He even said that he could take us on a ride over the falls with the boat if we wanted. He said he could even do it without getting us wet (the falls were only about a 6-8 foot drop). However, I was afraid to try that with my camera on board. Here's a picture of Swami paddling the boat:
Swami took us right to the edge of the falls, but he kept the boat from going over. As you can see in the following picture, there were many people swimming in the river and playing on the falls:
The swastika symbol used by the Nazi's and Hitler usually brings up negative connotations for us westerners today. However, most Hindu's regard a variation of it as a good symbol. I asked one of my coworkers about it and he remembered that it was used negatively by the Nazi's, but his first thought is good. The sign painted on the old building on the roadside is just an advertisement for a roofing company called Swastik roofing. My landlord even mentioned that the symbol is especially considered good luck for starting and ending major or important projects. She begins all of her new accounting books with the big swastika on the first page. I remember now reading about the swastika being used for religion and good luck long before the Nazi's ever thought of adopting it. **It was pointed out to me that the NAZI version of the swastika and the Hindu version are different. One version has the arms pointing clockwise while the other one is counter-clockwise.
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The main temple is shown in the background of the picture above. This temple is very large and is built at the top of a hill with many steps to get to the top. There are several smaller shrines on the way up the steps to the main temple. Those smaller shrines were to honor various other gods and important people who played a role in the building of the church and the religion. Here's an outside picture of one of the smaller shrines leading up to the main temple.
Shoes are also not allowed in the temple, so we had to remove our shoes and deposit them in a locker system. There was water flowing across one of the steps on the way up and we had stick our feet in it to wash our feet on the way up to the main temple.
The main temple included three shrines/statues inside with lots of gold, jewelry, and treasures desposited there by the many worshipers. We were lead in a line in front of each shrine then were greeted by an attendant/priest who had us stick our hands in a plate of Jasmine flowers. He then asked each of our names. He then said a prayer for each of us and asked Krishna to look over us and protect us. Then he deposited the Jasmine flowers in one of the shrines. The temple ceiling was tall (probably 100 feet high) and had four huge paintings depicting Krishna at various stages in life and other scenes. They were beautiful very impressive paintings. It kind of reminded me of a modern Sistine Chapel. I wish I cold have taken some pictures.
While at the Temple we also came across one of Lokesh's friends Gopi. Here's a picture outside the temple of Gopi, myself, and Lokesh in front of Gopi's car.
Gopi just got married a couple of weeks ago. He has his own building contracting business.
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Some of the employees also sang traditional and classical Indian songs. Here's an example of one of the ladies singing:
In the next picture, I was able to watch some of the events while Vaidya, one of my co-workers, explained some of the items to me:
These things are about the size of a golf cart. They are usually powered by LP-gas canisters. They can carry 3 persons in the rear seat with a driver up front. The price for a ride is usually per kilometer travelled and is very reasonable. The problem is that most of the drivers either don't speak ANY english or very little. If they understand where you need to go, they may still take you the long way around to get extra mileage charges. I have to learn my way around so that I can be sure they don't take me for an extra long ride.
I guess because I’m a foreigner and they speak either no English or very little, it seems that I frequently get one of the ones trying to con me in some fashion. Yesterday, my roommate and I left a restaurant to go home in a hired auto-rickshaw. A local Indian friend talked to the driver first to confirm that he knew how to take us home. I realized after a few minutes that he was not going the right way. I complained and he handed me a card from a local gift shop. After about 5 minutes, we determined that what he was trying to tell us was that if he could take us to this gift shop to just look around that they would give him a free new driver’s uniform after he brings them 10 new persons to shop. He offered us free rides home if we just spend 5 minutes looking around in the shop. So we reluctantly gave in and did it. It was actually a nice shop, but it looked too high price to me. SO, we looked around for 5 minutes and left. The driver was still waiting outside and actually kept his word and took us home for free afterwards. Of course he wasn’t exactly sure about the last turn or 2 and we had to still help him with directions.
Each ride turns out to be a new adventure!
GLENN
The lady on the right is our landlord Renu. Her husband took the picture for me. The lady in the middle is from my town Raleigh, NC !!! She is also renting an apt. from Renu. She works for Nortel and is here for a couple of weeks to do some call translations work for Nortel. She is Vietnamese. It turns out that we actually worked with a lot of the same people many years ago and I don't know how we never managed to meet back then. We probably passed each other in the halls at Nortel. It's a small world. I told her we sure traveled a long distance to finally meet!
Most of the Nortel contractors I have met have actually been to Raleigh or lived there. Nortel has always had one of their major training centers in Raleigh and some of them have been there for classes. Two of the contractor guys are now from Richardson/Dallas, TX. Another is from the southern Florida. I try to get together with them about once or twice a week for a dinner served at the landlord's apartment.
Here's another pic of some bamboo growing in a marshy area at the park. The bamboo was extrmemely tall and big around in diameter. I'll bet they were 30-40 feet tall:
Later,
Glenn
Here's a pic of the servant/chef who cooks my breakfast every morning. He also cleans the apartment andd does laundry and ironing:
More pics to come
Glenn
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Glenn