Childhood Memories in Hasanamba Temple

History of my hometown Hassan is as beautiful as the town itself, and the story is incomplete without talking about Hasanamba temple. It is believed that seven Maatrukes (Brahmi, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Vyshnavi, Varahi, Indrani and Chamundi) during their vacation time visited Hassan and they were taken aback by the beauty of it and decided to make it their home forever.

The city is believed to be named after Goddess Hasanambe and the temple is open only for 9-10 days in a year during Deepavali festival. The rest of the time the Goddess is left with a lit lamp, flowers, water and two bags of rice as offering until the next year. The nandaa deepa, (a ghee-lit lamp) burns all round the year for the entire duration when the temple doors are shut, with the ghee never depleting. And the anna naivedya (the rice offering) offered to the devi at the time of closing the temple is warm and unspoiled when the doors are opened again, a year later.

Mythical Story of a devotee
Hasanamba turned a mother in law, who tortured Devi’s devotee the (daughter in law), in to a stone. It is believed it the stone moves by a centimetre every year and when it reaches the lotus feet of hasanamba the period of kaliyuga will end.
My grand parents have seen the stone moved from more than a kilometre distance which is now inside the temple right in-front of the goddess. People have somehow stopped its movement by nailing the stone deep down the earth.

Now let me share my moments associated with this temple, i grew up there right in-front of the temple was my school where i studied from class 1 to 4, and my house was at 200mtrs distance. Our school prayers daily morning was done in the circle where the temple is, After school hours or even during the holidays we played inside the temple premise, the huge track in-front of the Devi temple was our cricket ground we enjoyed playing there as it was a stone track and we mastered our-self aiming the ball at the gaps of the stone tiles so that it deflects the batsmen. When the ball was hit high upon the Siddeshwara temple roof, there was only one such pillar with perfect grip to climb upon the temple roof. Only few ever climbed and i am one amongst.
As the temple premise is huge we have even played Hide n Seek, we have had tough time seeking.

I couldn't stop myself from penning it down as these memories were so nostalgic. I can still visualize myself inside peaceful temple premise being a kid.

Media has made our temple a famous one, but i really dont like it being made so commercialised, in recent years a lot of people from different locations visit the temple and get blessedl,
they stand in Tirupati level Queue and wait for a long time for darshana, i only request them to keep the place clean. May god bless you. #SwatchBharath #SwatchHassan

Who is Dipa Karmakar ?

• Dipa is First Gymnast to Qualify for the games. She is also one of the five people in the world to have mastered Produnova 

• Dipa built her first vaulting platform with the parts of an old scooter

• As a kid she worked hard to fix her flat foot which would affect the spring in her jump
• She has won 77 Medals in State, National and international championships, including 67 Gold 
• With 15.100 Points she holds the record for the highest scorer in the world on a produnova vault

To Perfect produnova, Dipa karmakar performed 127 vaults in a week. To put in Perspective, Simon Biles, the american gymnast who holds the record for winning 10 Gold medals has been able to perform 15 complete vaults in a week

Wishing her all the very best to make India proud @RioOlympics

James 'No Class' Bond 007 Spectre - Review

How to make a Bond movie?

Ingredients -

1 Predictable bond

One 9mm Pistol

1 Destroyable Billion dollar Aston Martin

3 hot girls

Helicopters & Old Planes

1 watch which is a Time bomb

1 Villain who is closely related to Bond

 

And mix all this without any common sense.

 

James bond is no more a classic genre.

The Movie is too lengthy and boring that I was forcing myself not to sleep after a busy working day.

There were so many predictable instances and it will make you feel you are the script writer. Spectre seems like showing closing credits to all the characters of the last 3 movies. Though they can’t do too much innovation like in the Mission Impossible series they still could show come up with future gadgets and technology that was the whole point of Bond series two decades ago.

Don’t go to the movie expecting an opening chase like Casino Royale, this one is pale and it looked like bond seems very pleased just by accomplishing mission hijack helicopter.

Few things which highly irritated me,

• Connecting the anti-heroes from the last 3 movies and telling these were working for one organization named Spectre, not at all Surprised
• What’s with the ring, how can a bloody ring lead to all secrets of the notorious criminal organization if it did why would everyone wear and roam around the world
• Bond kisses every girl he meets in the movie, thank god he dint kiss the old M when she was taking last breath
• Why are they so keen to close all the secret services worldwide and bond gets grounded every time, even MI5 they wanted to shut down
• Q, the guy from ‘The Perfume’ movie is not so talented in MI6; he has no new Time-changing Gadget, Better was the Kid from the SRK Happy New Year
• When MI6 knows bond is going to destroy the billion Dollar Aston Martin which he has done repeatedly, why do they even make one and even if they make why do they even show him.
• James bond is always been on his own since Dr.No 1962, why should there be a dialogue ‘Bond is on his own now we can’t help him’
• And the villain, out of all is the brother of James Bond (relatively). Oh Come on Old Bollywood shit
• And out of all it’s a 2 and half hour dark gloomy low voice, Dragged and what not. For a moment I thought it’s directed by Ekta Kapoor.

 

Although there was couple of surprises, even they disappoint you

Our very own Jim Moriarty is in the movie and so is Dave Batista. Could have used them much better. This time instead of Sherlock Moriarty falls off the roof. And Batista dies without even delivering a Batista bomb. Thanks Sam Mendes for ruining iconic figure of James Bond. Daniel Craig No hard feelings, but still the best bond in modern times is Pierce Brosnan.

Rating – 5/10

7 Reasons, Why we should make a big deal out of this Come back Win #IndVsSA #2ndODI

1.      The End of Losing Streak

                  India has lost T20 Series and the first ODI against SA, which has squeezed out esteem of the team, though there were some commendable performances all were outplayed by some silly mistakes & bizarre Decisioning from the Umpires. But this win could put everything back in place, if only SA doesn’t come back stronger. Indians Never Hated SA team, we all admired the Elegance of Jonty, simplicity of Pollock, style of Lance Klusener and the destruction of ABD.

2.      Death Bowling is not dangerous as Death 

                  Even the new born knows the weakpoint of our team is Death bowling, I would give credit to our bowlers for not taking the match till the end where there is high proximity of losing a match which is already-won. I just hope other teams are not watching this and make out a strategy to take Indian bowling post 45 overs so that they get the match effortlessly thereafter. Its better if Dhoni does the brain washing to our bowlers that it’s a 43 overs Cricket match.

3.      Yes, AB de Villiers can get out Sometimes 

                  This man is a sweet Devil, none can hate him even if he beats the shit out of any team including us. He has got an average of 145 in last nine matches he has played against India that’s Insane, Moreover we have helped him a lot for practicing in the Indian pitches when he plays for RCB, he is man for us in the IPL. Today when he got out the sense of relief every Indian would have got is priceless. He can single handedly change the game with just a handful of overs left. It calls for a celebration that we took out the big fish with an outstanding catch in a crucial moment of the Game.

4.      Hence proved, Catches Win Matches 

                   There is no doubt that Indian fielders are amongst the best in the world, trend started with Yuvraj Singh, we have Raina, Rohit Virat, Rahane, and our Bowlers who can run sprint to stop boundaries. For today, things wouldn’t have turned out our way if Virat Kohli hadnt taken that stunning catch of ABD. He also took a catch a Faf at Cover which changed the momentum for SA. He’s the Man of Match for me in fielding section.  

5.      Classic Spinners in our team is a Myth’ yet 

                   Notably there are no Spinners in Indian Team, oh wait there is Ashwin, but when Ashwin is injured, fortunately there is harbajan singh in this series who can give 10-0-30-1 but today the boy who turned the ball for India is Akshar Patel when he took out Amla, Duminy and Faf in a fashion, the game looked promising

6.      Against the brutal Line Up  

                   With a low score of 240+ the dressing room probably had already accepted the defeat even before the second innings. We cant blame them too because any team would feel anxious looking at the line up South africans have. Amla, De Kock, Du plessis, ABD, Duminy, Miller, Behardien, Morkel all in all top performers. Beating this line up black and blue is what indian bowlers did on the field. Its definitely a morale booster. It’s an absolute rare scene to see all men fall at a time.

7.      Mahendra Singh Dhoni 

                    Probably the best reason to celebrate this victory is guy not just behind the wickets but also behind the victory. On the post match presentation Dhoni mentioned there are many open swords waiting for me(us) to make mistakes. This shows the pressure this person is handling. We might have played the match against SA today but the real opponents were our very own fans and media who criticize him during the downtime. The Incidents when the bottles were thrown on to the field and Social Media demanding his retirement can disturb any men. As a common man we cannot handle the problems we face at our daily life when nobody even cares. But this man takes the blame when needed and appreciates each performers with so much Guts. Its never easy to be a leader, probably after Modi he is the next top leader who gets criticized so badly yet answers only by his work and perfomance on the field. His knock came at the right moment, when team needed the most. Huge respect to MSD not just for holding his equanimity throughout the game but for handling the criticizism.

Mars : Home next door

My curiosity towards Mars started from the time the rovers Spirit and Opportunity first left the tire marks on the Martian soil.  I was so excited to read about the planet get to know more on it since then. To begin with the colour of the planet itself is striking as we all know it’s a red planet it would attract anyone. People of Earth have shown enormous interest on Mars cos it showed signs of life in it. Glaciers, Ice Caps, Water and many images are proven factual, in years it could be our next home.

When a novel named The Martian was released in 2014, i was very much eager to read about it unfortunately i couldn’t, also came a rumour that a movie would be released by mid 2015 based on the novel, and what can i say it was worth the wait.

Mark Watney the first man to have got lost in the planet of mars. Not literally lost but was left behind by the Ares 3 crew when a strong storm hits the planet and blow the mission. Mission commander Lewis was forced to evacuate mars when Watney was hit by an antenna and flown far away from the MAV the launch vehicle. Luckily he survives. The movie is about the survival and the hope of getting back home. The presence of mind of Mark Watney portrayed brilliantly in all aspects, burning the hydrazine to make water (though he blew it up once) and finding the path finder we the key. The space suit was never so cool, just like the iron man suit. I cannot say it’s not possible to grow potato on mars since it’s never been tested yet, but the entire sequence is so relevant to science, and the ''in your face Neil Armstrong'' was the dialogue of the movie. The rescue mission sling shot rounding the earth and turning back to the Mars by the Hermes was simple but shot so dazzling, it’s all credits to the writer of the novel Andy weir his imagination is splendid. Though the movie doesn’t explain a lot of things from the books within 2 hours of time it has done the best any one could have done.  

The cast is as brilliant as it’s supposed to be for a science fiction. Matt Damon & Jessica Chastain were already used to the space tech from the interstellar, though Jessica had not worn a suit in interstellar,

How cool conspiracy it could be made if you relate Interstellar and the Martian that if Mark Watney was not rescued but he flew to some other planet with the help of Ares 4 MAV than coming back to earth and then led the mission of interstellar accidentally to the same planet where they find Mark Watney lying in the unageing bed, Anything is possible in space.

The conversations at the NASA are pretty decent and it’s to the point, though the movie is self centred with Watney and his log book it’s really amazing to witness the beauty and the calmness of planet mars. I couldn’t have missed a first day first show of the movie, I am glad to have a space buddy yashas who as aeronautical engineer keeps tab on all space tech and anything which flies above the earth surface, who accompanies me in all this crazy stuff.

I did not want to review this movie nor rate it. It’s probably one such movie where you don’t find or can’t find any flaws. Someday when the manned mission is successful to Mars we all will look back at this movie, someday when a man makes mars his home we would imagine the life of mark Watney this movie has a lot of lessons which someday will come to all help. One might even screen this movie in Mars some day, and people would watch it eating potato fries.

I Believe in Mars.

Avengers : Age of Ultron

I am in love with the series, they are just getting better and better.

#Spoiler Alert

Story line
Movie starts with an on-going battle in all fictional country Sokovia, Strucker has kept Loki's Sceptor from the part1. The team fetches the scepter and Tony discovers the Gem in the Scepter is a complicated Artificial Intelligence which he now intends to use it for his Global peace keeping program named 'Ultron'.
As we expect the program goes wrong the Ultron now controls everything on the internet. Ultron misunderstands the objective of peace-keeping  and talks about extinction of Avengers and the entire earth for a new evolution.
Meanwhile he recruits a twin who were experimented by Strucker, One is a fast moving with a Russian accent, the lady twin is a manipulator of minds and fire boomer. They have a childhood revenge on Stark, their story is heart touching.
The Ultron with the help of a scientist builds an indestructible human form weapon which is meant to erase the mighty heroes. Luckily the team stops that and steals the weapon box or whatever its called. Tony gets a second chance to fix his program puts our favourite Jarvis into human form..That was really nice.. A human form with all the powers put together named as Vision comes out as takes side of Avengers against the Ultron. Maximoff twins too join the league. Now the whole crew battle the well spoken Ultron to save the earth.
Movie is a mixture of artifial intelligence and Emotions.. When the mindgamer girl takes everyone for a dream ride there are a lot of complicated scenes which we sorta fail to understand but whedon has tried his best to put a lot of things together in short-time.
Cast - Jeremy reaner has got a lot of screen presence than anyone else..i guess he was disappointed for his screen time in his last edition.
Scarlett (black widow) and the Banner (hulk) have some silent romance, that was umexpected but good move.
Mark Ruffalo- Hulk as always larger than life, will talk more about this fight with Tony
Chris evans - Brilliant as Capt. America as always...the hotstar of fantastic four has mastered the art of Superhero
Chris Hems - Thor - I din like him much in the first part, he has gone better much cooler in this and the hammer is a lovely weapon to watch.
R. Downey Jr - best of all - He steals the show in every screen presence.. Any trend you talk about starts from Tony..!! Veronica.. Hulkbuster.. Jarvis brain.. A lot more..There is no Avengers without the Iron man.
Paul bettany - The actor from the priest ..the voice of Jarvis which we have loved for years.. Comes alive as Vision the new superhero.. Happy to see him.. He justifies the role.
Ultron - Voice of John spader - the villion who rips of everyone is one new badass I liked.. Still smaug & joker are my favourite villians.. The voice is malevolently epic.
Technology
Where ther is Tony Starc there is new technology... Veronica is the killer one in this episode.. Veronica is a armour set which Tony is kept in space...which has a special suit.. HulkBuster.. OMFG that was crazy...as the name says its made to kick Hulks ass if in case he goes mad.
The artificial intelligence.. Though its quite aged.. Wasnt picturized before like the one in this movie.. The beauty of Vfx.
The vibranium - The indestructable metal with which the shield of Capt. A Is been made. I love the names of these fictious metals... Adamantium in xmen n Vibranium here..impressive.
Critic
The movie sometimes leaves you puzzled, asks you to connect the dots by yourself. By the time you connect the scenes it rushes to the next...one mark less for this.
The climax is pretty sober ..doesnt keep you nailbiting... lifting the city up in the air above the clouds to use it as a meteor and drop it down.. Umm not so cool idea.. One mark less for this.
Too many heroes vs one Ultron -- not so fair match.. Counting 5+3 heroes ..will get everyone less screentime please hollywood dont repeat the same mistake.
Some incredible stuff

 Hulk buster& The Hulk fight -- paisa wasool part of the movie
Humour on victory party.. and try lifting Thor's Hammer was very tickling.
Quicksilver in slow motion ..the speedsters action shown in slow motion in a beautiful way.
Atlast the fight with thousands of minion like robots with The avengers altogether at one place. Its a treat to watch all the powers come together. 

Good to see a complete performance by everyone but not by the director in-terms of narration.
Post credits a new villain is shown as a Hint of next sequel who is probably bigger than hulk and he has a ironman handsuit which fires. Says.. Fine I ll do it myself. Lets watch for the next.

Rated - 7 out of 10