Somanathapura

From Somnathapura

Somanathapura around 40 KM from Mysore houses the temple dedicated to the Lord Keshava. Built by the Hyosalas in the 12^th century AD is one of the three main architectural marvels built by them, the other two being Beluru and Halebidu. It was commissioned by Somanatha Dandanayaka, an illustrious general of Hoysala King Narasimha III, and the place is named after him.

This fine example of Hoysala architecture is dedicated to Lord Keshava. It also houses sanctums of Lord Venugopala and Janardhana.

Like most Hoysala monuments Somanathpura temple is star shaped – this design is followed by most Hoysala temples to increase the surface area of the temple.

The three shines or the sanctums (Thrikuta design) are identical in design and is built on an elevated platform. The pillars inside the temple are in itself a marvel.

Another feature that this temple shares with the other 2 temples is the bands of intricately carved figures running all around the outer walls. The lowest band contains images of elephants in different postures. The elephant signifies strength and they are supposed to support the temple on them. The next band contains images of horses, again in various postures. Other bands contained various animals and idols and complex patterns, telling us the stories form Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Puranas.

The Father of Hoysala architecture was Amarashilpi Jakanacharya. Jakanacharya was the chief architect of both Belur and Halebidu both of which were built in early 11^th century. However the temple at Somanathpura was built only in mid 12^th century using most of his ideas.

The temple like the other two temples is carved out of soap stone (technical name - dark grey green chloritic schist). This stone when freshly quarried is soft and easy to work on, however with time they become hard.

I was surprised to see that pooja was not performed in this temple. Same is the case with the temple at Halebidu. The idol at Halebidu and the temple was damaged by a Muslim ruler Malik Kafur. The original idol of Lord Kesava of Somanathpura is currently in a british museum. Only a replica of the original idol is present here. Also the idols in the 64 cells

around the main temple were either taken away by the british or have been damaged. According to Hindu mythology once the main idol of the temple is damaged, no longer is the pooja offered at the temple. I am not sure if the poojas still take place at the Belu temple. It’s a pity that we have lost such precious souvenir of ancient India. I hope that one day this idol comes back to where it actually belonged.

Another wonder to watch in the temple are the ceilings. It’s truly marvelous. I tried my best to capture it on my cam, but being an amateur photographer didn’t help.

One can also observer that the ceilings were painted, I am not sure if these are the original paintings or done latter. My guess is they are the original paintings. However the rain water seeping in through the ceiling has damaged these paintings. I am surprised the ASI hasn’t done anything to stop this. But over all ASI is doing a pretty good job in

maintaining the temple. Absence of the poojas and an entry fee to the temple has certainly help.

I would consider this temple the grandest and the best among the 3 main Hoysala temples. This temple stands testimony to the fact that Karnataka is the cradle of stone architecture in India.

Images That Changed The World

An amazing collection of photographs. I am shocked at the intensity of these pictures.

Why do startups survive the bigger fishes?

Another interesting discussion and another interesting outcome! My company is working with a large financial services company, on a particular service. They have been involved with us for quite sometime, and I am sure they would have got a pretty good idea of our product. Now the question I got was “What stops them putting up their own team and start work on a similar idea? Why do they have to come to us?”

My though process was, since they being a large company, they would have had enough resources, both in terms of man power and money, they could just take away our idea and start implementing it all by themselves. They could easily bypass us.

But it seams that it was not so. These big companies are too much involved in what they are doing. They don’t have time to think about new ideas or implementing them. Their current work keeps them preoccupied to try anything new (certainly there are a few exceptions). That’s why they turn to startups for new ideas. They would prefer to invest some money to buy this new idea, rather than implement it on their own. The effort involved in starting something new in these large companies (it seams) is nothing short of an experience of getting a building plan approved at your municipality. So the best way out for them is work with small startups, see if their ideas actually work in the market, and if so latter buy them at an extra premium or pay heftily for their services.

Do we have a defined process?

A few days back, I was at a lunch with my team, discussing day to day activities at the company. My company is a products company involved in developing mobile banking applications.

Mobile applications development is an interesting and complex one, considering the variety of platforms (operating systems), form factors and companies involved. Optimizing user interface experience for the user is a critical factor deciding the success of the product.

Now we as developers we expecting a well defined set of process for certain things like security, user interface and blah blah… That started of an interesting discussion.

Since we are developing a new product, there is no benchmark for what we need to do and how we need to achieve it. The product keeps evolving; I myself know how much we have evolved in the past 1 year when we started off to where we are now. There is no defined path/process in a startup. Different people will come up with different ideas on different things. For some things like security, things will get clear, but for some other things like UI and various functionalities we as developers, have completely no control. Some things could be solved by consulting domain experts but ultimately the user will decide the things. The out come of this discussion was, don’t expect things to be defined. The development is a continuous process – a regenerative one. Probably the real development could actually start when the customer gets his hands on the product.

A recent article published by a mobile development expert stated that – “To develop a simple mobile application in 5 languages for 50 different phones, it would require around 7500 builds, averaging around $ 2500 per build”. A scary scenario indeed.

Speak Up!!!

“First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Social Democrats,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Social Democrat.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew,
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.”

Pastor Martin Neimoller's – on why we should speak up against injustice even when it don’t really affect us and on the importance of free speech. Neimoller was a Protestant German Christian who had supported Nazis initially but eventually ended up in one of their concentrations camps. He was fortunate enough to have been freed.

Pseudo Women Empowerment

"This is a victory for the principles which our Indian people uphold" – President Prathiba Patil.

I am a bit worried about what principles she is actually talking off. Now that she is the President, all we can hope is she keeps up the values that our outgoing President Dr APJ Kalam had brought to this office.

Political parties specially the UPA alliance has been talking about this as a victory for women’s right. I am indeed very happy to have a lady President. But if a lady President was selected on the basis of principles, contributions to the society, rather than loyalty to some person or family, I would have been happier.

All this apart two other incidents concerning women in India, happened this week

• Discovery of more than 30 female fetuses dumped in wells

• Kiran Bedi not being offered the post of Delhi’s commissioner

More than 30 female fetuses each packed in polythene bags were found in Orissa. A reminder of how female infanticide is still so persistent in India, even after having so many laws against the same. I am really shocked to write anything about this. Probably dowry is the single most import cause for this epidemic (if I can say so). Will we ever see an end to this horrific practice? I am certainly not prepared to read one more article by some council in UK about 20 million girl children being killed by Indian parents.

Kiran Bedi, India’s first IPS office, a person with impeccable character and background, recognized and honored internationally, an excellent reformer, was denied the post of the Commissioner of Delhi Police. Another example of male domination or just that other “babus” believed that they couldn’t handle her. Mrs Bedi was over looked though she was the senior most person for the post. Certain newspapers even reported statements by the people in the government stating that she was too radical and out spoken for the post.

On one side UPA talks of women empowerment by electing females to ceremonial posts and steps back when actual empowerment is considered. Female infanticide can lead to a lot of social problems; a skewed sex ratio will lead to a lot of social unrest and increase atrocities and crime against women. The issue of 33% reservation for women has also had a silent death.

Trek to Kalavara Betta

Its been a few weeks since I had been to this place. I am writing this so that if you happen to read it and plan to go there don’t make the mistake we did.

I had read a lot about this place. This place is so strategically placed that, if you reach the top, you will just be above the cloud level, and you get to see the clouds/fog form the top. I had seen wonderful pictures, and was expecting a similar experience. To my disappointment I didn’t get to see any of this. The blunder we made was, we started climbing late, at around 8:30 in the morning. Also this is was not the ideal time to visit this place. However you could still get a good experience if you start your trek the previous night and reach the top before sunrise.

As we were climbing, we meet a lot of people getting down. Probably a few would have been laughing at us for starting so late. A few of them whom we talked told us about the wonderful sunrise they had seen. Most of them had gone there the previous night itself and spent the night on the top. I am sure it would have been a great experience.

6 of us, packed into one car, left Bangalore at 7:00AM and reached there around 8:30 (we could have reached there much earlier if Mr Nag had handed the wheel to someone else). At around 8:40 we started climbing. The sun was kind on us. The first 20-25 minutes everyone where just trying to race each other. After that we climbed for 5 minutes and rested for 10 minutes. I will take around 1:45 to 2 hours to reach to the top.

The fort

As we reach the top we cross an old fort. One of my uncles (grandmother’s younger brother) latter told me that the construction of this fort was started by Hyder Ali and completed by Tipu Sultan. My uncle during his childhood days, it seams used to go grazing cattle all the way up to this fort when they had holidays. The fort is pretty impressive and strategically placed. The stone walls are quite impressive considering the height at which they are built.

The temple

At the top you will also find an old temple. It’s the temple of Lord Ganesh. Its very simple, with just a single room and the Lord placed at one end. You will find a Nandi opposite the temple. Interesting because, you generally find a Nandi in front of a Shiva Temple.

The scenery and the winds

At the top the winds are extremely powerful. If you jump, probably you could be pushed off a bit. On the southern side you get a wonderful view of the Nandi hills and the steep “Tipu drop”. On the eastern side you get to see the whole of Chikballapur town and National Highway 7. To the northern and western side we can see a lot of other hills and forests between them.

Mistake you shouldn’t make if you plan to visit this place

The best time of the year to go here would in the winter season between Nov to Feb. You will get a wonderful view of the fog/clouds from the top. It would be ideal to climb at night. A full moon night would be perfect but then expect a huge crowd – which actually is better considering security. Start your climb around 12:00 AM. You will need a lot of water and a few packets of snacks will certainly help you. You won’t find any of them once you start your climb. Carry lots of lighter/match sticks and collect a few dry wood as you trek. However I doubt how successful you will be in starting a bonfire considering the heavy winds. It could get a bit cold on the top, so you may want to carry a jersey.

Beer bottles

You will be appalled to see the number of empty beer bottles and plastics thrown around. Do take care not to add to this. It’s a wonderful place.

Other Details

Location:

Kalavara Betta, Chikballapur

How to get there:

Take NH7 from Bangalore and proceed towards Chikaballapur(58 Km from Hebbal). Once you reach the town, at the Sir M Vishveshvaraiah Cricle take a left. Proceed in this narrow lane leading you outside the town to reach the Omkareshwara Ashrama – around 6-7 KM from the town. You will have walk from this point on.

Best time to visit:

Nov to Feb

"Favor Bank!!!"

Ok I finally decided to start my blog again. Not that I had a regular habit of writing blogs, but I had made an attempt and like the 80% of the people who started writing blogs I too stopped. I promise myself this time to be more regular. But then are promises made to break?

Sometime back I was reading “The Zeher” by Paulo Coelho. The book by itself is pretty mundane and a bit boring too. Nothing compared to “The Alchemist”. But he explains this concept of “Favor Bank”. An amazing concept I felt. The following is an extract from that novel



‘I start making deposits in your accounts – not cash deposits, you understand, but contacts. I introduce you to such and such a person; I arrange a few deals, as long as they’re legal. You know that you owe me something, but I never ask you for anything.’

‘And then one day....’

‘Exactly. One day, I’ll ask you for a favor and you could, of course say “No”, but you’re conscious of being in my debt. You do what I ask, I continue to help you, and other people see that you’re decent, loyal sort of person and so they too make deposits in your account – always in the form of contacts and nothing else. They too one day will ask you for a favor and you will respect and help the people who have helped you, and, in time you’ll spread your net worldwide, you’ll know everyone you need to know and your influence will keep on growing.’

‘I could refuse to do what you ask me to do.’

‘You could. The favor bank is a risky investment, just like any other bank. You refuse to grant the favor I asked you, in the belief that I helped you because you deserved to be helped, because you’re the best and everyone should automatically recognize your talent. Fine, I say thank you very much and ask someone else into whose account I’ve also made various deposits; but from then on, everyone know, without me having to say a word, that you are not to be trusted.’



I work with a startup company in its early growth stages. I have seen from the people who have started it, as to how important is such an account.

Each of us should consciously make an effort to help and promote friends and people we know. It’s very important to help as many people as possible when you are in a situation to do so. You never know when you will need their help. I have know people who think twice before helping their know ones, just because they feel that they may become more successful than themselves. (You may call me rude but I conciously make an effort never to help them. I hate such people.)But that’s not the case, that’s not reality, by helping out people we grow and succeed, more than they do, and also the sense of satisfaction you get by doing so is just amazing.

To All Wanna Be Marketing And Financial Gurus

Valuebased Management
12manage

The Ball Theory

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends, and spirit - and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.

-Brian Dyson (CEO of Coca Cola Enterprises from 1959-1994)

Who is better? - India or China

Continuing from my previous post I start off with the nuclear issue. After the landmark INDIA – US nuclear deal, a very funny (at least I felt so) thing happened. China called on INDIA to completely disarm its Nuclear arsenal and sign the NPT. To which Indian government gave a pleasant and fitting reply “Aap pehele” – “you first”.

I am sure anyone of you would agree what China asked for was completely hilarious. On one can oppose the fact that China is a superpower. But here I try to compare INDIA and China. Both will be the 2 most happening countries of this century. By 2050 China is expected to be the largest economy (much larger that US) and INDIA is expected to be the 3rd largest. Together India and China will account for more than a third of the world’s economy.

On the defense too China spends almost 3.5 times what the INDIA government spends (China around 70 Billion $ compared to India’s 20 Billion $ budget – US spends around 320 Billion, much larger that India’s and China’s annual budget).

Both INDIA and China face the major problem for corruption. But with the open and free media which we have, we are in a better position to get rid of this problem. China has a very highly regulated media, much of it is state controlled. You don’t obviously expect the state to write against the state itself. We should be proud of channels like Aaj Tak and Tehelka. The greatest gift that we people in INDIA is the political freedom. We still have the confidence that we can oppose things, and these oppositions will be heard by the government. We also have a free judiciary – independent of government control.

Much of the capital that’s driving the Indian economy is generated internally. The FDI into INDIA this year was around 4b$ compared to 60b$ that China got. Inspite of this we were showing a tremendous growth. This will in turn encourage more FDI and hence more growth. We have a very strong banking industry - banks like ICICI, SBI, HDFC are among the best managed ones in the Asia region. Chinese banks on the other hand are in dismal state with more that 200b$ for NPAs – much of it caused due to lending to state owned companies

Also the Chinese population is expected to grow older faster than any other country in the world, thanks to its one family one child policy. This cycle of growing old will be much slower for India. By 2020 INDIA would have reached the peak of her youth, when a significant percentage of the population will be in the working force.

The single most major problem that INDIA faces today is Red tapism and infrastructure. China has been investing heavily on infrastructure projects. A fact – the Shangai city in China has 7 outer ring roads, we here in Bangalore have just 1 ring road that was completes only 2 years back, after it was conceived more that 30 years ago. It has an excellent road infrastructure. We here in INDIA wait for the problem and then look for the solution. We just don’t want to see the problem coming.

INDIA with the right people to lead her should easily be able to outpace China’s growth rate. For this we need a political system that is much younger. The old should make for the new. People like Lalu Prasad, Deve Gowda should resign from politics and give way for the young blood. We as learned individuals should take up responsibilities. If everyone keeps complaining who will solve the problem. This would certainly make INDIA way better than any other country.

Nuclear INDIA

On the 2^nd of March at 12 noon, a major agreement took place between INDIA and the US that could have long lasting effects on the world politics. The deal is a de facto recognition of INDIA as Nuclear power.

Let me start off with some facts, INDIA at present produces much of its nuclear power from Uranium. And unfortunately INDIA has less than .5% percent of the total known reserves of uranium. This means that it has to fetch much of this element from the outside world. To get access to this material INDIA should have signed the NPT (INDIA along with Pakistan and Israel are the only 3 countries who are outside this treaty). Now what this deal will ensure that INDIA will get access to his element without much problems, except that it will have to send back the spent fuel (which is otherwise used to produce weapons) back to the source country.

INDIA generates about 3% of its total energy from nuclear power stations – that’s around 3300MW. By 2050, it is planned to generate 25-30% of its power from nuclear power that’s around 100000-150000MW. It would certainly be an almost impossible task for INDIA to do this all on her own.

INDIA due to its lack of Uranium resources had started working on a new technology called Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR). INDIA has 1/3^rd of the world Thorium resources. Though this material can not be used directly to generate energy, it can be used after it is processed in the breeder reactors. INDIA is way ahead of the world in the Breeder Reactors and expectedly it has not been made a part of the deal. Also the amount of plutonium that can be generated by FBR is much larger.

INDIA is way behind the world in other nuclear technologies. It still does not have the capabilities to built 1000MW reactors (only the 5 countries have this knowledge). What this deal will ensure is that INDIA will get access to these technologies.

We cant be dependent on Oil for all our energy deals. Ours is a rapidly growing economy. Oil will only get costly from here and we can’t always trust the countries who supply them. Iran is one such example. Though the previous regime had reached an agreement on selling the oil, the present one is sitting idle on the deal. Annually around 25-30 billion dollars is spent by Indians to import oil. And this bill is growing rapidly.

Also if this deal really comes through, its not mandatory for INDIA to buy the technology or the fuel only from US, it can do so from France, UK or Russia.

INDIA has been a responsible nuclear state. It has developed much of its technologies independently, with little or no help from others. It has an impeccable record of non proliferation. Pakistan has been the source of most of nuclear proliferation supplying the technology to countries from N Korea to Iran. Israel too has been secretly helping South Africa in their nuclear quest.

Non of the world powers are opposing this deal (except for China which is very cautiously looking at the deal for obvious reasons). It just shows the confidence the world has in the INDIA System. IAEA too has welcomed the deal.

The deal I feel will certainly change the status quo of INDIA in the international arena. It will help her produce clean power for her giant economy. It is a recognition of her clean records. Certainly there will be people in INDIA who will make noises about the deal, the left parties ( when have they not made noise anyways), the SP ( Mulayam after attending the anti Bush and anti deal rallies quietly went for the dinner hosted for Mr Bush ), etc, for some short term political gains and to tell the nation that they are still alive. It should also be noted that it was the BJP ( especially Brijesh Mishra) which actually started negotiations on the deal and like a mature party have welcomed the deal and supported the government on the issue.

Who Owns What

The last few years (and the next few years ... at least till 2008) has been the most dreaded years for the american automobile companies. This phase could well see Toyota taking over from GM as the largest automobile company. I was looking into the reasons on why the US companies in general (GM and Ford) and the western auto companies (including Fiat, DC) in general are doing so badly, while the Japanees and Korean companies are doing so well. I came up with some interesting facts on who owns the auto companies --

-----------------------------------------------
Fiat owns:
Ferrari
Fiat
Alfa Romeo
Lancia
Maserati
-----------------------------------------------

Ford owns:
Aston Martin
Land Rover
Ford
Jaguar
Mazda -- it controls 33%
Volvo cars
Lincoln
-----------------------------------------------

Hyundai owns:
Hyundai
Kia -- u would have see this name in the Australian Open
-----------------------------------------------

BMW owns:
BMW
Rolls Royce
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Daimler Chrysler owns:
Chrysler
Mercedes-Benz
Maybach
Dodge
Hyundai -- Minority holder(10%) controlled by Hyundai Group of S.Korea
Jeep
Smart
-----------------------------------------------

General Motors owns:
Buick
Cadillac
Chevrolet
Daewoo -- resently brought 44% stake
Holden
Hummer
Isuzu -- minority holder
Opel
Suzuki -- again a minority holder
-----------------------------------------------

Volkswagen owns:
Volkswagen
Lamborghini
Audi
Bentley
Bugatti
SEAT
Skoda
Porche holds 20% of Volkswagen
-----------------------------------------------

Toyota owns:
Toyota
Daihatsu -- 51%, the worlds largest small car maker
Lexus
Subaru -- 20%
Scion
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My First Post

Rithesh