Allô Chatrath

    Tajamul Islam- World Kickboxing Champion from Kashmir, India. Bravo young lady. You have done the entire India proud. Jai Hind. Mera Bharat Mahan. Proud to be an Indian.

Having gone to Sector 17 Market Chandigarh on some work, I got delayed and decided to have my lunch there. Eating out for me does not mean going to 'The Taj' as I refuse to pay Rs. 300 per chapatti. Why should I pay for the so called ambience, which means fancy dim lights, carpets which are unsuited for Indian climate, and liveries of the waiters? And yes, the waiters wishing you in English! I saw the board  'Bhappe De Hatti' and went inside. In fact I did not go inside as the cashier was sitting in  the verandah taking money and issuing coupons. I was charged Rs.60 for a thali of two Amritsari Kulchas. Did you ask if the price included the  hugely popular GST? Honestly I do not know. The Cashier advised me to take a seat around a fragile looking plastic table placed in the open air. I sat down as advised and wondered what that over rated architect Le Corbusier would have thought of such use of the 'open spaces' designed by him and his nephew or c...

  I am working on a book of amazing illustrations of Hindu deities sketched by a French traveller to India 250 years back.......This is Lord Shani as sketched by the Frenchman.  

  Yes, that's me in a 'djellebah' in a village near the Sahara desert in Morroco (‘Djellabah’ -‘d’ is not pronounced- is a traditional long, loose-fitting unisex outer robe with full sleeves worn in Morroco and in the Maghreb region of North Africa and in Arabic-speaking countries along the Mediterranean)

 

  I was reading today's The Times of India when a news item therein about a theft in an under renovation house caught my attention. "Rs.3L new goods stolen from house under renovation" was the bold headline. It went on to list some of the goods stolen like 42 in screen LCD Tv, 10 new blankets, branded taps etc., etc.  But what got my goat was the mention of 'screw drivers' as some of the items stolen. Come on Old Lady of Bori Bunder' you surely are getting old! May I mention for the un-initated that 'Screw Driver' is also a popular cocktail made with orange juice and vodka....

                                                                                                            Photo Source: The Times of India  "Chandigarh's housing: An ode to cost, culture, climate & creativity" by Ms. Deepika Gandhi; The Times of India, October 28, 2021.  The learned writer forgot about one 'C'- cleanliness. Did Monsieur Jeanneret leave any clue on how to clean the dust which these 'jaalis' accumulate?

    कुछ माह पहले हम चावरी बाजार में टहल्ते हुए इस हमउम्र से जा टकराए। शरारत भरे अंदाज़ में हमने भी यूं चुटकी ले डाली: कभी हम भी तुम भी जवान थे , तुम्हे याद हो हे न याद हो. उनकी तो कोई आवाज़ ही नहीं निकली. वोह तो बस शर्मा के ही रह गये ।

    Photo on the top is from Halebid, India and the one below it is from Copan, in the thick jungles of Honduras in Central America. Do you notice some similarities, albeit faint ones in the two statues, especially in the depiction of the lower garments? The Indian statue is believed to have been made around 1150 AD and the Honduran statue dates to around 400-800 AD.

    Fooling around in a 'Hamara Bajaj' at the Mayan Ruins of Copan in Honduras. Bajaj Autos, called 'Tuk-Tuks' are extremely popular in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. It is well known in these countries that this is a product from India. Mera Bharat Mahan. I told the driver of this auto that I come from the country where your auto was made. He promptly reacted 'Ah India! And then let me pose for this photo.

 Like most of my service colleagues, I too went through an amazing array of administrative experiences during the first two years of my service career. That is when after the initial training, an IAS officer is given his first posting as an SDO/SDM/Sub-Collector. I was posted in Rourkela in Orissa in my second Sub-Divison in 1971-1972. With the passage of time, the memories of that year had startted fading. Till two days age when I received an email from Prasanna Misra, who was the Additional District Magistrate of Rourkela during that year. He has sent me an extract from his blog "JITAMANYU" which I am reproducing below with his kind permission: "HOW GAS LEAK IN ROURKELA WAS HANDLED Nearly forty years ago, in the early seventies, I was in Rourkela as the Additional District Magistrate. Kanwal Jeet Singh Chatrath was the SDO, Panposh. His house was just at the back of our house; or, rather, our house was just behind his house. It was around eleven in the eve...

  Respectful salute to Martyrs Sepoy Harendra Singh (left) and Subedar Ajay Singh (right) who sacrificed their lives in J&K, India, while safeguarding the unity and integrity of India. JAI HIND.

   Respectful salute to martyrs Riflemen Vikram Singh Negi (26) and Yogambar Singh (27), both from Uttrakhand, who saccrificed their lives in Poonch, J&K, India while safeguarding the security & integrity of India.    JAI HIND!

     I visited the Modhera Sun Temple and Ramakunda in Gujarat in January 2020 and noted how our ancestors fully understood the need of conserving water and took meaningful action over a thousand years back......... The Sun Temple of Modhera The Sun Temple of Modhera which ranks next to the Sun Temple at Konarak Is one of the finest examples of temple architecture of Gujarat. Built in 11 th century AD, this temple is located in Bechraji    taluka of Mehsana    District on the left bank of the river Pushpavati, a tributary of river Rupan situated at a distance of   30 kms from   Patan city.  It is built on a platform (jagati) facing east, in the rule of Solanki ruler Bhimadeva-I (1022 -1063 A.D.). This place finds mention in the Skanda Purana as Bhaskar region. The temple complex is an assimilation of three separate elements i.e. a Sanctum (garbh-ghriha) with an ambulatory (pradarshina-path), a main hall (Gudha Manadama and ...

    Statue of Christopher Columbus in Genoa, Italy - the man who became indirectly responsible for innumerable deaths, oppression and misery of the original inhabitants of the Americas.

  A Sunday morning chit-chat in the town square, La Paz, (elevation 11,942 feet above sea level), Bolivia. Bolivia is an amazing country to visit. I visited it in 2014 and am hoping to go there again in January 2022. Want to join me on 'spend your own money' basis?

     Residents of Chandigarh need to visit Egypt to understand what is really meant by 'heritage'.

  Photos sourced from postcards by Happy Greeting Distribution Limited.  ..... DISCLAIMER: This is a not for profit blog and no infringement of copyright laws is intended. If some of the published images violate any copyrights, please contact us by email  chatrath@gmail.com and those will be removed immediately with apologies.

 

 I visited Bagan in Mynamar in December 2019. It is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. There are over 3,500 ancient Buddhist pagodas, temples, and other religious structures there. These are spread over in approximately 16 square miles of Old Bagan within the larger Bagan Archaeological Zone. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute Myanmar. Unfortunately a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the region in 2016 damaging 185 of the ancient buildings. Take a look at some picture postcards. Dhamma Yan Gyi Temple built by King Narathu in 1165 AD. It is the biggest temple in Bagan. Thatbyinnyu Temple built around 12 th century AD by King Alaungsithu. It is the highest temple in Bagan Ananda Temple built by King Kyansittha in 1165 AD. Htilominlo Temple built by King Nadaungmya   Bupaya Temple built by King Pyusawhti during 3 r...