Netsi at the taylor

On Saturday it was raining heavily in Bangalore. The rain was welcome by all people, because it helped to cool down. The week before the mercury hit 39 degree. So we went thorugh the rain by car and stopped at brothers, Netsi favorite taylor in Whitefield. She dashed out of the car into the shop. The taylor knows Netsi by now, she has been there so often and they get into lengthy discussions about alterations etc. Netsi by the way has more than one taylor, so for certain things she goes to the one and for others to the other. It seems to me she is already quite known in the community of taylors.
 
  

Luca concentrated at work

Luca enjoys using the computer. He is really concentrated and he forgets everything around him. Here he watches various pictures of airplanes on the internet - his favorite pasttime.
  

Our elegant offsprings

 
For easter Cara and Luca got new elegant dresses - that was their wish. So on this picture you see our elegant daughter and her charming brother in their new outfit.

Shopping in Kids' Kemp (including temple)

Today we went shopping. We had promised the kids to get something for easter, so we went to kid's kemp, a department store on airport road. The kids were greeted by a small dog and they liked it very much as you can see. This shop is a department store, which includes a temple with quite a tall (20m) Shiva statue in the back of it. (the only department store I konw of with its own temple). The small shops around the temple sell small statues, incest and everything you need to worship Shiva. One example is that people buy small red cords and wrap them around the trees, this is supposed to increase the personnel fortune.  
 
 
  
 
 

Ruediger at work in our kitchen

After we came back from Halebit, our ladies (Netsi, Ilse and Jule) still wanted to go shopping. So we met with another driver in the city - he picked them up to go shopping, whereas Ruediger, the kids and myself were too exhausted and went home. There Ruediger prepared a omlett for Cara and Luca, which was even better then Netsi's omlett - that's what Cara said. She also said "but please don't tell mom"

  

Halebit next pictures

The temple is really very impressive and it is due to the miserable road connections that there are not more foreigners. At the point of time we were there we were the only ferengi, as foreigners are called here. Natrually we were belaegued with Indians, who wanted to sell us potteries, jewelleries, flutes, etc. Ruediger bought a flute - that was it. Once you buy something the guys never leave you alone unless you are very rude to them.
 
 
  

Our trip to Halebit

Halebid, (Halebidu in Kannada), located in Hassan district, Karnataka, India, is home of one of the greatest examples of Hoysala architecture.

The Temple complex comprises of two temples. In front of these temples there is a big lake. So it is said that it was called Dhwara samudhra which means entrance from ocean. The two nandi bulls which are in front of the temples are monolithic. It is said that soap stones are used for the construction of these temples.  
But a number of sculptures in the temple are destructed by the invaders. So the temple is incomplete. It is said that the name Halebid means Destroyed City. Now there is an archeological museum in the Temple complex.

The Hoysaleswara Temple, dating back to the 12th century, is astounding for its wealth of sculptural details.  The walls of the temple are covered with an endless variety of gods and goddesses, animals, birds and dancing girls. Yet no two facets of the temple are the same. This magnificent temple - guarded by a Nandi Bull - was never completed, despite 86 years of labour. The Jain basadis nearby are equally rich in sculptural detail. Belur and Halebid are 222 and 216 km from Bangalore, respectively. This temple is now being proposed as UNESCO World Heritage Site.
 
It was very hot in Halebid, around 39 degree, so the stones were very hot as well. I gave Cara my socks, so she could walk around the temple. We had a tour guide, which explained us the carvings on the outside. For this she used a small miror to point to the figures - a simple device but as effective as a laser pointer. Cara liked this ofcourse a lot , so she was using it as well. The carvings on the outside are really very impressive, seven layers of figures on top of each other and not two figures are the same. The temple was not only used for religous pruposes but served as well as an education site for the common people, so some figures also explain the positions of Kamasutra, as you can see on the picture

More pictures of Sravanabelagola

 
 
 
  

Our trip to Sravanabelagola

Tuesday morning we got visitors out of Heidelberg. Ruediger, Ilse and Jule our friends and neighbours of Max-Reger Strasse visited us in Bangalore. Ruediger is on a business trip to Chennai and on the way there they stayed over at our place. On wednesday they went shhopping with netsi and werve fascinated by all the silk, pashmiri blancket and everything you can buy here.  


On Friday we went with Ilse, Ruediger and Jule to a famous Jain statue, we wanted to show them not only the shopping complexes of Bangalore but also a bit of the Indian
heritage and culture. Shravanabelagola is a city located in the Hassan district, in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is one of the most important Jain pilgrim centers. Shravanabelegola is 158 km from Bangalore.  

Altough we left at 5:30 in the morning and arrived at 8 am at Shravanabelagola it was already very hot, so we had to struggle to reach the top. Older people actually were carried to the top of the mountain. We could have gotten carried as well, it was very cheap, but we were deterimend to go on our own and we made it 


There are two hills Chandragiri and Vindyagiri. The last shruta-kevali Bhadrabah and his pupil Chandragupta (formerly the Maurya king) had meditated there. Chandragiri has memorials to numerous monks and shravakas who have meditated there, since 5th cent CE, including the last king of the Rashtrakuta dynasty of Manyakheta. Chandragiri also has a famous temple built by Chamundaraya, who was a disciple of Acharya Nemichandra Siddhanta-chakravarti.  

The Vindhyagiri hill is home to a thousand year-old gigantic 17.38 meter high monolithic stone statue of the Bhagavan Gomateshwara Bahubali, considered to be the world's largest, built by Chamundaraya, a general of king Gangaraya. The base of the statue has the oldest evidence of written Marathi said to be from 981AD.  The inscription concerns the king Gangaraya who funded the effort, and his general Chamundaraya, who erected the statue for the king. Every 12 years, thousands of devotees congregate here to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka, a spectacular ceremony where the thousand-year-old statue is anointed with milk, curds, ghee, saffron and gold coins. The next Mahamastakabhisheka will be held in 2018 A.D. 

Shravanabelagola is the seat of the ancient Bhattaraka Math, belonging to the Desiya Gana lineage of Mula Sangha of Digambar monstic tradition. The Bhattarakas are all named Charukirti. 
The visit of Shravanabelagola was really an expereince. people throwing butter, water and other liquids over the staute, praying and singing at the same time. The drums were constant beating in the background and somebody commented the actions via speaker. The Pictures can only describe a part of the entire experience.
  

Indian actor died - Bangalore is shut down for 2 days

Violence over Indian star's death

People queued since early morning to pay homage
Five people, one a policeman, have been killed in violence in the southern Indian city of Bangalore following the death of legendary film actor Rajkumar.
Police opened fire on rioting mourners, killing four people. The policeman died after being beaten by a mob. Tens of thousands of mourners bid an emotional farewell as the body of Rajkumar was buried in a grave at a studio that he owned in the city.
The Kannada film icon died on Wednesday following a heart attack aged 77.
Mourning
From early on Thursday morning, thousands of fans, including women and children, carried garlands and incense sticks to a site near the actor's body which lay in state in a public stadium. Many fans wept and beat their chests shouting "Long live Rajkumar". Police used batons to control the crowd of fans
"Our hero is dead. Annavaru [elder brother] was our inspiration," a mourner, Hanumanthaiah, told Reuters news agency. Several politicians and actors including Tamil superstar Rajinikanth paid homage to Rajkumar at the stadium.


The country's technology hub in Rajkumar's home state of Karnataka remained shut for the second day and all transport was off the roads, as the authorities made arrangements to hold a state funeral for the actor.
The office of US technology giant Microsoft, which is located near Rajkumar's house, was stoned by angry mourners


All commercial establishments were closed and even cable television operators across the city blocked national entertainment channels to mourn the actor's death.

Irate fans damaged over 50 buses, torched two police vans and 10 private vehicles on Wednesday following the news of the actor's death, police said.

Even the SAP office was evacuated on Wednesday evening and stayed closed on thursday. Only the Germans were working on thursday. Wendesday night

Netsi's big event

On Saturday 8th of April, it was Netsi's big event. Together with her friends she performed Bollywood dances - their group is called "Punjabi babes". Everybody was very excited. The show was good and the audience enjoyed it. I assume there were about 200-300 people in the auditorium of the alliance francaise, where the event took place. The alliance francaise is the french equivalent of the german Goethe Institut.
Unfortunately at the show my digital camera got stolen - I was filming with the video and took pictures at the same time and in a second when I didn't pay attention it got snatched - too bad , so you won't see any pictures of the event here.
After the show we all went for diner and we found a nice Steakhouse in Bangalore called "The only place", where we had a good time, despite the stolen camera.

On Sunday we just releaxed and after lunch I felt suddenly terrible ill - I got some food posioning, and I was really sick for three days. Luckily I was the only one, the rest of the family was not affected. In the night Netsi called a doctor and he gave me some pretty hefty antibiotics, but after 3 days I was ok again, but it was not a pleasant experience.

Our friends and Neighbours

This is a picture of our friends and neighbours Mansoor and Sima togehter with their kids. We were very lucky to found such good friends

  

Elfi's and Lulseged's last day in Bangalore

 
  

Our appartment as seen from a Satellite

Below you see our appartment as ssen by a satellite. The picture is taken from google earth. But instead of looking at the static picture it is much cooler to zoom in onto our appartment from outer space as poosible with Google Earth

Our appartment

If you have Google Earth installed, you can double-click on the attached Placemark file and it will fly you to a location. If not, you will need to install Google Earth first (available at http://earth.google.com). Its absolutley cool if you haven't seen it - you can get it for free at the above location

Google Earth streams the world over wired and wireless networks enabling users to virtually go anywhere on the planet and see places in photographic detail. This is not like any map you have ever seen. This is a 3D model of the real world, based on real satellite images combined with maps, guides to restaurants, hotels, entertainment, businesses and more. You can zoom from space to street level instantly and then pan or jump from place to place, city to city, even country to country.



Our appartment

Gintara the Kindergarten/Preschool of Cara & Luca

Attached a few pictures of the preschool/Kindergarten of Cara and Luca. It is really a wonderfull place and they enjoy it a lot. Besides playing they also do learn a lot. So Cara was standing in front of clas and had to count. Especially Cara is picking up english quite fast.
 
 

A wedding at Banaglore Palace

We wanted to show Elfi and Lulseged Bangalore Place. When we arrived we learnt that today a big reception for a wedding was going on. As you can see on the picture we estimated about 3000 guests, so we inquired who's weddding this is. We approached a man, standing near the entrance and he told us that this was the wedding of the daughter of the Karnataka state minister in charge of small scale industries. It turned out the man was the uncle of the bride and he invited us to the weeding, we politly declined because these weddings go on for hours and hours. However our Cara already understood the man, and she was eager to go and she kept asking all night about when would we go for the wedding. I think the times when Netsi and myself speak English, if we want to discuss something the Kids shouldn't know about are over. By the way the car is not the wedding car, it is just a gift for the bride.
It seems that minister of small scale industries is a very lucrative position.