Week 5:Field Trips & Sari Day

So, every Thursday afternoons we have CSIM sessions where different speakers who are involved in the social entreprenurship field are invited to speak to us.Our last week, we went on field trips to visit two different organizations

The first organization we visited was Navadarshanam. This organization promotes alternative modern way of living and thinking. They work with eco-farming, alternative energy, and eco-restoration.They try to be 100% organic in all their activities, which is really cool. Guests are allowed to visit, but one should not treat this as a vacation getaway. They want people who are truly interested in learning about this new way of lifestyle with an open mind.

The view outside

Lord Krishna

The crow who ate part of Abby's idli

We went to explore the surrounding area

A guy cleaning the well

Next,we visited Narayana Hrudayalaya Heart Hospital. This hospital is the brain child of Dr. Devi Shetty, one of the world renowned heart pediatric surgeon. This hospital has never refused a single patient in need of medical treatment. If a patient is not able to pay for his/her treatment, the hospital sets a fund for the patient and uses its networks with numerous benefactors and non-governmental organization to pay for the medical expenses of the patient. 

Tele-medicine

                                     

The view as soon as you enter the hospital, Lord Narayana

Faith plays an important role in healing. There is a mosque,a Hindu and Buddhist temple and a church outside of this hospital

 Al Jazeera did a coverage on this hospital and you can watch it here. It has been awe inspiring to be able to tour the hospital and to see what great work this surgeon is doing. He is truly an inspiration.

Sari Day

Since Maddy and Kristen bought saris, our office decided to hold a sari day.So I borrowed Sam's sari and we all headed to PremaVidya so that our collegues can help us tie those saris. We all looked beautiful and at the same time, there was a prayer session for our boss, Mr. Naresh, who has leukemia.

The four of us!:))

Us and the ladies

Us and the guys

                                                                                                                                                           
I'm missing all of them terribly now and can't wait to see them next week when I go visit them!:)            

Week 5: Temple Hopping

So,in before attempting to start our final report and working on our final presentation, we decided to go temple hopping to seek the blessings of all the gods in Bangalore.Just kidding...we went temple hopping just to see different temples in Bangalore.So, Kristen, Maddy, Kasie, Maria and me headed off at 10am to these different temples.

Since they didn't let us take picture of the temple,I took a picture of the fruit sellers instead!

The outside of the Bull temple

Nandi or the bull.Legend says that the bull grows every year and when the world comes to an end, the bull stands up and destroys Earth under his feet.

Tusks of Lord Ganesh in the Ganes temple

Shiva temple

A cow chilling in the middle of the road

I found that people do these all the time.

Tipu Sultan palace.And Kristen.

Tipu Sultan palace's garden

I tricked the guy into believing that I'm an Indian citizen.Saved 95 rupees. #winning

Little Tirupathi temple

Donkeys!

Big B looking classy as usual.

Vidhana Saudha,Karnataka's legislative building

Women riding scooter. #respect

UB City

Shiva temple from outside

Shiva Linga made out of ice.

Make a wish and put the lamp in floating water

Lord Shiva,the Destroyer.When Shiva does his Tandava dance,that's an omen that it's the end of the world

 So Shiva is the Destroyer and part of the Hindu Trimurti(Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma). Vishnu is Presever, Brahma the Creator and Shiva is the Destroyer.In the statue above, his eyes is half closed where he is in deep meditation. The deep meditation symbolizes his detachment from the material world and all its miseries. Shiva's weapon is the trident, as seen above and the snake around his neck, the snake symbolizing wisdom and eternal. Shiva is the Destroyer and therefore, he is not bound by time and universe.When all else perishes, he remains and even Death do not come close to him.

Week 4:Vacation(Part 2)

After the sightseeing, Kasie, Maddy, Kristen and I were dropped off at the bus station so we could take the bus to Ooty, Tamil Nadu.

So this bus ride took about 8 hours.It was not supposed to take that long, but our bus arrived late, we stopped for lunch and coconuts, the bus conductor lost her cell phone so we had to stop the bus so she could look for it, our bus broke down during our lunch but got fixed and 15 minutes later it broke down again and we changed bus.So,that was basically our journey to Ooty.We crossed the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border and got to see elephants, deers and peacocks in the forest reserve.

Deers at the forest reserve

Since Ooty is at a higher altitude, the place is a chilly.So we arrived around 9, checked into our rooms and headed out for dinner.We were going to call a driver that Kasie's collegues recommended tomorrow to go around Ooty. We stayed in Hotel Ooty Gate




So the next day, we had breakfast and waited for the driver at 9am...but he didn't show up.So we gave him until 10 and decided that we were going to look for a tour agent.We found one nearby our hotel and managed to buy a tour package that would allow us to look around Ooty as well as Connoor.

First we visited the tea plantation.It was beautiful and people could even hike up to see the view from above. For certain amount of money, one can pose with the clothes worn by the ladies plucking the tea leaves and get their picture taken. After looking around and taking pictures, we decided to get huge packets of tea. I bought two 500g packets of tea; masala tea and chocolate tea. I am not a big fan of the masala tea but the chocolate tea tastes amazing!

Then we visited Dolphin Nose,one of the peaks in Ooty. We hiked up the trail and took some great pictures. That particular day was rather misty, so it was hard to see the view.

Our next stop was the Botanical Gardens,where we all had to pay an entrance fee and a fee for carrying cameras.Which is ridiculous, but that's just me.

 

A Shiva temple that we saw on the way back 

 

And we also visited this place where we could go boating but it was raining so heavily,it was impossible to go boating.Some big shot guy came to visit the place and cameras were everywhere,so we could to literally push people to get out of the way.Anyway,I managed to get an anklet for myself, which I am super happy about!:)

We went for dinner at this Western place, since we were all craving for some Western food and look what we got!

Tandoori pizza!

Chocolate brownie

I didn't know my dad owned a restaurant!

Anyway,Ooty was a blast and I really had a great time there! The 4 day vacation really helped all of us and I was excited to be going back to PremaVidya the next day!:)