This was one of the trips I went on during my internship at Mumbai. Muru gracefully agreed to come with me and was a real pain in all the wrong places with his constant bickering at my slow pace.
Lesson #1: Never take non-photography-enthusiasts on a photo walk. Or if you do, make them the models. They will shut up for a while (at least, Muru did).
While it was a nice trip overall, and for once it was great to see a well maintained place of interest inside the subcontinent, the dilapidated statues at Elephanta are a sore sight. The more one looks at it, the more painful it is. And mind you, this is not the result of inept maintenance. A few hundred years back, the Portuguese landed at these caves, and used the statues as target practice and defaced them!! As a result, what we have today is a bunch of ex-statues. Really painful to see if you know the story. While one goes expecting 1000 yrs of history, all one gets to see is 400 years of misery.
Anyway, the sob story apart, here's what transpired in that hot Mumbai afternoon of April 2009.
Adra Sakka Adra Sakka!
It's quite a long walk (half a km) from the jetty to the base of the small hillock atop which the caves reside. There's a small train that ferries people along this route.
The principle icon of Elephanta Caves - The Trimurti
That's my model - Muru - posing shamelessly as passersby look on
Practical geometry!
1 kilo mutton paaaarrrrcelllll!
Frankly an awful pic. But liked it for some vague reason!
Trip to Elephanta Caves - pictures
While it was a nice trip overall, and for once it was great to see a well maintained place of interest inside the subcontinent, the dilapidated statues at Elephanta are a sore sight. The more one looks at it, the more painful it is. And mind you, this is not the result of inept maintenance. A few hundred years back, the Portuguese landed at these caves, and used the statues as target practice and defaced them!! As a result, what we have today is a bunch of ex-statues. Really painful to see if you know the story. While one goes expecting 1000 yrs of history, all one gets to see is 400 years of misery.
Anyway, the sob story apart, here's what transpired in that hot Mumbai afternoon of April 2009.
Adra Sakka Adra Sakka!
It's quite a long walk (half a km) from the jetty to the base of the small hillock atop which the caves reside. There's a small train that ferries people along this route.
The principle icon of Elephanta Caves - The Trimurti
That's my model - Muru - posing shamelessly as passersby look on
Practical geometry!
1 kilo mutton paaaarrrrcelllll!
Frankly an awful pic. But liked it for some vague reason!
Trip to Elephanta Caves - pictures
14 comments:
At last, a non-IIM B post :D
Muru's pose was too funny :)
And, how dare you take a pic of a lady's rear?
But, did you notice a pattern in all your visits... either the place is destroyed (in this case) or not nice (some of ur honeymoon visits) :D Whats your rationale on this? ;-))
Lady's rear: It was the rear of her NECK for godsake!
As for my honeymoon visits, the places we visited from the next day onwards were awesome :) Just not getting the time to pen that down :(
And reproducing my response to one of your earlier comments, in case you did not read:
"
And what!!! All my posts are on IIMB is it??
In my last 12 posts (written over the past 6 months), only 2 are about IIMB. That's about 16.67%! I have been LIVING in the place for a year.. Then it is bound to get at least so much of my blogspace, dont you think?? :)
"
magane.. innoru vaati IIM / non-IIMB nu paesinae, anthar thaandiyov!!
Lady's rear: It is neck region, so what, still, its a lady's rear. How dare you take a pic of it? You should be arrested :P
By the way, why are you posting only on IIM B ;-))
You will be charged with abetment of crime.. Cos u are inciting me into killing you :-|
I don't mind you killing me. But, please make sure that you bury me in IIM-B ;-)) Please please
As is common in most of your posts, the pics are good.One thing I couldnt fathom is Muru gazing slyly at the camera in 2 of the pics...
Whatever time you were in Mumbai.. you visisted only elephant caves??
Dude.. time for SLR!
@kp..
Poda pp :)
@Rajant..
He he.. Better ask him what he was trying to emote.. And thanks for the compliments da :)
@Lava..
That wasn't the ONLy place I visited.. Had a couple of other amazing trips.. Hoping to write about them sometime in this jenma..
And it was time for SLR years back da.. Just that my pocket isn't agreeing one bit :( Will be more than a year before I can afford one..
instead of posting the pics in series like this, you may just upload em on picasa and embed the slideshow link in ur post. im nt very sure of the clarity tho'!
needless to say Nice pics! :)
Dai,
The 'Portuguese' bit seems like a "bittu"...At least sounds that way to me...Them stealing the statues seems more reasonable. Our ppl are adept at creating stories to escape the blame for their ineptness.
@januM..
Thanks for the idea! :)
ya, this time there were too many pics.. was wonderin if there is some other way to do this..
slideshow will surely be space efficient.. but will it be time efficient? Not sure.. if this were to be on a slideshow, i dont think people would have seen beyond 5-6 pics.. wat say?
@bala..
Dai.. Do a google and see.. if this were untruth, at least everyone is consistent in propagating it :D
They definitely didn't steal it da.. Most statues are still here, just their private parts disfigured!!!!
Read somewhere that the devout Christians of Portugal couldn't bear the thought that there were Gods of sexuality in India.. (In fact only after I went to the caves did I realize the concept behind the Shiva Linga! Dumb me!) So they disfigured the statues when they stayed in the island.. (just communicating what I read somewhere - unable to spot the link now)
What is the concept behind Shiva Linga?
NICE!!!
@karthick prabu..
There is one school of thought that says that the Shiva Linga is a phallic symbol.. (Even the wiki page for "Lingam" quotes this point).. This seems to be a hot topic under perennial debate, though..
@bragadeesh..
Thanks da :)
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