Paadooru is my native village situated near Kaup, Udupi District of Karnataka. The blog is dedicated to beautiful landscape of KAUP Beach and my village Paadooru
Navaratri is one of the energetic days for me. Most of the durga temples in my native will be heavily crowded especially the Kollur Mookambika Temple which is right beneath beautiful Kodachadri Western ghats. The last night of Navaratri, we were in Mysore Palace :-). As expected, there was huge crowd. I have been here plethora of times during Navaratri days and non festival days too! Never captured the sparkling Mysore palace with lights. This time Rajesh wanted to visit Mysore during Dasara time and hence we visited Mysore on Sunday. That gave me an opportunity to capture glittering Mysore Palace. I do not have a wide angle lens and grabbed whatever could be with 18mm ;-). So here are some pictures from lightened Mysore palace. Hope you will enjoy the same ;-).
THE ENTRANCE TO LIGHT!
HAD THERE BEEN NO PANDAL, THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT SHOT ;-)
CULTURAL PROGRAM
ILLUMINATED DURGA AT ONE OF THE STREET!
It's quite easy to take such pictures. Only thing is shun off the flash light. I guess even with soft flash, we can get far better results. When the frame is entirely filled with such picture, the camera's light metering evaluates really poor. As a result, the exposure goes beyond 1/5s which may not be desirable. The camera evaluates based on entire frame and it is time for our brain to do metering ;-). These are situation when one needs manual intervention in light metering. If we look at the picture, we really do not need people too fill our frame. The interesting matter is only palace lights. The solution is to restrict light entering image sensor by under-exposing way beyond -1.6EV. This can provide beautiful effect wherein people are darkened out while we see only shining palace :-). The second good thing is that by underexposing, we can get greater depth of field and considerable shutter to compensate shakiness in midst of heavy crowd. EOS-550D does not produce favorable results beyond ISO-800 and hence with f/7.1 gave me 1/30s shutter. With this shutter speed, it was easy to shoot a steady shot. If you can afford cameras which can provide faithful image beyond ISo-800, its great :D. But higher shutter speed may not provide glittering look. Only solution is to practice and experiment a lot when you have an opportunity ;-).
THE VISTA!
Nowadays, I have stopped cribbing about not having wide angle lens. Wherever possible, I bracket panorama shots and stitch with Hugin. The annoying part is the barrel distortion at middle :-(. Nevertheless the picture has come good except for the distracting platform at left and flying whistle in middle ;-).
This year unfortunately the Krishna Janmashtami falls in mid of week. Hence cannot join my parents for the festival. For us, Janmashtami is the prominent festival of all (Not even Deepavali). We celebrate with full vigour and joy :-). Especially we look forward to the festival to relish variety of laddus and chakkuli prepared by mother :D. Also not to forget the tasty rave shyavige and moode idli ;-). The main granduer of festival is special food ;-). Entire Udupi will be in celebration mood and schools and colleges will have holiday on that day. Usually it rains heavily in Udupi during Janmashtami to resemble the birth of Lord Krishna during which Vasudeva carried Krishna under heavy rains along Yamuna river. However nowadays rains are not guaranteed. During our school days it used to rain most of the times. This writeup is to cherish those moments of celebration and archive the same.
The day starts with Palaahaara (i.e. no rice food). Remember no rice food but we used to have healthy rave shyavige made by mother :D. This day also includes final touch for laddus and some are prepared during this day. The main worship happens to god only at night. Just for convention, a pooje is carried out in morning. It is really tempting while rolling those laddus :D but we are not supposed to eat until next day morning. The actual celebration starts at night around 9PM and should conclude at 12AM which is Krishna's birth time. However only few people carry out till 12AM and many like us try to conclude around 11PM itself so that mother can rest early. The laddu is offered only to Sri Krishna on this day and the same is kept aside to offer to Lord Hanuman next day. On this day, it is believed Lord Hanuman does strict fasting and hence offer is done next day. This is reason why we are not supposed to eat during Janmashtami day :-). The only laddu we eat on this day is Ginger laddu prepared with jaggery liquid. That is so spicy too! Mother will force us to eat. It is gesture to heal the stomach pain of Devaki after delivering Lord Krishna. Post Mahapooje, arghya pradaana is carried out to both main deity and Tulasi plant with milk by every individual in house. Eventually day ends with one more dose of Palaahaara :D.
Next day begins early around 5AM. During this day, mother prepares beaten rice panchakajjaya and moode idli. The pending offering to Lord Hanuman is committed along with freshly made eatables. After the rituals, it is time enjoy delicious food with variety of laddus :-). We used to have hefty breakfast and no lunch further. Once the stomach celebrations get over, we share the sweets with relatives and they used to share back (one more batch of intake :D). The main laddus mother used to prepare were besan, rava, groundnut, sesame and fried paddy powder.
THE LADDUS :-)
AVALAKKI PANCHAKAJJAYA
MOODE IDLI!
In afternoon, we used to leave to Udupi town to enjoy Vitlapindi festival celebration. During the day, Lord Krishna made of clay is carried in golden chariot for a procession along car street. There used to be huge crowd and even now one can see same enthusiasm among people of Udupi. The dancing people painted like tiger (Pili Vesha), the dexterity of Chande group, the celebrating people and of-course the mosaru-kudike (crushing of mud pot filled with curd) are joyous to watch. The celebrations used to end with immersion of Krishna's Idol in Madhva Sarovara.
HUGE GATHERING!
DEXTERITY OF CHANDE GROUP
MOSARU KUDIKE
These celebrations happen every year with full vigor and devotion. Even in the rush and rain, people's enthusiasm has not come down over the years. However, photographers find it bit difficult to shoot due to space constraint :-).
Here is video I shot during last year's Vitlapindi celebrations:
There are lot of beautiful songs on Lord Krishna. Personally I love to hear following songs not only during Janmashtami but more frequently. I did not find links for some and have provided for some which I could google!
Some of devotional songs
1) The blending of Mand, Kaapi and Jhonpuri(or Darbaari Kaanada?) in Baaro Krishnayya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaG-NnUm1SA
2) Krishnani begane baaro in Yaman Kalyani: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqbzIUriB6M
3) The combination of Bhairavi and Ranjani in Indu Enage Govinda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UdgYts1Sd8
4) Bhairavi, Athana and Suruti in Odi Baarayya
5) Beautiful mix of Kamach, Hindola and Kaanada in Elliruvano ranga
6) Pillangoviya cheluva Krishnana in Mohanakalyani: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klG7LzmubTM
Some of core classical songs
1) Baalagopala in Bhairavi. Especially I love the elaborate alaapana of Sri Dr.BalamuraliKrishna. I am not finding the link. However I found some good one here with few piano and orchestral mix!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCp4p2Js2H8
2) Chethaha Sri Baalakrishnam in Dwijavanti. Hear the beautiful vocal by Sri Manakkal Rangarajan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STS_cQQ-srI
