romancing with cars

ROMANCING WITH CARS

The first motor car in my life was my own motor car, dark red in colour and driven by peddling.  That was when I was just three years old . I remember often peddling this kid's car on an empty road with my parents walking by my side as they went to visit a neighbour.

The first real car in my life was a black T model Ford owned by a friend of my father who used to occasionally take us for a spin with the hood of the car thrown back.

When I was in class 6th my father acquired a second hand Land Rover. it was green in colour and the top was that of canvas. He used to take us out for a ride  in the evening.

This car stayed with us for several years and had a very powerful engine. At the age of 13  I was given driving  lessons on this car secretly by our  driver Ram Aasrey . For the next few years while the car was with our family I used to drive it occasionally on empty roads.

The next Big moment in my romancing with cars was when I was 19 year old and suddenly came across a massive  brand new shining maroon Impala . It was refreshing in design.

I consider the years from 1930 to 1970 as the golden years in car designing.  Some of the most beautiful cars of that era still fascinate people when they roll out on their special day of vintage cars parade. 

VIASHNO DEVI TEMPLE

Vaishno Devi Temple in Jammu in India is one of the most visited temples in India

It is dedicated to Vaishno Devi, one of the incarnations of Goddess Lakshmi.

The  idols of Mahakali, Mahalaxmi and mahasaraswati , all images of Vaishno Devi , are worshipped at the temple.

The temple is at a height of 1,584.96 m (5,200 ft), 12 km from Katra on Trikuta hill. It is about 61 km from Jammu city. 

The Rameshwaram temple

The Char Dham Temple Rameshwaram 

One of the holiest temples of India is in Rameshwaram.

Rameshwaram is a municipality in the Ramanathapuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about 40 kilometres from Mannar Island, Sri Lanka. 

Rameshwaram is part of the Char Dham pilgrimage of Hindus other dhams being at Dwarika , Badrinath and  Puri.

The Badrinath Temple

TEMPLES OF INDIA

Situated near the Alaknanda River,  Badrinath Temple, dedicated to Bhagwan Sri Vishnu, is in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, India . It is one of the Char Dhams of Hindu religion.

Char Dham are the sacred temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu or his incarnations (avatars). The four sacred places are in Badrinath(Uttarakgand) Rameshwaram (Tamilnadu), Puri (Orissa) and Dwarka (Gujarat).

Adi Shankaracharya was the driving force behind the preeminence of these four temples of incarnations of Bhagwan Shri Vishnu

The Temple is open for only six months every year (between the end of April and the beginning of November), because of extreme weather conditions in the Himalayan region.

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The Dwarikadheesh temple Gujarat

The Dwarikadheesh temple is located at Dwarika city of Gujarat on the west coast of India.

It is one of the  Char Dham, a Hindu pilgrimage circuit. The other three Char Dham temples are at Badri nath in Uttarakhand, in Puri ine Orissa and in Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu in the north, in the East and in the south of India respectively.

The Dwarikadhish temple is dedicated to the Sri Krishna,  who is worshiped here by the name Dwarkadhish.

In establishing the importance of Char Dham Adi Shankaracharya towers above all as he single-handedly revived Hinduism with his erudite philosophy and compassion.

It was he who propounded the concept of the Char Dham temples. He also established the famous Shankaracharya Peethams or Mathas in the four directions for the study and propagation of the four Vedas.

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Shri Jagannath Puri temple

SRI JAGANNATH TEMPLE  PURI

Sri Jagannath Temple is one of the CHAR DHAM Hindu temples. 

It is in PURI  in the state of Odisha (India) on the eastern coast of India.

The temple was built by the Ganga dynasty king Anantavarman Chodaganga in the 12th century CE, as suggested by the Kendupatna copper-plate inscription of his descendant Narasimhadeva II.

The Puri temple is famous for its annual Ratha Yatra, or chariot festival

The 1803 NORTH INDIA EARTHQUAKE

PAGES FROM HISTORY

THE 1803 NORTH INDIA EARTHQUAKE

 

On the morning of 1st September 1803 at 1.30 am an earthquake struck north India with the likely epicenter somewhere in Uttarkashi. It sent Shockwaves over a large area of north India from Punjab to Calcutta. 

The earthquake damaged the upper part of Qutub Minar in Delhi and  Imaumbarah in Lucknow. 

At Barahat , Uttarkashi,  the earthquake laid great part of it in ruins, and killed over 300 of the inhabitants, besides great numbers of cattle. Srinagar (Garhwal) was turned into ruins. The magnitude of the earthquake was likely to be around Eight.

Here is a link for details:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1803_Garhwal_earthquake