Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Picture Tag



I was tagged by Shilpa and Ajit and the rules are:........

Pick the 6th picture of your 6th photo folder.
Tell a story around it.
Pass it on to six other people you like. I have been thinking about this tag for a long time, but didnt know what to write. Above is the picture from the sixth folder and sixth one. This is the temple in Kanchipuram. Whenever I visit any Temple in south..I am awed by the structure , magnificence and the vastness of the place. We have such a grand culture inheritance in these temples and they are visited by the multitude of people, everywhere I find throngs of crowd..long queues but feel sad to see that nowhere they maintain cleanliness, why? In a country like India, where we have so much of unemployment and poverty..it will not be difficult to hire a person for cleaning and since most of the places levy a fee , and other wise also everybody is offering something for Pooja or sankalp, then finance also must not be a problem, then what is the reason? When today we raise voices for everything, why none asks about this?
I read about a thousand year old temple in Chennai near Perry and we went there and saw that it is completely neglected, though it is constructed on a huge land area, but there is no management of anything. Why cant we make our cities more beautiful, there are many places which can be turned into a good tourist spot with little management who will do a little cleaning and supply of drinking water and clean and hygienic prasad items and we can showcase our heritage to the tourists...like velachery lake, muttukadu, these temples etc.If the government is indifferent, then I am sure there will be many other organisations in the city who can look after this.
Now i would like to tag..Shalom, Deeplydip, Deeps,Memories of a wandering soul, shades of grey and SR.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely. :)
The Temple is quite beautiful... and yes, we need to be more socially aware of our surroundings and start taking responsibility...

-Pixie

(haven't been able to log on again!)

Reflections said...

Yes u r so right Renu......so many of them are just being ruined due to lack of care & misuse.
I've visited many of them in Kanchi puram, Mahabalipuram & Madras.
So much of history being lost....people just dont care how they treat it:-(
A bit of care is all it needs!!!!

Balvinder Balli said...

Renu, frankly speaking , to me all the south indian temples look the same from outside at least. This one i was confusing with so many that i have seen in the south. Yes these beutiful structures need to be preserved more carefully.

Amrita said...

south main log bahane dhoondte rehte hain mandir jaane ko :S

J P Joshi said...

Agree with you completely. I wish we were....

Salomie said...

Nice photo!!! You know, it was only after a holiday in Europe that I realised that there are so many buildings in India that are just as beautiful as the ones there ..... the difference is, as you've noted, the dirty surroundings and the lack of maintenance. Whereas in Europe, they take such terrific care and things are so wonderfully organized, the whole experience was a real pleasure. So, 'tourism management' is really important. Its not enough that we have incredible architecture or natural beauty, it has to be managed efficiently to make the experience awesome.

Anonymous said...

Wow.. u seem to have not just traveled..but with a open mind and observation... salutes :)

Of course ... nothing mush haws been done to maintain our releics..let alone restore some of them to former glory...

all i can say is i hope that changes...


Wolfy .

OG said...

the temple is beautuful... and the story behind it is also... :)
yeah we need to maintain the heritage of our country...
and thansk for doing TAg!!!

Cess said...

nice tagggg and u haven t tag me :( well in a way it s ok cz the 6th pic of my 6th album is quite a bad quality and i would have nothing to talk about! :)
tc
PS: sorry for not passing as often as i used to here :( i m sooooo busy at work, these bloody 'mean people' are draining all my energy at night to do anything :( but i ll be back soon :)

Anonymous said...

Renu, That's a beautiful picture. The architecture is similar to other temple in Tamil Nadu.

Nowdays even temple trusts have become business. So much money they take for all pujas but rarely anything done good for the convenience of devotees or keep temple clean.

Renu said...

PIXIE: I hope someone does something.

Reflections: We Indians always realise the value after the loss, whether its people or monuments.

Balvinder Singh: you are right here, they look the same, as they follow the same architecture, its only the gods residing inside are different, and all of them have a different history connnecting us to our glorious past.

Amrita; haan yahan har mod par ek mandir ha, people are more religious here and I think thats why people are good here.

J P Joshi: I wish too:)

Shalom: you know we used to laugh that americans can sell anything:)..there even negligible monuments are beautified and turned into a good tourist point bringing money...In Europe..you will find souvenirs of each and everyplace selling everywhere.In our country, this area could be great for creating wealth and employment.

Renu said...

Wolfy;Welcome to my blog, I feel honoured by an army person.
I am a true blue saggi always fond of travelling:)

Ajit...Doing the tag..pleasure is all mine !
We people dont realise whta a great heritage we have, and we can even earn thru this:)

Cess; I didnt tag you, because I thought, since you are so busy, not even blogging regularly, so it will be cumbersome for u, sorry !

Solio; yeah, here architure is always the same.
This is what surprises me here..that the footfalls in Temples...is always in a huge number, and offerings are always there..has to be due the way of worshipping....then why no management or cleaning..even at Thirupathi...cleanliness is not there, the way it should be for a richest temple and why none says anything about it?

Shilpa said...

Renu,

You have raised a very relevant topic.

I have thought a lot about the pathetic condition of our national monuments, places of worship, etc. I have spoken about it a lot of people as well.

And what I hear is, it is not that the government is not making effort. It is also that, the youth in the smaller towns would rather wipe glasses of tall buildings in big cities. Call it the glamour of cities, aspiring for big opportunities or whatever.

There seems to be a lack of co-ordination - of the government, people who manage the monuments, locals and employment bureaus and agencies.

Anonymous said...

India is such a beautiful country.. It can be made even more beautiful..thre is 2 much of filth and mismanagement..tourist attractions r not quite attractions..My trip to Rajasthan reiterated this..

I feel sad for foreign tourists visiting India coz 1) things r sold at inflated prices to them 2) guides often misguide them..

Renu said...

Shilpa: I just hope that some voluntary organisation or NGO come forward to tackle this.
Whenevr i go there I feel like talking to people who mange that why dont they keep it clean and all, but nobody is interested and sometimes lanuage becomes a problem.

SWAT: You are right, India has a vast potentioa for tourism, but we seem to ignore this, even the hotels are always priced steep, higher than other countries, though they are nowhere near to them in facilities and cleanliness.

Shilpa said...

u've been tagged. :)

Deeps said...

Such a thought provoking post,Renu.Its a pity that we dont realise the actual worth of our monuments.Even worse we dont do anything to maintain their worth.

thanks so much fr tagging me.Is it ok if I do it in a while?

Renu said...

Shipa: Thank U Shilpa!

Deeps: Even if we take the bussiness, it makes sense to look after them>

Yeah Deeps...you do it at your own convenience, even I do it that way, whenevr i feel like doing and have time:)

Destination Infinity said...

I went to three temples in Kanchipuram only last week! I have lived in Chennai for 25 years but I have never seen Kanchipuram temples till last week! Maybe that explains the taking for granted attitude - Maybe we don't value or respect these monuments enough to keep them clean and neat. Now that I am living in Bangalore, these temples have got a special charm all of a sudden for me! So, I guess we need to realize the value of what we have.

Destination Infinity

DeeplyDip said...

hey renu thanks for tagging me n also thanks for agreeing on the temples being dirty:) I totally agree with you...most of these temples get huge amount of chadava by the devotees...proper disbursement will improve the experience drastically...will do this one soon...

Renu said...

DI: We must realise that what a treasure we have and it is another opportubity like IT which can bring lot of money and employment to our country.

Deeplydip: Hey:) I always agreed that they are dirty:), but personally I still go there twice a week,even if possible would like to go there daily:).
For the tag..do it at ur leisure:)

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