Monthly Archives: June 2014
Layers of History II, Karla Caves and The Ekveera Temple
Wherever you are in India, you are a witness to several historical eras juxtaposed together, like several geological eras in a single sedimentary rock. This is true whether you are in Colaba or Karla.
The Karla Caves sit atop a mountain in the Sahyadri range. The cave complex is made up of the largest Chaitya or prayer hall in India and the Viharas which serve as living quarters for the monks. If the cave temple complex is a relic of India’s distant Buddhist past, the present is represented by a much smaller temple dedicated to Ekveera Devi. In fact, most of the visitors to Karla are Hindu pilgrims. Ekveera, is the kuldevata (literal translation: clan deity, roughly like the Catholic patron saint) of the Kolis, the fisher folk who were Bombay’s original inhabitants. She has also been adopted as kuldevata by many other Marathi speaking communities of Bombay.
The Ekveera Devi temple is one among many temples in Maharashtra that sit atop a mountain. Some are behind impressive fortifications while others are tucked away in plain sight next to Buddhist cave temples from another era. Their location makes sense when you realize that higher altitudes are cooler during the summer and offer a measure of safety along with a peaceful place to meditate and contemplate. Watching the sun go down in the Western Ghats is a spiritual experience in and of itself.
Karla Cave Temple Complex and Ekveera Devi Temple
Entrance to the Prayer Hall and the Ekveera Devi Temple
Ekveera Devi
Her Tortoise
Living Quarters for the Buddhist Monks
A View of from the Top
To check out other posts about my India trip, click here
Wednesday Afternoon Moment of Zen
The Main Prayer Hall, Karla Caves, Lonavla
I was here almost a month ago, a cool place to be in the middle of May, literally. The temperature inside the caves was at least ten degrees cooler than the outside. It is one of the many Buddhist cave temple complexes found all over India. Buddhism once flourished in India, especially during Ashoka’s reign. The main prayer hall has Ashoka’s pillar at its entrance.
Chilling On a Caturday Afternoon
Hold the Calls and Send the Nip
By two_kittehs Photo: ShiroNeko’s blog
When it comes to relaxing, kittehs know the best. The most relaxed cat on the intertoobz has appeared on these pages before. He also has a YouTube channel. I am going to follow his example to attain Purrvana.
An Ode to the Bounty of Summer-Hapoos Mangoes
Its been just two weeks since I came back from India. However, the arrival of summer-like temperatures is making me nostalgic about my trip. Before the monsoon arrives in early June, Bombay is enveloped by punishing heat and oppressive humidity. The hardy souls who venture where angels fear to tread are rewarded by the seasonal bounty of ripe Hapoos mangoes. In my biased opinion, they are the best tasting mangoes in the world.
When ripe, they are a bright reddish orange. When you bite into it, the mango has a velvety texture that melts in your mouth but it’s the heady sweet bouquet of ripening mangoes that draws you in, in the first place.
When I was in India I ate a Hapoos mango almost everyday, sometimes twice in a single day. I ate it by itself, in yogurt, juiced (aamras), with clotted cream, in an ice-cream and in kulfi. If you have never tasted Hapoos, you should put it on your bucket list. The Hapoos season is brief, late April until the arrival of the monsoon. There is no real substitute for the Hapoos but Ataulfo mangoes are somewhat similar.
To welcome summer, I am going to post recipes using mangoes in the next few days. I am starting with a recipe for mango lassi. If you have any specific requests email me or leave it in the comments below.
A Green mango on a tree, in my friend’s garden in Lonavla.
Mango Lassi
Ingredients
2 cups frozen or fresh ripe mangoes (I use the frozen mangoes from Trader Joe)
2 cups nonfat or 2% yogurt
2 tbsp sugar (more if you want the lassi to be sweeter)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
If using frozen mangoes, thaw them. I usually add the sugar and the salt when I am thawing the mangoes. If you have never diced a fresh mango, there are step by step instructions here. Use a blender to blend everything together. Serve chilled. You can add some fresh mint or basil for a variation. You can also leave out the grated nutmeg and cardamom if you don’t have them at hand.
The Dark Lord is Back
He has arisen from his crypt to blame President Obama by penning an op-ed full of lies and ugly insinuations with his equally evil spawn in the Wall Street Journal. The latest news from Iraq has brought the war mongering neo-cons out of the woodwork and they are furiously penning op-eds and making rounds of shouty TV, laying the blame for the current mess in Iraq at the feet of President Obama. Like before, their flunkies in the media are giving them an able assist.
Everything Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and others in the Bush administration have said about Iraq has been based on a tissue of lies. They roughed up Iraq, killing untold hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, just because they could, at a great cost in terms of both lives and treasure. I also remember the relentless demonizing of anyone who did not fall in line about the plan for the invasion of Iraq. Anyone who did not support George W. Bush 100% was labeled a traitor, remember Dixie chicks? Now Dick and daughter are insinuating that the sitting President of the United States is a traitor. As Betty Cracker so eloquently wrote in Balloon Juice this morning, Irony is Dead. Off the top of my head, a list things that Cheney and company were wrong about regarding Iraq:
- Saddam Hussein was not involved in the attacks of September, 11 2001
- He did not have nuclear weapons
- American troops were not welcomed as liberators
- The war did not pay for itself, total cost of the war three trillion dollars and counting
- The war did not bring a stable democracy to Iraq
- The much touted surge did not work
What were are seeing in Iraq now is direct result of the botched invasion in 2003. History did not begin when Obama was elected for the first time. Given their track record President Obama should do the exact opposite of whatever Cheney and company suggest. They were wrong then and they are wrong now. As for the media, no matter what he does, it is always the President’s fault. So whatever they say deserves to be ignored as well.
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images Caption Credits: Schroedinger’s Cat
Iraq Is in the Headlines Again
Some recent headlines:
From the Telegraph,
Iraq crisis: ISIS militants push towards Baghdad – live
From the New York Times,
Fears About Iraq Continue to Push Up Oil Prices
From the Guardian,
Iranian general visits Baghdad to assist with defence of Iraq capital
In other words:
Flame of the Forest
Flame of the forest or the Gulmohar tree just before the monsoon rains arrive. I took this photo in Lonavla, India, in the last week of May.
Schroedinger's Cat 
