Chitra Aiyer

Doddamalur is a quaint little village about 60 Kms from Bangalore and 3 Kms from Channapatna. The village is right off the Bangalore-Mysore highway. This village is famous for its ancient Sri Aprameya temple.

This temple also houses the crawling Krishna idol, known as the ambegal Krishna. This idol is truly beautiful - a crawling baby Krishna with lovely eyes and butter in His hands.

There’s quite a bit of the temple’s history on the internet, so I wont replicate any of it. However let me share the feeling I got when I was inside the temple - a sense of the enveloping peace inside the premises, the absolute quiet, the feeling of being transported to back in time. The calm ancient walls and pillars, the open-to-sky corridor that runs around the main temple, the weathered granite stones add to a sense of aged wisdom. It was like as if the temple had seen it all and was simply content and happy. Beautiful, I must say. The only reason I was at this temple was because I was shooting a wedding at another temple in Doddmallur. I visited the temple on the wedding day morning during a brief break and it was a beautiful experience. I must go back again sometime with the family - I loved the feeling of being away from the mad city rush.

Here’re also some pics that I shot at the temple.

Looking out from the inside - also seen is the main door of the temple

The detail of the main door

Right next to where the ‘Ambegal’ shrine is, is a well; a couple of women were just checking the well out …

I ran into the groom at this temple, where he wanted to start the important day off with Sandhyavandhan and meditation.  A candid shot of his quiet moment

 A little kid making the most of all the beautiful space …

The Bougainvillea that makes a beautiful cover at the entrance of the temple, and the tower seen partially through the beautiful flowers.

Some elderly beggars outside the temple …

The temple as seen from the village main street

After this, I went to shoot the wedding at the next temple. More pics of the wedding itself is here - Chitra Aiyer Photography Facebook page

Will share more pics of the wedding here too.

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I am happy to share that a London publishing house chose one of my pictures to be on the cover of one of the inflight magazines they publish - The Oryx, Feb edition. If you are flying the Qatar Airways this Feb, do check the cover page out.

Here’s the link - Magazine’s online version

I had originally posted this image here on my flickr stream.

If you are familiar with Bangalore, you may have seen these flowers fallen on the streets - by far, one of the most fragrant flowers. These are called ‘Aakasha Mallige’ in Kannada, which literally translates to ‘Sky Jasmine’. The trees are tall and fill up with these flowers in the months of Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov. They bloom in the evenings, I think, and the flowers fall from the trees during the night. Some of the streets in Bangalore are lined with these trees and in the mornings when you go for a walk, you practically have a fragrant floral carpet to welcome you!

PS: I am terribly sorry for not writing here as much as I would like to. I have been very busy with a bunch of photography work and assignments; if not anything, I am hoping to at least update the blog about that work of mine.

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It is the typical November Bangalore weather now - winter is setting in, it is mostly cloudy with drizzles and there is that nip in the air. Makes you want to wind down, cuddle up with the family, read, play board games, leave the curtains open and let the dull light stream into your home. I love something about this whole thing - it makes me feel at peace, being at peace makes me feel happy, being happy means only one thing - a heart full of love. And you will never hear me complain about that.

As I see the drizzles and the rains from my window, I am reminded of the monsoons in the Ghats that we enjoyed completely. Our visit to Koppa in Chikkamagalur district a month ago gave us the opportunity to experience the monsoons in the Western Ghats. While it was nearing the end of the monsoon season, we didnt see it in all its glory, but experienced some of it to get a sense of it. The weirdest thing was it would start pouring like somebody up there opened a tap and then stop like somebody up there closed the tap too. We stayed at this lovely home-stay with its beautiful courtyard. When it rained, sitting and watching the rain in the courtyard was almost meditative. The kids loved the rains too - they were out and about with the umbrellas and enjoyed the clear water all around.

Seeing the rain drip from the tiled roofs always reminds me of rains in my native ancestral grandparent-homes in Kerala (this pic on flickr). However, I have never really experienced the monsoons in Kerala, having never been there in that season because of school in Bangalore. The dripping rain water from the roofs also forms these little pools of water you see in the pic below.

A row of little bowls with spurting pearly water drops.

We did many drives in these pours. Windshields awash with the mountain rains, all rivulets flowing with roaring waters, the Ghats saturated with the color green, and all the Ghat people going about their business under cover …. literally. One thing you always notice is how you never find anybody having weight issues in the Ghats … well, how can they? They are always navigating the terrains on foot or cycles,  sometimes navigating the mountains through short cuts that run steep; and that needs burning of calories to maneuver.

Here’s an elderly gentleman going about his day

The beautiful landscape, washed, scrubbed and in its green glory through the pouring rain on the windshield.

The little Ghat towns are all vernacular in their cuteness. The architectural scale is very human, the building materials are local/traditional, and the people warm. And the coconut trees are never out of the frame. Again, all of it reminds me a lot of my childhood vacations spent in remote corners of Kerala.

As we left the Ghats behind, I clicked this couple in the rains, from the car.  The elderly man and the little boy - each under his own umbrella, walking on the main road of their little town, chatting away, almost oblivious to the surrounds. This shot is one of my best - I love it for a variety of reasons - the camaraderie, the rains, the moment, and for what I felt when I looked at the LCD after. I hope you like it too.

PS: I get only a few moments at a stretch. I have had to stop so many times while writing this post. It is a luxury to get an entire chunk of time to sit and write what I want to write - I dont have that luxury … and that is ok. I still loved writing this, I love the rains outside as I type this, I love the family that surrounds me, I love having had to get up as many times as I have had to for them. Everything about now is beautiful and I am thankful …

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All pics used here are mine. Please do not use without permission.

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