Chandigarh: useful links
The Divine Temple of Jwala Ji (The Goddess of Light)
Last month during my trip back home in India I finally got a chance to go to a divine temple of Jwala Ji (The Goddess of Light) and it was a wonderful lifetime experience. The temple is situated on the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas(Coordinates: 31°52’48″N 76°19’12″E). Jawalamukhi, the town is named after the Goddess and is located in Kangra district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
Jwala is a Sanskrit word which means flame and Ji is a commonly used word in India to give respect. Alternative spelling and names for Jwala Ji include Jvala Ji, Jwala Devi and Jawalamukhi Ji. It is a rare Hindu temple where the physical manifestation of Goddess is a flame. The flame are based out of fissure from which some natural gas seeps out itself and burns endlessly. There are always 7 or 9 flames burning all the times.
The temple was built by King named Bhumi Chand of Kangra, a great devotee of goddess Durga. The King had a dream of the sacred place and set people to find out the
whereabouts of the site. There are lots of stories associated with this temple but the most famous one is associated with The Mughal Emperor Akbar. He once ordered to extinguish the flames by getting it covered with thick Iron plates and even channelized water through them. But all went in vain and the flames continued to burn. This forced Akbar to realize his mistake and urged him to repent. He presented a golden chattar (parasol) at the temple of the Goddess. His
disbelief at the power of the Goddess caused the gold to turn into another
metal which is still unknown to the world.
I strongly suggest if you are traveling to India and planning to visit North India, for sure have this temple on your itinerary. Besides visiting the holy shrine you can also enjoy the local food at the numerous shops near the temple. The other nearby places to visit are Kangra and the famous town of Dharamshala which is known worldwide as home to His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political head of the Tibetan Buddhists.
links for 2010-01-01
Resolutions for 2010: Let’s make a better world!
Hi Friends as the 2010 has started with the feeling of a fresh new decade let’s share some of our resolutions that will impact others and help in making a better world.
I will followup this note with my resolutions as they are still in the process of cooking. I will truly appreciate your comments and I believe that no resolution is small or big as all take strength and and attitude to fulfill.
Happy New Year 2010
India Food Price Rise: Revisiting on New Year eve 2010
The Year that I am writing in is just on the corner to end and the new year is ready to gear-in. There are numerous lessons learnt and lot of thoughts on how to make the coming years better.
Just a few days back I was back to my home country “India” and I was very much disturbed by the rising prices of the food items hence making the life of not even poor but even the middle class a real challenge. Since the advent of this Globalization the prices have really sky-rocketed. India surely has benefited from this globalization but the benefit has only gone to the minority and that too at a cost of sky-high prices of all food items.
During the same time I got a lot of chances to go and live in the country side and have interaction with the farmers. The farmers complained low income potential in agriculture which was a shock to me. I was expecting that they must be the most privileged after looking at the prices in the market. The existence of the age-old mal-practice that the farmer still gets the same old prices for his crop and all the money is made by the traders came into limelight in all such discussions. For a cabbage that the farmer still sells for 1.5-2 Rs/Kg is sold at more than 10 Rs/Kg in the markets etc.
The worst part to the whole problem is that the Government is still not doing enough to control this. The biggest challenge for the Indian Government should be to control the inflation and bring it down. The cabinet needs to understand that the masses in India don’t need cheap automobiles but food items at cheap prices. Hope someone is listening………
I would recommend a very nice article by Arindam Chaudhuri.
