ಯಾವ ರೋಡು? ಯಾವ ಕ್ರಾಸು? ಬೆ0ಗಳೂರೂ ಫೊಟೊಬ್ಳೊಗ್. Bangalore Photoblog

April 8, 2009

Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road




The Original Bangalore Habba


The Sampangiramnagar Tank was one of the most important irrigation facility in pre-industrial Benglur. The tank is gone, but a small stepped pond is still maintained for the annual Bangalore Karaga. Next to the pond is a covered platform where the Karaga, that is carried from temple to temple by man, who is said to become Draupadi from the Mahabaratha for that day, is placed for making offerings to the Goddess. Here, the residents of Sampangiramnagar are seen decorating the platform for the Puja that happened at 5am this morning. 




Several of the residents are planning to spend the night here and help with the preparations. Here's a resident called Shiva, in a Vishnu pose, happy to have taken up a prime position to catch the action.




I was unable to catch the action at 5am. And by the time I reached the place at 9, the whole area was barricaded and littered with flowers. The BBMP Sweepers were cleaning the surrounding ground and luckily for me, there was one major attraction waiting for me. The giant reptile that was painted was partially gone and there stood a self-styled god man with a long name starting with Baba and ending with Sanjeeva Reddy. 






From the Khumb Mela to any Urs in a Dargah, you find hundreds of these godmen peddling their idea to salvation. Unlike the Art of Living with its patented exercise or the Hugging Mother from Kerala, this travelling god man was peddling his own idea that hasn't been a hit yet. He's originally from Bidar and has no known home. He also claimed to be immortal. He claimed to be  Jesus, Vishnu, Shiva as well as India's ex-presidents Sanjeeva Reddy and Abdul Kalam. A rather tall claim which probably explains why he's not successful. 

So if you are in Bangalore and if you want to catch one of the city's unique festivals, and meet some interesting people, head for the main Karaga procession. It's on the 9th of April, all night, in the Pete area. 



6 comments:

Diti said...

wow! love the point of view in all these photographs!

citygurl said...

are you going to the karaga?

AGujral said...

Talk of manipulation of hope & selling it, isn't unheard of here in this country. I feel sad by the fact that we our an emotionally challenged nation and anything which sells hope we grab it both hands.

The colors & the floor patterns are simply beautiful. Great story and lovely talking pictures:)

Afrin said...

Great colours.. esp the pink.. you post really large images, and it makes such a difference!

Good luck! :)

jyothy karat said...

for some reason, i found the pic of the pseudo saint , scary :/

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