butterfly...

Jaipur 1996

Step well...1996

Looking up from the depth of the Step wells of Ahmedabad, 1996

Gods own country...

Galle..the beautiful southern tip of Sri Lanka

Pinnawala..the Elephant Santuary

a colonial villa near Hambantota...

Church at Kandy...

Buddist temple at Kandy...

the river at Katargama...

Lake at Nuwara Eliya...

...treaked a few miles to reach "the World's End"..

no words can describe the beauty of this place.... 

sunset at nuwara eliya.

..

File photos taken from my trip to Sri Lanka in 2004

Darasuram...

Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram near Kumbakonam built by Raja raja Cholan- II during 1146 - 1163 AD...a marvel in Stone...

Old snaps (1994) taken during my college days when I went on an Architectural study tour to Kumbakonam...


Few quick pen/ pencil sketches I had done during the visit can be viewed here : Sketch Book 3

Hogenakkal ...smoke that thunders!

Last month I went to Dharmapuri to visit my friend Sasi...and it is by now a tradition for Dharmapuriites to take their guests to Hogenakkal , a riverside spa some 25kms away. So off we rode to Hogenakkal.
The main Falls is a sight for sore eyes...

Coracles - small circular basket boats covered in buffalo hide- ... a must ride

the rocky gorges sculpted by the water...

line of boatmen waiting to take their customers for a 'ride'...Their charges are day time robbery ! Another common sight here is untrained 'masseurs' giving crude body massages to boozed pot bellyed customers . Tourists are crazed about eating the fishes freshly caught and cooked along the waters - but beware if you have a weak tummy- they are cooked in re re reused oil...

meandering waters...

my boatman...

maddening crowds...May is the worst month to visit this place I guess ... mad rush of tourists dirty the waters... the water thats supposed to heal is actually a potential threat to your health...with dead fishes , plastic bags and bottles floating and garbage and beer bottles tossed around...

beating the summer heat...Sasi and his wife somehow convinced me and my wife to enter the murky waters - It was great fun and ofcourse both of us were down with viral infection for the next 3 days :(



The place is great and has greater potential to become a classy tourist spot if only the tourism department is run by people with atleast average

brains.

Got Booed !

Thanks Boo for the " award "

and I pass it on to all the wonderful people I have listed as my 'blogmates'...

The last ride...

Cows crammed and transported to slaughter houses in Kerala...Snap taken near Cochin

31.03.07

South Court, Pune...

The highlight of my recent visit to Pune was 'South Court' - the hotel where I stayed along with fellow architect Ravi John. It was by chance that we strolled into this colonial villa . Its located at Koregaon Park , the same street where Osho's commune is located. The hotel, which looks like a "booth bunglow" at first sight, is owned by a rich old Parsee gentleman we were told and is now under renovation. If properly redone, it has the potential of becoming an Architectural landmark in Pune.

The front facade...Architectural remains of a colonial past...

The bird bath sculpture...

wooden stairs leading to the rooms...

long covered verandah..typical colonial arch style

Ornamental mirror yet to be fixed back...

high ceiling rooms

The World as it should be...Upside down!

I saw this unusual world map hanging on the walls of an office in Delhi. It says its time to see the world as it really should be -The southern hemisphere on top and northern hemisphere at the bottom. Had the world been mapped by travellers from the south, the world map wud have looked exactly like this.