Successful Marriage

Ever since I was tagged to this meme by Prem, I was wondering if there could be something like ‘commandment’ for a successful marriage. IMHO, this is a relation which has got immense and deeper meanings and cannot be bounded by a few commandments. I agree that they may help one to be cautious not to harm this eternal (yes - eternal - some may disagree, but this is my opinion) relation. I’m in a composite position where I feel I’m fully qualified to say this and totally unqualified - at the same time. All I can say is understanding, acceptance, accomodation and finally assimilation would be an ideal and successful relation. This may sound very philosophical, beyond the reach of our antennae and seemingly complex. Despite all these, making it a success is - not victory - but sheer joy which one can relish for ever.

Akkam Pakkam - Quo Vadis Minister? Quo Vadis Comman man?

On saturday I’d been to the S’pore airport to recieve my wife and daughter who are coming after a month’s stay at Chennai. One of the ministers from our Tamil Nadu cabinet was also in the same flight. A group of ‘chamchas’ were waiting at the arrival hall with garlands to recieve the ‘honourable’ minister. When he and his gang (around 10) came out with their luggages, this group went and garlanded him with those ‘long live’ slogans. It was a commotion. People from other parts of the world, who are not used to these kind of nonsenses (nuisance??) were taken aback at this sight. I was standing little close to the group and watching them. What happened after this was the ugliest. I dont know what went wrong, the minister slapped one of the members before the public. He folded his dhoti and started shouting at him, with the garland around his neck. Poor guy, seemed to be a gentleman, was looking around with shame. Everybody was watching the scene with shock.
We’ve seen our politicians with such appaling lack of manners both inside and outside the assembly. It doesn’t make much of a difference to us. But when the same happens in a foreign soil, that too before the public, I felt ashamed. Will these ministers ever change? I wouldn’t say its his fault. He is made like that. It is our fault to elect him and send him to the assembly. Every election, the voter turn-out is falling and it hits a maximum of 55%. The remaining 45% is us - the well educated, who can think rationally and act. But unfortunately, we dont. We only keep talking that India can never develop as long as this bunch of corrupt politicians are get rid of. But we dont take a step forward towards that. The first step would be to go cast our vote. What do you say?
But having had the experience at chennai in the recent local body elections and how the police machinery was a mere witness to what ever happened……it seems we are losing that opportunity too.

LOC - Malai

First, let me thank Archana for the invite. Though my name figured first in the invitees list, it took a bit long to send the story. Well…I confess….I was little preoccupied and I forgot that I should send the story. Yesterday it suddenly struck me that I need to send mine. Sorry for the delay Archana.
2006 April. It was quite hot and humid here at S’pore. We had scheduled a delivery for the client. It was a db Analyser tool for a database called jBase. We had spent more than 3 months on that. After UAT, it was scheduled for production release on a friday night. Immediately after the release, we had to run the tool. Our estimation was it would take around 20 hrs. After that we had to handover the system to operations who had to run the overnight batch which will take another 8 hrs. We thought safely we can complete everything by Saturday evening.
We were a 3 member team. So I had asked Malai to come for the first 8-9 hrs and Kandha can continue after that. I decided to stay thru as I wanted to see the thing go smoothly. As scheduled, Malai and myself were there at Friday midnight. After db backup and other usual procedures, the system was handed over to us and we started off. Things were going with no hiccups for the first session. Malai went home by around 9am and Kandha resumed. The analyser was running like a obedient boy and I asked Kandha to leave by around 6pm. I thought I can manage another 2 hours and I can go have a good sleep. But to my dismay, the performance dropped drastically and it was taking unusually long to analyse even smaller tables. The recalculated time showed it might take another 9-10 hrs !! With help from the networking guys and batch operators, I was trying to get things back on rail. Mhmmmm….nothing worked out. The head of the Ops was sitting on my head to get back the system on time. Else he said, he is going to restore the backup and start. I was not ready for it.
10pm. Situation was getting worse every minute. I had no choice but to stop it. I tried my hands with code. In offline mode it was doing well. But in auto mode, it was again showing up its bad face. Even if I could fix it, I cant get it to production. 11:30pm. I was too tired staying awake for more than 22 hrs. I decided to call up Malai and run the thing manually and complete the rest. I explained him the situation and he said he will come soon. I asked him to go to the head office in the city and call me from there. But after about an hour and a half, to my astonishment, he reached the office where I was sitting, with all his luggages. When I called him, poor guy was shopping in a mall in the city and he had to leave to India next morning for his marriage. (I thought he was leaving the next week.) He went to the city office but the security system didn’t allow him as it was past midnight. He took a cab to home, packed his luggages and came. I had no words to thank him. Sunday 1am. We started the manual process and managed to complete by around 6am. We handed over the system to the operations team. Then I went with him to the airport and sent him off. I had a good sleep after that.
I was amazed at Malai’s dedication and commitment. Without his assistance on that day, it would have been a disaster. One, we would have been forced to withdraw the production release. Second, we would have started all over again if we had stopped the process. For us, it was a major release which we didnt want to miss at any cost. It was a real challenge to build a tool with umpteen features for a ‘pick’ database. It is such gems like Malai in Cognizant who make it happen.
With this, I would like to invite
Balasubramaniam, Shyamala (https://ch1blogs.cognizant.com/blogs/149685/)
A, Prem (https://ch1blogs.cognizant.com/blogs/104888/)
Many of my friends dont blog

Akkam Pakkam - The Taxi driver

Met an interesting guy today. I took a cab from Little India to my home. The driver was a Chinese but I saw a small metal Ganesha vigraham on the dashboard and some flowers around. Normally, in Singapore, the taxi companies lend the cars to more than one driver. So I thought the other driver could be an Indian or Malaysian. I picked up a conversation with him as usual.
When we were waiting in a traffic signal, to my surprise, I heard the driver chanting “Om Shri Maha Ganapathaye Namah”. He was reading it from a small piece of paper. I asked him about that. He said one of his friend (who is also a chinese) had visited India some years back and on his return he had given this vigraham, and has taught this driver about chanting this. From what he described, I guess his friend must have visited Pillayarpatti. This driver was so passionate about this vigraham and was very proud that the vigraham is with Ganesha on both sides. He knew nothing much about Ganesha but he was blindly beleiving that the ‘mantra’ has done him lot many good things. Whenever he has faced any problem, he has chanted the mantra and prayed to Ganesh. He said everytime he has got help from Ganesha - when he wanted to get the traffic cleared, when he felt the car in next lane is going to hit him, when he lost his wallet in a tea shop, when he contracted SARS, when he had a problem with his wife….everytime he has prayed wholeheartedly and he believes that Ganesha has helped him overcome the problem. I was amazed by his strong belief. He is actually a Chinese christian, but later he started following Buddhism. But since last few years, Ganesha is everything to him. He regularly goes to a Murugan temple every morning and wears vibhuthi. He doesn’t know much about hinduism or hindu gods, but he says he feels good to visit the temple.
That reminded me of the two forms of devotion to god in hinduism. Maha periyavar has written eloborately about this in his book ‘Deivathin Kural’. One is ‘marajara kichoram’ and another is ‘markata kichoram’. Marjaram is cat. Cats carry their kittens in their mouth wherever they go. Some people believe strongly that god will look after them always and they just need to do their duty. Whereas markata kichoram is monkey like. The baby monkies cling to their mothers stomach and never leave them. Likewise, for some whatever they have, think, do…everything is god. To me, this driver seemed to belong to the second category.

Akkam Pakkam

'Akkam Pakkam’ in tamil means ’nearby’ or ‘around’. I just wanted to record what I see, hear, read, listen………

The Eight fold path

To an extent, in my opinion, Buddhism seems to have come up on the premises of “Adwaitham”. Why I say to an extent is because, buddhism does not talk about GOD anywhere. What we call the “paramathma” may be “buddha”. Coz, a paramathman can view the universe as one (the ‘viswaroopam’ post by Archana explains this). All yins & yangs in this universe can do no harm to him. Both hinduism and buddhism emphasise on “knowing yourself”.
Buddhism has a practical and definite ‘guide’ to become a buddha. The eight fold path is what buddhism teaches as the ‘way of life’. In fact, every religion teaches the same thing. Be good. Do good. Just imagine. How a buddhistic world would be…if only every individual could become a buddha. This would be an utopian thought. But this universe is balanced by yin and yang. (btw…for those who may not be aware….yin and yang are the two sides life…light and dark, good and bad….) It is upto the individuals to choose the path. Neither buddhism nor hinduism (any religion for that matter) do not ‘impose’ anything on any of its followers. But it is unfortunate that people have not understood this basic thing and society is being ruined in the name of religion. But then, on the contrary, how will the world move if every body is a buddha? [ Any takers on this point? ]
Listed below is the eight fold path advocated by Siddhartha. Which religion does not preach these? Every other religion keeps telling this in so many different words directly or indirectly.
Right views & right thoughts - related to wisdomRight speech, right action and right livelihood - related to ethical conduct and behavioursRight effort, right midfulness and right concentration - related to intellectual development
Seemingly simple but difficult to follow. It needs a lot of determination to practice these. Or is it the otherway?
Let us think over…..

Back to Buddha

As I’d said in my earlier post, I got to know many things about Buddha and Buddhism - contrary to what I knew about them erstwhile - during my recent visit to Cambodia. It is really amazing to know how Buddhism has spread out to most of the east asian countries and has a stronghold, despite being founded in India. (But that proves another point. How resilient Hinduism has been.) I just wanted to share what I felt, thought and experienced.
Buddham or Buddhi - which means ‘wisdom’ or ‘knowledge’. Buddha is one who acquired ‘wisdom’ and is ‘enlightened’. Siddhartha has been known as the first buddha who got enlightenment thru meditation and noble principles. There could have been buddhas before him and there could be more in future. The fact is anyone can become buddha. You, me….anyone. Though the doctrines of Buddhism are seemingly simple, it is quite difficult to accept, understand and follow them strictly. There are different types buddhism found today.
1. Theravada buddhism - or the southern buddhism, which is now more prevalent in Myanmar, Thailand, Srilanka, Laos, Cambodia etc. This is also referred to as Hinayana buddhism. Hinayana means the simpler vehicle. This seems to be early and ancient form of the religion.
2. Mahayana buddhism - Mahayana means the ‘greater’ vehicle. Buddha is idolised and god-like. This is also referred to as eastern buddhism which is practised more in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore & Vietnam
3. Vajrayana - or the northern buddhism. It is also called as mantrayana or tantrayana as this sect believes and practices many psycho-physical techniques to achieve buddhahood. This seems to have rooted from Tibet. This is followed in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, China & Russia. There is also a seperate school called “Gelug”, originated in Tibet, which is headed by Dalai Lama.
Whatever be the type, the common doctrines among all these buddhisms is “the four noble truths”
1. dukka - the suffering exists
2. trishna - there is a cause for suffering (attachment? desire? ego?) - “aasaiye azhivukku kaaranam”
3. nibbana (nirvana?) - the cessation from the sufferings
4. and the 8 fold path (right views, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration)
It is interesting to know that both Hinduism and Buddhism are closely related. Both are referred to as “Dharmic religions” which are darma-centric. Ideologies like darma, karma, moksha, nirvana are found in both religions.
Lets talk more….

The Visit - Day 3

Day 3:
After two tiring days, we started little late on the third day. First we drove to Pre Rup. This has been the crematorium for the common people. (The Leper King Terrace has been the royal crematorium) Strangely, this complex, apart from towers for washing the body and burning it, has a shiva temple in the second tier. Again steep steps. They too have had the tradition of taking the ashes of the cremated body in small urns and keeping at home for ancestral worship. This complex seems to have been badly destroyed by the treasure hunters. The heads of the lion statues and beautifully decorated pillars are all stolen.
From there, we headed to Beantey Srei. A temple which highly resembles the Hindu temple architecture. Mainly because this temple was not built by kings but by a brahman. Right from the entrance, every doorframe depicts a scene from hindu mythologies like Bhagavatham, Ramayana, Krishna Leela, Shiva Purana etc. One could also see the ‘Nrisimha vadam’ in one of the door frames. The complex has 2 big lilly ponds on either side of the temple. Most of the temples have either 2 or 4 ponds surrounding the temple. Also the stem of the lilly plant is used as an important vegetable in cambodian delicacy. This temple has more been used as a library rather than a temple.
Then we proceeded to visit Beantey Samre. This is a temple “for warriors”. (samurai ??) This has been a ‘hari-hara’ temple - union of saivam and vaishnavam. A doorframe depicts lord Vishnu relaxing on the snake adisesha in the sea of milk. The temple has 3 praharas. The first prahara has 4 small sanctorums for Shiva. The second prahara has 4 sanctorums for Vishnu. The third and the inner most prahara has one sanctorum, which is bigger than others and has housed the statue of Hari Hara. But no statues are seen now. All are replaced by Buddha statues.
After this, we had plans to drive to the the Mebons and Thommanon. But my wife was feeling sick and we decided to go back to the hotel. In the evening we went to the see the “floating village” on the lake Tonle Sap. This lake is very interesting. It is a ‘big’ lake. It is formed by the river Mekong which starts from Tibet and flows thru China, Myanmar, Thailand, North Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam. It runs for about 4100 kms before joining the south china sea. Inside cambodia, the river forms a lake. This lake is about 160 kms long and 40 kms wide. One end of the river lies Siem Reap and in the other end lies Phnom Penh. There are ferry services between these two cities. It is a 4 hrs journey by lake. By road it takes about 7 hrs to travel between these cities. The floating village has been formed by the illegal immigrants from Vietnam, who fled Vietnam during the war and those who lost their limbs by landmine blasts. There are about 20000 people living in this floating village. They’ve got floating houses, shops, garages, a diesel station, a hospital, a school, restaurants and even a crocodile farm. The boat ride to the village is for about an hour. The boat takes us thru the village waterways. When the boat is halted at the middle of the lake for the tourists to take a good view of the surroundings, we could see small boys (mostly maimed) sitting on a small aluminium vessel, rowing with hands or a ladle, come near the boats and beg. It is really sad. I was talking to the boat driver and he said that many people born here have never seen the land before they died. Their life runs more on diesel than on blood. I was wondering if their life will ever change. We are calling ourselves a ‘civilised’ society. [This is indeed a complex situation. Cambodia is facing the same situation what Tamil Nadu is facing now with refugees from Sri Lanka. I dont know what we can do for these people and how we can overcome this situation.]
The day ended with such a poignant note. The sun had already set and we didnt feel like visiting any other place after this depressing boat ride and went back to the hotel. There are still many more temples to visit in the Angkor region. It seems atleast a week’s stay is needed to visit each of them and enjoy the richness of the heritage and culture. But even this short visit has made a permanent mark in my memories. I can never forget those 3 days. The hospitality of the cambodians is just too good. They have a brotherly affection towards the Indians. As an Indian, I was feeling proud that our ancestors had reached such distant lands from Myanmar to Vietnam. Later, after Gautama Buddha, people have shifted to buddhism. Lets talk about this in our coming blogs.
The next morning, we packed our bags and started our journey back to Singapore. The return flight was little longer as the flight had a transit at Da Nang, a coastal city of Vietnam, for an hour. Going back home by taxi, Singapore, though an ultra modern city, seemd to have lost the ‘human’ touch.

The Visit - Day 2

Day 2:
We started in the morning at around 8:30. Our itinerary for day 2 was Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat. On our way to the south gate of Angkor Thom, we saw a huge baloon. The guide told the baloon ride is available as there are no strong winds. So we decided to go for the ride and drove to the baloon station. The platform in the baloon can accomodate about 30 people. We waited for sometime for more visitors but nobody came. The operator decided to fly the baloon for just 3 of us. The baloon goes upto 150 metres above the ground. It is just about 1 km from the west gate of Angkor Wat and about 2 kms east of the airport. Took some aerial shots of the Angkor Complex. The ride was just for 15 minutes. But it was a fantastic experience. It costs 12USD per head.
We then decended and drove straight to the South Gate of Angkor Thom. One could see the scenes of ‘churning the sea of milk’ sculpted on either side of the pathway to the gate. To your left you see “devas” and to your right are “asuras” - tugging “vasuki”. Inside the Angkor Thom complex, there are numerous small and big temples & structures. The complex spreads over 500 hectares. May be bigger. The prime attractions inside the complex are The Bayons, Bhapuon, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King, Tep Pranom, Preah Palilay, North & South Kleang etc. There are many small structures too. But it is difficult to visit every single thing.
There are different modes of transport available. Taxis (mostly Toyota cars), Tuk-tuks (a funny vehicle - like our cycle rickshaw but attached to a 100cc motorcycle) and elephants. We chose to ride an elephant to go upto The Bayons. My daughter enjoyed it a lot. It is about a kilometer and a half from the gate. The Bayons is medium sized complex with 54 towers. Every tower looks the same as I had described in the earlier post. (see pic) The bas reiefs of various battles are sculpted on the “prahara” walls. Similar to the ones we see at Mahabalipuram. Inside, we climbed and climbed and climbed (sigh!!) and reached the bottom of central tower. The central tower is totally in bad shape and is not climbable. We went around the third tier and took some good snaps. It was bright and sunny. So I could get some clear and decent pics.
There is something worth mentioning here. To beat the heat, plenty of tender coconuts are available. The coconuts are so big, one is enough to quench the thirst of three people.
Then we visited the Terrace of Elephant and the Terrace of Leper King. These are located side by side. The Elephant Terrace is for the kings to view the performances. There are sculptures of Irawat (hree headed elephant) and Garuda. (Garuda & Hanuman are important icons in Cambodian culture. They beleive that when Garuda spreads his wings, it symbolises great power.) The Leper King terrace should have been the royal crematorium. We can see the statue of the leper king on top of the terrace. This statue is a duplicate and the original is kept in the national museum for security. There are two different versions about this Leper King. One is that he is Yasovarman II who suffered from leprosy was cremated there. Another version is Leper King actually symbolises “Yama Dharmaraja”, the god of death. The side walls are decorated with sculptures of “adi sesha”, asuras, devas, apsaras etc. They indicate their belief in heaven and hell.
Then we walked down to Tep Pranom. This is a shiva temple with a huge “swayambu” lingam. But the temple is totally in rumbles and the entrance is closed with stones fallen from the tower. We can just see the temple from outside. While we went around the temple and when I was busy trying an angle to take a snap of the tower, the guide noticed a small snake very near to my leg and shouted. Before stepping back, I took a snap of the snake too. Anyway, it was just lying there and didn’t bite me, luckily.
It was already 2pm and we went back to the city for lunch. At about 4 pm, we drove back to the east gate of Angkor Wat. The place I was dying to see for last many years. There were nobody else except the 4 of us. We walked down to the angkor complex. It was rather long walk. The temple just too big. It has 2 “praharas”, 2 tiers and 9 towers. The walls of outer “prahara” is divided into 8 “galleries” and each gallery (must be about 400 metres long and 5 metres high) has bas reliefs of many scenes. We started with the south side of eastern gallery. This gallery depicts the churning the sea of milk. The hill “mandara” is used as the shaft and the naga “vasuki” is used as the rope. Vishnu transforms himself into “koorma” (tortoise) and support “mandara” from the bottom of the sea. Shiva oversees the “project”. To the right side is devas and to the left is asuras.
We turn right (east of southern gallery) and this gallery depicts the existence of heaven and hell. The gallery is divided in to 3 horizontally. The upper part depicts the heaven with devas and apsaras dancing and gods. The lower part depicts the “punishments” in the hell (like frying in the oil pan, whipping, piercing with lances etc - this reminded me of the garuda puranam in the film Anniyan). Garuda stands between the heaven and hell in the middle part with his wings widespread as if he is “lifting” the heaven. They believe that there are 32 heavens and 32 hells !!
The west of the southern gallery depicts the life of Gautama Buddha. The south and north of the west galleries depict our great epic Ramayana. It took almost an hour to go round these corridors. Then we went into the complex. Again the steps to the second tier, where the sanctum sanctorum lies, are too steep. By now I had learnt the knack of climbing the steps and I climbed to the second tier. It is little tricky indeed. A huge Buddha statue in standing posture and another statue in sleeping posture (like Ranganatha) is found. There was big crowd of tourists marvelling at the architecture.
Then we climbed down and walked to the west gate. There is a small temple near the west gate where we can see the statue of Vishnu. This is the only temple, where the original statue is not replaced by buddha statue yet. And Angkor Wat is the only temple where people come for worship regularly.
By now we were tired. But we already had plans to watch the sun set from the top of the hillock Phnom Bekeng. This hillock is adjuscent to the south gate of Angkor Thom. It was already 5pm and our guide told us to climb up the hillock fast as the sun sets at around 5:45pm. With my daughter on my shoulders (already slept) we climbed up the hillock. It is not too steep but the pathway is narrow. It takes about 30 minutes to reach the top. There is a small temple complex on top of the hill. It is about 25 metres high. No need to mention that the steps are steep. There was a big crowd and I managed to climb up without stamping on the hands of people climbing up and down. (Yes…you need to use both your hands and legs to climb like rock climbing !!) On the top, to my astonishment, I saw a big crowd waiting to capture that moment the sun sets. There must have been atleast 3000 people. The view upto the horizon was clear with no hurdles. I think people must have been waiting there from 4pm itself. Many professional photographers had set their tripods and shooting. (I tripped on somebody’s tripod and he gave a dirty look.) I took some snaps while the sun was little high up but I was afraid that there could be a stampede if everybody starts climbing down immediately after the sun sets. So I came down immediately after taking a few snaps. We got down the hill and drove back to the central market to buy some souveniers.
Day 2 ended thus with some fantastic experiences and tired legs.

The Visit - Day 1

The visit
It just happened. There was a holiday fair going at Singapore Expo, which is near our workplace and on my way to home. I just stepped in and was looking around for the holiday options. I had a few spots in my mind to look for. Bali (Indonesia), Angkor (Cambodia) and Myanmar. On the first stall itself I found Angkor package (3D/2N return airfare + hotel) and seemed to be much cheaper than what the travel agencies were quoting. Booked it immediately. I was afraid I might decide otherwise if I think about anymore Then I searched the net and booked a taxi driver-cum-guide in Siem Reap thru mails. (http://www.talesofasia.com/cambodia.htm is an intersting site) Visas can be obtained on arrival at the Siem Reap international airport. But the Cambodian government has recently started issuing e-visas thru the net. It takes just 2 days to get approval. It costs 25USD per head and it can be paid thru credit card over the net. I booked it on a friday night and I got it approved the next morning. I just had to carry the printouts. [An important note to visitors. While there is a local currency Riel (1 USD = 4000 Riel), most of the transactions are in USD only. Including petty shops. Everything is quoted in USD. We can either pay in USD or Riels.]
And the day came. The Silk Air from Singapore flew us (myself, my wife and my daughter who is an year and a half old) to Siem Reap, the second major city in Cambodia. The flying time is just 2 hours. (The other major city is Phnom Penh, the capital city) We reached there at around 10 AM local time. Nov - Feb is the peak tourist season in Cambodia. So, there was a long queue at the visa-on-arrival desk but the e-visa counter was free and we were out in 5 minutes with our baggage. The taxi driver I’d booked thru mail was there to pick us up to the hotel. Our tour guide had already prepared a comprehensive itinerary to cover the near temples and the far away temples. The temples date between 2nd and 12th centuries and have been built by various Hindu kings. Most of the temples, mainly the Angkor Wat complex, have been built by Jayavarman VII. While previous kings have just built temples, Jayavarman VII has built tanks, hospitals, educational institutions also. Even now the general hospital is named after him.
Day 1:We checked in and we started right away. On day one we visited Prasat Kravan, Sras Sreng, Beantey Kdei, Ta Keo and Ta Prohm. Most of the temples are in dilapidated condition. The very architecture is to be blamed. The structures are large blocks of redstones stacked one over the other and built. Some birds carry and leave the seeds of (mostly banyan) trees in the gaps between the stones. These have now grown in to GIANT trees and the HUGE roots have ripped apart the structures. In most places, the entire structure has fallen down and one could see only the rumbles. It is pathetic. Every pillar in every temple is decorated with bas relief sculptures of dancing apsaras, scenes depicting the “great departure of Buddha”. One could also see the sculptures of “dwarapalaks” (the doorkeepers or guards) on either side of the entrance of sanctum-sanctorum. There are images of “yali” (a mythical animal) and Indra riding the Irawat (the triple headed elephant) sculpted on the door frames. The naga “Vasuki” (who was used as rope to churn the “sea of milk” to extract the elixir of immortality) is an important aspect in every temple. All balustrades (railings) in the pathways, stairs in the temples have their ends in the shape of the naga. This can be seen even at the homes, the railings on the bridges on the rivers etc. Another common aspect is the steps that lead to the temples. The steps are too narrow and too steep. The gradience is almost 80 degrees. The height to width ratio is like 3:1. So it is quite difficult to climb up the stairs. The ruins add to the difficulty. Climbing is at our own risk. I did some dangerous climbings at Ta Keo with my camera and camcorder around my neck.
Prasat Kravan : Once a temple for Vishnu and Lakshmi. No statue are found now.
Sras Sreng : A large square water tank with terraces and steps around the tank. Just like our Mylapore tank.
Beantey Kdei : ‘Beantey’ in Pali language means “a worshipping place”. This seems to be Shiva temple centuries back beacause I saw lots of sandstone platforms with “dhara” (beak) but no “lingam”. The towers (gopurams) are in the shape of “brahma” with 4 faces facing 4 sides and with a lotus (padmam) platform on top. This type of towers are found in almost every temple.
Ta Keo : This is actually struture built for the worship of ancestors. This proves that the people were following “animism”, a primitive form of religion before religions came to existence.
Ta Prohm : A temple for Brahma. I think this should have been the most photographed place after Angkor Wat. The giant roots have ruined the temple.
See the pics attached.
Many countries like Germany, France and India have taken up the restoration of some structures. Some historians from France and Germany have restored some temples in their personal interest. Almost every temple was built for either Shiva or Vishnu (localites call it as Vishnou). But all the statues have been replaced by Buddha. Even these statues dont have heads. It seems during the civila unrest (1975-79) miscreants and treasure hunters have taken away the heads of the statues and are now available in the museums in Europe, UK and the US.
In the evening, the guide took us to a restaurent, where every night a cultural dance show performed by local dancers. The show consists of traditional Apsaras dance, monkey dance, coconut shell dance and blessing dance. It was really nice. There are quite a few Indian restaurents (actually owned by Pakistanis !!) like New Delhi, Taj Mahal, Maharajah etc. The food was excellent (authentic punjabi dishes).
Day 2 in next blog.

The Buddha

Recently I visited Cambodia. Which used to be a Hindu country centuries back, is now a Buddhist country. For me, visiting Angkor Wat was dream long held. Honestly, only after visiting Cambodia, did I realise the ‘actual’ meaning of Buddha. May be many of you are already aware of what is Buddhism and who is Buddha. But for me, it was a real enlightenment. Will write in the coming blogs.