Mammalla Puram / Mahabalipuram / Mahabs

Mahabalipuram

UNESCO Link: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/249

The Challenge: http://gounesco.in/ A  travel challenge which takes you to all the UNESCO world heritage sites across India over the period of one full year. 

Travel Group: 

• Anuradha Goyal ( http://anuradhagoyal.blogspot.in/) & 
• Sriram ( @bhsriram on twitter) 

Getting There: (From Chennai) : 

• SETC Bus from Koyambedu, 
• or any bus that you can find on the ECR [East Coast Road] going to Mahabalipuram

Staying/Boarding Options Used:  www.Couchsurfing.org  Robert Kennedy Sava .


Food: Multi-Cuisine @ the Bob-Marle-Cafe 


Getting Around: 

• Rented Self driven Moped 
• @ ₹150 for Four Hours (200 Per Day) [Petrol not included] , 
• Place to be rented 
• Othavadi St (Picture included in the blog)

The Real Chow! :

Our journey started with taking a bus to Mahabalipuram from Chennai [2 Hours]

We couch surfed with Robert who let us keep our luggage at his place & let us freshen up a this place. 

Tried in vain to hire an auto to get around the place.  As usual as it is in India, the auto-walla-anna, quoted a princely sum of ₹600 for a 3 hour ride around town totaling no more than... may be 15 Km.

Just then we noticed a place that advertised "Moped's on rent", found out the price which was pretty decent (Details Above)

From the Othavadi St, we headed off to the southern most of the monuments , The Rathas and continued northward in completing the group of monuments :

• Rathas / Monolethic Temples
• Mandapas / Cave Temples
• Structural Temples (Shore Temple) 

It took us about 4 hours to complete all of these. 

We went back to our CS host for dinner @ this restaurant which was PRETTY EXPENSIVE (₹950 for 1 Beer + 1 Starter + 2 Entrees + 1 Staple [Rice] ) by Indian standards .

We wrapped up the trip after dinner and went back to the ECR to hitch on a Volvo to Chidambaram. 

Are these doomed universities? (Click Link 4 Article)

What bench mark are we basing the comment that these 44 Deemed universities are doomed universities ?

How many of the UGC/Government universities in this country have earned a Nobel in any field since independence?

Government control of education is never a great idea. Until the Information highways opened up with the Internet, all we were taught in our GOVT UNIVERSITIES are subjects from out dated books. How manny of these baseline so called wonderful government universities have produced world class labs or technology or policy or anything compellingly life changing and empowering?

Instead of trying to set education free and trying to promote plurality and empowering education we are now getting ready to stem the much needed change we started after 60 years of nation building...whose results we all know about.

How many of our kids go abroad trying to get world class education ? shouldn't this be a marker for government in trying to set its own act straight in reforming its own universities, before blaming the private counterparts?

On Corruption (Click Link 4 Article)

Speaking of Corruption:

~Where does it exist?...MOSTLY in the government enterprise.

~Why does it exist?...Because the public servant can get away with gouging people for the lack of a TRANSPARENT system with effective controls where the person reporting corruption is neither a part of the investigation nor the end poin t of closing of the case.

~ What are these Trasnperency & Safeguards?...A citizen should have easy, free & anonymous access to complain and track reporting any forms of corruption and should be a part of sentencing in penalizing the corrupt officer. Officers should be PERSONALLY made liable for their acts of negligence and abuse of authority and power.

~What would be the single most effective step in trying to uproot corruption?...TAKING OUT THE JOB GUARANTEE FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES. MAKING THEM EMPLOYABLE ONLY UP TO TWO YEARS AND THEREAFTER REQUIRING THEM TO RE-QUALIFY FOR THEIR POSTS WITH A PROVEN TRACK RECORD.

Denied porn, youth kills grandmother (Click Link 4 Article)

This is the classic case of the Indian family overshadowing and over protecting the kids.

The guy is 21 years old, he has no freedom to watch what he wants???

When guy has the right and duty to vote and select the government, he has the right to choose what he wants for himself which the family over shadows.

The strongest urge a human being has, is his sexual instinct. And when safe means to satisfy that urge (Watching Porn) is denied, I think you should face the consequences, which the grandmother did.

The grand mother has absolutely no right what so ever in reprimanding the 21 yr old in telling him what he should do.

The parents should be able to set the rules right after kids turn 18 that it is not their right to live at home any more. It is the parents that need to make it clear to their children that beyond 18, they are let to live at the parents as a perk and not their right, and that they need to compromise on whatever it takes for them to make the life of their parents more comfortable and not just them too.

I would blame it equally on the parents and the 21 yr old in case of this incident.

Losing an Edge, Japanese Envy India’s Schools (Click link 4 Article)

Folks,

I am gonna be REALLY sarcastic now, Hmm...So much so for the 3rd world teaching techniques we use, If reading 20 by 2 years, and using computers by 3 is called being edgy education, I wonder why we always remained and continue to remain a country of literate ppl and not educated.
Indians are known as miracle workers world over for their abilities, but too bad, not too many of us who are educated ONLY IN INDIA are almost good for nothing other than able to make your pay check at the end of the month.

A country in the west could afford to say Indian school are great...but knowing both sides of the coin, I would say, I would rather be educated than well literate like an average Indian.

:)

Sonia provoked me: Narendra Modi (Click link 4 Article)

So what Mr.Chief Minister, She has the freedom of expression, doesn't she?

You are not morally fit to be in any public office of any kinds for trying to say some one legally exercised their freedom of speech which you aren't able to amicably disagree with.

You are a prejudiced factionist who's true colors have come out today by the statement you gave out.

Bigoted people like you are a threat to a democracy.

Rape case victim was an adulteress: Saudi Arabia (Click link 4 Article)

What the heck, the point is whether or now she had an affair, the point is the archaic & barbaric law of the Saudi's. Not whether the woman went out of marriage.

The husband could have had more than one wifes to satisfy his carnal desires; this is not illegal. But why this discrimination against a woman ?

BECAUSE THE KORAN IS BEING INTERPRETED TO BE SAYING SO???

Get over it, the Law Ministry of Saudi. You should realize that you are not living in the desert kingdom of the middle east in the time period of 7th century AD.

This is the modern world, moralities have changed. This is the age of individual liberties & not a world run by archaic illogical and discriminatory customs.

If your rich can do whatever they want in the confines of the plush gated communities; The ladies of your royal family can take charter flights to Miami and sun bathe in a bikini….this tells that your laws are ending up as only instruments of oppression to the common man. When your royals, who are supposedly and MORALLY to be the upholders of the law aren’t in to follow it...in other terms...your socialites have no true regard for your (Saudi)law in practice or spirit, why are you trying to rub it on to people?


"A law should follow the path of present day realities"; Law that doesn’t meet the realities of life is nothing but a sham against civil society.