Series of Escape Spots for Kids during summer vacations - Innovative Film City

One among the few escape spots in / around Bangalore, is Innovative Film City (just like they mention in the FM jingle ad)...This place is about 50 Kms away from the centre of Bangalore enroute to Mysore.

Perhaps built on the idea of matching a theme-park that is equivalent to a Disneyland or Universal Studios or our very own Esselworld of Bombay / Mumbai in everything that they have to offer. And perhaps not even a judicious attempt to try and match Innovative Film City with the famous brands present or rather benchmarked in India in the plethora of rides and games they offer to the visitors.

Although different by a huge degree in comparison to Esselworld and perhaps considered by it's owners / management committe as one of the best in it's own class; inaugurated in 2006 by H.D.Kumaraswamy; it still has a but a fingerful (yes, not handful) of rides that barely manage to impress those looking for excitement and thrill. The very reason they escape out of their comfy nests to let their hair down, relax and chill out, to have a break from the 5 day rigorous employee-employer relationship.

Heavily priced (combination rides) at `499 and `299; utterly non-judicious combination of rides to go with the monies given...more than 70% of them rides are not even 25% as genuine as they should be; heavily mismanaged and disorganised in terms of handling the crowd at each game / ride. So no matter what and how hard or best you try, if your day is planned from morning 8/9 AM to 4/5PM, you would surely end up missing a few games / rides in trying to make the most of them in the interest of time and making the best of day light available and also while the kids are in the best of their behaviour and mood.

Your very own cameras (digital still & video) are charged separately at `100 and `200 respectively for god knows under what protocol. The tickets are not verified at the counter for neither the combination package you paid for or the camera equipment you may be carrying. You always have your superb phone cameras these days that serves the purpose of capturing the moment and that too a minimum 5MP. Not sure what would the committe have to say to phone cameras...???

The shooting games are over crowded and utterly mismanaged as there are visitors trying to get at least 5 tries at one game while they get the chance.
The 4D theatre is the worst of all in terms of being crowded - stand in the queue from 4PM and expect to witness what you vied for by 7PM; at any point in time at least 5 games or rides are under maintenance or out of order in the them-park; mind you these are also included in your priced combination. So surely not a genuine attempt at giving what the visitor paid for...or perhaps a genuine attempt at fleecing the visitor off his / her money.

But if you are a parent, then you would only perhaps look for your kids' happiness and excitement at the end of the day. A definite rating of at most 5 out of 10.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not and Fossil / Dino Park is perhaps 2 among at most 5 items of attraction that will perhaps keep your excitement half alive; so keep these for the last.

Will try and post a collage of photographs; you may like some of the games / rides in here, especially the Bungee ride... :o) And if you wanna have fun you can choose to stick to a select few rides / games but ensure you alternate, shuffle and mix your turns among the rides you choose, else that chap behind the counter will surely recognise your face even if the lights go out in the dark! ;o)

Happy Outdooring / Theme-Parking experience.

Tirupati, Tirumala - Srinivas - Lord of 7 Mountains; By far the Wealthiest God in the Whole Wide World!

Chant Venkatramana-a Govinda-a-a, Go-o-o-vinda-a-a!!!

Srinivasa and Balaji is a form of the Hindu God Vishnu. It is believed one of the several meanings of His name, Venkateshwara is also the Lord who destroys the sins of the people. Not sure if Venkateshwara is a conjugation of 2 words...etymologically meaning to basically to say The Supreme Lord and Destroyer of Sins in the Kali-yuga.

According to the revered & sacred Hindu scriptures (Puranas), Vishnu, out of love and affection towards His devotees, reincarnated as Venkateshwara. To deliver, resurrect and uplift Humanity from difficulties, destruction and evil in this Kali-Yuga (the age of contention, discord, greed, quarrel, strife, vice and everything that is anti-wellness, anti-progress, anti-happiness); this form is considered to be the most supreme form of Vishnu in this age. His temple is also referred to as Kali-yuga Vaikuntam.

The Divine Meeting: As always, the plan was a face to face meeting with the lord of 7 mountains. With great belief & faith, that the lord himself had beckoned us cheerfully and imagining him calling us with a beautiful smile, the serene broad forehead decorated with a pure white Tilaka (Lord Venkateshwara Style), calm beautiful eyes glittering full of warmth and hope, the dark cheeks gleaming with his enticing appearance, palms showering blessings on every devotee in the world who may have heard of Him or seen Him or even thought of Him!

The first belief is, you get to visit and see Him only if He wishes to! So, no matter what your plans are, be mindful of this fact.

Of the several other beliefs, another is once this meeting is scheduled and you are all set; when you enter the sanctum sanctorum for His Sri-Darshanam, is that once after you are face to face with Him; incase you get to see any visible part of His always heavily decorated divine body (with fresh flowers, gems, jewels, silver, gold) during the Sri-Darshanam, if you manage to capture the moment in your memories, remember and recall it willfully, until the next visit, consider yourself blessed as then His blessings are believed to be with you always!

Unaware of this, did not know the action to take the first 2 times we met, but ever since and each time time we met, always made it a point to look at His bright, calm, compassionate, divine, smiling visage, OR His palms, that are perpetually showering blessings Or His feet, where the whole wide world is believed to lie and devotees prostrate in complete voluntary submission seeking attention, blessings, and mercy for every sin committed. Also made it a point to take a lot of photographic memories back with me. :o)

The ever increasing heavy security, video cameras relaying real-time feeds about queue situations etc., scanners, et. al. make you feel the place is nothing less than many Fort Knox and all the Global Banks put together. The immedaite exterior areas around the sanctum sanctorum is where you get to witness the very reason for such ever increasing heavy security measures day & night - Brahmin Sevakas counting all kinds of currencies that devotees have donated. The words am looking for are perhaps nothing short of He is Simply The Richest God in the Whole Wide World!

This is a little story I heard from my Father-In-Law about His Wealth...and this is what occurred during the divine ages...The beauty of Hinu Mythology is that every story has a story which started with another story as the main cause. So a story preceded by another story preceded by another story and so on... So here goes.

Lord Vishnu (a.k.a Srinivasa) descended to earth in the form of a mortal body and looking for MahaLakshmi, who left Vaikuntha and Her Lord Vishnu for a reason (another story) descended earth to reside in Karavirapur (a.k.a Kolhapur). Lord was forlorn and decided to go after His beloved Wife and reached earth too. Divine are the reasons in the way the Lord works; No science and logic will ever explain why He does what He does. Anyways, back to the story, His arrival on earth was also to resurrect a king who committed a sin unawares. So, Lord Srinivasa decided to stay in Varaha Kshetra and requested Sri Varahaswami to grant Him a site for His stay, which was readily granted. Srinivasa ordained that a pilgrimage to His shrine would not be consiered complete unless preceded by a bath in the Pushkarini and darshan of Sri Varahaswami and that Pooja and Naivedyam should be offered to Sri Varahaswami first. Vishnu built a hermitage and lived there, attended to by Vakuladevi who looked after him like a mother.
Sometime later, a King named Akasa Raja (this is the king who will be resurrected later) was ruling over Thondamandalam. He had no heirs, and therefore wanted to perform a sacrifice. As part of the sacrifice, he was ploughing the fields when his plough turned up a lotus in the ground. On examining the lotus, the king found a female child in it. He was happy to find a child even before he performed a sacrifice and carried the baby to his palace and handed it to his Queen to tend to it. At that time, a divine aerial voice said "O King, look after her as your own child and good fortune will befall you". As she was found in a lotus, the king named her Padmavati. She grew up as a princess into a beautiful maiden and was attended by a host of maids.

One day, the Lord, who was hunting, chased a wild elephant in the forests surrounding the hills. The pursuit led Him into a garden, where Padmavati and her maids were picking flowers. The sight of the elephant frightened the Princess and her maids. But the elephant immediately turned around, saluted the Lord and disappeared into the forest. Lord Srinivasa, following the elephant on horse back, saw the frightened maidens. However, He was repulsed with stones thrown at Him by the maids. He returned to the hills in haste, leaving His horse behind. The Lord informed Vakuladevi that unless he married Princess Padmavati he would not be calmed.

The Lord then narrated the story (another story) of Padmavati’s previous birth and his promise to marry her. After listening to Srinivasa's story of how he had promised to marry Vedavati in her next birth as Padmavati; Vakuladevi realised that Srinivasa would not be happy unless he married her. She offered to go to Akasa Raja and his Queen asking for the marriage. Enroute, she met Padmavati's maids returning from a Shiva Temple. She learnt from them that Padmavati was also pining for Srinivasa. Vakuladevi went along with the maid servants to the Queen.
Meanwhile the King & Queen learnt about Padmavati's love for Srinivasa. He decided to go ahead with the alliance after consulting Brihaspati. Lord Kubera (Lord of Wealth), lent money to Lord Srinivasa to meet the expenses of the marriage. Lord Srinivasa, along with Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva started the journey to the residence of Akasa Raja on his vahana Garuda. At the palace entrance, Lord Srinivasa was received by Akasa Raja with full honours and taken in procession on a mounted elephant to the palace for the marriage. In the presence of all the Devas, Lord Srinivasa married Princess Padmavati, thus blessing Akasa Raja / resurrecting him. Together, they lived for all eternity while Goddess Lakshmi, understanding the commitments of Lord Vishnu, who then chose to live in His heart forever.

So, in order to repay the sum borrowed back to Lord Kubera, Lord Srinivasa's devotees continue to submit themselves in His care and attention, also offer material possesions (as a sacrifice and token of gratitude and thanksgiving for having heard and fulfilled their needs) to His Hundi which is believed to be a contribution from the Human kind in repaying Kubera's loan and thus He continues to pay till date.
Millions of devotees throng the Tirumala Hills practically round the clock throughout the year. So you can imagine the amount of good will, hope, blessings, positive energy emanating and touching every devotee visiting this place and ofcourse everything else associated with these when these converge at one divine place.

Lord Balaji! Lord Venkateshwara! Lord Vishnu! Lord of 7 Mountains!

Belief, Comprehension, Myth, Perceptions, Philosophy & Spiritualism

Myths apparently are self-consciously paradoxical descriptions, subjective facts & truths expressed through rituals & stories. The path to mental peace, soulful happiness, knowledge & skillful excellence and therefore immaterial & material success lies in leveraging, practicing & utilising the power of these subjective facts & truths in Personal & Professional Life, Management & Business activities.

Certain occurrences that are beyond human comprehension / belief / perception / understanding are conveniently categorised as Fiction / Imagination / Myths / Hallucination / Hypothesis.

Apparently to Man, the word Myth is but a concept CREATED by Man to conveniently & comfortably shield himself / herself from the truth; the incredible; the unknown & the unbelievable. A pseudo concept formed to foolishly convince & insulate himself / herself and the lesser intelligent folks from events & facts that may have genuinely taken place in history (centuries or millennia or eons ago) that are beyond his / her perception / understanding / comprehension.

For instance: Just because certain things are not visible to the human naked eye, does not imply non-existence. Plenty of Wealth in any currency or form is not an everyday sight that is common to everybody, does not imply it does not or cannot exist...similarly just the way one cannot see his / her own back (although totally understand that there are many means available today to see), does not mean it does not exist...one cannot see the insides of one's own body, does not mean the insides don't exist; similarly if one does not / cannot see God / Demon, clearly does not imply non-existence; however visibility can be obtained through the various means available and bear in mind these could also be visible in the various means or forms in the world today.

End of the day, it is all about what you believe in, why and how much you believe in it for it to seem real / rather appear real or even manifest itself into the real thing for you.

Thought for the day: Always remember that when Man proposes; God disposes. And God will Always Give what you Need and not what you Want!

Please feel free to share your thoughts too as would love to hear different thoughts & perspectives. The World is an Interestingly Beautiful & a Wonderful Place after all.

All the very Best
Aparna & Shekhar

The thoughts or views being shared in here are purely based on personal belief, comprehension, perception & understanding.

360° to Life - The various approaches. :o)

360° to Life - The Several Steps and Approaches