ಚಿಕ್ಕೆರೆಲಿ ಎದ್ದ, ದೋಡ್ಕೆರೆಲಿ ಬಿದ್ದ....

ಗಣೇಶ ಹಬ್ಬ ಬಂತೆಂದರೆ ಅದೊಂದು "ಹಬ್ಬ" ವೇ ಸರಿ. ಹಿಂದೆ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಮನೆಮನೆಯಲ್ಲೂ ಗೌರಿ ಗಣೇಶರನ್ನು ತಂದು ಕೂರಿಸಿ ಅಕ್ಕ ಪಕ್ಕದ ಮನೆಯವರನ್ನೆಲ್ಲಾ ಕುಂಕುಮಕ್ಕೆಂದು ಕರೆಯುವ ರೂಢೀಇತ್ತು(ಈಗಲೂ ಇದ್ದರೂ ನಾವಿರುವ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಸದ್ಯ ಪಕ್ಕದ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಎಂದು ಗೊತ್ತಿದ್ದರೇ ಹೆಚ್ಚು.
ಚಿಕ್ಕವರಿದ್ದಾಗ ಈ ಹಬ್ಬ ಬಂತೆಂದರೆ ಮೊದಲನೆಯ ಸಂತೋಷದ ವಿಷಯ - ಶಾಲೆಯ ರಜೆ! ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯ ದಿನದ ನಂತರದ  ಮೊದಲನೆಯ ಸರ್ಕಾರಿ ರಜೆ ಬಹುಶ್ಯ ಇದೇ  ಇರುತ್ತದಾದ್ದರಿಂದ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಅದಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಕಾಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು. ಇನ್ನೂ ಆಗೆಲ್ಲಾ ಸುಮ್ಮನೇ ಹೋಗಿ ಎಂದೂ ಹೊಸ ಬಟ್ಟೆ ಕೊಂಡವರಲ್ಲ ನಾವು....ಹಬ್ಬ ಹರಿದಿನ ಶುರು ಆಯಿತೆಂದರೆ ಹೊಸ ಬಟ್ಟೆಗಳ ಕೊಳ್ಳುವಿಕೆ ಶುರು ಹಾಗೂ ಬಟ್ಟೆ ಅಂಗಡಿಯವರಿಗೆ ನಿಜವಾದ ಅರ್ಥದಲ್ಲಿ ಹಬ್ಬ.
ಇನ್ನೂ ಸಿಹಿ ತಿಂಡಿಗಳ ವಿಷಯದಲ್ಲಂತೂ ಹಬ್ಬವೆ ... ಗಣೇಶನಿಗೆ ನೈವೇದ್ಯಕ್ಕೆಂದು ಅಮ್ಮ ಸಿದ್ದಪಡಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ತಿಂಡಿಗಳನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ನೈವೇಧ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಕದ್ದು ಮುಚ್ಚಿ ಹಾರಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಆ ದಿನಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಎಷ್ಟು ಮಜ ಸಿಗ್ತಿತ್ತು... ಆದರೆ ಇಂದಿನ ಲೈಫ್‌ಸ್ಟೈಲ್ ನಿಂದಾಗಿ ಏನು ತಿನ್ನೋಕೆ ಮುಂಚೆಯೂ ಎರಡು ಸಾರಿ ಯೋಚಿಸುವಂತಾಗಿದೆ.

ಈ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟ ಸಂಗತಿಯೆಂದರೆ ಬೀದಿ ಬೀದಿಯಲ್ಲೂ ಪೆಂಡಲ್ ಹಾಕಿ ತರಾವರಿ ಗಣೇಶ ಕೂರಿಸಿ ಕಡಲೆ ಉಸುಲಿ ಪ್ರಸಾದ ಮಾಡಿ ಹಂಚುವುದು.
ಮುಂಚೆಯೆಲ್ಲಾ ಹಬ್ಬದ ದಿನ ಸಂಜೆಯಾಯಿತೆಂದರೆ ಸ್ನೇಹಿತರ ನಡುವೆ ಪೈಪೋಟಿ ಏರ್ಪಡುತಿತ್ತು. ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ತಮ್ಮ ಬೀದಿಯಿಂದ ಶುರುಮಾಡಿ ಎಷ್ಟು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗುತ್ತೋ ಅಷ್ಟೂ ಬೀದಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಹೋಗಿ ವಿವಿಧ ರೂಪ, ನಾನಾ ಬಗೆಯ ಗಣೇಶನನ್ನು ನೋಡಿ ಯಾರು ೨೧ಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ನೋಡಿದೆವು ಎಂದು ಮಾತಿನಲ್ಲೆ ಸೂಪೀರಿಯಾರಿಟೀ  ತೋರಿಸಿ ಖುಷಿ  ಪಟ್ಟು, ನೋಡಿದ ಗಣೇಶಣ್ಣನು ತೋರಿಸಲು ಕರೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು. ಇದೊಂದು ದಿನ ಮಾತ್ರ ತಾಯಂದಿರು ಬೀದಿ ಸುತ್ತುವ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಒಪ್ಪಿಗೆ ನೀಡಿ ಕಳಿಸುತಿದ್ದರು.

ಈ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಒಂದು ಸೊಬಗೆಂದರೆ ಇದು ಕೇವಲ ಒಂದು ಮನೆಯ ಪೂಜೆಯಾಗಿ ಉಳಿಯದೆ ಒಂದು ಪ್ರದೇಶದ ಜನರನ್ನು ಒಟ್ಟುಗೂಡಿಸುವ ಶಸ್ತ್ರವೂ ಹೌದು.(ಈ ಹಬ್ಬವನ್ನು ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಸಾಮೂಹಿಕ ಹಬ್ಬವನ್ನಾಗಿ ಮಾಡಿದ ತಿಲಕರಿಗೆ ನನ್ನ ನಮನ) ಹಾಗು ಚಪ್ಪಾಳೆ ತಟ್ಟುವಂತ ಸಾಂಸ್ಕೃತಿಕ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಗಳನ್ನು ನಡೆಸಿ ಕಲಾವಿದರಿಗೆ ಪ್ರೋತ್ಸಾಹ ನೀಡುವ ಸಂದರ್ಭ ಕೂಡ.

ಕರ್ತವ್ಯದ ನಿಮಿತ್ತ ತಂದೆಯವರಿಗೆ ಬೇರೆ ಊರಿಗೆ ವರ್ಗಾವಣೆಯಾದಾಗ ನೋವಾಗಿದ್ದುಂಟು. ಆದರೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿನ ಸಡಗರಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಂಡು ಬೆಳೆದಂತೆ ಅದು ಮರೆಯಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಒಮ್ಮೆ ಗಣೇಶನೊಂದಿಗೆ ಟ್ರ್ಯಾಕ್ಟರ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಕ್ಯಾಂಪಸ್ ಪೂರಾ ತಿರುಗಿದ ನೆನಪು ಇಂದು ನಮ್ಮ ಬೀದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಗಣೇಶನ ಮೆರವಣಿಗೆ ನೋಡಿ ನೆನಪಾಗಿದೆ.

ಚಿಕ್ಕವಳಿದ್ದಾಗ ಆ ರೀತಿಯ ಸಡಗರವಾದರೆ, ಓದು ಮುಗಿಸಿ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡಲು ಶುರುವಾದ ಮೇಲೆ ಈ ಹಬ್ಬವೂ ನನ್ನ ಕಲಾ ದಾಹಕ್ಕೆ ಒಂದು ಅವಕಾಶವಾಗಿ ಬರುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ತರಾವರಿ ರಂಗೋಲಿ ಹಾಕಿ ಗಣೇಶನ ಚಿತ್ರ ಬಿಡಿಸಿ ಅದನ್ನು ನೋಡುವುದು ಬಾರಿ ಸಂತಸ ತರುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಕ್ವಾರ್ಟರ್ಸ್  ನಮಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲರ ಪರಿಚಯವೇನು ಅಷ್ಟಾಗಿ ಇರದಿದ್ದರೂ ಒಮ್ಮೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿನ ಹುಡುಗಿಯರೆಲ್ಲ ಸೇರಿ ಗಣೇಶನ ಪ್ರತಿಷ್ಟಾಪನೆ ಮಾಡುವ ಯೋಚನೆ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೆವು. ಅದನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ನಮ್ಮ ತಂದೆ ತಾಯಂದಿರಿಗೆ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದೆ ತಡ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ನಾ ಮುಂದು ತಾ ಮುಂದು ಎಂಬಂತೆ ಸಹಾಯಕ್ಕೆ ಬಂದು ನಾವು ಮನೆ ಮನೆಗೂ ಹೋಗಿ ಹಣ ಕೂಡಿಸಿ ಗಣೇಶನನ್ನು ಕೂರಿಸಿ, ಹೂವು, ತೋರಣ ಹಾಗೂ ರಂಗೋಲಿಗಳಿಂದ ಬೀದಿಯನ್ನು ಅಲಂಕರಿಸಿ, ತಾಯಂದಿರು ಮಾಡಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟ ಸಜ್ಜಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಸಾದವನ್ನು ಹಂಚಿ ಸಂಜೆಯ ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿನ ಎಲ್ಲ ಹಿರಿಯರು ಹಾಗೂ ಕಿರಿಯರಿಗೆ ಕೆಲವು ಆಟಗಳನ್ನು ಆಡಿಸಿ ಸಂಭ್ರಮದಿಂದ ಗಣೇಶನನ್ನು ಕಳಿಸಿಕೊಟ್ಟೆವು. ಹೀಗೆ ೩ ವರ್ಷ ಮಾಡಿದ ನಂತರ ಕಾರಾಣಾಂತರಗಳಿಂದ ಸುಮ್ಮನಾಗಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟೆವು.
ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗೆ ಅಷ್ಟೊಂದು ಸಡಗರ ಕಾಣದಿದ್ದರೂ, ಅಲ್ಲಲ್ಲಿ ಪೆಂಡಲ್ ನೋಡಿ, " ಇಷ್ಟಾದರೂ ಉಳಿದು ಕೊಂಡಿದೆಯಲ್ಲ!" ಎಂದು ನೆಮ್ಮದಿಯ ಉಸಿರು ಬಿಡುವಂತಾಗಿದೆ.
ಈ ಬಾರಿ ಮದುವೆಯಾದ ಮೊದಲ ಗೌರಿ ಹಬ್ಬವಾದರೂ, ಕೆಲಸ ನಿಮಿತ್ತ ಪರದೇಶಕ್ಕೆ ತೆರಳಿರುವ ಪತಿಯಿಂದಾಗಿ ತುಸು ಬೇಗವೇ ಅಮ್ಮನ ಮನೆಗೆ ಬಂದು ಸೇರಿಕೊಂಡರೂ ಹಬ್ಬದ ದಿನ ಊರಲ್ಲಿ ಇರದಿದ್ದುದರಿಂದ ಈ ಬಾರಿಯ ಹಬ್ಬವೂ ಇಲ್ಲದಂತಾಯಿತು. ಹಬ್ಬ ಬಂತೆಂದರೆ ಅಮ್ಮ ಬೇಗ ಎದ್ದೇಳು ಎಂದು ತಲೆ  ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತಾಳೇ ಎಂದು ಸಿಡಿಮಿಡಿಗೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದ  ನಾನು ಈ ಬಾರಿಯ ಹಬ್ಬ ಸವಿಯಲಾಗಾದಿದ್ದಾಗ, ವಿದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿನ ಸ್ನೇಹಿತರು ತಾವು ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಪುಟ್ಟ ಗಣೇಶನನ್ನು ಪೂಜೆ ಮಾಡಿ, ಫೋಟೋಗಳನ್ನು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಂಡಾಗ ನಾನು ಈ ಬಾರಿ ಕಳೆದುಕೊಂಡ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಮೌಲ್ಯ ಅರಿವಾಯಿತು. ಹಬ್ಬಗಳು ನಾವು ಭಾರತೀಯರ ಒಂದು ಅಂಗ ಎನ್ನುವ ಮಾತು ಎಷ್ಟು ನಿಜ ಎನ್ನುವುದು ತಿಳಿಯಿತು. " ತೆ ಫ್ಯೂಚರ್ ಆಫ್ ಆ ಕಂಟ್ರೀ ಲೈಸ್ ಇನ್ ತೆ ಹ್ಯಾಂಡ್ಸ್ ಆಫ್ ಯೂತ್"  ಪುಣ್ಯಾತಮರು ಹೇಳಿದ್ದು ಕೇವಲ ರಾಜತಾಂತ್ರಿಕ ವಿಷಯಕ್ಕೆ ಮಾತ್ರವಲ್ಲದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶದ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ ಕಲೆಯ ಉಳಿವಿಗಾಗಿ ಸಹ ಎಂದು ಅರಿವಾಗಿ ಇನ್ನು ಮುಂದೆ ಎಂದೂ ಸಹ ಹಬ್ಬಗಳನ್ನ ಮಿಸ್ ಮಾಡಬಾರದೆಂದು ಅಂದು ಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದೇನೆ.
ಸರಿ ಈಗಷ್ಟೇ ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಮುಗಿದಿದೆ, ಪಿತೃ ಪಕ್ಷ ಶುರುವಾಗುತ್ತಿದೆ.,... ದಸರ ಹಬ್ಬ, ಜಂಬೋ ಮೆರವಣಿಗೆಯ ದಿನಗಳು ಬೆರಳೆಣಿಕೆಯಷ್ಟು ದೂರದಲ್ಲಿದೆ. ಓ ಇರಿ.... ಇನ್ನೂ ಗಣೇಶನ ಉತ್ಸವ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಲೇ ಇದೆ. ಕೆಳಗಡೆ ಮೆರವಣಿಗೆ ಬರ್ತಾ ಇದೆ, ಹೋಗಿ ಪೂಜೆ ಮಾಡಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಬರುತ್ತೇನೆ.... ನೀವು ಹೋಗಿ ಒಂದೆರಡು ಹೆಜ್ಜೆ ಹಾಕಿ ಗಣೇಶನನ್ನು ಬೀಳ್ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಬನ್ನಿ. ಮಿಸ್ ಆಗಿದ್ದರೆ, ಬೇಜಾರು ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಡಿ.... ದಸರಾದಲ್ಲಿ ದಾಂಡಿಯ ದರ್ಬಾರ್ ಇದ್ದೇ ಇರುತ್ತದೆ, ಅಷ್ಟರಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋಗಿ ಕೊಲಾಟಕ್ಕೆ ಕೋಲು ಕೊಂಡು ತನ್ನಿ....

ಆಟ

ಚಂದಿರ ಕರಗಿದ ಮೋಡದ ಒಳಗೆ
ಭಾವವು ಬಾರದು ಯಾತಕೋ ಹೊರಗೆ
ಕಾಣದ ಕೈಯದು ಆಡಿಸಿದ ಹಾಗೆ
ಮನವಿದು ತೇಲಿದೆ ಜೊತೆಯಲಿ ಹಾಗೆ

ಇಂದಿಗೆ ಇಲ್ಲದ ಮುಂದಕೆ ಸಲ್ಲದ
ಹಿಂದಿನ ಬದುಕದು ಬಂದೀಗ ಕಾಡಿದೆ
ಬೆಮ್ಬಿಡದೆ ಕಾಣುವ ನೆನಪಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಗುತ
ರೆಪ್ಪೆಯಲಿ ಅಪ್ಪಿ ತೇಲಿ ಬಿಡಬೇಕಿದೆ

ಇರುಳಾದ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಗಲೊoದು
ಹಗಳಾದ ಮೇಲೆ ಇರುಳಿರಲೆoದು
ಒಬ್ಬರಿಗೆ ಇರುಳ, ಒಬ್ಬರಿಗೆ ಹಗಳ
ನೀಡಿ ಕೂತನಾತ ತಾ ಆಡಲೆoದು

ಆಟ ನಡೆಸಲೆ ಬೇಕಿದೆ ಈಗ
ಸೋಲೋ ಗೆಲುವೋ ಆಡು ನೀ ಬೇಗ

Shore in the city !!!

Though a travel freak, I must admit I had somehow not travelled to this happening place in South India. Just the mention of Rajani, the boss gives you an idea of the place I am talking about.

Yes, from the hot idlis, to the varieties of chutney,dosa,sambhar and the heated politics between the amma and the talai to the weather,... everything here is Hot!!! :) Yes am talking about Chennai!
Except that once I spent a few hours in Chennai, I knew nothing about the place. When one of my friend decided to marry in his hometown,I got yet another chance to explore a place - so much heard but  never visited and I didnt want to miss out any chance.

The best art about the wedding here was that it was early in the morning and after our breakfast we planned to cover two places as we had to catch the train same night.
And here I will try to give a very short update about our visit and here it goes:

Dakshina Chitra: We didnt need any local guides as we had couple of frenz from this place and they planned out this trip in such a way that we saw many places in a single day without any hurry. And thanks to the Chennai broad roads that we were never stuck in the traffic for long unlike our own Bangalore.

Dakshina chitra is something I can compare to a museum like our Janapada loka in Ramanagara. This place is unique in its style and as its name says, gives a overview of whole of South India. It has  many houses or the models of different families of south India, few to mention are : the chettinadu, kerala,dakshina kannada,nambiyar. I am sorry that I didnt spend enough time taking pictures of all the places as we were rushing to cover the whole place in order to see them. One can learn a lot about the history of several cultivating families,the occupation of the people of different provinces. It is very pleasant to see that the houses are neatly maintained and along with the feats to the eyes, you can listen to the carnatic music which plays in the background and feel at your granny's place or recall the times when your mom used to wake you up early in the morning with that particular MS subbalaskmi s suprabhata.I hated it then but now I just wish to see those days of where the ladies of each house of the streets would wake up early morning and draw rangolis as we kids would stand behind them rubbing our tiny winy eyes :) .
Each house is neatly named and has the rangolis in place to welcome you to the house and the house holds the household utensils very authentic of those days and style.I was very impressed with the very artistic wooden cradle ,walker for kids, the rain harvesting techniques used in those days.

If you happen to go to Chennai for a visa stamping or for a day, do visit this unique place and get to know the history of south indian houses and relive it for an hour or so!
Not to forget the shops within the premises which sell artistic drawings,handicrafts,jewlery - everything under one roof and girls, I am sure will love this part !

Mahabalipuram: situated around 30km from Chennai this place is worth a visit and the best part is about the drive. This reminded me of my Karwar trip with a drive on the coast and the weather was generous enough to let us enjoy the place.On the way to Mahabalipuram we just had a glimpse of the Open theater - a concept where people sit in thier cars and watch a movie on the Big screen ( You would have seen this in "Shivaji" movie), The Golden Beach. Mahabalipuram has a beautiful archaelogical site and I would not like to bore you with the history part of this place but would like to mention about the beautiful pancharatha of the Pandavas, cave temples and the Shore temple on the shores of the beach. The temple linga is destroyed but it is nice to see a temple on the shores of  the beach standing the wear and tear caused by the high tides and the wind.

We sure had fun shopping in the streets and while many of our friends enjoyed playing in the water, me and few of my friends stayed back in the beach building castles.It brought back memories of school days where we built castles and also reminded of not buliding castles in the air :)

With the sun setting, we got a hint to pack up and get back to our rooms to attend the reception party of Bharat and Ramya and after a tasty meal and with a very pleasant memory, we set back to namma bengaluru. Thanks To Bharat and Ramya and hearty wishes to them once again!

If not for our local guides Danny,Muralo and Ballu I dont think we would have had such a wonderful trip and a hearty thanks to you guys too!

Pictures of Dakshina chitra:

Beautiful pillars

The tiles

Musical Instruments

The Puppets

Us in one of the houses,  think it was Nambiyar

Shopping in Dakshina chitra

Happily shopping and of course, bargaining!

Few pictures of Mahabalipuram:

Details:
Dakshina Chitra:
Link iwth complete details:http://www.dakshinachitra.net/scripts/locationtimings.asp

Mahabalipuram:
Wiki link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabalipuram

Places in and around Chennai :
Marina Beach
Prarthana Open Theatre
Golden Beach
Elliot's Beach
Mayajal

Hangout in Vienna and Germany

On one fine morning, I was informed by manager that I would be travelling to Germany for a ten day period.This initially didnt excite me as always a trip to new place would do and may be it was because I had to travel all alone and that would be a difficult task being a talkative gal I am :).

I had one weekend which I could use for sight seeing over there and suddenly realised I had a friend,Anil PJ in Austria who was eagerly looking for some company to roam around and discussed about a trip and finalised to visit Vienna where he stayed.
Finally the day came when I had to travel and I was praying and hoping to see some snow fall in Germany where the weather was kinda sunny and no signs of snowfall.But it didnt disappoint me for long as well :)

My stay there were filled with meetings and discussions and meeting the develpopers but the evenings were all for myself where I roamed around Mannheim city.

Mannheim is a central place with decent crowd and you wouldnt get bored once you enter the place called parade platz which is like quadrants and has all sort of shopping malls overe there.You could visit Galleria, a shopping mall there for all good stuffs at reasonable price.But make sure you roam around and check out stuff before you make a purchase as you might be tempted to spend too much on the variety of chocolates you see in various shops.

I couldnt resist comparing Germany with our own country, though I felt I shouldnt. The trains and buses, trams were so on time, with all details provided in the platforms.Though people dont look so
friendly to outsiders, they never hesitated from helping, if you went up to ask for a help.I realized it many a times while travelling in train.

Automobile is one thing which cannot stop talking about. You can find all makes of cars over here and the beautiful roads supporting them to glide thruogh.There are roads called Autobahns where you
can drive without any speed limits and there is cut off only on minimum speed you can be on that road which is 60 km (can u imagine such roads here in Bangalore??? :D )

My lonelyliness grew with days passing by and I was waiting for the weekend where I could meet my friend and started my journey to Vienna on friday evening.With lots of fears of traveling alone, I
set my step into the train in Frankfurt and I felt safe with company I gotto travel to Austria.It was nice to know that people there talked about our so called Bollywood adn spoke about the songs and dances in movies :)

On reaching Vienna, we set out to iceskiing spot,"Semmering" as planned by PJ. There was no sign of snowfall anywhere on the way and I was kind of disappointed.

Hoping for a snowfall, We put on those heavy gears for skiing and set to do some skiing(if at all we did!) falling and raising all through.... Suddenly I could see flakes falling on and Yes Snowfall had started and the first snowfall of my life left me thrilled and amazed.We spent our whole day there. the long walk in the snowfall was something which I loved a lot where we missed our way back and found it again, much before our departure train arrived.

The Next day we went to Schunnbrunn palace in Vienna. I will not write about the history of the palace but its simplicity. The palace looked very simple from outer view but was rich in interiors.I cannot provide the pics here as we were not allowed to click pics of the palace. One can see the King's simple life and the Queen's lavish and the craze for Chinese art.You can see couple of room walls all filled with the flower vases designed in Chinese art.The whole palace areas is so huge and beautiful with ponds inside and a view point to see whole of the place from a height.It has one big zoo with lots of animals which I hadn't seen back here in India. I loved the maintenance of the zoo and felt pity for the animals in our own Bannerghatta national park.I heard from my friend that the place is best visited during summer to see the plants and trees in full color.

The pleasant stay in Austria ended so fast with Vienna sending me off again with a snowfall.

Our team colleagues had arranged for a visit to Blackforest one day after office hours. The Black forest valley looked so beautiful in the evening and I thought of going back during summer.The drive was very pleasant with a drive in a 2km length tunnel which was built under the river Rhine and through the valley where many Russian families resided on  small hills with their big Bungalow kind houses. The view reminded me of the scenes from "walk on the clouds" movie.

On reaching the Black forest, I found a lake called mummelsee which was frozen due to the cold weather.My colleague helped me with the legend prevailing there about the place.It was supposed to be filled with spirits who helped the villagers and which the father of the spirits didn't like. Since it was late in the evening, we couldn't spend much time overe there and headed to a local restaurant ending the day with delicious food served.Also the place is famous for the kukuwah(kuku watches) and you could bring home one of it if you wish to listen to it every hour :)

Finally my days in Germany came to an end with lots of mixed kind of memories and chocolate shopping :)

Places visited: Vienna, Semmering
Famous for : Palace,Ice skiiing.

Blackforest: Hill station with view through valleys.
Shopping: Kukuwah

Shopping which is worth : Leatherbags,jackets,kitchen knives,chocolates.
If you happen to shop ni Galleria in Mannheim, make sure to collect a duty free bill/slip they provide you along with your invoice.This can be showed in Germany consulate to avail the taxed amount

back into your pocket.

Stay: My stay was in Mannheim in "Intercity Hotel" situated very next to the central station. The best part about this hotel was that it provided complimentary train pass which I could use to travel through that zone.

Places you could also visit:
If you have enough weekends ort free weekdays, you plan to see many places within or out of Germany.You should feel lucky to visit Germany as it is a neighbour to several beautiful countries that none of your weekends g waste, if you are one travel freak.You could choose to go to Heidelberg,Struttgart which are very close to Mannheim and as heard, have beautiful castle(Mannheim too has a castle and a museum )
If you would like to go further you have many other places within Germany or else you could also plan to visit Paris,Swiss,Prague,Venice,Rome or Madrid and have a splendid trip.

Adding some more pics clicked in the palace zoo and many others....

Beautiful railway stretch

Empty Vienna streets early in the morning