Imagine I was a temple (By Arjun)

I like to go to temple, but I have never thought to imagine I am a temple. If i get a chance to choose which temple, it will be a great honor. I will imagine to be the Brihidishwera temple.

I am build in Tamilnadu. I will see many people coming to me and praying god and goddess.
I was build 1000 ys ago by Raja Raja Chola.My height is 216 feet and 130000 tonnes of granite was used to make me.
I have a puzzle architecture and a wide base, which does not make me tlite even afer 1000 yrs.

The tallest stone in me is known as Kumbam.
It is is 81 tonne in weight. So put my stone up, they made a ramp as tall as the temple. Elephants, horses, and oxes pushed the stone up.

The bull of my temple is taller than a basker ball ring. I am not intersting?

Do you want to visit me?

Marvelous Madhya Pradesh

It was pooja holidays and we decided to go to Madhya Pradesh, my cousins reside there. Being in the central highlands, this is a great place to visit. It has uneven and rocky surface and hence lots of waterfalls.

Day 1 (Written by Aryan)

We started off our journey at 9 am, after having our breakfast. The first place which we visited was a waterfall called Kakada Ko at Mandu. I was agog and enthusiastic. It was a steep waterfall. Me and my cousins took great pictures. At 1 pm, we stopped for lunch beside a lake. We had packed food from home, and it was like a picnic lunch. We clicked few photos on the way. The tamarind tree was little exotic. The next place we visited was Jahaj Mahal, which resembled a ship. We roamed around the palace and Hindola mahal, which had seven underground floors.

The next destination was Rani Roopmati Mahal. It had a good rainwater harvesting system. The view was breathtaking, and by now we were tired by the steep climb.

As it was dinner time, we headed to Apna restaurant for dinner. It had fun games along with gigantic thalis. We rode the Tandem bicycle and played many games. We were totally knackered by the end of the day.

Day 2 (Written by Arjun)

We went to an Indoor park called Fundore. It had many rides. Few of them were free falling one and climbing the walls activitiy. Dada and I climbed the walls and we jumped from the top. It was bit scary, but we did it.

Then we also did go karting. I did that with Shruti didi. I fell twice. Dada and Mama went in another car. Dada drove that one.

Papa and Shitija took another car.

It was fun in Fundore.

On the way home, we went for window shopping at Reliance trends and somehow Dada got locked in the trail room. Papa was panicked, he devised ways and made Dada unlock the door.

Day 3 (Written by Aryan)

Day 3 was a scenic day as we saw amazing waterfalls and took great photos. We went to Omkareshwer, which is in the banks of river Narmada.

It was little crowded, and we stood in the queue. After the Darshan we went to restaurant on the bank of river Naramada and had sumptuous lunch. We were back home by 7 pm.

 

Day 4 (Written by Aryan)

During the day, my cousins and I were doing the R.A.K project. In the evening around 10 pm, we left home and visited Sarafa Bazar. The mere sight of food made us drool. So many exotic foods. We started with Momo, then to pani puri (10 flavors), the spiral chips, Dahi Vada, Kala Jamoon, Elephant foot fry, Rabadi, Sabudana and what not!!! Till 12: 30 pm, were hogging.

Day 5 (Written by Aryan)

At the early sparks in the morning, around 2 am, we reached Mahakaleshwer, another Jyotirling.

We waited in the queue till 4 am. Arjun and I had to wear traditional dhoti. At 4 am, the buzzle was on and the queue started to move. We got to do abhishekam to the lord and we sat in the temple premises to see the “Bhasm Aarti”. Bhasm Aarti was so divine. It was literally done from the ashes and lord wore and a bone necklace. It is said that, the Bhasm Aarti is so powerful that you can heal from any problem in your life. By 9 a.m. we reached home and we were tired. All of us slept like logs. I played with my cousins till 2: 30 p.m. and we saw a movie called SUPER 30. After that we buckled our shoes and went to Bangalore but we stopped a day in Nagpur to see my grandparents.

This trip was very different. There were a lot many breathtaking views and pilgrimage trips.

Thanks to my family and cousins, who made this memorable. My aunt's cooking is incredible.

Aryan and Arjun.

Skit by RK Narayan

Here is one short skit by us during Ganesh festival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-V1bybpN7w

Hooks in a presentation

Hooks is basically something to grab the listeners attention. Hoping to use hooks in my presentation.

In last week's Confident Communication class, we did a presentation on hooks and here is the youtube link.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSKN18W8FuA

Thanks to Deepma and Seema maa'm to help us record this video.

By Aryan

Book Review: Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer

Book Name: Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer

Author: Rick Riordan

Rating: 4.5/5


As an avid reader, after Harry potter most of you must have been in a quandary to choose between Percy Jackson, Magnus Chase and Heroes of Olympus. First, I finished Percy Jackson and now I started Magnus Chase. Here is the book review of the first book.


Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer is the book I liked. The story starts with Magnus being very hapless as he lost his mom: the person whom he loved the most. Magnus sleeps under bridges. The basic story is Magnus needs to stop Surt, who is about to cause doom everywhere. I am not going to tell you much about the rest of the story because hash tag no spoilers. This book is filled with full of adventures. One negative of this book is it is too long: 500 pages: OK for me but the font was also so small. I liked the way Magnus narrates his story. It is like we are in the book with Magnus. 


I would give this book 4.5 on 5 stars because I didn’t like the ending.

I wanted Surt to cause doom and the gods of Asgard fight it. My favorite character (you guessed it by now) is Magnus. He has all the qualities of a hero. 



I would end with a Rick Riordan quote “Go where your heart tells you to go otherwise it will be doom.”

Image courtsey: Google

By Aryan

Hobbies - Bird watching and Book reading

Did you know there are 129 million books in existence. Well, I am not a book worm and I don't like to always talk about books. However, reading has always been my stress buster. Due to my love of books, I started collecting feathers and bird watching. Wonder how??

Well, books and birds are not much related except for the B. But for me, bird watching started with book reading. Probably, the books I read were not that enchanting to catch my complete attention. Whenever I read a book in the morning, sitting in my balcony, I hear a lot of birds chirping. I may be a lubrocubicularist but when I see birds I leave the book. I am an ardent bird watcher now and a book reader too. I always wanted to go to Jurong Bird Park.Will go one day.

Once a bird saved my life —

When I was in 4^th standard I accidentally put a metal plate in the microwave and at that time I was reading Harry Potter. One sparrow came into our house window and was not letting me read. Because it chripped a lot, I went to kitchen and thankfully noticed this metal plate inside microwave. I thanked the bird and mocked myself for being so irresponsible. Hey, not my fault. Please ask J.K.Rowling to change her content of the book. I was totally engrossed that I didnt realize what I was about to do.

Anyway talking about birds. I want to conclude by saying "the reason why birds fly and we don’t is: we don’t have faith in ourselves!!!

Trip to Udupi, Murdeshwar, Mookambika, and Sringer

This is my first post this Summer. I got my results; all is well and I am promoted to grade 8!!

Before my memory slips away, I wanted to write about a road trip that we took to Udupi, Murdeshwar, Mookambika, and Sringeri.

Day 1
We left Bangalore around 8:15 a.m. The plan was to reach Udupi by evening 5 p.m. The way to Udupi was curvy. Obviously, the western ghats.. It felt like a roller coaster.

Udupi is 403 km from Bangalore, a coastal area known for famous Sri Krishna temple. We checked into a hotel called Srikrishna residency, which was 500 mtrs from the temple. We were searching for few places in makemytrip and goibio. However, we walked in straightway to this place and got a room. The prices shown by makemytrip and goibio seems higher than the actual price. Anyway, we checked in and left to temple around 6 p.m.

Temple was neat and clean and we could see small Krishna decorated with lots of Tulsi. After Dhrashan, we went to Woodlands restaurant and had a sumptuous dinner. As soon as we finished the dinner, we saw the temple chariot being pulled with lord Krishna. We also pulled it!! It was blessing that we got to pull the lord’s chariot.

 After dinner we headed to the hotel and slept.

Day 2
Morning around 8 a.m, we checked out of the hotel and had a quick breakfast.
After that, we went to Shani mandir. It is a monolithic god of 23 ft. The next destination in line was Ambalvadi temple, with lord Janardhana and Mahakali.
Around 9 a.m, we went to Malpe beach. It smells fishy but the beach was clean.
From the beach, we went on ferry to St Mary’s island. We climbed on a very good rock and perched there for some time. Awesome place. Sitting on the rocks, amidst the sea is different feeling.
Took some nice pictures and then voyaged back to Malpe beach. The scorching heat of the sun made me feel that I will evaporate. We ordered some ice creams. We wanted to wash our legs, but water was too hot. It was around 11:30 a.m.
We sat in our car with our sandy legs and the next destination was Murdeshwar.



Murdeshwar is known for lord Shiva. We reached around 2 p.m and we checked-in at one hotel called Dhenu, which promotes the holiness of cow.

We got refreshed and went to Murdeshwar temple around 4:30 p.m. There was a 249 ft tall gopuram and a magnificent statue of Shiva, which was 123 ft tall. We also saw a golden chariot.
We had good darshan and we enjoyed the beach view. Overall three temples and two beaches on day 2 was a great experience.

Day 3
Day 3 started with Arjun getting up very early and wondering what to do. Suddenly, we made an impromptu plan to visits the Murdeshwar beach. We had fun in the beach and played with waves. We got fully drenched. In between, mama thought I got lost and I was looking for mama. That saga goes on for every trip!! Overall, we had a pleasant time. After the beach drenching, we took bath and had breakfast. In between, Mama attended the cow pooja that the hotel performs in the morning. Around 9: 30 a.m. we checked-out and the next places was Mookambika temple. Mookambika, is a swayam bu and Shankarachya had a vision on this goddess. It is an amalgamation of trimurtis and tridevas. It is a serene temple but had to wait in a queue for half an hour. After darshan, we ate laddu and lighted ghee lamp. Had
lunch at a hotel called Mahalakshmi, which was very near to temple. After lunch, rejoiced on mango and chocolate softy.
Around 1:30 p.m., we left to Sringeri. The road to Sringeri was adventurous. So many roads were closed and the path was very curvy. By then I was dizzy and had to puke.

By 4:30 p.m., we reached Sringeri. Temple was gorgeous.

 

We had good dharshan and we decided to stay in Yatri Nivas, Sri math. It is a pilgrimage location and we settled on a simple room. We came out for coffee and had 2ft masala dosa. There was some hanging bridge on the Tunda river near to temple and dipped our legs in tunda river. We saw small fishes in the river. Clicked couple of photos from the bridge. The temple gopuram looked majestic in sun set. After that we got one toy gun with bullet for Arjun and then headed back to temple for prasad. They were serving hot rice, rasam, and sambar.
Good food and pious feeling. Nice breeze in temple and we felt divine. It was time to sleep.

Day 4

Day 4 was a travel day. Left Sringeri at 5 a.m and stopped at 6:30 a.m for coffee break. Reached Hassan around 9 a.m. and had breakfast. Then started our journey again. We reached back home at 11:45 a.m!!

Back to home sweet home

Attukal Pongala - 2019

I went to Trivandrum the second time for this auspicious festival -  Attukal Pongala.

It is the festival where women participate and make prasad for goddess Attukal devi.  This festival is on 20/2/19.

Attukal Pongala is the largest congregation of women for a festival in the world. Pongala, which means 'to boil over’, is the ritual in which women prepare sweet payasam (a pudding made from rice, jaggery, coconut and plantains cooked together) and offer it to the Goddess or ‘Bhagavathy’. The hearths of devotees are lighted only after the one inside the temple is lighted. The ritual can only be performed by women and the streets of the city are jam-packed with faithful devotees during the time of the festival.  It is believed that Attukal is the resting place of Kannaki, the great heroine of  chilapathykaram Kannaki proceeded to Kodungallor.  On the way she halted at Attukal for a while.  Knowing the arrival of Kannaki, the people of Attukal welcomed her by offering pongala. The famous ‘Attukal Pongala’ is celebrated in memory of Kannaki’s visit to Attukal.

Pongala festival has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest attendance of women on February 23, 1997. 1.5 million women had participated in that year's Pongala.

The whole city is lit with lights and everybody chants bhajans in these 10 days.

This time we reached Trivandrum 5 days before the Pongala. I was surprised to see the light arrangement. My cousins and I went in the night to see the light arrangement.

There is another ritual called Kuthiyottam. This ritual is performed by young boys of age below 12 years on the Pongala day - the final day of the ten-day festival. 

I am waiting for tomorrow, the Pongala day. My mother would do perform the ritual. Arjun and I am excited as we would be distributing juices and drinks to thirsty women, who do Pongala in the scorching heat.

Edited:
Pongala day went well. My mom made the prasad. Arjun and I distributed juices to all the ladies. After the Nivedyam, Attukal devi takes a tour and goes Manacaud shastha temple, along with Kuthiyottam kids. There were around 850 kids for Kuthiyottam!!
Overall the arrangements done by the Kerala government was good. Whole city is in the festive mood.

.

By Aryan.

PUFC not PUBG (Part 2)

In my previous post, I had mentioned about PUFC tournament 

(https://www.facebook.com/PUFCBangalore/). It is a tournament organised by few football enthusiasts - Pradeep sir and Shafik sir. 

Under 12 team

Under 9 team

We, the under 12 team called Rigel Strikers, was out of the league, though I was the man of that match. One match we played with the Parkville predators and they were predators in themselves!!!! Anyway, we were not qualified for semi-finals. However, Arjun was in the under 9 team called Eagle strikers and they were in semi-finals.

The semi-finals and finals happened on Sunday, Feb 10th.

The match began at 10:30 a.m.

It was a breath taking match. It was 2:2 when it was full time. Then it was time for penalty shootout.  Both the teams did 12 penalty shootout and still was draw!!!Even Arjun scored a goal.

When the next round of penalty shoot out started, we lost!!! 

We got third position and couldn't reach the semi-finals. However, the team will get medals and certificates. Kudos to under 9 team.

It was fun for three weeks. Now, I should be back to the reality of studying for annual exam. Looking forward for more tournaments like this and will do my best.

By

Aryan

PUFC not PUBG (Part 1)

I am really excited about PUFC. Yes, I am right; It is not PUBG, it is PUFC (Player Unknown Football Championship).

This is an initiative by a group of football enthusiasts, who are organizing tournaments for budding players in the neighboring apartments.
Check out their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PUFCBangalore/

Pradeep sir was an awesome commentator. Not only he had vigilant commenting skills, but he was also a good observer in selecting the man of the match.
Shafik sir had tremendous patience in handling all our questions and was cordial in arranging the whole event and managing all the teams.
Hats off to both of them.

Arjun and I are part of Rigel Strikers and Eagle Strikers team.
We enjoyed playing the match this Sunday. Looking forward for the next one.

Aryan

GIIS Srijan 2019

Today was our Science and Art expo at GIIS. All the students prepared charts, models, posters, and we had to display to our parents.

I was in English skit and SST project. Arjun was in Yoga.

We went in the school bus and my parents came around 10 a.m.

First, they went to Arjun’s class. It was well decorated class and all kids were happy and cheerful. Many models were displayed. Yoga corner had the most fun. All the kids started to do the asanas’ and they were counting till hundred.

After that they came to my class. I was with the SST team explaining about Qutub Minar. My parents saw all projects and now it was time for my skit.

We performed the skit very well. We were all well-coordinated.

Arjun and I enjoyed today. 

Thanks to GIIS school for hosting GIIS Srijan 2019.

Many volunteers were around and they were helping parents all the while. KUDOS to the GIIS team and kids. My parents appreciated the efforts and looking forward for more such events.

Aryan.

The Amazing Dubai

I know, I am very late to post few updates. However, better late than never.
In the month of December, we visited Dubai - Our first international family trip.
It was exciting and thrilling one.

As a coincidence, after we came from the trip, I had to make a travel brochure. Hence, picked up few pictures and made it based on our trip. This becomes my travelogue.

 By Aryan