SMD Technology India Update

31 July 2007 was our last day in Bangalore. We had a get-together dinner with all the employees at the Pravitha restaurant at 6.00pm.

But first, some scenes of the factory. Gathering around trolley with IC trays.

Gurusamy and Vijayalakshmi at the office. Front row: Vijayalakshimi, Shashiprabha, Kasthuri and Poornima.

Back row: Dharani, Srikanth, Kannan, Tamil Selvam, Vijai Anand, Satish(driver) and Sudhakar.
On our last day in Bangalore, we had dinner with the staff.
Poornima, Shashiprabha, Kasthuri and Shankar.

Dinner over, it was casual chat.
Looking at images captured on the video.

Handphones also come in useful in taking pictures.

Mysore, Nanjangud and Cauvery Dam

1. The Mysore Palace

Mysore was a kingdom of southern India founded by 2 brothers in AD1400. They started the Wodeyar Dynasty from 1400 until 1947 (except for a short duration governed by Tipu Sultan) when it merge with the Union of India.

There are several entrances to the palace, but this appears to be the main one.

Ticket counter.
After showing entrance ticket, we got around here to have some pictures taken.

Part of the palace ground wall.
Approaching the main palace entrance. After this point, no photography allowed.

Inside the palace, elaborate wall, door and ceiling wooden sculptures everywhere. Floor are mainly proceline tiles, some worn and chipped. Only 1 room is opened to public, the rest of the maybe hundreds of rooms securely locked. There is also a large collection of painted pictures of the Wodeyar family on displayed.

Robert, Rama and Frank.
Frank and Robert standing at open space at the front of the palace gallery.

2. Nanjangud Temple

The town of Nanjangud is about 30 mins drive from Mysore. It has this Hindu temple where devotees and tourists went to give prayer or to receive blessings from the priest. It has several dieties, including statues of Hindu gods and goddesses.

The temple at Nanjangud. No photography allowed inside the temple. There are several dieties inside the temple and Hindu priest blessing devotees and tourist like us. Pillars were constructed from rocks, in fact the whole building was constructed from rocks.

Gurusamy, Shanker, Robert and Rama.
The temple complex.

3. Cauvery Dam and Park

The Cauvery dam was constructed across the Cauvery river that flows from the state of Karnataka to Tamil Nadu, supplying water to both states. At the site of the dam, there is this beautiful garden with water features, a crowd puller causing people congestion at the site as well as motor vehicle jamming up the 2-way country road leading to the dam.

A big crowd 'queuing' to buy tickets to enter the Cauvery Dam Park. When we left 2 hours later, the same size crowd was still there.

Taking a picture with tallest man in India? Price 10 rupees.

Robert, Shanker, Gurusamy, frank and Rama at the park.
A section of the crowd.
Robert standing by the cascading water.

We had a snack of either ground-nuts or muruku.
It was evening. At the far end is the musical fountain. At about this time, people were moving towards the musical fountain, non-stop movement of people moving from the right side of the lake (the left side is the wall of the dam), thousands of them, wanting to watch its display on this Sunday evening.
We had our dinner at this restaurant mid-way back to Bangalore. There were several of these huts and also tables in the open ground, we occupied one of these huts. It was the usual Indian fare of Nan, tanduri chicken, etc...almost in the dark. It was a long day for us. Gurusamy dozing off in the car.

Mahabalipuram Visit

Mahabalipuram, an ancient city built during the 7th to 9th century by the Pallava Dynasty, lies 60km south of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is along the Coromandel Coast facing the Bay of Bengal. Its amazing temple complex of stone works earns itself a place in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This was the start of our exploration of the temple complex.
Frank, Shanker, Robert and Gurusamy standing in front of Ganesa-Patha Shrine, carved out from monolithic stone in AD665-680.

Nature's gift to mankind?
Standing in front of Varaha Cave. Note that all the pillars are supported by mystic animals.

Stone sculptures on temple wall, queen or goddess surrounded by ladies.
Mystical figure and human sculptures on temple wall.

School children with their teachers on field trip.
While most parts are intacts, some seem to be still under construction at that time.

Stone steps leading to the bathing pool carved out of the monolithic stone.
This was bathing pool for the Queen during the Pallava Dynasty, now filled with algae and water plants.
The Mahabalipuram Light-house.

This is the Mahishamardini or Mahishasuramarthini Cave Temple housing Lord Siva. Devotees knock the pillars to hear the sound coming out of it. Myths and facts were intertwined in their beliefs.
Sculpture on the wall of the temple depicting some ancient tale. Notice the bull's head on human body on the right.

Bala at the top of the temple.
This view was taken from the top of the Mahishamardini temple. On the horizon is the Bay of Bengal and the coast line.

Skill stonesmiths crafted these statues for sales.
Ancient temple near the sea coast. During the 2005 tsunami, the receding water removed some of the sand by the coast exposing the tops of ancient temples and it is now known that up to 7 temples were now buried under the sea.

Stonesmiths at work. With modern technology like tungsten-carbide cutter available, it will be alot easier to cut the stones unlike their forefathers in the 7 century.
Stone artifacts for sales in one of the many shops there.

Another ancient temple off the East Coast Road. Unfortunately, we don't have time to explore it as we have to return to Chennai to catch the 5.30 Express train to Bangalore.
On the right side of the main temple. One quick look and we were on our way back to Chennai. We have to say goodbye to Mahabalipuram, having visited one of the world's greatest heritage from one of the world's cradle of civilisation ie India.