Dood’s Photo of the Day

Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 9th July’08

I have posted the image of this temple before too, when I took it from a bridge far far away. Today as I was passing by this temple, I decided to go inside and take some nice shots. I walked around a mile to reach the entrance of the temple only to find out that no photography or videography is allowed inside.

It is such a shame that a spectacular work of art like this is kept away from a photographer’s lens. I managed to get this one from outside the front boundary.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 6th Jule’08

Each time I used to cross the bridge near Chennai central, this statue mounted on a tall minaret used to remind me of the famous statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro . Almost the same posture, but a bit smaller in size & darker in shade, Jesus in this stance seems to give a message of universal acceptance.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 1st July’08

Religion is very tightly interwoven in the Indian social fabric. India is home to all major religions of the world – Islam, Christianity, Buddhism & obviously the one followed by the majority; Hinduism. Hindu temples can be found almost every 200 meters all over the country.

Presenting Gods with different offerings is one of the Hindu rituals. These offerings vary from flowers to fruits & all other kinds of eatables and non eatables. As is true with other aspects of Hinduism, there are no rigid rules or guidelines for these offerings.

I clicked this one at the Chamundi temple in Mysore. These flowers and coconuts were kept on display at a small shop, waiting for some devotees to pick them up and take them on their journey towards God.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 2nd May’08

She is the Mexican goddess of darkness & she is believed to ride a dark chariots pulled by ferocious lions. Mexicans, like all other faiths in the world, have their parallel embodiments of good and evil.

This particular idol installed at one of the road roundabouts in Mexico city was looking simple awesome with lush green surroundings and fountains splashing all around it.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 5th Mar’08

An ancient temple, standing on a tall bed of rocks, overlooking the vast stretch of blue sea, flooded with hundreds of tourists – a perfect combination for a picturesque landscape.

This is one of the popular tourist attractions in the small city of Mahabalipuram, some 60kms from Chennai. From a distance you can see this perfect scenery in one eye span. It looks like a page torn from a calendar of natural sceneries.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 30th Jan’08

Akshardham temple in New Delhi has recently earned the distinction of being the world’s largest “Hindu” temple. Situated on the banks of river Yamuna in east Delhi, this temple provides a magnificent view to the people touching the adjacent highways and connecting roads. A huge lush green premises and a monstrous concrete structure, the whole view is hard to be contained in a one complete eye-span.

I was passing through the area when I stopped on an adjacent flyover and took some photographs. Though I couldn’t capture the temple right from the front due to angle restrictions, the side-shots didn’t come as bad as expected

Click here to see one more shot of the temple.

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City of Delhi, as almost all other cities in India, is full of big and small temples. At every second corner and on every third street you can find some fourth god glorifying the place. The idols vary in shapes and sizes and so do the temple premises. Given the variety in the forms Hindus have given to their faith, you can find a potpourri of different divine residences.

I found one such temple on one of the back-streets of east Delhi. Instead of sitting “inside” the temple, I found this magnificent figure of Lord Siva blessing the mere mortals in and around the place.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 18th Jan’08

Different people start the day in different ways. Some sleep out the whole morning, others hit the gym while many can be seen thronging their abodes of faith. This small next street road-side temple can be seen flooded by early morning devotees who prefer to offer their prayers to the almighty before proceeding with their daily chores.

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