Coorg women are gifted wine makers

Coorg women are gifted wine makers. It is said, “Gift a Coorg woman a bouquet of roses, she will thank you politely and as soon as you are out of sight, she will rip off the fragrant petals and turn it into wine”. So you see Coorg women can transform anything and everything into wine that catches their fancy. Cashews, rose petals, rice, raisins, plums, berries, passion fruit and even hibiscus. Unbelievable, right? 

Variants also include "Pomegranate", "Beetal Leaf", "Ginger", "Sapota" wines. There's a lady in Coorg who also makes the world's best home made "Apricot Brandy". Female guests at family functions love all these flavors without the worry of getting drunk!! 

Homemade wines are sugary, full of flavour and fragrance. Passion fruits form the ingredient of their wine making as these trees with juicy and rich flavoured fruits grow galore along the hills of Coorg, Karnataka, India.

P.S: Content curated from Cheers Coorg.

A day's drive to Kotilingeshwara Temple, Kolar, Karnataka which boasts of the tallest Shivalinga in Asia

The Kotilingeshwara Temple lies in a very small village named Kammasandra in the Kolar district. The temple is extremely famous because of the largest and the tallest Shivalinga present in Asia. More than 2 lac devotees visit this temple every year.

Maha Shivaratri is a special occasion and a large number of devotees make it a point to be there on this auspicious day. The temple can be easily reached from the gold fields of Kolar.

Kotilingeshwara. Image courtesy Mithila

The Shivalinga is 33 mts tall. It has an accompanying Basava statue which is 11 mts tall and is surrounded by a large number of Shivalingas spread across the area. The project involves an establishment of one crore shivalingas hence it is named Kotilingeshwara and currently, there are about a hundred lakh shivalingas.

Kotilingeshwara Temple. Image courtesy pponnada

Quick Facts about Kotilingeshwara Temple, Kolar

The best time to visit: between July and January.Address: Kodilingam Temple Road, Ghattakamadenahalli, Kolar-563121 (Map)Timings: 6:00 AM- 9:00PMEntry Fee: INR 20 per personCamera Fee: INR 100 per cameraParking Charges: INR 30Linga Installation Fee: Starts from INR 6,000

Panoramic View of Kotilingeshwara Temple. Image courtesy Visurao4all

History of Kotilingeshwara Temple, Kolar

This temple has been constructed by Swami Sambha Shiva Murthy in the year 1980. The first linga was installed in 1980 and since then there have been many lingas present in the temple. There is also a huge and tall Nandi installed beside the linga. The Nandi is 11 mt tall and sits over a huge platform.

Within the premises of the temple, there are about eleven other temples for different deities. The first of them includes the temple of Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma, and Lord Maheshwara temples. This is followed by a temple of Lord Kotilingeshwara.

Kotilingeshwara Temple. Image courtesy Pponnada

The temples include Goddess Annapoorneshwari Temple, Goddess Karumaari Amma Temple, Lord Venkataramani Swamy Temple, Lord Panduranga Swamy Temple, Lord Rama, Sita and Lakshmana Temple, Lord Panchamukha Ganapathy Temple, Lord Anjaneya Temple, and finally Goddess Kannika Parameshwari Temple.

The Government has declared this temple as a tourist spot so that hundreds of tourists from across the World can come and pay their respects to the largest Linga in Asia. Two flower trees, named one Nagalinga and Cannon Ball are located here, and many unmarried women pray for a blessed and happy married life.

Kotilingeshwara Temple. Image courtesy Pponnada

Poojas at Kotilingeshwara Temple, Kolar

Daily poojas are performed at all the installed Shivalingas by the priests every day. The pooja is carried out with music and drums and all the priests recite mantras as well as pour water on the lingas.

The devotees can also offer special poojas by installing the lingas. These lingas can be installed on any day chosen by the devotees in their names. Regular poojas will be carried out and offered to all the lingas installed.

Kotilingeshwara Temple. Image courtesy Pponnada

Facilities at Kotilingeshwara Temple, Kolar

There are rest houses constructed for devotees in the temple premises. In addition, free mass marriages are performed here every year. This is carried out by priests with drums, music and chants. Currently, there are around twenty weddings performed every week. There is also a meditation hall built for devotees who wish to meditate in peace.

Kotilingeshwara Temple. Image courtesy Mithila

How to Reach Kotilingeshwara Temple, Kolar

By Road

If you want to reach the temple by road, you need to head through Kolar. Kolar is at a distance of 2.5 hours from Bangalore. Kotilingeshwara Temple is a day's drive from Bangalore and back.

Harley-Davidson from Mumbai meets a ship of the desert in near Kumbhalgarh Fort, Rajasthan, India

It was near Kumbhalgarh Fort in Rajasthan, India where a Harley-Davidson from Mumbai, almost 1200 kms away crossed paths with a ship of the desert, viz. camel.
India is one country where one gets to see a $160K LandRover Evoque sharing a highway with a $40K Harley or Indian and with camel carts strolling past at easy pace. It's a country of mixed demographic profile. Come to India. Do a 'backpacking India on road' and also 'be my car travel buddy in India'.

Photo courtesy: Bharat De.

PanchaMukha (five-faced) Hanuman Temple is 2 kms from Rameshwaram temple in Tamilnadu, India

PanchaMukha (five-faced) Hanuman Temple is 2 kms from Rameshwaram temple in the state of Tamilnadu, India.
Here Hanuman is dressed with vermilion. The temple also has deities of Rama, Sita and Hanuman which were originally at Dhanushkodi but were brought to the temple site after the killer cyclone in 1964. A few of the floating stones called 'Sethu Bandanam' supposedly used for building the ancient bridge between India and Sri Lanka are carefully preserved in the temple.

By worshipping PanchaMukha Anjaneyar, one can get rid of enemies with the help of Narashima Mukha, overcome all types of Dosha with the help of Garuda, get all types of wealth with Varaha; and get Gnana with Hayagriva.
At this temple, there is an oil-fired lamp next to lord Ram which has been kept burning for over three decades. Panchamuga Anjaneyar’s huge idol is open to the sky without any canopy on top. It is believed that the 700 years old temple at Dhanushkodi, was also destroyed during the cyclone in 1964 and some of the 'moorthams' (idols) were brought here.

Temple timings: 6:00 AM to 12:00 Noon, 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Assam's 126-km long twin bridges will be India's largest

The longest bridge in the country will come up in Assam soon. Twin bridges running along 126 kilometres will stretch from Sivasagar in Upper Assam, connecting the river island Majuli to the rest of the state.

“The project, running up to Rs 15,000 crores, has been sanctioned by the Centre. A South Korean company is working on a detailed project report (DPR) which will take a year to complete,” Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told DNA.

The bridges, Sonowal said, will start at the Nitai Pukhuri bridge in Sivasagar, pass via the Tekeli Phuta bridge in Dhakuakhana, from where the bridge will trifurcate and connect Majuli island at the ports at Kamalabari and at Nemati.

Majuli, the biggest river island in the world, was earlier part of the Jorhat district, and is Sonowal’s constituency. He had promised to declare Majuli a district and build a bridge to connect it to the mainland. Majuli has now been declared a district.

Sonowal also said the state is also working on the island’s problem of erosion. “We are working on a project to dredge the riverbed so that it can hold more water. This will allow for the passage for ships of up to 10,000 metric tonnes via the river,” he added.

The CM said that the sand that will be deposited on both sides of the river will be converted into national highways to stop the erosion. Sonowal added that the idea was mooted by the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari.

Waterways as a mode of transport has been largely ignored, he said. “The British used the Brahmaputra to transport Digboi’s oil, Margherita’s coal and Tinsukia and Dibrugarh’s tea, on to Bangladesh via the Padma, and then on to other parts of the world to develop a global trade environment. The river is the cheapest mode of travel. If rail transport costs you a rupee and road transport Rs 1.5, river transport costs only 30 paise,” said Sonowal.

Source: DNA, New Delhi dated 2017-04-01.