Marianne's Guest Book

Posted: 2006-03-24 05:23 PM   
Mari,
After reading your messages, I feel I may have mis directed you by saying "smaller diety". Here's more on offerings that may help explain the other words too.
A typical and most common for of worship in Hinduism is worshipping or making offerings to idols (which are respresentations of certain forms of power) The 3 most common forms are Brahma(creator), Vishnu (sustainer) and Shiva (destructor). In most temples these forms are manifested in a an idol that forms the center of worship. There can a Main Idol- the form/power that the temple depicts and others too. I shall elaborate in an email and maybe send you pictures too because you seem interested.
So in a temple dedicated to Shiva, there are other idols too - but the idol/figurine of shiva would be the biggest or most prominent.
So in saying "smaller" - i actually meant in size of the idol there - not really in terms of power or other interpretations that could be likely.

Offerings and meanings in next....

Posted: 2006-03-24 01:43 PM   
....Bold? ...count the pixels (also white)!

...Also, make no mistake, we need and read your reports because they are informative and interestingly written in very good english. If the reports were pages long, yes, I agree but they are limited anyway by the amount of characters.

Alsos, there are about 10% of members that only look only at the pictures, these members also say they 'read' magazines but realy don't read, just LOOK! Now you, Marianne, like to encourage members to skim our reports? I will ask staff rather to forbid the use unless it can be responsibly used.

Skim reports - NOT MINE please, even if they are short and inferior.

RR :- (

Posted: 2006-03-24 12:37 PM   
Sorry, I was preoccupied with a lot of other stuff and did not find time to respond to your questions.

Yes, I am from India (native of southern India), but raised in Northern India.

We've been living in the USA for over 6 years now...and will hopefully be back in India soon.

Thanks for sharing your vauable experiences in India!

Best Regards
Akhila

Posted: 2006-03-24 12:34 PM   
Hi Marianne,

The Parassinikkadavu temple in Kannur is dedicated to the hindu lord named by locals as 'Sree Muthhapan" - a from that is a combination of 2 hindu gods 'Shiva" and "Vishnu". there are 2 dieties in the temple one depciting shiva named "thiruvapanna" and the other "Vellatom" - vishnu. Typically the larger diety costs more than the smaller one for offerings/decorations.

Theyyam - also a tribal cult/performance - incorporated as part of a religious activity in the temple depicts that temples in Hinduism were not merely places of worship, but centers for activity and culture.

I had to cut short my message because of limited space here.

Please feel free to ask, if you need more information.

BR
Akhila

Posted: 2006-03-24 11:47 AM   
You say bold-type makes skimming (which I know from school books) easier but do you really want readers to just skim over your reports? It encourages them to. I think only place names should be in bold. Why then not bold "brown beans with coconut"?

I think your reports are brilliant and the bold-type useful but a bit over-used, specially in the Gokarna report where is seems about a quater of the text is bold, looks messy! RR

Posted: 2006-03-24 10:23 AM   
It would be nice to contribute and read other material. My free time for reading and writing is limited at the moment, but I can usually find some way to get something done (I am doing some academic research). Please send me any information that you wish, as it would be nice to further discuss travels. I can usually lend a Latin-American perspective.

Russ

Posted: 2006-03-24 10:12 AM   
Are you still writing on our other travel site? It was a pleasure to see many of my friends from this site on the other one. You are an important contributor there, as well as here.

Please continue traveling and sharing your experiences. It is always enjoyable to read about your wanderings.

Russ

Posted: 2006-03-24 09:55 AM   
hi again marianne

yes.. i bought bangles too .. lots of them from jaipur and delhi. must add that the jaipur ones were the best design wise. *hint* u have to make a trip to n.india! hopefully u will be enticed soon... i am uploading reports on jaipur and delhi soon!

btw.. what cameras are u using? i am using a still (olympus) and digital (sony cybershot) cameras.

gloria

Posted: 2006-03-24 09:52 AM   
hiya marianne
pls go ahead with your suggestion in the forum
i believe we can get andy to do something about it.
gloria

Posted: 2006-03-24 06:21 AM   
Hi Marianne
I agree with your suggestion. I also think it would be a good idea to have a message from Andy permanently first in it drawing attention of newcomers - which we all were once -to a few messages like 'new members' guide,' your guide to report writing and some of the good ones on photography.
On at least one of the biggy sites - the red ink will zap me if I mention it - they have this system.
Cheers
David