Seshadri's Musings

More web-series reviews…   Testament: The Story of Moses – Came out in 2024.  Explore the life of Moses, his journey from outcast and murderer to prophet and liberator of the Hebrews from Egyptian oppression. A review from IMDB... I came with reservations because of other comments, but apparently they didn't watch it until the end, because I did in fact find it very entertaining, insightful, touching and also very realistic. I like how they show Moses for what he really was - a shy, reserved and troubled individual. They don't hide the fact that he lived most of his life as a fugitive. They also show accounts of his interactions with various local people from polytheistic tribes and other faiths, which most other shows about topics such as the bible omit. Reality is much more diverse and complex than just the mythical story, and they honor this fact historically. If this would have been a show trying to "convert" you (Judaism is against conversion anyway)...

Today, being the last day of the tour, it was pretty exciting.  From the knowledge that from tonight we can sleep in our own beds back home, to, still there were lots of places to visit in Varanasi itself 😊 ! Last night itself our driver had spoken to one pandit and had confirmed the VIP darshan visit at the Kashi Vishwanath temple.  We were supposed to reach the temple by 730am. So, we skipped the breakfast, got ready and went to the temple.  The driver stopped some distance away from the temple, as the big vehicles cannot enter the narrow lanes.  The pandit’s representative came to meet us and took us to a shop to keep our things in the locker.  I took my camera with me and deposited other bags in the locker.  We also left our slippers there.  The representative went to purchase the online tickets @ Rs 300 per person.  We also had to buy one basket each for the Kashi Vishwanath deity and the Maa Annapurna deity from the shop 😊 .  The ...

We started early this morning and went to the Vishnu Paadam Temple. This temple is one of the most significant sacred temples in Gaya dedicated to the worship of Lord Vishnu. The temple’s architecture is influenced by the Shikara style although it underwent reconstruction and renovation by the Rani Ahilya Bai in the year 1787. Several travelers and locals flock to the temple to worship the footprints present inside this temple. Lord Vishnu’s footprint is about 40 centimeters in length and encircled by silver plates, as many of the Hindu religious scriptures have described it.  The temple stands on the banks of River Phalgu and is a large complex dedicated to several gods and goddesses. The temple houses shrines of deities like Lord Narasimha and Lord Shiva. (source Wikipedia) Since we were doing pind tharpanam today, we did not have lunch and left the hotel by 7am.  I had spoken to the priest the day before and he had asked us to be at the Vishnu Paadam temple by 730am....

Got up early in the morning, had breakfast and left for Bodh Gaya.   After about a drive of 2-3 hours, it started raining.   We had kept 2 big suitcases on the top of the vehicle. Unfortunately, the driver also did not have any plastic sheet to cover the top.    Since we couldn’t do anything that time, we continued our journey.   We reached Bodh Gaya in the afternoon.   Both the suitcases had got wet and some of the water had also seeped through the zip and had gone inside. We opened the suitcase and laid out the wet clothes on the bed and switched on the fan and the A/c. Luckily, this hotel, even though it was a 4-star hotel, did not have the key as the input for the electricity in the room.  It had a switch which had to be put on for the electricity to flow.  So, we kept the switch on and went to have lunch.  By the time, we returned at night, all the clothes were completely dry 😊 ! After lunch, it was still drizzling.  We hired a...