The Kadambas in North Karnataka

There are lots of temple in and around Hubli, Gadag and Belgaum. The one I visited is based in Hanagal and is know as Tarkeshwar temple.

The temple is surrounded by many houses and they are in a very close proximity to the temple. People literally travel through the temple. Check the photo below. The Government has decided to vacate the temple surrounding up-to 200 meters and relocate the people. When that will happen is a big question.






It was really great experience.

90 years old template excavated to glory near Mysore

I was really thrilled to know the fact that, it took nearly 2000 people for 13 days to excavate the temple which was drowned in the water for more than 90 years. After 7 years, the renovation is still in progress. During this Dasara, I was fortunate to visit a place near Mysore, called Kannambadi, a small village 15 km form Mysore city.

KRS Backwaters:

When backwaters of KRS dam drowned 800 year old Venu Gopal temple built by Chola dynasty King, nobody could have ever imagined it would be renovated to restore the lost glory.

The temple renovation is being performed by Khoday Indian Limited. With Crores of rupees spent in renovation, it took on an average of 300 people per year to complete the project. Now they have 50 people giving final touches.

Since Chola architecture was unique and skill level required to rebuild is next to impossible, excavation team numbered each and every stone of the temple. These are the polished stones waiting to fit into the right place.

Entry to the temple has beautiful view

Except for the flooring rest of architecture is reconstructed without making any structural modification

The temple is schedule to a grand opening next year (2011). I am sure, it will attract good number of visitor and will definitely recreate a mark on the history.

It’s great example of trying everything to achieve something, leave no stone unturned. In this case it’s so true.

Samsung Corby Pro Review

While reading few posts / reviews before buying the Samsung mobile, one thought which kept troubling me was whether a Nokia fan like me who has been using Nokia for 10 years, will switch over to an alien phone?

While, the days rolled and I have been using the phone for last 5 months and realized that, I kept myself in the dark. Not that, Corby pro enlightened me but so many things are possible with Smart phones now.

Let me stick to the objective of this post – critical review of the phone Samsung Corby pro – poor man’s iPhone. I know before coming to this post, you would have had read and understood the functions, features, capabilities, technology, etc etc, how this post is different?, I am sharing the experience of usage on a day to day basis and what are the some of the practical aspects of the phone.

Pros and Cons of the Phone

Messaging and emailing – I think, I have to agree with the sales guy who told me that, in touchscreen phones you tend to get bored as it may become little cumbersome to type message, the QWRT feature is the savior.

Google Application, Corby comes with Google application; funny thing is I still could not figure out how to link the Google application to the Wigit bar on the phone startup.
· One problem here is, when the phone is tilted when using the Google application, the screen does not change to fit horizontally. Imaging you are using QWRT with on a vertical screen.

Image editor feature is really amazing in this phone – has lots of features crop, reduce image, upload to Picasa.
· Check few Sample photos here - http://picasaweb.google.com/santhguru/MobilePhotos

Installation
· Installing the desktop software Samsung Kies for interfacing with mobile. You get 2 CDs here, one for installing .Net 3.5 and other for Kies software. I struggled to install this, it took an hour to install, UI of Kies is very impressive but it’s heavy

Multi tasking
· When you run multiple applications, it shows a Task manager, which enables you to close the application one by one

WiFi connection is pretty good and fast, no hassles at all
GPRS – I am still figuring this out.
Browsing: for a quick browsing it’s ok
YouTube : plays really well and quick..

MS office support:
MS word documents in the readable format it supports, but editing is not allowed. Does not support opening of excel and power point.

There are few more things I would like to add, please visit again and thanks for reading..