Belgaum Dasara celebrated
8:12 PM Posted by ukmad
The Belgaum Dasara also has some magnificent history behind it. It may not be grand as the Mysore Dasara but in its own style its different and one of its kind.
The Simollanghan (crossing the border) is done at the Vidya Niketan grounds near St.Xaviers school. People from all lifestyles from young to old gather there for a yearly fair where the leaves of Aapti tree are looted on the pretext of it symbolizing Gold.
The Patil does the Puja and then the various Palkhi’s of the Gods come there like the Venkatramna temple, Maruti Temple, Jotiba temple and the Aapte tree leaves are looted and then exchanged with each other as gold.
The Camp Dasara has a different look. K T Pujari and sons started this utsav in 1901. There are 5 Devi chariots that are taken out in a procession which also end at the same grounds above. Marriama Devi of K T Pujari & sons, Muthu Mariamma from Madras BHT area, Kunti devi from fish market, Mariama from old Telugu colony. These 5 are supposed to be sisters. 
See Photo album
Story behind exchanging Aapti Tree leaves as “sone” (Gold)
Kautsa, the young son of Devdatt, a Brahmin, was living in the city of Paithan. After completing education from Rishi Varatantu, he insisted on his guru accepting Guru Dakshina (present).
However, Guru said, “Kautsa, to give ‘dakshina’ in return for learning wisdom is not proper Graduation of the disciple makes the guru happy, and this is the real Guru Dakshina."
Kautsa was not satisfied. He still felt it was his duty to give his guru something. Finally, the guru said, "Alright, if you insist on giving me dakshina, so give me 140 million gold coins, 10 million for each of the 14 sciences I have taught you."
Kautsa went to king Raghu. Raghuraja was an ancestor of Lord Rama, famous for his generosity. However, just at that time he had emptied all his coffers on the Brahmins, after performing the Vishvajit sacrifice. He asked Kautsa to give him three days' time. Raghuraja immediately left to get the gold coins from Indra. Indra summoned Kuber, the god of wealth. Indra told Kuber, "Make a rain of gold coins fall on the "Shanu" and "Aapati" trees round Raghuraja's city of Ayodhya."
The rain of gold coins began to fall. King Raghu gave all the coins to Kautsa, and Kautsa hastened to offer the coins to Varatantu Rishi. Guru had asked only 140 millions, so he gave the rest back to Kautsa. Kautsa was not interested in money. In those days honor was considered more valuable than wealth. He asked the king to take the remaining gold coins back but the king refused to take them back as kings do not take back the daan (gift).
Finally, Kautsa distributed the gold coins to the people of Ayodhya on the day of Ashwin shukla dashami. In remembrance of this event, the custom is kept of looting the leaves of the "Aapati" trees, and people present each other these leaves as "sone" (gold).
Simollanghan – crossing the border - War Season
In ancient times kings used the feast of Dasara to cross the frontier and fight against their neighboring kingdoms. This border crossing is known as "simollanghan". Thus, Dasara also marks the beginning of the war season.
Dhumney stand Belgaum
10:45 AM Posted by ukmad
Sahir, just found this on the internet.
This is the Dhumney Stand somewhere in 1930 to 1942.
There is a street named Dhumney Street in Camp, must be the same place.
Nandlal Kothari of Camp Expires
6:30 AM Posted by ukmad
Mr.Nandlal Tejmal Kothari of Tejmal Kothari Medicals of High Street Camp expired yesterday due to a heart attack in Mumbai he was 56. He had been to Raipur for a marriage and on the way back as he felt uneasy he was admitted in a private hospital in Mumbai, where he breathed his last.
He is survived by his wife, four sons, grandsons and 4 sisters. The last rites will be performed on Sunday. He was a active social worker and was on the cantonment board and he also was chairman of Siddarth education society.
Baba Ramdev in Belgaum today
11:00 AM Posted by ukmad
Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev will be in Belgaum from today and his Yoga camp will begin from tomorrow at the Nehru Stadium and will end on 8th of January.
The Yoga camp has been sponsored by KLE society and elaborate arrangements have been made for the event. City buses will ply to the venue from all corners of the city from 4am in the morning.
The Yoga guru had previously visited Belgaum in December 2007.
St Paul’s 1993 Batch plan a REUNION — they have set an amazing example of using the internet to maintain school bonds
10:10 AM Posted by ukmad
Carefree & joy–filled days of school can never be forgotten. In so many ways they continue to influence every stage of our life’s journey. This is especially the case with about 160 students who finished their schooling from St Paul’s, Belgaum in 1993. Each batch-mate walked a path on his own terms, many scaling new heights in India and beyond her shores. Now after 15 years, they will come together to share their rich experiences.
The ‘Paulites of 93’ are indeed a very unique batch. They have stayed in touch via a yahoo-egroup since the past 7 years. But, what makes their story really fascinating is that even after so many years their intensity of communicating has not waned. In fact, the year 2008 saw an average of greater than 250 emails clocked each month; one month reaching an astounding 600 emails!
Many batchmates abroad are super-duper excited about the prospects of meeting school friends. They have booked tickets almost 4 to 5 months in advance. Like them, batchmates scattered all across India have been deeply involved in the planning process. The massive flurry of activity on the egroup is a testimony of the level of excitement within the batch of coming together. It is not just the Reunion that is the primary topic of discussion on the egroup — recommendation for jobs and exchange of professional information also takes a lion’s share. During these hard times of global recession, Mr Kiran Patil has stepped up to create a professional database of the batch which could be used in the years to come as a career boosting tool.
The 2008 reunion will be held on the 27th December in Camp, Belgaum at the school campus. There will be several unique sessions held; one of which is called the “Chronicles of 1993”. Mr. Devikant Birje who is making this happen said that the “Chronicles of 1993” would be a collection of events and pranks played in school, for example — it could be incidents involving stealing the teachers’ cake, wild fights, copying during exams, and even extreme confessions of final-exam paper leaks. Already, many batchmates have contributed to these chronicles via the egroup. The goal of this session will be to recreate these memories and turn them into a book accompanied with a short film.
The Paulites of 1993 sure know how to throw party and yet make it meaningful. This blog will report their story as it unfolds. Best wishes to them for decades to come!
Fatima Cathedral: Golden jubilee celebrations
10:16 AM Posted by ukmad
Bishop Peter Machado said that the cathedral was dedicated to ‘Our Lady of the Family Rosary of Fatima’, the patroness of the parish and the Belgaum Diocese.
Rev. Michael Rodrigues laid the first Bishop of the diocese the foundation stone for the cathedral on October 19, 1956. The cathedral was consecrated on March 25, 1958.
Sanchayni Circle: Darkness all through
6:08 PM Posted by ukmad
The circle is not illuminated for years. There is no traffic island in the center, which causes minor accidents all the time. To add to these hardships the road round the corner from Bogarves to Khanapur road has some innumerable potholes of all sizes and depths. This VDO is taken from the same spot. What is visible (other than in the headlights) is DARK reality.
In my 30 years, I have never seen a street lamp in this circle nor a Himast lamps as put all over Belgaum, just see the one in Bogarves just 100 mtrs away.
The cantonment should look into this matter at the earliest and install Himast Street lamps at this circle so that riding at night would be come easier.
Your thoughts on this …
Shobhan Bantwal: Stars of Belgaum
10:12 AM Posted by ukmad
Author of The Forbidden Daughter & THE DOWRY BRIDE, Shobhan Bantwal was born and brought up in Belgaum until she married and settled in USA.
She was born on July 2 and raised at BELGAUM along with her four sisters. Her father was a doctor and her mother worked as his office manager. She r
esided in Camp area and she did her schooling from St. Josephs Convent Camp( LKG to SSLC) and then went to Lingraj College followed by Karnatak University in Dharwar for a master's degree in sociology. She got a second master's degree in Public Administration in the U.S. she rarely visits India, so her visits to Belgaumare very few and far between.She came to the United States in an arranged marriage in the mid 1970's. Her husband had been working and living in the U.S. for three years before they met. They have been happily married for 34 years and almost all those years they have been living in New Jersey. They have one married daughter and she has girl.
She now works for a government agency in the U.S. She took up freelance journalism and fiction writing as a hobby only a few years ago.
Kensington Publishing, an American publisher, released her first fiction book, THE DOWRY BRIDE, in September 2007 and her second book, THE FORBIDDEN DAUGHTER, was released last week, September 2008. Both novels are based in India and deal with contemporary social issues that have created a great deal of interest amongst American and Canadian readers who are fascinated with the subjects of dowry and gender-selective abortions.Although her books are not published in India, they are available throughAmazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Flipkart.com, and a number of other on-linebooksellers and larger bookstores in Mumbai, Delhi, and most major cities.
She created a fictitious setting in her novels: a small town in southwestern India called Palgaum. She believed it would make an interesting and exotic backdrop for her book. However, it is loosely based on the town she grew up in. Whenever she was writing about the streets and the scenery, she had an image of her own town of Belgaum, except for the river. She felt a picturesque river scene would give the story more texture and romance, so she threw in a river, which my town doesn’t have.
She writes articles and short stories for a number of Indian-American and Indian publications including India Abroad, India Currents, Sulekha.com, DesiJournal.com, Little India, Kanara Saraswat, and New Woman India and Leaves magazines.
Some Praises for her book:
THE DOWRY BRIDE is "Remarkable...imaginative, packed with detail. Adroitly depicting passion, brutality, cultures in conflict. This novel is as engrossing as it is unusual." says Dorothy Garlock, Bestselling author
Bantwal takes a brave look at an old topic and delivers a piece of work that may just make an impact. Wonderful, Vivid, and Worth Reading!
---- BookIdeas
Links to her books
Source: An Email interview with her
Amazon.com
http://www.theromancereader.com/nf-bantwal.html
http://www.shobhanbantwal.com/
Belgaum getting many Traffic Signals:Khanapur Road widened
9:05 PM Posted by ukmad
These are new on the Belgaum roads now. New traffic signals are being put up at RPD Cross & Cantonment Bord cricle(near Globe Theatre). No doubt these were necessary but with these the road humps near the signals should be removed otherwise the traffic will become dead slow. and hope they will be on for quite a some time other than those installed earlier.
Khanapur Road (camp) being widened
These are pictures oft he Khanapur Road (camp, infront of police quarters) near to Sanchayni circle. the said road is being widened by 3 feet. In the above pics you can see the JCB digging out the earth and on the other side is the already dug part. Due to this the traffic is very slow on this road after Fish market to Sanchayani circle.
Photos courtesy: UkMaD
Jingle Bell Jnigle Bells: Merry Christmas
9:44 PM Posted by ukmad
This photo of the Fatima Cathedral, Camp.
All is set here in Belgaum for Christmas tomorrow. Decorations, Cakes, candles...
A Merry Christmas to all Belgaumites.
