Wednesday, 25 January 2017

Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere!


So could have cried the Ancient Mariner, ‘Flowers, flowers everywhere!’ It was a sea of colours, beautiful beyond compare. Lal Bagh has come alive with animals made of pure roses, standing tall, elephants, giraffe, peacock and butterflies.

The glass house itself was a riot of colours. The four corners of it had mounts of colios and begonias with variegated leaves. In the centre stood the Gol Gumbaz, fully covered with red and white roses.

An archaeological marvel, God Gumbaz is the mausoleum of Sultan Mohammed Adil Shah, who ruled Bijapur in the 17th century. It has a huge circular dome, of 44 meters’ diameter, comparable to that of St. Peter’s Basilica of Vatican City, and it rests on eight intersecting arches. Bijapur lies in the State of Karnataka.

The Horticultural Society, which undertakes these laborious labour of love twice a year, once in January to commemorate the Republic day and the other one in August, to coincide with the Independence Day, has well-chosen the Gol Gumbaz as the central piece of attraction this January.

Lal Bagh itself is a place of interesting history. Translated as Red Garden in English, Lal Bagh, has a chequered history. It was originally commissioned by Hyder Ali, the Ruler of Mysore and was completed by his son Tipu Sultan in 1760, with 40 acres of land. It was designed on the model of Mughal Garden, especially the one in Sira and was later developed into a huge botanical garden by the local leaders and later by the British.

The Glass House which lies in the centre of Lal Bagh was constructed in 1898, by the then Superintendent John Cameron, based on the model of London’s Crystal Palace.

The other name associated with Lal Bagh is Krumbiegel, a German Botanist, who devoted his life to bring in exotic plants to the garden. He was requested by Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the then ruler of Mysore, to take over the affairs of Lal Bagh as its Superintendent, which he did in 1908 and worked there till 1915. He continued to live in Bangalore and when he died in 1956, he was buried in Bangalore itself.  

However, it is the name, Marigowda, that steals the show. M.H. Marigowda took charge as the Superintendent of Horticulture in 1951 and worked hard to make horticulture thrive in Karnataka. A separate Department of Horticulture was created in 1963 and he became its first Director.

During his tenure, he created 357 farms and nurseries throughout the State of Karnataka and elevated Horticulture as the most important activity, next only to Agriculture in the State. His foresightedness and tireless work have contributed to Karnataka being known as the Horticulture State of India.

Right now, Lal Bagh has 240 acres and lies right in the middle of the ever-burgeoning city Bangalore, providing it with the much-needed lung space, amidst the ever-growing traffic pollution in the city. It has around 1854 species of plants from all over the world.

A major attraction inside the garden is the Lal Bagh Rock, some 3000-million-year-old ancient rock formation. People of Bangalore and visitors hang around the rock, relax sitting on it in the evenings, munching peanuts or anything else which the local vendors sell them. Any tension created by modern lifestyle just evaporates there.

Atop this rock another historically important object is found, the Kempe Gowda Tower. It is one of the four towers erected by the founder of Bangalore town and a local ruler, Kempe Gowda, to earmark the southern boundary of his jurisdiction.

Well, many more interesting features are found within the 240 acres of the Garden, including a lake and Japanese Garden. So, when you are in Bangalore next time, do not miss looking for Lal Bagh and all its special features. It will leave you mesmerized, I am sure.











Be Bangaloooored! 

Wednesday, 18 January 2017

Mass Molestation or Mass Indiscretion?


Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka State in south India is a place known for its salubrious weather, also called as the Garden City for it is famous for its gardens and parks and flowers and the birds twittering.

Many Public-sector undertakings, engineering colleges and higher education institutes abound in the place. These days it is known for its IT companies, and the city is called the Silicon Valley of India.

Thanks to software companies, sprouting all over the city, youngsters from all most all the parts of the country and from all over the world congregate in the city in search of employment. It is known for its cosmopolitan culture, open-mindedness and liberal outlooks.

Bangalore also has the dubious distinction of being the suicide capital of India and of late is famous for its traffic jams and snarls. The city is just bursting at its seams, as if it is not able to handle itself any more.

On the top of it all comes the accusation that there was mass molestation on New Year’s Eve in Mahatma Gandhi (MG) Road and Brigade Road, where thousands of youth had congregated to celebrate the birth of the new year, 2017.  

Youngsters gathering in MG road and Brigade road is not a new thing for Bangalore. It has been happening for the last 35 years and more. Boys do go overboard and indulge in general merry making, thus enjoying themselves.

The police and others turn an indulgent eye to this and let the boys be boys. But nothing untoward happens. At the most, young couples and women and elders avoid the place at that time of the year.

This year it was all different. News went viral on social media that girls were molested on that night at MG road and Brigade road and that there was ‘mass molestation’ on New Year’s Eve. Girls were groped and molested in the crowd and the State government was not able to protect the girls, it was complained.

Reports from other sources do not support that accusation. In a crowd of 30,000 to 50,000 people, people do get jostled, pushed and shoved around. Surprisingly no complaint was lodged with the police. Scanning 40 CCTVs from the area by the police did not show any such mass molestation.

Bangalore witnesses many such mass gatherings every other month or so. To narrate a few recent such gatherings, I would cite the following.

It was Chithra Santhe on 15th January where the whole Kumara Krupa Road is blocked for vehicles and people from all over the country exhibited their art-work and people thronged to go and buy paintings at a throwaway price. It is crowded beyond imagination. But no untoward incident happened for the last 14 years, since it is on.

Avere Kalu Santhe, where freshly harvested beans are sold, happens every year in winter and this year also it happened around 7th January at Sajjan Rao circle and crowds jostle there too. But no complaints, excepting for the discomfort of the crowd and buying and selling and haggling and of course, the general merriment.

In November last it was Kadalai kai Parishe, where the newly harvested groundnuts come to the market and is sold in an annual groundnut fair in Basavangudi near Bull Temple Road. No such lewd incidents. And the Flower shows that happen twice a year - incident free.  

So, what happened on this New Year’s Eve? Is it possible that a few such incidents happened? Possible, but to term it as mass molestation is not fair to the city, I would feel. The city, in my opinion, is still a very safe place for girls.

May be, in the final account it is all about women’s rights. Today’s girls and their parents claim that girls have every right to enjoy a New Year’s Eve at MG road or Brigade road just like the boys, for are they not equal? And, they cl further that it is the duty of the State/city to safeguard the girls in such events.

This sounds a bit contradictory. If girls are equal to boys and should be allowed to enjoy freedom to celebrate in the middle of the night in the streets, then why the protection by the State? Are the boys being given protection? Why girls alone should be given protection? If so, the very claim that they are equal falls face down.  

Instead of insisting on equality in such things, I would say, it is better that girls learn to avoid such places for their own security. Knowing that on such days, boys will be on high, why insist on equality and go there and play with fire? Then cry upon the shoulder of a woman police? Can the government provide a police escort to each girl? Is it possible at all?

It is height of indiscretion to insist on such wild behaviours in the name of equality. Yes, women are equal to men, more than equals I would say, in studies, opportunities to work, to go abroad, to conquer the world, be an achiever and reach one’s full potential. But to go to MG road in the middle of the night to celebrate and then insist on police protection? That is indiscretion in my opinion.

In India, the culture does not permit as in the Western world, for boys and girls to hang around in a crowd and celebrate New Year or any other day in each other’s company.
When there is seclusion of boys and girls, as in our culture, there will be occasions when the sex-starved and brazen men, some and not all men, tend to behave in a lewd manner.

In my opinion, it is wise for girls to avoid going to such places at such times. There are much better ways of celebrating a New Year’s Eve.

The Book of Proverbs in the Bible says in chapter 4, verse 14 and 15,
“Do not enter the path of the wicked,
And do not walk in the way of evil,
Avoid it, do not travel on it;
Turn away from it and pass on.”


Let’s remember that the wise learn from their mistakes and grow in stature and wisdom.  

Wednesday, 11 January 2017

Noah’s Time and Our Time


In the previous blog, I dealt with Nephilim and the implications of their presence to humans and the descendants of Noah. The giants and the wicked and most corrupted flesh were all destroyed in the Flood.

God saved Noah as pure and perfect for it was necessary for a Messiah to come to redeem humankind and for that purpose the line to be kept pure. Israel under Joshua, and Saul were given commands by God to exterminate completely the Canaanites, men, women, children, and sometimes the animals also. The last of the giants were killed by David and his brave men.

So, how does all these concern us in the 21st century? Noah is gone, the Flood is a bygone story, giants are dead, and the Old Testament, where all these are recorded, itself has been superseded by the New Testament. So, what is its relevance to us today?

Well, there seems to be a great connection. When his disciples asked him to tell them about the signs of end-times, preceding judgment by God, Jesus gave many indications. He said there will be wars and famines and earthquakes but these are all only the beginning of birth pangs.

Believers in Christ will be persecuted; the gospel of the kingdom of God will be preached in the whole world to all nations; false prophets claiming to be the Christ will perform great signs and miracles and deceive people. Though no one except the Father in heaven knows the day and the time of the end of the world, these are the signs to point out that end is fast approaching.

Jesus further said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” “Therefore keep watch,” said Jesus. Matthew 24: 4-9, 14, 24, 36-39, 42

There have been wars ever since man started to have kingdoms and kingships on earth. The first well known and world-wide war occurred in 303 BC, when Alexander the Great marched on the nations of the then world starting from Persia ending in India. That was a long time back.

In twentieth century, a corollary occurred twice, in the two World Wars engulfing the whole globe in deadly wars. In between there have been many wars. Now we witness on-going wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. So, war alone cannot be a sufficient indicator of end-times.

There have been famines again in many parts of the world from time immemorial. India has seen famines and death many times before and during the British Raj. People died like fleas on the road side. Famine has struck Sudan and many parts of Africa. So, famine again is not a firm indicator of end times.

What about earthquakes? Aren’t there many reported from various parts of our world in the recent times? What about tsunami that engulfed all the world in 2004 resulting in many deaths? But, haven’t earthquakes been reported since the eruption of Vesuvius, which buried the whole city of Pompeii in AD 79?

A recent report mentioned that there has been no significant increase in the number or intensity of the earthquakes in the world, but the number of reporting stations have increased and hence we come to know of every minor or major tremors in the world. More number of deaths are reported because of the increased population living on the face of the earth. So, earthquake also fails the test of a correct indicator of the end-times.

Then what do we look for? There will be increase in wickedness, Jesus said. Yes, there is no end to human wickedness, one can say. In the Old Testament God found that “every inclination of the thoughts of his (man’s) heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis 6:5. Could this be the apt description of man’s tendency today?

Jesus said “As in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man (Jesus Christ).” Are there similarities between Noah’s time and our time? Could these be the indicator of the last times?

One major evil of Noah’s days, prompting God to destroy ‘all flesh’ was hybridisation of humans with fallen angels and even animals, producing giants and human-animal hybrids like centaurs and minotaur.  

Today Physicists and scientists talk about producing enhanced human beings by a process of Transhumanism, of blending distinctive and better animal traits in human genomes, to enhance our potential. For example, radar sensory of a bat is injected into a man.

Hybrid embryos to bring cure to incurable diseases of humans are being produced, by engineering cytoplasm of an embryo. Cows have been injected with human eggs to extract antibodies from their blood. Stem cell research, cloning, involving genetic engineering all are already facts and not fiction. 

Efforts are already afloat to create smarter-than-human intelligence by merging human mind with artificial intelligence, to produce a ‘superhuman race,’ who could become like God. Doesn’t that sound familiar? The same incitement which the Serpent gave Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?

These are the real signs of the end time – the increased wickedness of man as in the times of Noah – hybridisation, transhumanism, State approved homosexual and same-sex marriages, embedding of the microchip, increased activity of the UFOs, and research in the scientific labs to make humans immortal by 2043.

Propaganda by atheists like Richard Dawkins that earth was ‘seeded’ by aliens from the outer space and that that microorganism evolved into the various living forms, including that of human beings, and so on and so forth. There seems to be literally no end to the evil in human mind and activities.

Jesus says, fear not. Those who stand firm unto the last in faith in Him will be saved and such people will rejoice when the Son of Man comes on clouds with loud acclamation.

As we wait in eager anticipation for the Lord Jesus Christ to come as the real ruler of this earth, which was created by Him, let us be watchful so that we do not get fooled by all these activities of Satan through his minions and humans, who obey them.

Let us stay clean and pure devoted fully to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour so that we can meet up with Him in the clouds on the day He will make His victorious and glorious appearance with His angels and archangels.

I had rather believe what Jesus Christ has said and what is written in the Bible than the boastings of some ‘smart’ scientist or physicist or political leader or a religious leader, who really do not seem to know what they are doing under the influence of the evil one.  


Let us be watchful and be careful and be ready for the coming of our Lord is almost there. 

Wednesday, 4 January 2017

Nephilim, Noah’s Days and Transhumanism – What do these mean for us?



Many point out that we are living in the end time and prophecy that the return or the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, this time in power and glory, is imminent. In this connection, I came across accidentally, a whole series of literature on Nephilim and their significance to the end times. This blog is about this.

According to Bible, Nephilim were the product, when sons of God, the angels took a fancy to the daughters of man and mated with them. Genesis 6:2-4 says, “the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose… The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward- when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”

So, Nephilim were the ‘the fallen ones,’ in Greek known as ‘gigantes,’ which translates in English as ‘giants.’ They were hybrids of angels and human beings. And giants were on the earth in olden days. They were called Titans in Greek mythology, the first generation of this hybridisation, depicted in the movie ‘The Clash of Titans.’

 The Book of Enoch, which is not included in the Old Testament Canon, but was discovered in 1947 along with the other biblical books in the Dead Sea Scrolls, graphically describes this event. According to this book, some 200 fallen angels, the followers of Lucifer, known to us as the Devil, descended on Mount Hermon in the north Lebanon, and proceeded to corrupt the flesh of humankind.

Bible talks of some 36 tribes living in and around Canaan in the middle East, who were giant races, including Amelekites, Anakims, Girgashites, Raphaims and Zumzumims. Twenty-two giants are named in the Bible accounts, like Agag, Nimrod, Og of Bashan, Sihon, Goliath and his four brothers.

Now every country in the world has tales about these giants. The first generation of the Titans in Greek mythology fought each other and within 500 years died as their parents watched. After the Flood of Noah, we have Nimrod and his famous Tower of Babel, built to reach the heavens and confront God Himself. Atlas and Hercules belong to this lore.    

In India, we have ‘Rakshashas’ and ‘Asuras,’ whom the incarnations of god Vishnu, like Rama and Krishna fought and defeated in the wars narrated in the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Closer home, Hindu mythology depicts Mahisasura, who was an asura (giant) and also a buffalo (a human and animal hybrid) in Mysore, who was killed by Chamundeshwari, goddess Kali and a temple stands in that place.

There were half human and half animal hybrids also. Famous were the centaurs of Greek mythology, with a body of horse and a torso of man. Egyptians had their Sphinx, a human-headed lion-bodied figure and a canine-like Anubis. Chinese and Japanese folk lore are also replete with such figures. Would the elephant-headed god Vinayaka of Hindu mythology fall under this category? I wonder.

With the result of these hybridisation, human flesh or genome was corrupted and violence ruled the world. Many of these giants were cannibalistic and devoured human beings and were very violent and vicious. God who created human beings grieved at this corruption and decided to wipe away all land animals and human beings and Noah’s flood came to be. Genesis 6:57.

Satan, who succeeded in seducing Even and Adam to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, sometime later succeeded in corrupting all flesh, both animal and human on earth. God, the Creator planned to annihilate the corrupt flesh from the face of the earth, but Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord, because he was perfect in his generation and was pure, Genesis 6:8,9, without any contamination of these fallen angels’ genomes.  

But giants were there after the flood too. How did they come about? There must have been some genetic mix up, through Noah’s sons or through the wives of his sons. However, if the giants prior to the flood were 18 to 36 feet tall, the post-Diluvian giants were only 9 to 13 feet tall.

Israel were disheartened when the spies they sent came back with the report that Canaanites were huge. Number 13:32-33 says, “…all the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed lie grasshoppers in or own eyes…”

Og the Amorite King of Bashan on the eastern side of the Riven Jordan was a giant, whom Israelites defeated. Deuteronomy 3:11 says his bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. So, he must have been of 9-13 feet tall. Goliath, whom David killed was over nine feet tall, says 1 Samuel 17:4.

From 19th century onward, archaeological excavations have brought out huge bones of 12-19 feet tall humans from all over the earth. The premise is these are the remains of the giant humans who lived once upon the earth.  

I have always wondered like many others, why God of the Old Testament (OT) was so particular and gave orders to Moses and Joshua, the leaders of Israel, that these people living in Canaan should be exterminated completely, not just men, but also women, children and animals. It almost looked to a 21st century person that the OT God was tyrannical and heartless.

Seen in the light of the Nephilim and Satan’s strategy to corrupt all human and animal flesh, it makes sense to cleanse the land off all these giants and the corrupted ‘flesh,’ or genome and start afresh. Not even children of women or animals were to be spared.

Then again keeping the line of Messiah pure was predominant in the plan of God, for He had promised in Genesis 3:15 that the ‘seed’ of woman will rush the serpent’s head. Messiah, the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, had to come in the pure line, untainted by fallen angels’ genome. In the light of this, it makes sense as to why God gave such commands to His people. It was David, who finally exterminated all the remaining giants from that area.   

Well, you may say that was in the Old Testament times. Now we are in the dispensation of a new covenant, one better than the old, the New Testament. So why is this relevant to us now, especially in the 21st century? Why bother about all these now? What is the relevance?


That will be the subject of my next blog.