Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Visit to our GSB land

On a wonderful Sunday morning, we met at a place owned by Gowd Saraswat Brahmins. Yes, the Banganga area is still owned by GSB Temple trust. Like the place, this fact too, is not so well known. Banganga lake is a beautiful place near Malabar hill in south Mumbai. The lake is a wonder in itself for having sweet water being considerably close to the sea. The lake at the centre is surrounded by many temples and residential places. The area is a house to two of our maths, the Kashi Math and Kavle Math.

All the temples in the area are unique in their own ways. The kalash or the dome of the temple, the colour, the carvings and shape of the domes. While the Venkatesh Balaji mandir displayed a simple white and saffron look, the Jagannath Mahadev mandir was colourful. Shree Rameshwar temple portrayed elegance in carvings, while Shree Parshuram mandir showcased simplicity in solidity. Each unique in it's own perspective and yet marvelous.


Temples, in the early days, were noted for intricate and beautiful carvings. Without machinery, very basic tools and very high skills, these works are worth preserving. With minute details to symmetric accuracy, every curve is admirably sculpted in heavy stones. One idol of Shree Parvati was placed under a tree. Bearing all the sun and rain, every detail of her face was still clear and very perfectly carved. Shree Parshuram temple also has the idol surrounded by a deck of minute and amazing carvings.


The Walkeshwar temple is considerably less prominent. Owned by the GSB Temple trust, this temple seems to be currently managed by the Gujaratis around the temple. The temple showcases a rare mixture of GSB-Gujrati combination. While it displays banners of GSB maths, it has most transcripts in Gujarathi.


Though the Walkeshwar mandir is owned by GSBs, we hardly visit it. The area owned by GSB Temple trust is barely habitated by GSBs. With the space crunch around, there have been quite a few encroachments, to the extent that even temples have not been spared. It's truly said "Value of anything is realized when we least have it". We have a wonderfully rich heritage; sadly it is not valued enough. Along with the heritage, we are also loosing ground on our culture.

 

 It is time for us to come together and re-build the culture and heritage for our coming generations. We look forward to you joining us and building up this GSB network. For those who missed out so far, still have a chance. For details, write to us at mahagsb@googlegroups.com

 

 

Monday, October 8, 2012

Nostalgia meet

Memories of the past are at times so wonderful that you want to re-live and share them with your friends. And when you share it with those who helped create them, it leads to another memorable sequel. That has happened with us over all these years.

We had started as a small group in May 2007 (From where it all started...) at Udyan Ganesh Mandir, Shivaji Park. Hence we started yesterday's meet at the same venue. As friends started coming in, memories of how it all began and how we built up the network of friends started flowing. Quite a lot has changed from when we started to where we are, but the only thing that still remains unchanged is the love for food. Our memories wandered towards the fun times at Aswad and we too reached Aswad.
Aswad has been our (tolerant) venue for quite a few meets. From wonderful moments, we had moved into some tasty thoughts. Thalipeeth is just one of the options...the more favourite being misal. I am not sure if the misal was so delicious or the chatting more interesting, but we were quite engrossed that we barely remembered to click a few pics to share.


After all the chatting and chaating, we moved to CCD for a cuppa-coffee. Again CCD is a place where we celebrated some special moments (including an interview, which I'll try to share sometime).

While we were talking about the past and all the wonderful memories, Chirag came up with the idea of visiting the past. We are working on plans for a Heritage walk starting from Banganga. Very few of us are aware of the Kavle math at Banganga (and I know a few would be asking where this place is). So we decided to talk more on this in the next meet, involve a few more heads and come up with a great plan for all of us to spend an exciting Sunday in the coming months.

So while you get your cameras ready for some super clicks, get your heads cracking for the next meet on Nov 4, tagged as the Planning meet for the Heritage walk. bee th

Those who have been with us on the memorable events, know what it was and we promise to deliver more of such memories in the time to come. For those who missed out so far, still have a chance. For details, write to us at mahagsb@googlegroups.com