man-made sculptures of Prakriti Raga, Shilparamam

These sculptures are part of sculpture collection of Living Rock Gallery of Shilparamam. While most sculptures are natural, few man-made items have been added to the gallery.

Man gasping for air and a cut down tree trunk. It can mean two things; 1. without leaves the tree itself is gasping for air and 2. animal life will struggle for fresh air when trees are destroyed.

This depicts the plight of women in society.. how their lives are squeezed out by working them to death.

An elongated head with oversized facial features. The woman's sculpture is beautiful!

Well.. I'm clueless about this one.

Check out Shilpavana at Kannada University near Hampi.
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Prakriti Raga ~ Living Rock Gallery, Shilparamam

During my third visit to Shilparamam I discovered the rock garden named Prakriti Raga. This reminded me of Shilpavana of Kannada University near Hampi in Karnataka. They are not exactly same but similar in nature.Shilpavana is a collection of rocks sculptures by artists, most rocks are in their original locations. Prakriti Raga is a collection of natural rocks which are give a feeling of living creatures. This how a plaque describes this garden of rocks:
This genre of sculpture in collaboration with Nature has been developed by Subrata basu of Prakriti Bhavan, Santiniketan. This gallery is set up by Shilparamam in association with him. The living rocks are the frozen music of nature. These are Nature's gift to the people of Hyderabad. This heritage is to be preserved.

Welcome to the Living Rock Gallery.

Clouds high above

High altitude cloud formation looks like shifting sands in a desert.

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Nature Park, Shilparamam

Shilparamam of Hyderabad is a multifaceted place for relaxation. The place is truly a wonder, thanks to the people who came up with this idea. Once you get into Shilparama you can spend endless hours window shopping, buy a cartload of stuff, eat, do boating, ride a giant wheel, see paintings, read at a library, ladies can get Henna art, ride a bullock cart, wonder at living rocks at  Prakriti Raga, swing with joy at sand garden, get yourself pencil sketched, see frozen rural sights, take a relaxing walk in Nature Park, or simply laze around. Shilparama is open between 11 and 9-30. Well, the village doesn't sleep early. There's Night Bazar if you want to stretch your evening... you can buy garments, try our Mughlai food, and even buy home made chocolates.

During my fourth trip to Shilparamam, I happened to pass by Nature Park entrance and got pulled in. The park's theme is little confusing to me. However, with all due respect to its creators, the park is indeed unique. Its a display of scrap-metal art. Its amazing to some of the creations.. I'll let the pictures take over.

park entrance. man on one side..

..animals on the other side.

sheet metal cut-outs of various creatures

Inside the park are scrap metal creations depicting mainly animals, few plant and human too

dinosaur?

desert cactus

a succulent

this sculpture is titles 'where eagles dare'

parrot

scorpions

stray cow

peacoc | cock fight

a kind of flower

a long curvy fish

Gulliver captured by Lilliputs

sculpture titled Lobster

like a pomfret

lady playing sitar

There are many more interesting sculptures of a chopper, peacocks, cubes.. Also there's one stone sculpture of a zipper. And close to Gulliver are twin rocks connected by a bridge, that's the highest point of Nature Park. The park has lot of place to move around plus places to sit. It's a nice place to relax.
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Sunrise over Madhapur

As a kid if I were to draw a house it would be tiled roof and a sunrise would always between two hills. Now, living in a metro the sunrise scene is different.. buildings rule the horizon. The building on the right is Melange Tower in Patrika Nagar.
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Hyderabad Chocolates

During my third visit to Shilparamam Night Bazar, I decided to check out what a little shop named 'Hyderabad Chocolates' had to offer.

They had home-made chocolates such as dark, white, truffles, rum n raisin, roast almond, pineapple, milky dark, and chocolate cookies and wafers. Also on the menu were veg puff, egg puff, veg roll and chicken roll. Pricing seemed reasonable.

I bought rum n raisin and dark chocolates, 100 grams each. They were packed in clear plastic boxes. These chocolates can be stored at room temperature.

rum n raisin chocolates

According to the shop-keeper the shop at Shilparamam  is the only outlet in Hyderabad. HC accepts orders by phone, below are the contact details.
Phone: 040-23700992
Mobile: 9030683738
Email: hyderabadchocolates@gmail.com

BTW, the chocolates were really tasty, I relished every bite :) I went back and bought rum n raisins two more times!


PS: I received a list of choco products from Mrs. Renuka Sridhar of HC. Here they are...

Chocolate varieties:

• Dark Plain Chocolate
• Milk Plain Chocolate
• White Chocolate
• Chocobiscuit
• Oream Chocobiscuit
• Wafer Chocolate
• Cherries in White Chocolate
• Lollipops with Dark, Milk and White Chocolate

Chocolate Fillings:

• Roasted Almond
• Roasted Cashew
• Rum ‘n’ Raisin
• Honey ‘n’ Raisin
• Marzipan
• Butter Cream
• Praline Crunch
• Butterscotch
• Peanut Butter
• Mint
• Coconut

Truffle varities:

• Vanilla
• Mint
• Coffee
• Orange
• Mango
• Cardamom
• Butterscotch
• Litchi
• Hazelnut
• Pineapple
• Creamy Milky Toffee

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Marichitta ~ tree on a boulder

I heard of this tree while searching for baobab tree of Golconda, on a website called outreachecology.com. The tree has been named Jubilee Hills Fairy Tale Tree and has the following description: This banyan tree, first identified by the Society to Save Rocks in Hyderabad, is cracking open a massive granite boulder in an amazing way. The tree's location has been marked on Google Maps.

One Saturday morning I went in search of this tree. The spot was somewhere near HUDA Colony in Nandagiri Hills, part of Jubilee Hills. A hill, massive boulders and all, has been turned into a residential colony. I drove through every street on the hill but the tree was no where in sight. Inquiries with local people drew blank faces :( I gave up the search.

The following Saturday, I resumed the search, armed with a precise hand written map of the locality. (I had missed that spot narrowly). Having reached the spot, I made inquiries with people. Fortunately these people knew about the tree however the correct spot was 160 meters away. The path to the tree passed through a slum and sadly the space around our 'Fairy Tale Tree' is an open air toilet :( I had to take pictures from a distance with sunlight glaring into the camera lens.

Local people call it as Marichitta. Truly its an amazing tree!

One day I'll make another visit in the evening to take pictures. For time being you can see a good picture by clicking on this link- Marichitta.
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Hitech City SEZ, Hyderabad

April 2014

Day and Night views of Hitech City main road as seen from Red Fox Hotel. Left bottom corner is the IOC Outlet, at the top right corner is TCS building and close to the horizon is Cyber Tower. Pictures shot from my Motorols EX phone, not clear..

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view from my home

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icon of Hyderabad - Charminar

To me Gol Gumbaz, Taj Mahal and Charminar are three unique icons for their cities; first two are tombs and the last being a mosque. The word Charminar means four-towers.. as you see it has a very simple name..

Various theories regarding construction of Charminar-

• Charminar was built to commemorate the eradication of plague as Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah had prayed vowed to build a mosque.
• According to the XVII century French traveller Jean de Thévenot, Charminar was constructed in 1591 CE to commemorate the beginning of the second Islamic millennium.
• According to the historian Masud Hussain Khan, Charminar was completed in 1592 CE after the city of Hyderbad was created in 1591 CE.
• A book named 'Days of the Beloved' Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah constructed Charminar in 1589 CE on the very spot where he first glimpsed his future queen Bhagmati.

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Krishna Kamal

About 4 weeks ago only buds and fruits were seen on the passion fruit creeper but during last week's visit I got to seen fully bloomed flowers.

Its a pretty complex flower with a violet centre has even number of white petals... 10 to be precise,

These flowers attract ants and bees.. pollination taken care of.

There are variations of this flower..  the one with purple petals bears a purple colored fruit.

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passion fruit creeper

This creeper has climbed two floors high and spreading over the terrace now. The creeper has lot of flowers on it,

Lobed leaves are thick and strong.

One of the buds lit up soft light of rising sun.

Early stages of a bud blossoming into a flower. Somehow I could find a flower.

One of the fruits, still tender. It turns yellow when ripe.

The fruit has a glossy texture, the skin is neither soft nor hard. Below the skin is pulpy matter which is used for preparing a variety of food stuff. I knew it's pulp was is to make a drink by mixing it in sugared water. I heard the pulp is used as a filling for some types of chocolates. 

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pink aster

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creeping phlox

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violet water lily

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Sunrise over Kokapet

Last Sunday sunrise seen from my friend's house terrace.

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