7 small but beautiful temples of Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, the capital city of the Sate of Odisha is also known as the temple city of India. This city is the capital city of the ancient Kalinga, the land of fighters who gave stiff competition to Ashoka, the great in the Kalinga war in 260BCE. Though this city is one of the planned cities of the modern India, it has been the capitals for many kings hailing from many dynasties who ruled Kalinga in different times. The name Bhubaneswar itself is derived from "Tribhubaneswar", wich is the name of Lord Shiva. So the Supreme God of the city is Lord Shiva. You will find temples in each and every corner of the city. Everyone knows the mighty temple like Lingaraja Temple when anyone talks about the temple city Bhubaneswar. Besides Lingaraj temple there are so many small but beautiful temples are present in the city. Let’s look at some of the most beautiful small temples of Bhubaneswar so that you won't miss the chance to visit those temples in your next visit to the city.

1. Bhaskareswara Temple

Built in sometime between 8th to 10th Century AD by the rulers of Ganga dynasty, this temple houses a giant 9 feet Shiva Linga. The surrounding of the temple is well maintained for visitors with free entry to the temple.

2. Bramheswara Temple
The name Bramheswar is the combination of two terms i.e. Bramha and Iswar which means the God of Lord Bramha. Built in between 1000-1100 century AD by Somavamsi king Udyotakesari this temple houses the Lingam of Lord Shiva. This temple is built with the Kalingan style architecture of Temple building, the inner wall of the temple is engraved with various art and crafts unlike other temples where the art and crafts are being seen only on the outer walls of the temple

3. Megheswar Temple
This Shiva temple is the temple built for the "Iswar of Megha" which literally means the God of the Rain. This ancient temple is built in the 12th Century AD. The outer wall of the temple is nicely engraved with a lot of art works. This is a living temple where Lord Shiva is worshiped even today.

4. Mukteswar Temple
This 10th Century temple of Bhubaneswar is one of the few well-maintained temples of the city. In the middle of lush green Lawn, the main temple is sorrounded by number of small temples. This temple is believed to be built by Somavanshi King Yajati I.

5. Parsurameswara Temple
This temple is considered to be the oldest existing temple of the city built around 650 AD. Though the Presiding God of this temple is Lord Shiva, this temple is a combination of the Shiva and Shakti. The outer wall of the temple is engraved with the idols of Lord Parsuram (the incarnation of Lord Vishnu), Lord Indra (the king of Gods), Surya and many more Gods. This temlpe adjacent to the Mukteswar temple is one of the most beautiful temples of Bhubaneswar.

6. Rajarani Temple
Rajarani Temple is built in the 11th Century is the most scenic temple of the city. This temple symbolises Love due to the erotic carvings of women and couples. Currently there are no Gods present inside the temple but it is believed that this temple was also dedicated to lord Shiva. The temple was built using a type of stone called "Rajarani stone" hence taking the name Rajarani temple.

7. Chausathi Jogini Temple
As per Hindu belief Shiva is incomplete without Shakti and this ruined temple is dedicated to Shakti the wife of Lord Shiva. Situated about a distance of 10 KMs from the city center near Hirapur. 56 idols of Shakti, made up of black granite stones on a circular wall are worshiped in this temple. This temple is believed to be built in the 9th Century AD by queen Hira Devi of Bramha dynasty.

Land acquisition ordinanance, an analysis.

Presently a topic is on discussion among the people of India from Jantar mantar to the village markets, the land acquisition ordinance which seems to be tabled in the parliament during the upcoming budget session. The ruling party is in a hurry mood to pass it where as the oppositions are strongly opposing the bill. Protests are being seen throughout the country by several organizations opposing this ordinance. Notable social activist Anna Hazare is also protesting opposing this ordinance. At the same time President Pranab Mukharjee delivered his speech in favor of this ordinance. Questions are arising why so much protests as well as discussions are going on this ordinance? Who is right regarding this ordinance? who is the real well wisher, the ruling government or the opposition? Why Annaji is protesting, who was happy with the change in government? Let's do a deep analysis to find out the answers to these questions.

         The land acquisition ordinance is one of the many ordinances brought by the brand new Modi government in the last some months. This ordinance has made some major changes in the structure of the existing "Land acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement act 2013" passed by the then UPA government. This act was passed smoothly in both houses of the parliament in 2013, which was supported by the then opposition and present ruling party BJP. Another question arises how an act became so obsolete in less than two years that needed a major change? The answer may be known to our policy makers.

     One of the changes made is the amendment of  section 10(A), which abolishes the SIA(Social impact assessment) for the expanded sectors like Defence, National security and Rural infrastructure( which includes Electrification, Industrial corriders, affordable housing projects, infrastructures including PPP etc.). This amendment has created irk among several organisations all over the country. So what is this SIA, as told earlier it stands for social impact assessment which is undertaken on the project affected areas. This SIA has been providing several rights to project affected people. Before setting up of any project the consent of affected people are undertaken. Several grama Sabhas are also conducted and it is mandatory that more than 80% affected people should agree otherwise no project can be set up. So the new law is going to affect thousands of lives in the name of industrialisation. To understand the drawback of abolishing SIA can be understood by taking an example, let a project is finalised in PPP mode which is to be set up in your locality, you have got a notice to vacate your land and house. and according to the ordinance you have to silently leave  your land, house everything and accept a compensation( twice if urban and 4times if rural) and go towards uncertainty.It is completely unacceptable. 

             Another problem in this ordinance is there is no provision for the assessment of type of the land. That means any land can be given for industrialisation that may be a very fertile land. This is a direct threat to the agriculture sector. India is a country where more than 1.2 billion people residing within its territory. The first duty of the government is to provide quality food, water, environment to its citizens, which cant be achieved by establishing plants on agricultural lands. Industries can give employment not quality air or water or food.. So provisions should be made ensuring not giving fertile lands for industrialisation. Another thing is in India millions are the farmers by name, neither they have own lands nor resources they only depend upon land lords for cultivation, the previous law was ensuring a small amount of compensation for them but the new one compensates only land losers not the small real farmers. This ordinance, if made a law will adversely impact these small farmers. So some provisions should be made for them. 

           Though the proposed ordinance has some really good features like centralisation of all existing acquisition acts to a common platform. The ease in getting land for development projects will boost economic developments. This will accelerate the ambitious projects like make in India. Lawmakers can not close eyes to the problems discussed above. India is not a country like China. The same types of laws made china a manufacturing hub, made it the second largest economy in the world but those laws also pushed china into a country with scarcity of lands, bad quality water and a polluted environment. So the government should review and rethink in bringing this ordinance as an act. Some corrections should be made to this ordinance so that it can be an balanced act for both bagriculture as well as industrialistaion.

Enemies of Mankind

ISIS or ISIL or IS, so many names but a single identification, the most brutal, cruel terror group history have ever seen. Yesterday I have watched a video in social media as well as in television which made me to remind my freedom of expression given to me by my constitution to raise my voice against them. The video showed how these ISIS terrorists burnt a Jordanian pilot alive. It is one of the most heart breaking incidents I have ever seen.

                         A question came to my mind spontaneously what these terrorists want actually. As the name suggests they want a world with one religion of Islam in which a caliphate will be established. All the people would live as per the wish of their caliph. As far as my small knowledge is concerned   over Islam, these people are simply making themselves as well as people fool. Islam never told anyone to burn a man alive. This is not the first instance of their brutality they have done so many such type of things in past some years. Sometimes they killed thousands of people at a time; sometimes they ran bull dozer on some people; sometimes they cut the heads of journalists and soldiers. Within this mass killing activities they also killed thousands of innocent children. By doing all these heinous crimes what they want to justify is still not clear completely.

                The growth of these terror groups are mostly seen in the countries and states where people are mostly uneducated, poor and out of reach from good governance and most of these countries are basically Muslim dominant nations, here I don’t want to point towards any religion (All the religions are equally important for our society). I personally don’t think prophet Muhammad ever told to kill thousands of innocent people for establishing a mere caliphate. Prophet used to teach his disciples to love all; to respect all; to be liberal towards women and children. Prophet always used to teach to oppose the wrongdoing persons. But here the terrorists are doing very evil things in the name of Allah. If the whole world be given to these terrorists, I don’t think they would be able to run this world for a single day. They simply would this mankind at least thousand years back. I simply want to say hell of this caliphate.

           Another thing is also coming to mind that from where these terror groups are getting such large number of advanced armors to fight against mankind, I don’t think they might have such an advanced R&D manpower to develop these. These advanced armors are simply developed by the advanced countries of the world which pointing towards the roles of these advanced countries! Are those countries are the men behind the screen.  There are people who always want to create disturbance inside the society for their cheap benefits. USA, Russia, China, Japan, France, UK, the so called big brothers of our society are surprisingly seeing all these silently.

           When some part of our body is damaged and seems not be recovered as per medical science doctors simply recommend to cut that part from our body. Is not our society is as like as our body? Why not we are taking prevention of this disease of our society?  How many more days we should watch innocent people to be killed? What is the use of the most advanced weapons, missiles, drones, nukes we have developed till now? It’s enough and now is the best time to use these lethal weapons against these disturbing elements otherwise this disease of terrorism will completely destroy our mankind. It’s now or never. May not the dreams  of these unsocial people ever come true.