“panjaradoLu nookabahudu giLiyanu….nUki suridarEnu rAshi kALanu….
tinnuvudoMdE guriye bALige….?
adara bALu baliye namma lIlege!!”
- N S Lakshminarayana Bhatta
(meaning : We cage and feed a parrot stomach-full. Is that all its purpose, eating stomach-full? Its life is ruined for our happiness)!!
“The truth is I love being alive. And I love feeling free. So if I can't have those things then I feel like a caged animal and I'd rather not be in a cage. I'd rather be dead. And it's real simple. And I think it's not that uncommon.”
- Angelina Jolie
(Can we stay an hour in a cage? Ask a criminal in jail)!!
“Contrary to what most people say, the most dangerous animal in the world is not the lion or the tiger or even the elephant. It's a shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see.”
- Jack Handy
(Anything explains better?)
“Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.”
- Anatole France
(We need to get that Animals are a part of God's own creation, just like us)
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”
- Mahatma Gandhi
(Greatest quotation from a great man)
Now….. You might ask me ‘WHY this post’.
Because, I came across the following today morning.
I was just thinking what purpose are these snakes served, their jaws are snatches, they are made puppets, raise hoods when the master(ess) wants, and withdraw when they don’t want!! I strongly oppose using animals for our purpose. It becomes everyone’s responsibility to educate these snake charmers about the animal rights and provide them a rehabilitation that will call them to stop harming the animal.
“Animal-rights advocates remind us of this admonition: The ways in which people treat animals will be reflected in how people relate to one another.”
- William Greider
But as I started venturing on the ring road towards Marath Halli, had a wee feeling of a longer ride, on one of the National Highways… Suddenly remembered reading a coupla days ago about a Markandeshwara betta situated near Kolar. Being ashamed of the fact that having grown in Kolar, and not knowing about this hill… I felt a chill to conquer it right away. Instantly called Mother to inform about it, and amidst her strong protests, succeeded in getting a green signal to venture further.
In no time I reached Vakkaleri village, stopeed to enquire, and to my luck found that the temple would be open, since there was a marriage that was scheduled for the day there. And I headed to the hill rightaway. Otherwise, since it was a Sunday, I had to take along the priest on my bike to worship in the temple. Mondays the temple would be open till the dusk, it seems. The Markandeshwara beTTa is just 2Kms from Vakkaleri, and a road is laid till atop the hill, steps are also there for the people who preferred walking.
Markandeshwara temple atop the Markandeshwara hill is a 15th Century Ganga monument, that stands on a beautiful hill top. It is said that the great sage Markandeya meditated to escape the strong clutches of Yama(death) with great devotion to Lord Shiva, here. A temple stands as a testimony to it.
I ran straight to Kolaramma temple, Goddess in the form of a scorpion is worshipped here, from ages unknown. A temple is constructed around the diety, that dates back to 12th Century Ganga rulers’ times. The temple was originally built by Cholas, and later enhanced by the Gangas, as the historians put it.
This is a mysterious, an interesting and a beautiful temple. As seen in the picture, outer walls has stone inscriptions that dates to 11th century of Chola times. Inside the temple, we can find some idols that are real huge in size, made by mud, some carved out of stone, all locked up in a room where a utsava murthi of the Mother is placed for darshan. There is one small cleavage in the floor of that passage where another idol of Kolaramma is placed, and they say one can hear the passing of a scorpion thru that opening. Very very mysterious in deed. Here, Along with Kolaramma, there are Sapta matrikes being worshipped.
Someshwara temple, another masterly built monument, located just about 200 mts from Kolaramma temple. This is a Vijayanagara styled monument with ranga mantapa, huge outer space, intricate stone carvings, big raja dwara(main entrance). It is a structure that dates back to 16th Centrury as identified. This is again of a strange existance since there is no other clue of Vijayanagara styled architecture, that is found in Hampi, around this place. Someshwara linga is a swayambhu made of saligrma stone.
Visited two temples, viz., Someshwara and Varasiddhi Vinayaka(popularly Kurudumale Ganesha) temples. Strangely enough, these temples were crowded, first signs of the place getting commercialised, for Good? For bad? Time will answer.
Someshwara temple in Kurudumale. This is a 17th Century Hoysala styled temple, destroyed, re built, and re-rebuilt to the final existance as of today. As written by me in one of the articles 
You can read more about Kurudumale 