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Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, May 20, 2017.

  1. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Gold (442)
    King Solomon's Mines is fleabite compared to what is found in this Temple!
    I am surprised that all these treasures have remained untouched for centuries!
     
  2. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On forecasts (443)
    Columbo - Wikipedia sounds fun. I tried this style in recreating a few stories that I had read in the past and it was fun.
    That scale of fees appears reasonable. A business magnate cum minister of Andhra apprehending problems from the rogue planets offered jewellery worth Rs.60 crores to Tirupati and landed himself in jail!
     
  3. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Spelling (444)
    Tiny kids just breaking into words are greater inventors of words than Shakespeare. The other day, I went to visit a friend of mine who had been blessed with a grandchild. The child had just started uttering words. I went to the child and made some amusing noises to it to make it laugh. He just told me Kapuchi which sounded like 'Get lost' in the vernacular. His young mother proudly told me that the baby was wishing me Good Morning!
     
  4. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    The same question baffled me. How was the wealth accumulated and how was it preserved for so long? I was curious about these temple vaults that I spent some time reading about the treasure history. This find has a fatal story likening to the discovery of King Tutankhamen's crypt.

    The earliest treasure was donated by the penitent King of Travancore in 1750. He was remorseful at the internecine battles waged by him and donated the entire wealth amassed up until that point by his ancestral dynasty to the temple. Thus, the first treasure hoard made its way to the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. Then followed decades of offerings in the form of gold and precious gems to the Lord that was piled on this royal hoard. Why has this treasure remained hidden for so long? Because historians writing about the Royal Family of Travancore made only a passing reference to this transformative incident and the temple archives maintained no inventory of the items held in these subterranean vaults.

    There's something very interesting I realised on taxation and assets in Indian law while reading about this temple. In India, legally, Gods can own assets. But Gods are treated as minors in our law books which means they need a lifelong custodian to maintain their assets. Though the property is registered in God's name, the power of attorney vests with a man. The Royal Family of Travancore was recognised as the custodian/guardian of the legally minor Lord Padmanabhaswamy. In 2007, a lawsuit was filed by a lawyer named Padmanabhan, on evidence gathered from two devotees, that the temple authorities were pilfering the gold ornaments of the main idol on display. Hence, the case contested this guardianship of the the Royal Family under whose watch the temple staff replaced few valuables with inferiors casts. The case requested the transfer of the custodian/administrative powers from the Royal Family to the Government of India. That lawsuit was appealed at the High Court and the Supreme Court by the current nominative heir of the Travancore Kingdom Marthanda Varma stating that the guardianship of the Lord Padmanabhaswamy should still reside with the family as has been for centuries. At the centre of this courtroom drama is the question of the custody of the God. Who should hereby be the legal guardian of the minor Lord Padmanabhaswamy — Royal Family, Independent Temple Committee, Govt. of India. In the wake of that legal tussle, in 2011, the vaults (except vault B that was jammed) were opened and inventoried and locked up again.

    The tale has other twists and turns where the lawyer's uncle T.P Sundararajan who accompanied the audit team to the reopened vaults passed away mysteriously in few days after visiting the vaults bearing eerie resemblance to Lord Carnarvon's death on violation of Tut's tomb.

    How has the treasure remained undisturbed for so long? It was a hunch buried and guarded with no evidence until 2011. One more thing, each item should be assayed now to authenticate the purity as the lawsuit was brought upon on charges of fraud that temple gold on display was replaced with inferior casts. Over the centuries, you never know how many items stored in the vault had been replaced with imitation gold by the hustling temple management. Narrative sourced from here.
     
  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On remakes (445)
    I did look into this aspect and conducted a study. They mainly consist of workers in hotels, tea shops, long distance truck drivers and their assistants, auto drivers and so on. They all dream differently. Not like what Abdul Kalam suggested! These are the kinds of film fans that film makers like Akira Kurosawa dreaded!
     
  6. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On confusion (446)
    The beauty about nonsensical brains is that they never rust. Rust-resistant brains are the need of they day.
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2017
  7. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On scent (447)
    Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse are the two greatest creations of Disney.
    I developed a healthy respect for them only after I became an addict of the Disney mice. I have nearly two hours of them saved for my viewing pleasure!
     
  8. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Hair (448)
    Can they beat this girl?
    [​IMG]

    As far as men like me are concerned, hairs do not perform any disappearing act all of a sudden. They give adequate warning of their intention to do the vanishing act at least twenty years in advance. They also tell us that they give us this advance notice in order that we do not fritter away our money on expensive herbal or other preparations to keep them intact. Wise men like me heed their advice and save the amount meant for preservation of hair in long term deposits. Fools just fritter it away in desperate 'Save the Hair' campaigns !
     
  9. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Thalapathy (449)
    Ramayan is a straight story with no deviations. It offers very little scope for adaptations. But Mahabharatha is an amalgam of amazing stories with links, sub links and side links! Someone once told me that it would be difficult to write a story without a touch of some aspect of Mahabharat. The story of Bhishma and his killing by Sikhandhi as suggested by Lord Krishna does not speak very highly of Krishna's unfair counselling to bring down one of the greatest warriors of Kauravas. Mahabharata is one unputdownable epic of the world.
     
  10. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Sales

    Beware of perfumes in sales at shady shops. I too was victim at such caper. First, you don't recognise those brands. At least I didn't. But then I was naive back in college. My knowledge of brands peters out after A for Armani, B for Bulgari and C for Chanel. The brands in the sale started with far-ended letters in the alphabet. That should have been a sign.

    Sales, marketing, advertising is clever business. When Pearle Wait sold his Jell-O business to Orator Woodward in the late nineteenth century, he found a daring promoter. Our man Mr Woodward boasted in the Ladies Home Journal of having acquired a product dubbed as "America's most famous dessert" even though many have never heard of that Jell-O. That is a clever ploy! Curiosity might have killed a cat but it is profitable for a rogue marketeer and tripping for an enchanted man. What is that Jell-O? That ad was followed with marketing campaign which not only casted but also steadily lifted Jell-O as the nation's favourite. In no time, a radio show was also named after it here.

    This is one thing I love about the advertisements now. They are getting creative by the day. There was a time when I used to swap channels during intermission but now I am enamoured of these ads that I switch channels when the show resumes.
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2017

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