[www.keralites.net] World's Ugliest Statues

Sure, there is no accounting for taste, and what might look like a great lawn ornament for one neighbor could strike another as an oddly shaped satellite dish. But there are things we can probably all agree do not merit permanent display in public space, or to be paid for with public funds. Check out these twelve ugly statues.

Located in downtown Enterprise, Alabama, USA, the horrible Boll Weevil Monument erected in 1919 to show their appreciation to an insect, the boll weevil, for its profound influence on the area's agriculture and economy. Hailing the beetle as a "herald of prosperity", it stands as the world's only monument built to honor an agricultural pest.

This statue located in Burkina Faso, really takes the cake for ugly.

Is this a Denim Fetish Superman propositioning Acid Mrs. Butterworth? Nope. Is the fiesta dancers (by Luis Jimenez) at the University of New Mexico.

Meet "El Mesteo", an eight-meter rearing monstrosity that welcomes visitors to Denver International Airport with its glowing eyes and frightening anatomical realism.

This is supposed to be a statue of Christopher Columbus. It's located in Seattle, near the aquarium.

Placed in front of the main terminal of Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in NC, USA, this monumental bronze statue of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (the namesake of the city) was created by Raymond Kaskey.

The city of San Jose spent $500,000 on a sculpture of Quetzalcoatl (pronounced Ketz-ul-KWAT-il), an ancient Meso-American god/figure of creativity and fertility dating back to pre-Aztec times, in order to honor the city's Hispanic culture and heritage. However, it seems the coiled snake-like sculpture resembles more a gigantic dog turd.

Sheep statue in Canberra, Australia.

Peter the Great Statue in Moscow, Russia. It was built by Zurab Tsereteli in 1997 upon the order of the Moscow government on the elongated island formed between the Moscow River and the Obvodny canal.

Located at the Clarendon Hotel, in London.

The Burnside Fountain, affectionately called "Turtle Boy", is actually a statue of a boy riding a hawksbill sea turtle created by sculptor Charles Y. Harvey. The statue stands on a pedestal of pink granite created by architect Henry Bacon, who later designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The Fountain, while originally placed in Central Square, Worcester, Massachusetts, it is now located on Worcester Common.

No list like this is complete without the great Cheese Mite Memorial of Wurchwitz, Germany.

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[www.keralites.net] TODAY VASANTH PANCHAMI SARASWATHI DEVI BIRTHDAY

 

The festival of Vasant Panchami is celebrated on fifth day of Shukla Paksha of Magh Mas.In this year, the festival will be celebrated on 15th February 2013. It is considered as the birthday of saraswathi Devi.Saraswathi Devi pooja is celebrated twice in year one is on Magh mas and another is on Aswija mas i.e. last three days of Navarathri dasara (Vijaydasmi) pooja celebrations

Goddess Saraswati is the mother of wisdom and music. She is a magnificent, light skinned woman who wears a pure white dress. Saraswati rides on a swan. She is often seated on the white lotus. A lotus represents her experienced of complete truth. Her white dress signifies the transparency of real knowledge. She also related with yellow color.

This festival is the festival of king of seasons. This festival is especially significant for lovers of art and education. She is the goddess of wisdom, art and music and gave human beings the powers of speech, wisdom and learning. She is represented pictorially with four hands (representing four aspects of human personality in learning: mind power, intellect, attentiveness and self worth).

She holds sacred scriptures in one hand and a lotus (symbol of true knowledge) in the second. With her other two hands she plays the music of love and life on a stringed instrument called the veena. She usually wears white, symbolizing purity, and rides a white swan that symbolises purity and discrimination. Her swan signifies that people should have the ability to discern the good from the bad. The goddess Saraswati, sitting on a lotus, symbolizes her wisdom. She is also well-versed in the experience of truth. When the goddess is seen sitting on a peacock, it is a reminder that a strong ego can be held back by wisdom.

Out of all six seasons, spring season is the most adorable. On this day, apart from Goddess Saraswati, Lord Vishnu Kamdev and God Krishna-Radha are also worshiped. Saraswati is the group of Lord Brahma and is the Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge. She is the personification of knowledge - science, arts, and crafts. She represents Shakti, inspiration and presents herself when the weather is complacent and Nature is in its full grandeur. It is a season of inspiration and passion.

On this day Goddess of education Mata Saraswati is worshiped with yellow flowers, water offerings, incense, lamp etc. In the Puja, as per the tradition, yellow and sweet rice and yellow colored Halwa is offered to God and then eaten as Prasadam. Children are taught their first words on this day (as an auspicious beginning to learning). Schools, colleges etc., (places of learning) organize special worship of Saraswathi. With Her grace, the mute, it is believed, have been able to speak and people have been blessed with the ability to write or compose poems. On this day apart from the Musicians Instrumentalists also will perform puja, as this is a special day for them. Apart from art and culture, Goddess Saraswathi also showers her blessings for the education of children.

The importance of Saraswathi Puja.

In our culture, from an early age, we are taught not to touch, books or any paper with our feet. It is considered a violation of doing things the right way. Any book is a symbol of knowledge and therefore sacred. We immediately touch the trampled book or any educational object with our hands and keep them in our eyes as a mark of our apology. Why do we do this?

We consider knowledge, very sacred and divine. For Hindus, GoddessSaraswathiis the Goddess of learning and we pray to her for academic as well as spiritual knowledge. We also believe that she bestows on us clarity of thought and nobility of ideas. We pray to her to gain knowledge, dispassion, devotion and prosperity. When we keep knowledge on apedestal, how can we trample on paper which stands for Saraswathi?

On Saraswathi puja day, we keep all books in theprayer room, evoke Knowledge in the form of Saraswathi and do puja.

The following prayer is chanted to her beforestartingourstudies:

Saraswathi namasthubhyam varadae kaamaroopinee
Vidhyaarambham karishyaami siddhir bhavathumae sadaa

Iprostrateto you, Goddess Saraswathi. You give boons and fulfill our wishes.
I pray to you to grant my wishes when I start mystudies.

Goddess Saraswathi presides over and protects every form of art. So, on this day, consecrated to Saraswathi, the musical instruments in the house are cleansed, placed on an altar and devotedly worshipped, these being the abode of this Goddess.

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Aano bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah.(- RIG VEDA)
"Let noble thoughts come to me from all directions"

REGARDS
Miss.Shaija Vallikatri Bhaskaran

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[www.keralites.net] Best of R. K. Laxman!!!

Best of R. K. Laxman!!!

 

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