Analysis leads to paralysis?

Am I the only one, or does anybody wonder where the "news" component has disappeared in news channels? Ever since the advent of these 24 X 7 news channels we get to hear more of "views" than "news". Every bit of news is "analyzed" to death, every Tom, Dick and Harry's opinion is asked. Have we asked for it? I presume we are capable of making our own judgement from any news. As a viewer I may be interested in the passing views of fellow citizens, but discussing endlessly on the same issue, repetitious arguments and seeing the same set of people on all the channels (particularly NDTV, Times Now and CNN-IBN as these are the main channels I watch. But I am sure even the channels I missed out will not be far behind :( ). It gets really very annoying.

Another very irking trait of the media is that they come with a very prejudiced, jaundiced outlook and never let the people with the counter point have a word. Even the most senior Army/ex-Army officials, senior political leaders etc., are cut short rudely by the news anchor. It gets even more distressing when one of the channels regularly invited foreign dignitaries and behaves similarly with them. Agreed our relations with them may be strained but that is no excuse for rudeness. Also, it seems that some of them just love the sound of their voice. They just cannot play the role of audience.

Daily dose of nonstop nonsense is what my husband calls it :) But it does affect my peace of mind I have noticed. Ever since I have stopped watching these channels my mind is far more quiet. The news paper and online sites like rediff are now my main source of whats happening in the world. We can atleast ignore what we do not want.

Trip to Arjunapuri

I liked the name a lot :) Thats the original name of the town of Maddur. This Sunday we made an impromptu trip to the Narasimha Swamy temple in Maddur. This is a very ancient temple, the temple having been built by a king from the Hoysala dynasty. Legend has it that Arjuna had requested Krishna for a darshan of Lord Narasimha and thats this is where he had the darshan. Hence the name (Arjunapuri).

Got up early in the morning. It is so tough starting out early with kids :( Somehow we were on the road by 6:40 AM (we heard the Abhishekam starts at 8:30 AM, but it actually started at 10:00) and reached Maddur by 8:20. After darshan of the Lord and the other small temples in the Prangan we went to the neighbouring temple of Varadharaja Swamy which is some 600 years old. We then returned to the main temple for the Abhishekam.

The temple was magnificent and this is the first time I had such a clear darshan of Lord Narasimha. The temple serves a simple prasad for lunch. After lunch we started back and reached Bangalore by 3:00 PM.

I wonder how many such small, ancient temples dot our state. Do they get enough funds for their upkeep especially if they are lesser known? Our Government in any case is not interested in temples and does not spend any of the endownment funds for the same. Will these temples slowly vanish? Is it not our duty to preserve this heritage? How do we even go about the same? I wonder.