DevaranyanaDurga

(Hi)Namaskara,

          Welcome back folks for yet another article. I hope the enthusiasm level is high as ever. This time the trip was to deverayanadurga and shivgange  on bike. One fine morning on saturday me and my friend decided to go on bike ride for a day outing then the place that came to our mind was devarayanadurga which is considered a good place for trekking or for a days trip. We packed lunch and headed to the destination decided. I had honda unicorn filled full tank and then started off.

Route : Bangalore -> Tumkur road -> Nelamangala -> Dobbaspet -> Sri Yoga Narasimha Swamy temple. -> Bhoga Narasimha Temple -> Namada Chilume -> Shivgange -> Bangalore.

Distance around 75kms.

There are 2 temples one in bottom Yoga Narasimha and one at the top Bhoga Narasimha temple..We visited both..Vehicle went all the way up till Bhoga Narasimha temple after darshan we sat there had our packed lunch around 12:30pm.. Now few details of the temple(s) we visited. I will share wikipedia link for this for interested folks to know more about the temple history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhoganandishwara_Temple ..

Then we headed to Namada Chilume which is around 7kms from the temple. Here legend says that Rama's hit an arrow and water started flowing out..Namada Chilume, meaning "Spring of Tilak". (naama = tilak and chilume' = spring, in Kannada) As shown in the picture, the water comes out from a small hole throughout the year and never dries up. ..Here there are lot of deers as well..Good time to spend. There is nominal entry ticket..

After time well spent then we headed to Shivgange it is a Shiva temple..Things of importance there are :

Gangadhareswara Temple:

Legends state that in the mythological period Lord Shiva to stay calm with the showerings of Goddess Ganga settled on the mountain, thus forming Gangadheswara temple. This temple interiors are only lit with light from earthen lamps as the only source of light. Generally we get ghee from butter but here the things are mysterious. The place is believed to house a miracle of turning ghee poured as an offering over the deity statue to butter in a minute’s time. The mystery behind this phenomenon is yet to be discovered hence continuing as a wonder among the people.

Honammadevi Temple:

Goddess Honammadevi is believed to have destroyed demon Rakthabeejasura at this site. According to legends, the Goddess Honammadevi after the assassin demanded water to quench her thirst from Lord Shiva who guided her to Goddess Ganga. Over a heated argument with Goddess Ganga over the same, Goddess Honammadevi in a surge of anger burst the base land and made the Ganga water flow from underground. This gave birth to Patalagange.

Veerabhadra Swami Temple:

According to the priest Mr. Natraj, who is serving the temple for 20 years,  the temple is dedicated to Lord Veerabadra Swami, son of Goddess Honammadevi. It is believed that the Goddess has appointed her son to prevent the outward flow of river Ganga as it is too powerful to destroy the entire village if gushed out of the mountain. As per the tradition followed, devotees here pray to the God Veerabadra and Goddess Ganga for a boon to give birth to a healthy baby.

Patala Ganga:

The spring that flows from the underground of the hill is called the Patala Gange. This river is 13-kilometer in length and 50 feet in depth, with a secret stream flowing from the site to Anthargange, located in the southeastern part of the Karnataka state. Surprisingly, the water level in the summer season is far higher than the one during the rainy season.

Olakala Theertha:

Olakala Theertha is popularly known as “Pappa Vimochana Teertha” meaning to wipe off all the human sins. At this point in the Shivagange, the spring flows amidst its rocks, allowing devotees to enjoy the water and dunk their hands to free themselves from worldly sins.

Girigangadheswara Temple:

This temple is located at the peak of the mountain pillars, the stream which flows under them. The day when the holy water is believed to be originated is celebrated as Girijakalyana, marking the confluence of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi.

Sidha Basavana:

The statue is located at the highest point and the steepest part of the hill. Visitors opines that the view from this spot is breathtaking and this compensates for the tough climbing experience.

Shanthala Point:

Shanthala’s point is located 500 meters uphill. According to history, it is a belief among the natives that when the area was under the rule of Hoysala kings, their Queen Shantahala, wife of King Vishnuvardhana, under the ache of not being able to have a baby boy, committed suicide by jumping from the hilltop. Thus identifying the spot as Shanthala point.

Queen Shanthala was a talented Bharatnatyam performer who was equally skillful in handling administrative affairs and making sound religious reforms for the kingdom. But her long endured sorrow over not having a son to take up the throne after the king, made her take the harsh step. The young queen in her early twenties unable to handle this pain sneaked out of the palace one unfortunate night and after offering her prayers at the neighbouring Honnadevi temple, jumped from the point. Since then this deep gorge has been named as Shanthala drop.


Photos of mentioned places is easily available on google search..We went till olakala threeta as it was nearing sun set time we headed back from there..Nearby Shivgange not many eatery places but you can have fruits, cool drinks, cucumber on the way up..One of the most budget friendly trips we had typical college going students one..On the way we had lot of conversations, antakshari and what not..We came back to bangalore with lot of happy memories..


Cya until need adventure story.

How Not Knowing Marketing Makes You a Rookie !!

In this article I will break down Marketing into 5 steps and walk you through them one by one.Before we dive into Marketing, I would like all of you to consider Marketing as a life skill. It is the only thing that has existed since humans came into existence..If we learn marketing then we will be able to sustain ourselves.That being said lets dive into the steps one by one.

• The fundamentals of marketing

  
  
  -> Among many goals of marketing important one being wealth creation. I think many of you will agree with this statement.Now lets look at image above and derive explanation from it: -> Lets say you want to make 1 cr in n number of years as saving where n is number of years you want to put in, for our discussion lets say we want to make 1 cr in 3 years time frame how will we achieve it? -> We can get/ make a product worth 100 Rs and sell it to 100000 customers. -> Now if we can increase the worth of the product to 1000 Rs then numbers of customers to whom we need to sell reduces to 10000. -> Now if the value of product is increased to 10000 then number of customers we need to sell will reduce to 1000. -> Now if we increase the value of the product to 100000 then number of customers to whom we need to sell reduces to 100.. -> Now that we have an idea of how to make 1 Cr in 3 years time frame, lets talk about customer acquisition cost.Let's say we spent 10000 Rs to get 1000 customers on next attempts if we convert them even if 50% gets converted to buy the product you would not have spent any cost second time around. -> Marketing is not selling alone it also is to keep the existing customers happy so that they remain life long customers.. -> One more important aspect of Marketing is to gain and nurture the trust of customers.Now that we have understood marketing principles to an extent lets move to next topic of discussion..

• Digital marketing vs. Traditional marketing. I think combination of Digital and Traditional marketing is the way for successful product.Lets look at benefits of hybrid marketing : -> If a product is generic with a very wide targeting - TV adds can reach millions at a low cost( Ex: Apple iPhone). India has TVs in 197 million homes out of 298 million homes. With an average of 4-5 member per household, TV has a reach of 800 million to 1 billion people. The reach of Digital Marketing is nowhere close to TV based on numbers alone (source: Wikipedia) -> Digital Marketing is the best medium to reach affluent English speaking population in India with spending power. ~100 Million Users. -> Radio has a reach of 65% of the Indian Population (Source: Financial Express) -> Newspaper has a reach of 465 Million People (Source: Business Standard) Disadvantages of Traditional marketing : -> Cannot personalise communication ,deep marketing and natural sales.

• What is direct response Marketing? -> Most people who run ads don't know if the ads work or not -> Marketing executives in big companies (and in ad agencies) run branding campaigns which do not give specific and measurable results. Increase in "brand awareness" is not measurable. -> "Direct Response is a type of marketing designed to elicit an instant response by encouraging prospects to take a specific action." - MarketingEvolution.com
  -> An ad in the newspaper with a phone number to call. -> A late night infomercial with a phone number to call and order. -> An ad leading to a landing page with a lead form
  -> A sales page with a product with a link to purchase the product.
  Recommended Books on Direct Response Marketing : 1. Scientific Advertising - Claude C. Hopkins 2. The Ad-week copy writing handbook - Joseph Sugarman 3. Confessions of an Advertising Man - David Oglivy Recommended Books on Economics : 1. Economics 101 - Alfred Mill 2. Currency Wars - James Rickard 3. Capital in 21st century - Thomas Picketty Both traditional marketing and digital marketing has pros and cons based on the product we want to sell we can decide which approach to use or hybrid to be used ..That being said lets move to next section.

• CATT Marketing Funnel and Framework What is CATT in terms of customer lingo?

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  Wealth = n ^ CATT -> [n] Niche : Your success and wealth depends on the niche you choose. -> [C] Content : Create useful content that attracts people from your niche. Blog posts, videos, lead magnets, live webinar etc -> Attention : Drive attention (traffic) to your content using SEO , Social Media, paid ads and referrals -> [T] Trust : Build trust with your audience with trip wires, marketing automation and re targeting -> [T] Transaction : Convert your leads into customers with natural sales methods.

                                                       Image 1 explains the nature and power of CATT . Image 2 explains how to narrow down on your Niche.. Converting your leads into customers is an important step that can be achieved using sales call , webinars and so on and so forth..Now moving on to next section.
                            

                            

• Integrated Digital Marketing

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  -> Content Marketing is done by giving away free content worth of value to prospective personnel/leads..In the process of it collect there e-mail ids.Build on the trust quotient which is nurturing the leads. -> e-mail marketing is to nurture the leads with value content and build trust with the leads. -> To the content paid advertising , SEO , Social media promotion and finally we will convert by selling them the paid product. Image 3 explains how Integrated Digital Marketing works..Will elaborate more on this in coming articles..This in itself is a topic at large.Now moving to next section.
  

• Personal Branding: Mass Trust Blueprint

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  Why Personal Branding is important? -> The best known will always beat the best. -> People want to hear from people, not from brands. -> Digital Deepak is a bigger brand today than many digital marketing companies because it is personal and it's deep. -> Elon Musk has bigger following than SpaceX and Tesla. -> Downside: A personal brand cannot be invested and cannot be sold. -> Upside : A personal brand can give rise to many brands from his/her influence -> A personal brand becomes an influencer and a brand ambassador for the companies that they run.
  
• Evolution of Personal Brand : -> Consult: Now that you have personal brand through your blog, have work experience and have learned the fundamentals, start consulting other businesses instead of working for them. -> Mentor: Mentor others who want to become like you.Mentoring will help you scale your understanding to a whole new level. -> Startup : Start your own product or service business with the understanding that you have developed about the market, the problem and your own skills. Image 5 explains the mass-trust blue print.

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself..The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous" - Peter Drucker.

Let me know if this article was helpful and also on what topics would you like the next article to be on in comments section.Also if any improvements needed in this article so that I can better it next time.Thanks all for those of you who read this article.Take care. Stay healthy..Cya until next time.

This article is written as part of the Digital Deepak Internship Program Batch 22. If you want to be part of internship program attaching link for reference https://deepak.me/internapply 

(Hi) Namaskara,

    Hope all r doing well and enthusiastic about reading this article. I would like to share my experience of a trip that we had been to places namely Kukke

Subramanya, Dharmastala, Shringeri and Hornadu and the start and end point being Bangalore.

    We mean 4 of us had been to this places. Since it is holistic places u can expect my mom and granny to be present. Me and my friend were the other two to answer

your question. We started to plan this trip 2weeks prior to x-mas. Now some of u might be wondering 2 weeks is very early and guess what x-mas time din get any train

ticket and i know many are smiling how can u get train ticket 2 weeks before x-mas and guess what you do not even get bus tickets during this time of the year..Somehow

finally managed to get the tickets in ksrtc on back seat tyres.Ya u read it right on back seat tyres. It was on 24th night around 9 was the bus suppose to depart. So

we reached there half an hour early and bus started 15-20min beyond scheduled time.

     With all the ultra delux experience we reached kukke which is 280km from Bangalore on 25th around 5:15 in the morning. We alighted  in kukke. What do you look for

once you get down in a place especially when you have elders accompanying you; yes of course room and guess what all rooms in the entire region is booked, not only for

that day but for 3 days to come. Now what do you do??? So we made a auto took the bag and baggage and headed to kumara dhare  river to have bath in that chily weather.

The auto driver had an interesting comment to make and what he told was the water will be hot as he had bathed in that river at 3 itself that morning. Now that was

what he told to us. On reaching there we see people loads and loads of them. Yes of course including us. You have hot water facility may be Rs 10 per bucket for those

who do not or cannot bath in the river. Then you also have decent enough change room for ladies. For men, common don expect anything, become tarzen and jump into the

river take bath. Now comes the interesting part, you are not allowed to use soap there though we being typical Indians do not follow rules. Then an elderly person came

to us with the interesting theory by telling us that Lord Subramanya's eyes will fill with tears if you use soap there..Tricky situation isn't it of course if you are

believer of god ,to boot that i think his son came up with scientific explanation of not to pollute water. As i had told you earlier about auto driver theory proved to

be false. The water was freezing cold ,what else do you expect during later part of dec  that too in morning around 6. Before i forget the auto fellows charged Rs 20

for 4 of us for one way and this seems to be fixed price for 4 and may be Rs15 for 3.

       Now finally completed the bath and left from there to temple premises to have darshan. Before that

 where do you keep your luggages???? Luckily you have a luggage room and rest room facilities near temple which is free of cost. There were thousands of devotees who

were taking shelter there. We kept the luggage there and left the chappals in the stand and now we were ready for darshan. My mom now began enquiring about any seva

tickets are present for quick darshan. Sorry to disappoint this facility is almost non existent. You have to stand in line to get the darshan of the Lord. We had our

darshan within an hour which is very quick considering the amount of people. Now comes interesting part, the line for naga dosha pooja was much more then the line to

have darshan of lord. You are in temple premises and you need prasadam. The Prasadam line was also big which costs you around Rs 30 per set. What i did was just passed

the money to the person who was about to get prasadam and got the prasadam ticket. That made the task cut out went to the counter and took the prasadam. Then had

darshan of the entire temple and while coming out we saw another prasadam counter which was free of people. But, none the less we already had prasadam and came out of

temple. It was about 10:30 in morning. Yes all were hungry needed to have breakfast after all the interesting things that had taken place. Now what you see there all

the hotels are flooded with people and you will have to wait atleast for an hour to get inside the hotel and another hour to get a seat.

      All are hungry!!! So i told my friend to get the parcel and we will eat outside itself seated on steps itself. The idea worked brilliantly we good the stuffs in

10 min as opposed to 2 hours wait..We had juice and ice-cream also. After all this my granny was damn tired so we took rest near the temple place which i had mentioned

earlier. Then me and my friend went to enquire about the bus services available from kukke to Dharmastala. The bus frequency is quiet good; you have buses for every

half hour atleast till about 7 in evening.  We took our luggages where we had left and moved towards bus stand and got into the bus

      We left to Dharmastala around 12:30 from kukke. Since everyone were tired, tried to catch some sleep on the way. The bus ticket fare is about Rs50-60 per head.

We reached Dharmastala hoping to find a room here atleast aroun 2:30pm. As luck would have it, you dont have rooms here also and this place is supposed to be 4 times

bigger than kukke and hence the room availability. By now we were used to it, we got to know that hotel named saket or something like that; since i don remember the

hotel name exactly, may provide an outside chance of getting a room there. Here again auto fare remains at Rs20 for 4 people. We reached the hotel and got to know that

there was a booking system and people who are waiting from yesterday have not yet got rooms!!!! Then we again took an auto and went to temple. There we searched for

some time from where the line starts so that we can have darshan of lord shiva. Finally after 15min we found the starting point of line. It took about 3-4 hours for

darshan then we came out. Since we had nothing to eat since breakfast we had little bit of snacks near the temple and then we headed back to the hotel where we had

kept our luggages. There we saw a line which we assumed it that the rooms are vacating and they are going to give us room. Only after 2hours of standing in line did we

come to that it was just for the token number and not for the room and number we got was 65 that too around 7:30 in night. The hotel fellows told that they will give

the room around 10:30 in night if its empty, by this time we were sure of not getting room. They had told us earlier that in case we do not get rooms they will provide

mats and you can sleep anywhere in the hotel. Deposit of Rs10 per mat and luggage deposit being free. Hotel was pretty big and we found ourselves a nice corridor which

was like a room except that there was no charging points and a door. The rest rooms are maintained well so we had no problem with that either. We all settled down

there had whatever my granny had prepared and bought there, then we slept. Thus ends the challenging day. The next day morning we were out of the hotel by 5:30 as we

headed to shringeri.
    But guess what there is no direct bus from Dharmastala to shringeri. The locals there told you will have to go to kottegehara and then from there to shringeri

or else another alternate route will be to go to pacchaikal or something of sort the name sounded and then to shringeri. We found a bus to kottegehara and we got into

it. Though the distance from Dharmastala to kottegehare is only about 50km due to ghat section it will take about 1:20-2hrs to reach there. We reached there around

7:15 in the morning and got to know the bus to shringeri comes around 7:45. We had neer dosa and tea which was freshly being prepared. Here is when we get to know that

you have a direct bus to hornadu from here but not to shrengiri. You will have to go to ballehonnur and then from there you will have to go to shringeri and guess what

you have only one bus which travels from kottegehara to ballehonnur.
     If you miss the bus at 7:45a.m the same bus will come around 1:30 for the next trip. We must admit the journey from Dharmastala to kottehara was awesome. Nature's

beauty at its peak. We did not have a decent enough camera to capture the pics. We had a iphone and took pics of whatever clarity it had. Getting back to the situation

we were facing, we had to go to shringeri as we had booked the return ticket from hornadu. So we took the gamble as we had time constraint in our hand as well, to go

to shringeri via Ballehonnur. We reached Ballehonnur around 9:45 and we got the bus to Shringeri around 10 so we had not much waiting to do here. So finally we reached

Shringeri around 12 and we had to rush to have bath ofcourse we were used to not having rooms by now. We had the bath in the river and then had darshan of Goddess

Sharadamba and other lods in shringeri near by. For Guru devotees the timings to meet Guru are from 9-12 so obviously we were late on that count. After the darshan we

had lunch in temple premises. Here i have a suggesion to make, if you are planning to go to hornadu and shrengeri from Dharmastala you rather go to hornadu first from

kottegehara and then come to shringeri.Now coming back we had to go to hornadu and the buses available were heavily crowded and if you have to catch a seat you need to

occupy it by keeping some cloth or whatever on the seat to catch it else you will end up standing till hornadu. Luckily i managed to catch hold of two seats where my

mom and my granny sat, me and my friend stood; even my friend got a seat half an hour later near jaipuri stop if i remember correctly. I got the seat when we had just

15-20 min left for reaching hornadu near place called balleyelle. The distance from shringeri to hornadu is 70 -90km and time it takes is around 3-4 hours because of

ghat sections and the bus route. We reached hornadu around 6pm and luckily the rush was not much here. Here again we dumped the luggage in luggage room and took rest

for some time. Then my mom had brought a ticket for kum kum archan so we could see the Goddess Annapurneshwari very closely with all here splendour and beauty. Then we

had dinner in temple and by this time it was 7:45p.m and our bus was on 9:15p.m. So my mom and my granny went on a shoppping spree, may be coz we had not spent a

single penny anywhere for rooms. The only charges we paid was bus charges which ranges from Rs25-60 per head depending on the distance and ofcourse this fare is for

local visits. Then we got into the bus which was already waiting for us, then we reached Bangalore around 6a.m after challenging and enjoyable journey. Thanks for

those of whom for reading this small piece of article.


*For those of whom who need neccesary info can read this:

                                                                                                                 
$-> Trip Plan we had and executed was: BANGALORE -280KM---
8-10Hrs ->>>> KUKKE SUBRAMANYA ---- 60KM----1-2Hrs ->>> DHARMASTALA** - 125-130KM  ------6-7Hrs ->>> **SHRINGERI --70-90KM ---- 3-4Hrs  -->>> HORNADU --330KM----9Hrs>>>> BANGALORE. All this was covered in bus.
                                                                                                            
                                               

* Bus Price rates from B'lore to Kukke and Hornadu to B'lore will range depending on your booking like if you book ksrtc then ticket will be anywhere around Rs 175-250

and for rajahamsa it will be around Rs275-330 per head. The bus fare to travel locally there will cost you anywhere around rs 25-60 per head. The autofare is RS20.

* My suggession as i had mentioned earlier if planning to go, go to hornadu first via kottegehara and then to shringeri..

    That's it for now folks. Hope it was informative..Thank you again for reading this piece of article.:)