Dede Sophie

It is a 13th century Hoysala era temple gem that is located just a few hours away from Bangalore. It is located in a small village that is associated with one of Indian cricket’s fast bowlers. I am talking about the offbeat Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple that is located in the pretty little laidback village called Javagal, the ancestral village of Indian cricketer Javagal Srinath. This trikuta temple is one of many such lesser known gorgeous temples built during the reign of the Hoysala kingdom. Like most Hoysala era temples, the Lakshmi Narasimha temple at Javagal stands on a jagati (raised platform), beautiful moulding friezes and sculptures on the outer walls and lathe turned pillars, sukanasi and garbha griha on the inside. Where it differs from the other temples is that even though it is home to three shrines, it has only one shikhara. And its outer wall panel sculptures, reliefs and friezes are folkish in character and much different from the other Hoysala temples where the work

Over three decades-plus of automotive journalism, there have been occasions when having a particular car outside my door made me nervous, writes Brian Byrne. Mainly due to its price, and my responsibility for having the vehicle in my care. Most recently, such a car was the Mercedes-Benz S 580 e. Thankfully, I returned it at the end of my time in the same pristine shape as I had received it. Provided you don’t aspire to the even more rarified Maybach-Mercedes, the S-Class in any form is not just the top Mercedes-Benz model, it is also arguably the benchmark for its rivals to attempt to match or surpass. Whether they succeed in that is very much a personal subjective matter, as cars at any level tend to be. But there’s no doubt about the exclusive cachet to the S-Class. When I first reviewed the current S-Class back in late 2021, I mentioned what I saw as an unexpected positive in that the styles of Mercedes saloons have all become alike — it’s not always easy to identify at a glance whe