Ravi Shastri visits Karvalu Vishnumurthy temple in Karkala
Udupi (Karnataka), Mar 18 (PTI): Former Indian cricketer and coach Ravi Shastri on Tuesday visited the Erlapadi Karvalu Vishnumurthy temple in Karkala taluk, Udupi district with his family.
During the visit, rituals including Panchamrita Abhisheka, Kalapokta Puja, and Nagatambila Seva were performed for the temple’s presiding deity, the original Naga deity, followed by a grand Mahapooja to Lord Vishnumurthy.
Between 2007 and 2025, Shastri visited the Karvalu Temple 13 times, offering special prayers to the Naga deity. Every time, he was escorted by his distant cousin and a former journalist, the late Manohar Prasad, but Prasad was no more, and Shastri remembered his commitment to the growth of the temple.
Shastri’s ancestors hail from Erlapadi Karvalu of Karkala taluk in Udupi district.
His grandfather, M V Shastri, was a noted doctor in Mangaluru during the 1950s, while his father, Jayadratha Shastri, pursued his education in Madras before becoming a doctor and settling in Mumbai. Though there are not many from Shastri's clan living in Karvalu, the temple devotees, elders and leaders still remember the family, said an elder of the village.
Born and raised in Mumbai, Shastri completed his education there before joining the Indian cricket team. Since the birth of his daughter, Alika, he has made it a tradition to visit the temple annually and offer prayers.
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Mamata Banerjee receives jersey signed by Lionel Messi
Kolkata(PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who received a jersey signed by Argentine football star Lionel Messi, described him as an "artist with the ball."
Banerjee said the jersey symbolises the unbreakable connection between Bengal and the beautiful game.
"Football is a passion that runs through my veins, much like every person in Bengal who has ever kicked a ball on the 'para' fields. Today, that passion found a special place as I received a jersey signed by none other than Lionel Messi," the CM said in a post on X on Wednesday night.
"The love for football binds us all, and Messi, an artist with the ball, a maestro of our times, embodies the spirit of brilliance that Bengal admires. This jersey is a symbol of the unbreakable connection between Bengal and the beautiful game," she added.
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