My childhood Navarathri days and the transformation!

Navarathri festival which spans for nine days is one of the festival which I cherish forever. Navarathri corresponds to nine (Nava) nights(Rathri). Navarathri is celebrated five times a year and the Maha Navarathri which starts from Amavasya in the Tamil month of Puratasi (today) is the most commonly celebrated one. It has always been a fun to dress up and go around homes, be it a close relative or a new neighbor and invite them to get Tamboolam (betel leaf and nut) at our home. I was fortunate to get good friends during my childhood and we turned to be a fun loving, like minded group. Four or five of us, including my brother, start the evening with a typical cloth bag on one hand and haldi kumkum on another. Starting from our near by neighbors, we then continue to reach out to our friends at a distant place. This hopping goes on, till we are either stomach full eating all varieties of sundal (kind of dhal recipe) from each home or we have realized that it is nearing 8PM and we are expected to be back at home.

Sundal is one of the highlights of this festival which is kind of a driving factor for all the kids to visit and invite people. Sundal is offered to Goddess Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi during Navarathri evenings at all home. It had been fun to taste the sundal on our way to the next home. Hmm, needless to say we have started grading homes based on the taste and quantity of the sundal.

Apart from this delicious sundal, there have been many more in this festival, that draws our attention as we grew older. The stacking of various dolls, idols and decoration of the stairs, having a theme based park etc adds beauty to the aura experienced at each home. It was once, when we took all the efforts to visit someone far-off, to have a look at their cricket based doll set and a marriage doll set. People and of course businesses flourishes during this time selling stuff which adds difference to our displays. And as you might have guessed it right, we nag our parents to get new stuff and decorate our Golu (stacking of idols and dolls) and make it different from others!

As we still grew old and started learning music lessons, we eagerly wait for the Navarathri time to grab audience attention by singing songs and put our singing capabilities to test. I have to say that though I do not have a mellifluous or clarity voice, or even a good singer, I have never shied away from singing. I have always liked to sing at each home and wanted to learn more in order not to repeat songs. I believe this festival have slowly inculcated the fond of singing in me, irrespective of whether people like it or not! ;-) These childhood days have brought my heart closer to God and the devoted singing enabled me to get even more closer.

After many years of my childhood school days, when I had started my career, I could not find time to spend at home during Navarathri. Once, when I happened to visit my Aunt's (father's sister) home during Navarathri, I visited few homes nearby with my aunt. There were some differences in my experience then from my childhood. The most astonishing was, there was never a request placed to sing a song!With my innate passion to sing songs during Navarathri, I myself offered to sing some songs of Ganapathi, Devi (Goddess), Krishna. I could not resist myself but sing, as I enjoyed it and believed it as my offering to God.

When I retrospect now about my childhood days during Navarathri, I could realize how it transformed from a sundal delicacy driven festival to devoted singing. This thought adds up to my assurance, that all our rituals and practices had an inner motive of reaching(realizing) the highest Truth and Navarathri is surely the best of them from my experience.

Kanchi Paramacharya HH Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal, has mentioned the significance of Navarathri Golu (idols and dolls stacking). We used to keep idols of Gods and Goddesses (like Ganapathi, Krishna, Rama, Durga, Saraswathi) in the top one or two rows of the Golu steps, which is followed later with saints and holy men (like Meera Bai, Vivekananda) and then some human dolls (like our exciting marriage dolls, cricket set) followed by some animal dolls (ah, yes yes our self created park of animals). Paramacharya shared the insight on this idols and dolls arrangement as the steps to reach higher Self.  If human beings have good thoughts and do good to others, they will be raised to great men, then to saints and finally merge with God. On the other hand, if they tend to have bad thoughts and do evil to others they will go down to the animal level step by step.

The steps in the Navarathri Golu therefore convey us a message of reaching the higher Self by taking each good step in our lives. Hmm, perhaps I have started this Navarathri journey with sundal and have now reached at devoted singing step. More steps for me to go forward to reach (realize) God. I am sure you would have enjoyed your journey towards God through your steps. During this festive occasion, let us pray God to bestow us with energy and faith to take more steps towards Him.

Here is a Navarathri Golu photo of my friend Geetha.



Picture credits: (Geetha Vijay)

Surprising similarities!

I was surprised on listening to some similarities in culture among people from entirely different geographies! Especially at a time when there is no ways of communication across countries and borders. But these similarities could substantiate the theory that human minds could think alike even when distanced apart and does not need any communication tools.

And, the similarities I observed from the two cultures is of course from my motherland India and resident land Finland. One of my colleagues in Finland, had arranged for a team get together in his family owned country side Inn. I got to visit the museum portraying the place's historical roots and the Finnish's cultural highlight "smoke sauna". It was interesting to see the lantern used in the early days, to find the way to sauna which is few meters from the Inn. The lantern looked very similar to those used during my childhood days in India. I am sure these are designed many decades or even centuries before but I wonder how people came up with similar designs, or perhaps settled with this design after many other improper ones.

Then during the dinner time, I was surprised to listen to the Finnish tradition of using "rye-juuri" meaning "root of rye", to prepare Finnish's famous rye breads. They believe some angel would have bestowed them the original rye-juuri and it has been passed along all these years. This rye-juuri is added in small quantities while making bread and is preserved in a container for later use. It seems breads which are prepared without using it is not tasting good. And we had a good round of laughter, when we heard that this rye-juuri could also be bought from super markets! :-) I supplemented the discussion saying that we also have this kind of tradition in India to make curd (yogurt), wherein we save some used curd to prepare curd for the coming days. The obvious question of how the first curd prepared, remains a mystery (at least to me)!

Then the old lady of the house popped in and shared the practice of making "viili" a form of yogurt, in the olden days. They had also added used viili  to milk and prepared new viili and similarly the first viili remains a mystery. The old lady was also telling that they used to hang these viilis in a mud container from the ceiling roof to get it fermented. Ah, this reminds me of the picture of Krishna taking curd and butter from the containers hanging from the roof.

From this short chat about lives in Finland and India, I could observe these few interesting similarities in people's practices in those olden days, despite lack of communication with each other. I am sure there could be many more which might reveal interesting information, like how people's thinking evolves based on the living circumstances and the needs. Perhaps after many tests and trials, people eventually might have settled with the best possible results which could have been same across various regions!

Story behind Lord Ganesha's broken tusk

We all could see Lord Ganesha having two tusks and can you notice one of it is broken?! There is a story behind the broken tusk. Once Lord Vyas wanted someone to write Mahabharata as he recite it. He placed his request to Lord Brahma, who in turn suggested Ganesha as the apt person for this dutiful act. When Vyasji approached Ganesha and told his request, Ganesha consented to it with one condition. It was that, Vyasji has to recite continuously without pausing in the middle. Vyasji agreed to Ganesha's condition and replied that he would in turn want Ganesha to scribble only after knowing the meaning of the recitation.

Then started the record of our epic Mahabharata. While writing fast, Ganesha's tip of the quill got broken. Ganesha did not want to pause his writing, and so immediately he broke part of his right tusk and continued writing. He displayed the importance of performing one's duty at all times. This event left him with a broken task and the name "Eka Dantam".

Evergreen memories of a trip to a story!

We all like to travel to different places and explore and that's even more special and fun for kids.

Summer 2012, we went to Italy along with our parents. It was a very nice trip and we had lots of fun. One day, Barathraam asked my husband Sriram to tell some story and when Sriram told some incidents from our Italy trip, Barathraam got hooked into it and asked more of those.

I got excited seeing Barathraam's longing to recollect his trip experiences, so thought of making it a story! Took some of the photos from our trip where Barathraam enjoyed more, added some captions to them, took print out and had them as our Italy Trip Story Book.

For the next weeks, every day he had a look at those and relished his trip experiences. For the first time, we had used the trip photos creatively and turned them to be alive each day. Here is the book.. 

Its so easy to make and gives your kid a chance to recollect and relish your trip experiences.

Unsung heroines of Independence

I have been on thought many days and also every year on Independence day, about those people who have struggled for our Independence but not came under limelight. Those who stretched their lives, made sacrifices, who came out from the clutches of family and societal pressures for the sake of contributing to the Nation's welfare. They did not think a moment, if they would be part of the publicity, or their sacrifices will be written in history, or they will get some reputation and more than everything, if their participation would even be fruitful!

The drive for all of them, would be (in my opinion) the humiliation they have undergone under British rule, the heart's yearn to express and live independently, and respect to our traditions and culture. During this struggle, there should have been many unsung heroes and heroines from different parts of our country. I was actually on look for some articles about these ordinary people who made extraordinary attempts in their own ways for Independence.

The Hindu article on August 14, 2012 threw some light about these unsung heroines.

Here is the link to the article http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article3764609.ece

And here is a copy of it, for our future reading.

Thanks to Bula Devi and "The Hindu" newspaper for this article.

Women’s participation in the freedom struggle, barring a few cases, has received little attention in post-1947 male-centric historical records.Though India’s freedom struggle saw a significant participation of women, unfortunately several of them have remained invisible to this day — unknown and unsung. The few women freedom fighters who made it into history books invariably came from elite or middle class backgrounds and their male relatives had often encouraged them to join the movement. In contrast, there were innumerable ordinary women, with no formal education or very little schooling, hailing from poverty-stricken, conservative homes, who got involved in the struggle with undaunted spirit and great commitment.

 Raj Kumari Gupta was one of them. Born about a century ago in the little-known Banda zilla of Kanpur, she and her husband worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi and Chandrashekhar Azad. Her crucial contribution to the Kakori dacoity case barely figures in the narratives of freedom. Raj Kumari, who was given the charge of supplying revolvers to those involved in the Kakori operation, apparently hid the firearms in her undergarment and set out in khadi clothes to deliver them, with her three-year-old son in tow. On being arrested, she was disowned by her husband’s family and thrown out of her marital home.

There is also the case of Tara Rani Srivastava. She was born in Saran near Patna and participated actively with her husband Phulendu Babu in the Quit India movement. On Gandhiji’s call, Phulendu assembled a massive crowd of men and women in front of the Siwan police station to hoist the national flag on its roof. The just-married couple stood in front of the crowd and raised slogans. Phulendu soon fell to police bullets but Tara Rani was not deterred. Demonstrating exemplary courage, she bandaged his wounds and marched with the national flag straight towards the police station. By the time she returned, her husband had died.

 Whether these women can be considered as revolutionaries or not, there can be no denying that they fought against great personal odds for the freedom of the country. They displayed great resolve despite seeing their children ascend the gallows. It is said that the night before activist Ram Prasad Bismil, a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republic Association, was to be hanged on December 18, 1927, in Gorakhpur jail, his mother came to see him. On seeing her, Bismil’s eyes became moist, but his visitor remained calm. She had never actively participated in politics but she understood the underlying importance of her son’s passionate espousal of revolution. She apparently told Bismil not to shed tears like a kayar (coward). Bismil is then said to have answered saying that he was crying because he would not have a mother like her. Steeled by her son’s death, she is believed to have said in a speech subsequently that she was ready to give another son to the nation. Saying this, she had raised the hand of Bismil’s brother.

Given domestic constraints, many women found it difficult to get directly involved in public action, but contributed in their own ways. Many took to spinning the ‘charkha’ as a mark of support for the Swadeshi movement. Others acted as secret envoys and messengers — passing on proscribed material, helping fugitives from the law shift from one place to another and ensuring that they were fed and looked after.

Ganga Devi from Uttar Pradesh had no formal education and had been married at the age of 13 into a home which had over 60 family members. Her husband, a government employee, enforced strict restrictions on her movement so as to keep her away from the raging political ferment of those times. But that did not stop Ganga from encouraging her children to be sympathetic to the rebels. She saved money from the household expenses and cooked food for men in hiding while her husband was asleep, washing the utensils herself to keep the matter a secret even from family retainers.

 The stories of these women do not generally surface in contemporary India save for efforts like those undertaken by the Gandhi Smriti in Delhi recently, when it launched a permanent exhibition on ‘Great Indian Women Freedom Fighters’.

According to Charu Gupta, associate professor, Department of History, Delhi University, history writing in the 60s did not register the role of ordinary women in the freedom movement. She observes, “Implicitly the history of that time projected only a select group and this gave rise to a distorted vision.” She points out how the entire portrayal of the freedom struggle tended to be male-centric, bourgeois and upper caste, with the participation of women being seen as an extension of their domestic roles of serving their families.

 The lack of the presence of ordinary women in historical work, according to Ms. Gupta, was due to several factors — the biggest constraint being that history writing was generally based on official records. She, however, believes that this approach has been undergoing a change, with historians now more inclined to base their work on “creative sources” like personal diaries, family histories, newspaper reports, magazine articles and oral narratives.

 As Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert observes in her book Women in the Indian National Movement Unseen Faces and Unheard Voices, 1930-42: “Reinterpreting Indian nationalist history required going beyond archival, official and unofficial sources.” On oral narratives, she says, “As a methodological tool, these narratives revealed the individual subjectivities of participants in the nationalist movement. Documenting these life histories opened a new world before me: a world more real than officials records.”

  Women like Abadi Bano Begam, a widow and a freedom fighter from Lucknow, known by her honorific ‘Bi Amman’, need acknowledgement. She observed strict purdah all her life and when the time came to speak on behalf of her jailed son, she did so from behind her burqa in 1917. This was, perhaps, the first time a Muslim woman in purdah had addressed a political gathering. (Women's Feature Service)

Courtesy: The Hindu, August 14, 2012

Tirupur Kumaran

Marking our Nation's Independence day today, I wanted to share the story of Tirupur Kumaran who hails from Tamil Nadu.

Kumaran (1904 – 1932) was an Indian revolutionary and a staunch freedom fighter. . Kumaran was born in Chennimalai on 04-10-1904, a small town in the Erode District in Tamil Nadu. He was deeply involved in desabandu youth movement and participated in the Indian independence movement. During one of his march against British colonial rule, he held the flag of Indian Nationalists. The flag was banned by British rule. Therefore, police started assaulting everyone who had the flag and asked to put it down. But Kumaran did not bend to their order and held the flag upright. Policemen started assaulting him heavily, but despite their efforts Kumaran did not put the flag down. Finally, he died from injuries sustained from the police assault.

Even when he died, he held the flag up and did not put it down. Kumaran is revered as a martyr in Tamil Nadu and is known by the epithet Kodi Kaththa Kumaran – Kumaran who saved the Flag since he gave his life defending the flag. He attained martyrdom on 07-04-1932. His memorial is situated on Kumaran salai, near Tiruppur railway station. His life history and photographs are displayed here for the public The Government has erected his statue in a park by the railway station in Tirupur.

A stamp is also released in commemoration to his sacrifice.

Let us take this day to remember the heroes and of course heroines of our Indian Independence movement.

It is also important to pass this knowledge and spirit to younger generation to instill Nation spirit in them

Picture credits: http://dawnpages.wordpress.com

Story on Krishna's pranks

Shravana month Ashtami thithi (Thursday, August 9th, 2012) marks the auspicious day of Krishna Janmashtami, the birth day of Lord Krishna. Krishna's life is a store house of stories. While some of them sends a message directly, some has many hidden messages. This short story about Krishna's prank is fun to hear and at the same time, has a beautiful message in it.

Krishna was playing with his friend Gopabalakaas. He went silently to one Gopika's cow yard and released the rope tied to a calf and took it near the cow and helped it to drank milk. Seeing this, the Gopika went to Yashoda (Krishna's mother) and complained, "Hey Yashoda, your son Krishna's pranks are growing more these days. He released the rope tied to calf and let it drink all milk from the cow. There is no milk for the babies at home now." Thus the affected mother gave a pity cry. When Yashoda enquired Krishna about it, he told a simple statement with profound meaning. "Like this mother who worries for her child being hungry without milk, will not the cow worry that it could not feed its own calf? That's why I released the calf."
Emotions are same for human beings and other living beings. Through this prank, Krishna laid the importance of taking care of animals in the same status as human beings.

Lets share these fun stories with kids and more importantly try to behold these values in our daily lives.

Story courtesy: www.moralstories.wordpress.com