Comprehension

Gentle whispers… Sweet nothings…
Cuddling… Snuggling… Nuzzling…
Cozy Talks… Soothing murmurings…
Tinkling laughs… Contented Sighs…
Playful pranks… Naughty teasers…
Mischievous Flirting… Declarations of love…
Friendly admonitions… Sincere Praisings…
Unrestricted by time…
Unhampered by distance…
Unhindered by the entire world…

Does this bring a glow onto my face?
Does this spread a mysterious smile onto my lips?
Does this add an extra bounce to my gait?
Does this add chirpiness to my tone?
Does this envelope me with warmth
And give me a sense of security?

No!
Not at all!
But why?
Because all these were never meant for me
They belong to another soul…
To another being who is all the more different from me…

No one can replace that soul…
Not even me!

Happy Birthday Sriram!

Sriram, Wish you a Fun-tastic Birthday! :-)

Let’s hop and skip
And swing and sway
For it’s Sriram’s birthday today!

Let’s twist and turn
And rock and roll
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!

Let’s jump and leap
And somersault in the air
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!

Let’s sing and dance
And yell and scream
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!

Let’s slide and glide
And do a jiggety jig
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!

Let’s run and catch
And play non-stop
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!

Let’s blow the candles
And cut the cake
And smear cream on all faces
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!


Sriram, Wish you a Fun-tastic Birthday! :-)

What is love?

"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it?

It makes you so vulnerable.

It opens your chest and it opens up your heart

and it means that

someone can get inside you and mess you up.

You build up all these defenses,

you build up a whole suit of armor,

so that nothing can hurt you,

then one stupid person,

no different from any other stupid person,

wanders into your stupid life...

You give them a piece of you.

They didn't ask for it.

They did something dumb one day,

like smile at you,

and then your life isn't your own anymore.

Love takes hostages.

It gets inside you.

It eats you out

and leaves you crying in the darkness,

so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends'

turns into a glass splinter

working its way into your heart.

It hurts.

Not just in the imagination.

Not just in the mind.

It's a soul-hurt,

a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain.

I hate love"

-Neil Gaiman

Selflessness

Can you imagine yourself giving away your new T-shirt for someone who needs it during fancy dress competition? Can you imagine yourself lending your favorite bag to your friend for three whole months? Can you imagine yourself staying back late for giving moral support to someone who is neck-deep in project work?

Well, I am proud to say that I am very fortunate to have such friends… friends whom I can trust… and friends who trust me!

This post is about one such buddy of mine. The first time I got a glimpse of his benevolence, was when my sister needed a digital camera for her college project. She had been given an assignment of taking pictures of extraordinary posters and hoardings in the city. She also needed some pictures for her own posters related to her project on Water Conservation. This buddy of mine was just an acquaintance then and I had not even asked him, but he was willing to lend his camera to me. I was very much surprised and was wondering how he could trust me with his couple-of-months-new cam! In fact when I took the camera from him, it slipped off my hands and fell on the pavement. But he did not even scold me. He gave me a warm smile and picked up the camera and gave it back to me. The camera was in its case, so nothing has happened to it. “Thanks” was all that I could give back for his warm gesture!

Of course, after that day, he never loses any opportunity to describe the kind of pics my sister had taken… upturned bucket… a bucket with a broom etc.. etc… :-)

He understands me to the core and most of my thoughts match with him and we confide in each other. He never showcases his generosity publicly; it’s just there inside him and he is ready to extend a helping hand for anyone who needs it. We never need to ask. He has sixth sense to understand and empathize with our situation and assist us.

When I was to be sent to Chicago on project work, he was the one to explain me things… to counsel me and make me prepared for the whole new world. He lent me many of his things (some of those are yet to be returned to him!), but I was not able to give him anything in return! Not even a gift from Chicago! I really feel very bad about it and I don’t know how to rectify the situation.

I appreciate the way he rides his bike. He never breaks any traffic signals, not even when the roads are empty. He is the only one whom I trust to drop me home safely when I am wearing a saree!

I am finding no words to express my deepest sense of gratitude (the way Karthik would put it!) to this invaluable friend of mine. All I can say is I dedicate this post to you, my dear and I am thankful to God to present me with a friend like you.

Lori

This post is dedicated to the joker of our group, Mr. KT. No.. No.. Please do not hit me for calling you a joker. I just wanted to say that just by looking at your face, anybody will feel cheered up! :-)

We all were on our Kerala-Kanyakumari trip, traveling by car. All of us had been on the road for the past several hours and everybody was too much exhausted. Some of them dozed off, while others were playing some game or the other to keep themselves occupied. I was looking out the window taking in each and every change of landscape and humming to myself. Karthik was complaining that he was trying to best to sleep but could not. That was when I sang the Lori from Mission Kashmir.

Soja Chanda Raja Soja.... Chal Sapnon Mein Chal...
Neend Ki Pariyan Pehen Ke Aayi Pairon Main Payal...
Thujhko Apni Narm Paron Par Lekar Jaayegi...
Sone Ka Ek Des Hai Jiski Sair Karaagegi…

I went on humming this song continuously as if the player was put in a single-song-repeat-loop. Magically, Karthik fell asleep and so were some of the other friends who were busy playing! From then on whenever I feel restless in the night and am not able to fall asleep, I hum this song to myself and sure enough I start snoring at once (I can’t confirm about the snoring part! Ha ha ha)

Possessed!

Why do we sometimes become so possessive of our possessions? Even if someone uses our pen or hair-band, we really get annoyed with them. I never like sharing my comb with anyone, not with even my own sisters. The same goes for my towel and my blanket! That does not mean that I am very possessive of them. I am just being very over-cautious about cleanliness.

I don’t mind others using anything of mine as long as they ask me and then use it. I hate it when people take my things for granted and use them freely as if they are their own.

I remember an incident where I had lent a college book of mine to my friend. And she never bothered to return. Whenever I would ask about the book, she would say it’s at home and ask me to rummage her shelf and take it back. One fine day, I went to her place and was shocked to see the state of the book. The book was dog-eared and the very first page of it had her name in block letters. Just imagine someone writing his/her name on your book. I was furious and asked her why she had done that. She said she could not help it. How dare she do something like that! At that very moment, I took an oath that I would never lend her any of my books again.

Now when I think about this incident again, I feel that I had over-reacted to the situation. After all she was one of my closest friends and it was just a book. Was that book more important to me than her? Well, we never know!

Not just with things, we even become over possessive about people.

Why do we have this possessive feeling? When someone talks ill of our family members we defend them and would not think for a second time before severing our ties with them forever!

I am very possessive about my friends too. I stopped talking with one of my friends just because he forgot to inform me before he went to collect his degree certificate.

I also fought with another friend of mine for a very silly reason. He works in another branch of our office and every evening he travels to our branch to play TT. And every day he firsts meets me at my desk and keeps his bag and helmet and then goes and meets everyone else. One day he met someone else and then came to my desk. I became very furious. I felt unwanted. I felt he did not care for me anymore. What a foolish feeling I had!

Even when my best friend got engaged and started spending more time with her fiancé, I had a similar kind of a feeling. And I was really mad at her fiancé and wished he would not come between us. And now when I think about it, I feel like laughing! But as long as the feeling lasted, I really felt miserable.

Is possessiveness a positive trait or a negative one? Got to ponder more on it! Got any thoughts on this?

The Unsaid Truth

The moon dreams to be with the earth
And the earth dreams to be with the moon…
Their endless courtship continues…

The moon tries to pull the earth towards itself
But only manages to tickle the waves in the ocean…
The earth reaches out to the moon
And that’s when we have high tides in the ocean…

The earth and moon meet twice during the day at the horizon...
First time at the moonrise and the second when the moon sets...

When the hour of rendezvous nears,
The moon becomes bigger and brighter in anticipation of the meeting
And the earth blushes in its milky white glow…


And when it’s Amaavaasya, the earth becomes dull and sad...
It drapes itself in black and mourns through the night.

During one such nights,
The wind moves in to be a new neighbor to the earth
When the wind peeks out of the mountains,
It sees the earth in sorrow.
The wind blows its gentle breeze
Trying to cheer up the earth…
The wind whispers into its ears and soothes the earth
The earth wraps up itself in the wind
And falls into a dreamless sleep

As time goes on…
The wind becomes very possessive of the earth
It can’t bear to see the earth with anyone else…

The D-day arrives…
The wind showers the earth with its sweet fragrance
And sends the clouds to spray the earth with water
The earth welcomes the drizzle with greenery
And waltzes in the rain

The wind swooshes around the earth in excitement
And confesses its love to the earth
The earth does not know what to do
But tells wind that they will never to able to bind together for life!

The wind stands transfixed in shock
And hides itself in the mountains…
The earth lays barren with no rain
And the hot sun makes the life worse for it…


Meanwhile the moon is suffering the curse of amaavaasya
It stands all alone with no earth for its company
The Polestar sees its plight and comes closer,
And gives the moon a twinkling smile.

The moon smiles back at its childhood friend
And the saptha rishis dance around them
The polestar twinkles and sparkles for the moon.

The moon finds its solace in the space…
In the vast emptiness and in the vacuum...
The moon realizes that this is what it’s destined for.
This is its home!
And when it pours out these feelings to Polestar,
The pole-star talks about its destiny.
“You are my destiny!”
The moon is dumbstruck,
To know that its childhood friend has been having such notions in mind.


But there is no time for any more thoughts,
For it’s the moonrise time…
The earth waits at the horizon with out stretched arms
And the moon lingers at the horizon for longer time.

During its transit across the sky,
The moon broods over its life…
About the earth… the pole-star… and their destinies…

When it nears the earth at the moonset time,
The moon realizes that they can only dream to be together,
But its home is amongst the stars.
It tells the earth about pole-star’s proposal.
“I am going to accept the pole-star as my better-half,” the moon says.

The earth is devastated… It trembles and shakes
Innumerable earthquakes and tsunamis occur within itself
It tears itself apart and grieves to oblivion.

The wind longs to see the earth
And so, it returns to blow threw the veins of the earth
Bringing back the lost shine onto the earth
The earth realizes that its fate has been bonded with the wind
And so, accepts to unite with the wind for life.

The wind floats on cloud nine
Its joy has no bounds
And it hops and skips around the earth
And wags its tail like a contented puppy!

The wind takes an oath,
“No matter what, I will always keep the earth happy!”


The moon, oblivious to the condition of the earth,
Spends its time with its honey.
It enjoys the tranquility of the space with its sweetheart.
The polestar is overjoyed
To see the affection that is showered on it…

Only when the moon has to traverse the sky,
It becomes very uneasy …
But the earth makes the moon feel comfortable
It shares the good news
And keeps talking more and more about the wind…
And the moon quietly listens
At the surface, both of them seem to be deeply involved in this conversation,
Yet they both know that it is all superficial.
It’s just a compromise they both had to make
They will never want to give words to their thoughts
Some things are best left unsaid!

The wind perceives the surge of love that the earth feels for the moon…
It knows that their rendezvous everyday is something beyond mere friendship.
Yet it shows no surprise nor gets angry with the earth.
It calmly backs off at the very sight of the moon

And then we can hear…
…the wind howling in the caves of the mountains all through the night!

Heavenly Deities

They may be merely statues for some, fine pieces of art for the others or gods for some others; But no one can deny the fact that during the time they hold our attention, we forget not only ourselves but also the whole world! Such is the influence of the deity on us.

One of the most mesmerizing moments in my life was the time when I got to see the goddess Kanyakumari. She is probably the only goddess who is still a maiden. According to the Hindu mythology, Kanyakumari is an incarnation of Goddess Parvathi. She is born on the earth to kill a demon. But she has to kill him only as a maiden. This goddess falls in love with Lord Shiva and then they decide to get married. An auspicious day is decided and wedding planned at midnight of that day. According to their horoscopes, it is found out that only on that particular day/time they both can get married. If the time is past then they can never ever get married.

But the whole purpose of her birth will be ruined if she gets married. She has to slay the demon as a virgin/maiden. So, Lord Narada, who is famous for poking his nose in other people’s affairs, transforms himself into a rooster and crows. Lord Shiva thinks that it is dawn and it is past the auspicious wedding time, returns back to his native place. All the presents and other necessary items for the wedding rituals are simply thrown on the sand at the seashore. They say this is the reason for having multi-colored sand in the beaches of Kanyakumari (Cape-comorin) and so the goddess Kanyakumari remained a maiden. Read more of the story at http://www.templenet.com/Tamilnadu/kumari.html

I had waited for a long time in the queue that led to the sacred room where the goddess Kanyakumari’s idol was placed. When my turn came I stood mesmerized by the sight that was before my eyes. The room was dark yet brightly lit with lamps. The goddess was in the standing posture, draped in a half-sari. I could see some lamp glittering just below her nose and also at one side of her nose. It took me some long moments to realize that the lamps at her nose were actually reflections of the lamps on her diamond nose ring. I can never forget the sight. Even now I just have to shut my eyes and in my mind’s eye, I can see the dazzling lamps shining on her diamond nose ring.

It is said that during the olden days, the diamond nose ring was used like the light on the light-house to aid the ships sailing towards the coast. I guess even a small piece of coal can do wonders!

* * *

Have you ever seen a God with moustache?
Well, I have seen one at the Paarthasaarathi Temple in Chennai.

“Paarthan” is another name of “Arjun” of Mahabharatha and “Saarathi” means Charioteer. During the war of Mahabharatha, Krishna took the role of charioteer for Arjun. That’s how the name Parthasaarathi was bestowed on him. The idol of this God is made of a dark stone and it has surely a pointed moustache carved in the stone. It seems very strange to me how we generally always imagine the God as cleanly shaven with no beard or moustache.

That is not the only thing that was different from other idols. At the heart of Lord Paarthasaarathi, there was a carving of Goddess Lakshmi. This depicted that Goddess Lakshmi resides in the heart of the Lord. And the idol of the goddess was decorated with jasmine flowers.

* * *

Generally when I read, I have the habit of lying down to one side and holding my book in one hand and supporting my head with the other hand. When my grandma sees me like that she asks: “Enna Ananthasayanamaa?”

It is said that Lord Vishnu lies in that posture on a bed of snake (Aadhisesham) that has severals heads. These heads raise their hoods to shade the Lord’s head. The Lord has goddess Lakshmi at his feet pressing his legs. He is said to float on the milk of ocean like this.

The Lord Vishnu is in this posture (Ananthasayanam posture) at the Padmanabhaswami temple in Chennai. From the naabhi (navel) of the Lord, there is a stem at the tip of which is a lotus. And inside the lotus is Lord Brahma.

I stood in awe for a long time gazing at the idol, until my cousin shook me up to get me back to reality. There is a kind of tranquility that spreads into our veins when one visits a temple.

* * *

Sometimes... Even our two eyes are not to enough to take in the beauty and workmanship of an idol.

At the Ashtalakshmi Temple in Basant Nagar beach, the Yoga Narasimhar and Sudharshanar shrines are right behind each other. The reason for this is: Both of the deities have been sculpted on a single stone. On one side of it, we see the Sudharshan and the other side of it is Yoga Narasimhar. Along with good skills, one requires loads of patience to carve such a magnificent piece of art! Even if one side of it goes wrong then the whole rock has to be abandoned and then the work must start again on a new rock.

It is at the same temple, we have shrines of all eight Lakshmis (Dhana Lakshmi, Dhanya Lakshmi, Vijaya Lakshmi, Gaja Lakshmi, Adhi Lakshmi, Santaana Lakshmi, Dhairya Lakshmi, Vidhya Lakshmi) at a single place.

The architecture of the temple is marvelous. The temple is a four storey structure and the shrines are built one top of the other. The stairs lead us from one shrine to another and from one level to another. Unfortunately the paintwork of the temple has deteriorated and it may gradually go into ruins if we do not take care of this heritage.

What makes this temple even more beautiful?
It’s its location! The temple stands right next to the Bay of Bengal and one can have a breath-taking view of the beach from the top of the temple. That is what the goddess Dhana Lakshmi does. Her shrine is in the top storey and she sits facing to the east, probably enjoying herself and bestowing her blessings to us!

* * *

Very near to Ashtalakshmi temple, there is a Murugan temple called Arupadai Veedu (Six Abodes of Lord Muruga). Incidentally, Lord Murugan has six heads.

This temple has six different shrines of Lord Murugan similar to those in other parts of Tamil Nadu. It is said that if one has prayed for visiting any of the shrines down south of India and they do not have the capability to travel so much, they can visit Arupadai Veedu. It is equivalent to visiting the actual shrines. To know more please click on this link: http://www.ganesh.us/gods/lord_muruga.html

What caught my attention at this temple was the Elephant incarnation of Lord Ganesha. As we know Lord Ganesha has an elephant head. But I never know that he took the incarnation of an elephant. According to mythology, Lord Murugan, disguised as an old man, was asking Goddess Valli to marry him. When she did not agree, he pleaded his brother Lord Ganesha for help. He took the incarnation of a wild elephant and accosted Goddess Valli. Then the goddess begged the old man (Lord Murugan) to help her. He said, “I will agree to save you only if you will marry me.” In her helplessness, she agreed and when the Lord came in his true form, she was overjoyed. To read more on this story please open this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valli

I realize there are so many legends in our Hindu Mythology that I don’t know. Time to bury my head into our epics and feel the Godliness around me! :)

* * *
There a little more to write, before I end this post…

This post will be incomplete without Rammappa Temple. The architecture of the temple is awesome. From the aerial view, it looks like a lotus flower. Each inch of the temple is full of intricately designed sculptures. The Shrine of Shiva inside the temple is pitch dark. Even though the shrine is in darkness, at any time of the day, the Shiva Linga will always be visible. This is due to the position of the pillars in front of the shrine. The angle and the direction of the pillars ensure that the light from outside gets reflected and falls onto the Shiva Linga.
I do not think I will be doing any justice to the Ramappa Temple, if I do not write a separate post for it. We will have the post shortly in our blog! :)