India at SFO airport

On the floor of the airport lobby, there is a representation of world map with most of the world international airports.... And our lovely India is also in the map with the four major airports: Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. Notice how the names are still Bombay, Calcutta and Madras and not Mumbai, Kolkata or Chennai! :)

Click on the below to view a bigger picture!

Vande Mataram!

Jaya Jaya Vijayee Raghu Rama

Got a chance to watch a dance show called Jaya Jaya Vijayee Raghu Rama... It was Ramayana narrated through songs and dance...

We loved it! Glad we got a chance to watch it... Amazing sets... 

Beautiful choreography... melodious voice... 

They even put up a screen giving the english translation of the song that was being sung. We thoroughly enjoyed it... felt good even in those emotional moments...

Appa in IIT

First things first... I am so proud to say my father gave a lecture in IIT Mumbai on rural community development.

I have not spoken much about my father or his contribution to rural development in Andhra Pradesh... But today is the day!

My father started working for an NGO (Non-government Organization) called ARTIC since 1980. Ever since then he has been working on the betterment of people in villages in Srikakulam Dist. He lives in a small village called Kotturu in Srikakulam Dist, A.P. near to tribal villages. He has spent his entire life trying to improve the living conditions of people like providing basic necessities such as water, sanitation, health, education, micro-financing etc. He gets funding from government or from other bigger NGOs.

More on his projects later... 

Let me now bask a little in his glory! :)

Here is the link to his presentation.

Art Ilaka

It's a place for people who like to express themselves through art. Ilaka means "place"

I love their ideas like the Ande Ka Fanda...

An illustration with message on an egg (wooden egg)...

Notebooks with colorful covers...

Lots of works of art including one in support of the "One Billion Rising" Campaign

You can view more in their facebook page.

Just this week, an article about Art Ilaka got published in Hans India. Check it out here.

I am so proud of them! Congratulations and wish many more accolades keep coming your way! :)

Giving Back

I am very very proud of this person for making a decision to give back to the society. He has started an English medium school in his own village and made his people proud. He has  named the school after his elder brother whom he admires. He wants to maintain the school as a no-profit-no-loss school. At a time where people look at school as a means of earning money, this person has put in his life's savings to do something for his own village.

This school has around 260 students now. As most of the children's parents are illiterates, the teachers spend extra time with the students and make them do their homework in school itself. So, it is more like a no-homework school. The teachers take out time to visit the students' homes to help them with their learning.

While people like me just dream to do something good to the society, you are living your dream. Hats off to you Govind and keep up the good work. May God support you in this noble cause.

See more about his school at http://bsreddyfoundation.blogspot.in/

The Mahatma and the Golden Gate

Overlooking the Bay bridge is a statue in a walking posture wearing a dhoti. 

This is the statue of the father of our nation (India), Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi as he is fondly known.

It gave a sense of pride to see him here... out here in the West... watching over the Bay bridge... and also, over us... 

During Memorial Day weekend, it was nice to cherish the memories of one of our own Indian heroes. :)

Good Old Days - Paavadai

During all our childhood festival days, we were made to wear paavadai preferably pattu(silk) ones. A paavadai is a South Indian traditional dress. It is an ankle length flowing skirt usually in silk with border at the hemline. 

We would twirl around in them. Sometimes, when we twirled and sat, the paavadai would be all puffed up with air and it felt like we were popping out of a balloon!!

Recently, I got a chance to make a paavadai for my friend's daughter for her birthday. Oooohh!!! It brought back all my childhood memories. Here are some pictures of the paavadai. I was so excited that I took a lot of them! :)

I embellished the paavadai with some pearls and crystal beads

I hot ironed some rhinestuds to the border. The paavadai is made of two layers. The outer layer is of mesh fabric and the inner layer is of yellow silk.

The chokka (blouse) matches with the border of the paavadai. I hot ironed rhinestuds on the chokka.

The chokka has puffed sleeves.

I love it! Wish I could go back to my childhood days and wear this one! ;-)

I hope the birthday baby likes it too! :-)

Knotty Tidbits: 11

Title: Whistling bhajans

V loves whistling... I love it when he whistles the title song of "I dream of Genie..." and... "Paluke Bangaramaye Na..." (Ramadas Keerthanas)

Appa also whistles old Hindi melodies... I do not know how to make whistling sounds... Every time I try to whistle, the only thing that comes out is: air!!! I love to hear people whistle. But I have never heard anyone sing bhajans ever before... Glad to hear V sing... no... whistle... them!

Indian flag?

This was one of the first pictures that we took during our visit to Miami. We were overjoyed to see an "Indian" flag.

Later on we found the same flag on top of the Miami City Hall. 

Upon closer investigation, we realized that the centre of the flag was entirely different. And of course! It was flag of City of Miami and not our Indian flag. But it was nice to see something that reminded us of home! :)

Sahityamlo Hasyam

Every day when I open the youtube home page, the first thing that I search for is "Sahityamlo Hasyam" This is a Telugu program by Dr. Garikipati Narasimha Rao. It is about Telugu language and literature with a twist of humour. He recites a number of funny Telugu/Sanskrit poems and explains the meaning of those. It is very funny to watch. I love it. We are supposed to have one episode per week. However for the past one month, no new episodes have been uploaded to youtube by the Teluguone channel.

I replay most of the episodes. I know some of the poems by heart. I love watching them. I laugh at the same funny poems again and again. It does not bore me at all.

I am very happy that Aditya told us about Dr. Garikipati Narasimha Rao and this program. If we hadn't known, we would have missed all those evenings of fun. V and I sit and watch this program together. It feels nice to share similar interests. Lucky me! :)

Oh TeluguOne! When will you upload new episodes of Sahityamlo Hasyam???

Knock! Knock!

A knock at the door... at the wrong time. 

Who is it? 

A man with a scribbling pad. 

What does he need? 

Some information for a survey. 

The Q & A begins:

"Are you from India?"

"Yes."

"Which part?"

"Hyderabad."

After asking N number of questions about where we are from, what we were doing, our interests in sports and exercises, he asks me if  I am interested in Acupressure and Massage. I say, "No" He asks me if my husband is at home. I shake my head yet again. He asks me if I would like to try a 5-minute demo of their Acupressure massage. I politely decline. Then he starts a lecture on how it can help my neck and back. I try to cut in and say I am not interested. Then he says he wants to get into the house to give a massage to me. A five minute one!

What nerve? He is also an Indian. In which case he should very well know that the Indian women do not prefer strange male hands on their necks... And trying to get into the house when husband is not around? Oh my God! I wish I had chain lock at the door!!!

Walking music...

yaanai varum pinney... Mani osai varum munney...

Loosely translated into English, it means: 

Elephant comes behind... The sound of the bells, presumably around his neck, comes ahead... 

These days, this Tamil saying seems to suit me the best! V knows wherever I am, by the tinkling of the little bells on my anklets! :)

Many many thanks to Mrs. Kash for getting me this nice gift!!!

Carroms

We have been on look out for purchasing a carrom board for long. The sound of the striker hitting the carrom board and the coins falling into the corner holes.. Ooh! I simply love this game! This game was a must during all our holidays. It was a great pass-time.

Little did we realize that the meaning of Carroms on this side of the Atlantic ocean is very much different! In India, the game is played using a large striker made of glass or wood and the white and black coins made of wood. But here in the US, the coins look more like rings and are much smaller and the striker could be a cue stick too! That's quite a shock to us!

We can understand the concept of a game having a slightly different rules in different countries/cultures; but what beats me is the fact that the board itself is so different from what it is in UK/India!!! That's strange!

Good Old Days - Intro

I have been thinking of starting a new series of posts related to my childhood memories. And this is for what "Good Old Days" section is...

This morning while I was wiping my wet hands with a tissue, I was wondering when was the first time I saw/used one. 

Tissues are basically from western culture. In India, we use water for cleaning and hand towels for drying ourselves. In some ways it would have been better if we had stuck to the same. We can understand why tissues are a nessacity in Western countries; the weather is too cold to use water; but with a tropical climate like ours, using tissues is merely laziness or to flaunt class/status.

During our childhood days, Appa (father) would get us some tissues from the Air India flight. Some of them were wet tissues. We would sniff at their pleasant smell and keep it in some safe place for ages. I also remember stitching a dress for our barbie using a orange and white checked tissue. We would save the pink colored tissues and tissues with cartoon characters on them. Those were the days...

Lamp for Diwali

A Happy Deepavali to Everyone! :)

This is the right time to share the details of my recent craft work... I decorated my lamp-shade using white sateen fabric and it has come out very well...

I saw in pattern in some blog and I forget the name of the blog, else I would have surely had a link to it... Thanks for giving me this idea! :)


I hand-sewed the entire thing. It was tough and time-consuming. But isn't it worth the effort? 


This lightens up our room so beautifully... And V loves it too! :)


Wish your Deepavali fills your life with lights and colours...! :)

Knotty Tidbits: 4

This is on Gayu's demand. It feels so good to be appreciated for our writing and that motivates us to write even more. So, if you see me bore you with more posts, you know whom to blame. That's right, blame Gayu for it! ;-)

Title: Fasting
 

For a person who has always believed in feasting rather than on fasting, the term fasting itself makes her go hungry!!! Well, things do change after marriage. This very-important fasting festival of ours came up right after our marriage. It's called Sankasht Chaturthi (Vikram, I hope I have spelt it right... I ask Vikram because this festival is from his side of our family!) Every married girl is supposed to fast the whole day without even having water and pray for the well-being of everyone in the family. Fasting is especially observed by ladies who have sons. However, at our home, every married girl, irrespective of whether she has sons or daughters or no children, has to observe fast throughout the day till moonrise; then perform puja for the moon and then eat after takings blessings from all the elders in the family.
 
That's enough of background knowledge for this post!!! :)
 
No one at home could think that I could fast for the whole day. Also, once a person starts observing fast, she has to do it year after year without breaking the ritual. So, didi, mummy and papa were giving second thoughts as to whether I should take it up at all or not. There was also another angle to this situation. I, who have always been a rebel, might question the very basis of this fast, "Why should only the wives fast and not the husbands???" So, my husband was also uncertain about it and he did not even know whether to talk about this to me or not.

 

However, the day came and I fasted. We are allowed to drink milk. So, I had 2 full glasses of milk through the day, but no water! The day was not a routine one. We had to prepare for the evening puja right from the morning itself. Washing and cleaning the entire house, preparing special eatables and decorating the puja room and idols for the puja. Meanwhile, V left the house to meet his friends. I felt utterly lonely through the day.

 

Then came evening and the long wait for the glimpse of the moon. V was the one to go to the terrace on look out for the moon. The moon came and we stood at the terrace, dipping a lock of hair in milk and offering it to the moon and finally adorning my maang(middle parting of hair) with sindoor seven times... After all this a delicious meal for my starving tummy...

 

I have not still told you the best part...Here is goes...

Unknown to my in-laws or anyone else in the world, V also fasted for me on that day. I will ever forget the feeling of joy that I got when I found out that my loved one did not eat anything because I did not eat anything. The very thought of it fills me with a warm feeling!!! (It also urges me go on another fast, just to test if he would fast for me again! Hey.. just kidding! :D)

Knotty Tidbits: 3

Title: Toe Rings!

 

An Indian Bride or a married Indian woman has to put on a lot of new things and it is considered inauspicious for her husband if she removes her mangalasutra or toe-rings or bindi. I will not bore you any more with the Indian traditions, instead let us get along with today's tidbit!! :-)

 

On my wedding day, V put the toe-rings on my toes... Three on my right toes and three on my left... A new bride is supposed to put on all the three pairs of toe-rings for 2 1/2 months after marriage and then she can remove 2 pairs but she has to wear one pair of toe-rings for the rest of her life!!!

 

The toe-rings were huge, made of silver and quite heavy. They were more like finger-rings with pointed cone in the middle... From the moment I had them on, I found it very difficult to walk... I had to drag my feet while holding my toe-rings tightly... They were a little loose and were bound to slip off easily... Or they would turn around with the pointed cone going under my toe and pricking my toe when I put forth my footsteps...

 

With all this and me in my bridal attire, we had to walk down the mandapam, walk out into the sunshine for Surya-namaskaram. V was walking ahead oblivious to all my trouble... I was trying hard to match to his speed of walking but could not... Normally, I could have called out to him or rather shouted out his name asking him to walk along with me... But it was my wedding day and a bride is supposed to be demure, shy and vulnerable... All I could do was hiss his name and hope that he has heard me...

 

V's Jijaaji (brother-in-law) must have observed all this. He came to my rescue. He went near V, asked him to wait and told him to walk like a bridegroom, hand-in-hand with the bride (that's me!) This is what I imagined Jijaaji tell V: "What are you running away from? You are not going to catch a bus or train? Walk slowly!"

 

Much later, in Bekal, I lost one of the toe-rings at the beach and I was very upset and was wondering what my mother-in-law would think about me... So, I dragged V to a jewellery shop and made him buy me a smaller/thinner toe-ring for the third toe from the big toe... I was dreading the time that I would face my mother-in-law to tell her of the lost toe-ring... And guess what? She scolded me... not for losing the toe-ring... but for buying that extra pair of toe-rings!!! She said as long as I have one pair of toe-rings intact, it is enough!!!

I have now changed into a thinner and lighter pair of toe-rings that don't hurt me anymore...! And V is relieved as he need not listen to any more complaints about the toe-rings hampering my walking pace!!! We can continue to on long walks in peace!

:-)

Upanayanam

Last week we attended the upanayanam (sacred thread ceremony) of my cousin. The purohit who did the ceremony helped us understand the nuances of each mantram and we even got to know the historical(mythological) background behind a famous mantram. I do not want to spoil the show by revealing the name of the mantram right here. Read on and enjoy! :)

As the legend goes...

Thousands of rishis(sages) came together and found out the perfect ultimate mantram... and later all of them dispersed to go and do tapas.. after hundreds of years when they broke their tapas, the only thing that came to their mind was the fact that they had all composed a mantram.. but noone remembered what is was. they met each of the other rishis who participated in the making of the mantram. yet noone could recall it...

Finally they decided to go to the place where the mantram was discovered to find out if anyone had overheard their discussions. Their meeting had happened under a porasu maram(Chloroxylon swietenia tree). It said that it knows the mantram and recited it.. This is the gayatri mantram...

Hence when a person takes up brahmacharyam, he is given a dhandi(stick) of porasu maram.

A person who has taken up brahmacharyam needs to recite this gayatri mantram. This mantram is one of the most respected mantrams in Hindu culture. More on this mantram at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri and http://www.gayatrimantra.co.in/

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! :)