Archive for April 2009
Just before Tsunami
Posted on: April 21, 2009
Myself and my two best friends ( Uthra and Durga), love to wander around Neelangarai beach. The speciality of this beach is that there will be no one around you. You will be all alone and can play all day long in the beach. Similarly we were out one day enjoying the mother nature. It was the last day of our project ( Like project 🙂 ) , so we went to beach to enjoy the last day.
We played a lot, had total fun. Then we found a small fish struggling for life. We were confused to see such a small fish on the shore, as we thought small fish will live in deep sea, at least you need to sail for some time to catch such a small fish. We tried to push it back to water, but all in vain. The fish struggled, struggled and struggled and then was very still.
This made us feel very bad. All the fun we had was gone. We felt bad for not being able to help it. We returned home and almost forgot it. All these happened on Dec 24’Th. On Dec 26’Th we heard of TSUNAMI for the first time. We were all shocked of the after effects of Tsunami. The first thing that came to our mind was the fish. Immediately we called each other to talk about the incident happened two days back. We could not prove if the reactions before tsunami made the fish to reach the land. But we thought we were saved by the fish. If the fish had not come out , we would not have left and played for longer time in the sea, without knowing that the sea would no more be calm..
Hosur Kannayah Bakery
Posted on: April 20, 2009
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There will be few memories in everyone’s life, which will bring happiness and joy when thought about. Similarly one such good thing in my life is “Kannaiah Bakery” in Hosur. This bakery is very famous in hosur and have been serving Hosur for more than 25 years. I love the Vegetable Puffs, Sweet puffs, Masala bun.
It is not just about the taste they serve. But every bite of the it, will take me back to my childhood, holding my father’s hand and eating the puffs, with pieces of it all over me and my mother wiping it off my face. The best past is the memories mixed with the taste makes it more tastier. My father used to tell me that , the owner of the shop knows me from childhood and have been very kind to us. There is connection to this shop right from womb, where my mom had a craving to eat the puffs during her pregnancy. It came as a family tradition , and I too had the puffs when I was pregnant. I’m waiting to go to Hosur and have a bite of it and allow my thought wander around for sometime…
Planet fight.. narrow escape..
Posted on: April 9, 2009
I think when ever I see something it immediately comes in my dream. I got this dream one day, when I told to my husband , he laughed his heart out and was spreading the news all over. I dont know how you will feel when you read it, but it was really thrilling when I saw it on dream.
The dream goes like this..
Myself and my friend ( some person whom I have never met in the real life ) went to a shopping mall. Suddenly it became dark outside. Everyone outside were looking at the sky. We joined them too. We saw two planets, one big and one medium sized, were approaching each other at a faster pace. Even before we realised those two planets hit each other. The light and the sound eliminated from them almost shook the whole earth. Then a bigger piece of the broken planets came and hit the shopping mall, and caused lot of damage. We even saw couple of dead persons around.
Even before I reacted, my friend caught my hand and we started running. I did not understand why should we run, then he signalled me to go alone and he ran the other way. I was totally confused of what is happening. But then I did not stop running. Finally I reached an hospital, where I met him again. He was in real panic state and there where blood all over his body. I wanted him to meet the doctor and get his advice. But he keeps resisting and does not listen to me. I got really angry and was shouting at him. At that time a nurse came and she wanted to take him for a test. But he did not listen to any of us and he started running towards the entrance of the hospital.
By the time he reached there, two cops came there to the entrance. After seeing them he started running towards the other door. I could not run with him, he was running really fast. Then I realised something was wrong. I stopped to see the NEWS. I was shocked to see his face on the television. Then I came understand the whole story. It seems he and his friends were responsible for the crash ( Please don’t laugh 🙂 ). They had operated the entire scene using remote control ( please control 🙂 ). So police are searching for him. Few cops even came running behind me , as they saw me with him. I was running, running and running. Finally I heard a baby crying.. woke up to find my 1 year old was crying..
I was really in shocked state and was happy to know that it was just a dream..
Highway 101 to Chennai
Posted on: April 9, 2009
I’m famous in my circle of friends for peculiar dreams. So I thought I will write down all the dreams I had till now, so that those who are reading this will have good time laughing at. I dont except Thanks, for reducing your blood pressues and for releiving your tensions!!!
One day I had a dream like this….
I was driving a car , in highway 101 ( this is similar to national highways in India) . I was driving for long time, then suddenly I took a wrong exit. After taking the exit I realised that I have reached India and I’m in poonamalli ( a place in Chennai). There I enquired a policeman asking him how to reach 101. He asked me to take left. So did I. After taking left I again joined 101 back.
See how small is the world, take an exit in 101 and reach Chennai without any air fare :).
Point to be noted :- I dont know driving at all.. but I always take car in my dream.. 🙂
Hosur Radha Kalyanam
Posted on: April 8, 2009
Hosur is a small industrial town near Bangalore. Everyone still have a confusion of whether it is part of tamil nadu or Andhra pradesh or Karnataka. It is in Tamil Nadu, but you can find traces of many cultures in that town. I’m Hosurite. I love Hosur as it was the place I lived from birth until 17. My parents still live there. So I love going there to spend time with them. I also love to go there to see radha Kalaynam. The memories of the radha kalyanam is still bright and evergreen in my heart.
Radha Kalyanam alias lord krishna’s Marriage function, is not just a ceremony but like a big festival for Hosurites. When you think of a marriage for a son or daughter what ever comes across your mind, everything will be there in this function also. The main tradition of radha kalyanam is singing of ASHTAPATHI. Ashtapathi is a sequence of 24 songs written by Jayadevar for lord krishna. In his songs he would have mentioned about 9 avatars of Lord Vishnu, Krishna’s stories, krishna’s marriage etc.. You can never stop listening to Ashtapathi. It is also said that when we sing Ashtapathi, Lord krishna will come there directly to listen to us singing about him.
Radha Kalyanam starts with UNJUVARTHI , where people will come singing Bhajans praising Krishna and we can donate them with rice or money or what ever is feasible. Then they will fix the date of the marrige, which will usually fall on the last Sunday of December. It will most probably come along with Christmas holidays. It is a three day function ( Friday, Saturday and Sunday).
On Friday they will start singing the Ashtapathi and it will go on until 3 or 4 Ashtapathis. Bhagavadhas ( The pundits who will have very strong foundation of classical music and have to the ability of sing the bhajans, Ashtapathis, abhang) will also sing small bhajans praising Lord krishna. Thus the mood of the marriage will start on friday.
On saturday morning Bhagavadhas will continue singing Ashtapathis , thillanas and bhajans until afternoon. In the evening there will be a traditional welcoming ceremony of Krishna and Radha. Krishna , the bride groom will be brought from one place and Radha, the bride will be brought from another place. You can never stop looking at the idols decorated like new couples with lots of Garlands and jewels.
Once when the krishna and radha idols are brought. Two persons would carry each of the idol. Then the procession will start towards Lord Ganesha temple at Bagalur Hudco. on the way they will sing and dance for the dholakh beats. They will also form big circle around the idols and keep on dancing, with the rythm changing from fast to slow and viceversa. After reaching temple, they will get wishes from Lord ganesha and reach the mandapam or the place where the marriage is going to be held.
After reaching the mandabam, they will sing ‘KANNANE MANI VANNANE VA VA VA, KAARMUGIL VANNANE VA VA VA..‘ This is my favourite song. This song is for welcoming Krishna. After welcoming the new couple , the Garland exchanging event will take place. In this traditional event Krishna and Radha will exchange garlands. During this the persons carrying Krishna and radha will jump in joy . It will look as if their daughter and son is getting married. They will also boost the spirit of the by standers. You cannot even find a single person standing there without shaking their head. I will be almost in the state of dancing, controlling my senses. But you can dance , no one will stop, it is afterall our Krisha and radha getting married.
After this event , there will be Katha Kalatchepam. This means there will a scholared person who will narrate stories about Lord Krishna. They will sometimes tell stories about young Krisha and his naughtiness with proper quotations from Narayaneeyam, Bhagavadham, Mahabharatham, ramayanam etc. You can sit all day long to hear such stories. Sometimes they will also tell stories about different avatars of vishnu. The way he narrates drags us into the world of krishna and rama.
After this there will Divaya Nama Sankeerthanam, in which all the bagavadhas will dance by shouting ‘Radhe Krishna!! Radhe Krishna!!’. They will also be dancing for the bajans. They will form a circle with the lamp in center. You can see the circle moving in and out , running faster and faster. I was always amazed by the way they dance. The energy they got, just by chanting Radhe krishna, they become more and more energetic. This will continue for 3 hours in the night.
The next day will begin so early, as our beautiful God and Goddess are going to get married. They will start with the left over Ahstapathis, bhajans, abhangs. Then the formalities will start to begin, Nischithartham, Kotnotsavam (Muthukkuthal), Varaprekshana, Kanyaka Dhanam, Panigrahanam. They will also sing the kalayana ashtapathi ( Radha vadhana vilochana ), one of my favourite ashtapathis. After this the Mangalya dharanam will occur where they will tie yellow thread or the mangal sutra to radha. Everyone will be happy after the marriage.
With the happy ‘”Anandham Aanamdham” song in the background , there will be flower balls jumping among the crowd. The chocolates will be thrown across the crowd. you can see 1000’s of people waiting to see the event. After this,there will be my most favourite event. Bhagavadhar will shout ‘Radhe krishna’ and he will ask us to repeat. When we do it slowly , he will raise his voice to make us shout more and more. When all of us shout together ‘Radhe Krishna!! Radhe Krishna!!’, it will sound like thunder. The entire crowd will lift their hands above their heads and shout ‘Radhe krishna!! Rahde Krisha!!’ , the sound of it will definitely reach heaven and will call all the other gods to this function.
The Bhagavadhar will then sing abhang to pray the god. I still remember, once after the marriage, one of the bhagavadhar sang about lord krishna in kannada. The meaning goes like this “I have done all my best to keep you happy, I have done all my best to give all the things you need, I have done my best to think about you all day long, I have done my best to greet you with happy face, I have done my best to not to torture by telling my sufferings, I have done all the best in my life for you and i dont need anything from you except your sight on me” , I could not give the full essence of the song, but believe me everyone had tears in their eyes.
After the marrige, almost half of the hosur will have their lunch there. The trustees will greet everyone happily and treat everyone equally. After coming back from radha kalyanam I will hear the bhajans, Namavali ( names of God and Goddess), ashtapathi in my ears.
It was always a rejuvenating experience. I always feel that my mind went for a wash after I came back. It was always a good experience to be there. Whatever I have written is just 1% of what I feel. I could not bring in the entire episode of the happenings there. When I write this blog I can see the young bhagavadhas jumping up and down , singing, dancing , praising panduranga, with their full energy focused on one divine God, Krishna. Radhe Krishna!!!
Marundeeswarar Temple
Posted on: April 8, 2009
I was always fond of this temple. Early morning before going to office the first place I would visit to say HI was to Marundeeshwarar. This is the biggest temple situated in Thiruvanmayur, Chennai, Tamilnadu. The ancient temple brings in peace and happiness as you step in. You can hear the birds cihrping, priest chanting the mantras and few others reading rudram as a whole it will be a best place for good mind. You can feel the vibrations as you go to the temple. The acoustics of the temple with the mild echos of the mantras make it more divine.
As we enter from the ECR road we can see marundeeshwarar directly. When you go the temple around early morning, when they do the abhishekam you can see the Idol of Shiva directly without any garlands and kavasam. You can see that the shiva lingam is not full , most of the lingam have been eroded. They say that the lingam is made of herbs. Thats the name Marundheeshwarar ( the lord of medicines). Its also believed that he helps to cure any incurable disease. But this must be true, as they pour milk over lord shiva, it runs all over the idol and come out, this way it will bring the essence of the herbs of which the idol is made of.
After visiting lord shiva, when we come around the place , we can see Lord Muruga ( son of Lord shiva) , Lord Durga ( a form of paarvathi, wife of lord shiva) , Lord Kala Bhairavar, Lord Surya ( the sun) , Lord Dhakshinamoorthy ( Guru for studies) , Lord Ganesha ( Son of lord shiva) and back to Lord shiva.
Then when we come out and walk around the premises , we can find separate mandapams for lord Ganesha, Lord Muruga and Lord Tripurasundari. We cant forget the site of Tripurasundari. With a beautiful 9 yards Saree you can feel you are looking at a real mother there. You can feel the power when you go there. I still remember one person, he would come there every morning and read lalitha Sahasranamam, I have never talked to him but his voice would echo in the mandapam and it would be nice and melodious to hear.
As a whole it is a big temple with beautiful and powerful God and goddess ruling the place. The peaceful atmosphere gives the best place for meditation.
Atlast I cannot stop commenting about the food. Now I’m in US missing all those thats why wanted to write about that. You can get Tamarind rice, Sweet pongal , Pongal and other snaks. When I was pregnant my husband would get those for me. I would empty everything and look at his face innocently wanting more. You cannot forget the taste of the food anytime in your life once you have tasted it once.
It is a great place to visit everyday at least once in few years!!!
Aayush Homam in US
Posted on: April 7, 2009
The Aaysh homam of Manasa went on well last week. I thought I should definitely share the interesting things happened before and after the aaysh homam. Performing functions in India does not matter much, as we have lot of helping hands for conducting the event. The main thing is doing the functions in US. Immaterial of the importance of the function, the way we conduct will be totally different.
We decided to perform her Aayush homam on Mar 28’th , the Saturday, as her star was falling on that day. Initially we planned to invite only three families due to cost cutting. But then the real parents came live and we invited almost 20 families and wanted to celebrate it in a grand way. Somehow we never want to compromise anything even when we are outside India.
The only saddest part is we don’t have our relatives here. Especially I missed my parents. It would be such a colourful and beautiful function when performed in India. No other go, we sat down to write a list of things we need, the list went on and on.
As a first step we tried calling all the temples around our place asking them for rates. It varied from $101 to $200. So after discussing for a week we finally chose a winner who will be charging us $150. The first major part was done.
Then the most important part was the food. Initially I planned to cook, but somehow my husband was totally against it. Initially I was happy that he takes good care of me by not letting me cook, but then I realised that he does not want me to dare his friends. I was a bit upset , then understood anyways that is true :). So we started calling all the hotels around our place for the rates. We were shocked to hear them say it would cost around $15 to $25 per food. The menu was so simple and the charge was way too much. Then we finally got a caterer number and fixed up a best deal with her. She only charges $10 per food and parupu thengai was complimentary. That was buy food and get two cones free. We really liked the deal. The next major task was over.
The list of items to be got for pooja was listed in the temple’s website. Look at the technology. We took the list from the site and started shopping for the function.
The basic items included Aluminium tray, Aluminium foil, Kungum, Sandal powder, Turmeric powder, Dried coconut, water coconut, Mango wood ( for the homam), Samagiri ( for the homam), Panjamirdham ( curd, milk, ghee, honey, sugar), puffed rice ( homam), kalasam , Cloth for kalasam, Flowers, Garland ( we got boquet from safe way and made our first garland) , rice ( to keep under the kalasam), dhoop sticks, incense sticks, camphor, five varieties of fruits, betal leaves, supari, cooked rice ( for homam), 5 cups, plates for camphor, trays ( sugar, fruits, dresses, paruputhengai, garland, sweets)
So the actual preparation started a week before the event. My mother in law was here to help us with the function and the formalities, as none of us have ever performed a function before. We made KAPARISI , which is a mixture of rice and jaggery. Doing any thing with this electrical stove is a big deal. Somehow we managed to look it like kaparisi. Then we also made coconut burfi , its a coconut cake. Usually coconut burfi is a easiest dish. It does not take time at all. We took frozen coconut available here and we made burfi. It took nearly 1/2 hour and finally we were bored and we transferred the coconut mixture to a greased plate and left it air dry for 2 days. My mother in law was shocked to see this. It is the most easiest dish and it is taking hell a lot of time to make. Later we realised it was the mistake with the coconut and not the preparation. Finally after 2 days we got our burfis and believe it was toooo good!!!.
Then the next task was decorating the house. We got few good stuffs from party city. We got a 5 feet 2 inches banner from the store. We had to stick the letters on the banner and it was really good. It looked like we ordered the banner specially. Then with few balloons here and there , few ribbons running around the house, few happy birthday slides, the house was really too good. The decorations were simple but still good.
We then hunted for the return gifts. We did not like the actual gifts given to us when we went to other birthday parties. It was like so many things in a single bag. We wanted to get something different. Finally we got some plates form dollar shop, it was looking similar to traditional silver plates which we get in India. We got few dresses for new born babies, few puzzles for grown ups, addition multiplication cards for who just started schools. We packed the gifts the day before aaysh homam. We took the plate , placed some chocolates, kept the gifts and kaaparisi packet . We wrapped the whole plate with stretch tight and it was looking good. We stuck each and every families names on the gift to avoid confusion.
The day before the function was really a busy day with final touch of decorations, vacuuming the whole house, cleaning toilets and bathrooms, making garlands, arranging things for the pooja. Finally we hit the bed around 12.00. But I could not sleep through out the night. It was the first function I’m doing. We are responsible for everything. I was praying everything should go on fine. The food should be good and so many other things.
Finally the sun rose. I woke up 2 hours before the sun rise and was wandering around. I had to make Kheer that day morning for offering in pooja. Finally the heroine woke up around 7.00am. We sang happy birthday and she was happy. We had to give her oil bath. With “Gowri Kalyanam” song in the background, my mother inlaw ,myself and my husband kept oil on her head. My husband bathed her finally after making me run up and down, asking me to get so many things.
Slowly guests started pouring in. But the priest did not come until 8.30 and we were all tensed as the bad time ( raagu kaalam) will start around 9.00 am. Finally he came around 8.35am. As soon as he came we arranged for all the things that he needed. Finally the pooja started well before 9.00Am. It started with Ganapathy pooja, Navagraha pooja and then aysh homam.
We had taken off the smoke detector. We have been to so many functions in US. But in any of the house the homam was just brighter than a match stick light. But in our house, the homam was just same as we do in India. The whole house was full of smoke and all of us were really tensed except for the priest. He was sitting there quietly , but he assured us that everything is fine. So we did not crib much about it. Everyone were really happy seeing such function in US, and for most of them this is the first time too. By end of the pooja, our house was like heaven, full of smoke :). Hopefully we did not meet any cops on that day. We also did ANNAPRASHANA ( giving Manasa her first food). Then the traditional way of giving dresses to us. After all these the pooja ended successfully.
Immediately after the pooja, we shifted all the stuffs from the living room to master bedroom and vaccumed the hall. My husband did the vaccum for the first time, so everyone took pictures of the rare event. Finally the food part. We had few good friends who arranged the food properly. We had ordered complete south indian meal. The menu goes like this Vatha Kuzhambu, Shambhar, Rasam, Cabbage curry, aviyal, beans parupusuli , friut pachidi, thayir vadai, appalam and pickle. Everyone was happy with the food and we were very much happy that everyone approved that the food was great. Meanwhile our heroine was a bit cranky as she woke up so early. We thought we will cut the cake once the lunch is over or else Manasa will cry at the top of her voice.
We waited until everyone had their lunch. Then we had the cake cutting ceremony. With everyone asynchronously singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY our baby was really happy. But I was very fast and i started cutting the cake forgetting to hold her hands. Then followed by photo sessions with each and every family. The function thus ended sweetly as expected. Then the guests started taking leave. We bid them bye bye with the gift, betal leaf, supari and a fruit. The traditional way of bidding bye-bye.
It was a nice experience having fucntion in US. We will learn a lot about every part of the function and we will get used to arranging things on our own. This is good lesson to us.
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