The Colours Are Calling

Navratri and Durga Puja are around the corner. And with, it the air is filled with the colours of festivity. Back in our childhood there was shopping to do, and showing off our new dresses to our friends. Well, visiting a friend's house to see the Puja dresses was almost a ritual.

This Navratri I want to take on a new challenge - wear Sarees on all nine days. I know it's going to be a task and I will need lot of motivation to start and keep going, to find the Sarees to wear, the accessories to match, the time to get into all these before rushing to work and after finishing the morning chores.

Looked through Ma's Sarees and added a few to wear during Navratra, hope wherever she is, she knows that I plan to wear them. It would be nicer a sight to see her wear new Sarees but there are situations which are beyond our control.

It gives a kind of numbness when I browse through her Sarees, it's a feeling to which I can't put words into, it feels like a dream that someone who wore these Sarees is gone for ever but still I feel there is some life in them, I feel a bit of her presence in these Sarees.

Ready to welcome Navratras, to feel the colours, to feel life I have arranged some of my and Ma's Sarees which I plan to wear....

When time stood still...

This time of the year when I wish to go back to childhood, go back to the times when we would wait for the exams to get over, do the shopping and enjoy the festivities. This morning I sat and penned a few memories of Mahalaya and immediately the melody of the Devi Stuta seemed to be playing in the background.

This evening as I walked back from the market, witnessing the Ganesh Visarjan procession my thoughts immediately went back to those days of the Durga Visarjan. Back home we would throng the streets and almost everyone had a tear in the eye bidding good bye to the Mother with shouts of ‘Ma, don’t go, come back soon’.

For a split second, I stood there like a child watching the procession with the same kind of enthusiasm I had years back, then suddenly ran back home to pick my little niece so she could witness the same. This was how culture was imbibed in us by our elders.

We walked with the crowd today until the point where we could get ‘darshan’ of the deity. The bright and decorated trucks and ‘Jai Deva, Jai Deva’ playing in the air, people walking as they sang, bowing and praying,  was a treat, something I missed in Delhi and Delhi felt like home for the first time today.

Tola Toli Tales - The Trash Searcher

These are real life incidents, somewhat funny but true to the core. The characters are known, the names are very close to real and the incidents in random order...
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So someone dropped their trashes at Tola's gate and Tola being Tola meant business! So daily he searched through the trash bag in the hope of finding a clue.

Hard work meets success sooner or later, so one day he found an envelope bearing the address of the recipient. Tola immediately knew this was his man; he reached the address and gave the man a piece of his mind.

No more trash at his gate from the next day...

Tola Toli Tales - Of how she trades

These are real life incidents, somewhat funny but true to the core. The characters are known, the names are very close to real and the incidents in random order
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So Toli comes home with a pair of bangles she says she bought for Rs 150. The bangles are loose and she can't use them. So she decides to sell them. She says someone tried bargaining at Rs 100 and that was the reason she didn't sell.

Now why would she want to sell it at a profit when the bangles are already old?

We hear another angle - another aunty used the same pair of bangles for a few days and did not want to pay. Since she was reminded about the price again and again, she returned it. So when it was brought it was actually third hand.

Now Toli is 70 plus, with nothing to worry about, no liabilities and she goes door to door to bargain on a pair of used bangles. All the best!

The Lights and Sounds of Twilight

Growing up in a family where rituals have been a routine, the significance of these have however been understood much later. One such ritual is the performance of the Sandhya Aarti along with the  lighting of the lamps and the blowing of the conch at twilight.

In most traditional Hindu families a lamp is lit in the Puja space during twilight as this is the time of transition and negative energies have greater power during this time. The lighting of the lamp is considered auspicious as it removes the negative energies.

As a child I found such joy when all the neighboring families blew the conches and the bells at twilight and the sound came reverberating through the blue and orange lights of dusk.  It is believed that evil spirits are chased away when the conch is blown. The sound of 'Om' emanates from the conch and  this is the sound of the universe and creation. Conches find special mention in the Mahabharata where the beginning and end of the day was marked by blowing it.

The blowing of the conch is also beneficial to health in several ways - it improves the respiratory system and is said to have removed blockages in the heart.

Modern lifestyle and working patterns and hours don't allow us the luxury of performing these rituals with discipline however the more we try to inculcate these rituals in our daily lives the more good it will do to our physical and mental well being.


Twilight is a time to pause, to stop and the day's activities, to relax, to meditate and pray...to let the lights and the sounds play.

Guru Purnima

The full moon day in the Hindu month of Ashad (July-August) is observed as the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, a day dedicated to the memory of the great sage Vyasa. 

It is said that Guru Vyasa edited the four Vedas, wrote the 18 Puranas, the epic Mahabharata, and the Srimad Bhagavatam and even taught Dattatreya, who is regarded as the 'Guru of Gurus.'

Hindus attach great importance to spiritual Gurus. Gurus are equated with God and always regarded as a link between the individual and the supreme. This day is dedicated to the Gurus and people irrespective of caste or creed offer their prayers to their gurus thanking them for the knowledge they have provided to the learner.

Gurur Brahmma Gurur Vishnu
Gurur Deva Maheshwara
Gurur Saakshaat ParaBrahma
Tasmayi Shree Guruve namaha

Guru is the creator, Guru is the preserver 
Guru is the destroyer
Guru is the Lord himself, the highest consciousness
Salutations to the Guru

The Power of Udi

Udi or Vibhuti is the ash from the sacred fire which Sai Baba had lit. The Udi is supposed to have great power and has been able to cure diseases of the mind and the body.

I was in Higher Secondary when I had suddenly developed an intense pain somewhere in the neck,  behind the ears. The pain would suddenly rise to the extent that I would scream, take my pillows and hold them tight, want to pull the iron rods off the window and cry. Some pain killers would help but again the pain would come unannounced somewhere in the middle of a classroom or while in sleep. On one occasion my tuition teacher's wife had to apply some hot compression for some relief much to my embarrassment.

I saw a doctor, he said the cause was excess accumulation of wax, prescribed some pain killers again and ear drops. This only ensured temporary relief...

This went on for some days when one day my father had gone to meet one of his seniors and probably mentioned that he had to rush home to take his daughter to the doctor. It was then that he handed him a packet of 'Udi' and asked it to be applied to the affected area.

The same day, one of my father's friends mentioned another doctor whom we immediately went to see. He dismissed the wax theory and said this was a nerve dislocation. He knew the exact spot where the trouble was and demonstrated how it brought relief on applying some pressure there.

It would take days of message by my father, morn and night, and some homeopathic medicines to get rid of that pain. Needless to mention that I would also apply Udi sans doubt or disbelief.

Till today I attribute the discovery of that doctor to the 'Udi' and have been applying it ever since as a daily ritual.  I don't question nor do I look for results as to when it worked and when it didn't and why.  I know the power of 'Udi' has benefited my overall well being, body and mind!

Friends visiting Shirdi do not escape my request to get a packet of 'Udi'...