After an extremely delicious dinner last night of a dosa pizza! Akka welcomed Sankranti today morning with some amazing Pongal! Akka rocks. She belongs to one of those endangered species of women whose greatest pleasure in life is to see others eat. She heaps your plate with ..Love and Affection, winks and proclaims All the best! Start eating and may there never be a finish line! Dear Akka, thank you very much, I say, knowing very well that I can perhaps never thank her for the fondness she shows me so selflessly..
So..
Today I celebrated my first Pongal with two people I wish and hope I can call my own someday. Akka had woken up really early (REALLY EARLY!) to do all the preparations and by the time I rubbed my eyes to soak the sun, her warmth was already around the house! The smell of fresh pongal does wonders for the digestive system( of God's and Human's alike!). We all prayed together and wished each other great happiness and peace! My prayers were answered instantly at the breakfast table of course! And I left her house with such an amazing sense of well being that I know my troubled soul will one day find it shores.. sometime soon..
The two things that I definitely suffer from are wonderlust and wanderlust. I thirst to know and I need to travel! Curiosity drives me..The only way I way I have lived my 26 years is wanting to know. The knowing has not simply been book learning but involved a lot of character building and "wo"man making! Much later in my life I discovered that I am an inherent traveller. I must have been an Ibn-e-Batuta in my past life. My legs always love to move, and my heart is always on the go! ;)
Apart from this the other thing I do very often is "Worry", which brings me to my topic of the day. Dont worry, just believe in God! :P
I am an ardent devotee of the belief in God. God of all kinds , of all forms, of all means ... to a single end, the pursuit of self!
You see, when I was in college I first visited the Gurudwara with my friend Rinki. I had a thing for her brother Bir Singh Saluja! I had such a nice time listening to the Gurubaani and later eating the halwa!( yeah i eat all the time :) Sikhism found an ardent follower that day! My association with the Gurudwara has since then been very fruitful, though I hope that someday I get to see the Golden Temple!
With Sweta, my bestest friend, I have enjoyed celebrating Janmashtami. An all day "somehow" fast and then later in the night some super halwa puri, while we watched the birth of Lord Krishna. Thodi buddhi hume bhi de do bhagwan! These were one of the best days of our friendship, when we both prayed to her god and he became our's :)
At college and later on I also indulged in Maha Shivratri. Again ,a stringent fast to the all powerful Lord Shiva. My roomates wash the small Shiv ling we have and do the jaap. Honestly, I am a little scared of the Lord in his many vibrant forms. I cannot discuss my shortcomings with him or tell him my worries, because they seem too small to wake up from his overwhelming meditation. And then there is the "third eye"..
Mister MBA Blazey took me to the church of the Holy Ghost once here at Richard's Park to pray for my MBA results! Words fail to describe the beauty of the church..I didn't end up doing an MBA but the Hanuman chalisa that i recited in the church that day definitely made Lord Jesus smile! The church is opposite the Richard's Park.Anyone who loves the city of Bangalore should visit the place once. In the cool wind of the night the building stood like an image melting the past into the present, beyond the future..
At my house in Bangalore, I have this beautiful neem wood idol of Jagannath, Subhadhra and Balaram. The God from Puri. Sony Panda, my Oriya friend in college has given it to me. Later when I visited the Jagannath temple at Puri I was awed by the majestic gods and the totally perseverant temple panda's. Of course their quest for foolish tourists was much more than their meditation of the divine!
The September of 2004 was when companies came to our campus. I didnt have great marks in my first year of engg and so I was really scared if I would even get an interview with them! That autumn Kalighat happened to me. I went with my mother and brother to the kalighat temple. One look and One touch of the Godess is enough to lay a weak mind to rest. She just emanates strength. I came back to bangalore a much for confident under graduate and yes I was one of the few people in my campus who got 2 jobs on 1 day! Kalighat is a beautiful temple, ancient and timeless..
And how can I forget my first ride to Tirupati. My first tryst with providence. It is said that unless Lord Balaji himself calls you, you may not be able to visit his abode. I couldn't agree more. My friend's mother and aunt where supposed to be going that night. The mother fell ill and asked me if I would accompany the aunt. So i went and next day at 3 am called my parents to tell them that I was in the Holy town! And by evening I was a devout Balaji follower. What an immensely majestic temple and I tell you It is just not the gold and the glitter. The lord shines in all his beauty and those 10 seconds they let you stand and stare at him are enough to bring tears of joys in your eyes. I have bared my soul to the god.. and he in turn blessed us with the Delicious Tirupati ladoos! :)
My parents have taught me the Hanuman Chalisa. I love Hanuman. My belief in him is immense. The chalisa has rescued me so many times. Exams, almost Missed buses and trains, severity one defects, bad managers, terrible boyfriends, tormented soul.. every time I say Jai Hanuman..my mind dissolves all its worries. The dayI forget some lines in the chalisa I know that something untoward might happen, though just having Hanuman by your side is enough to make you face whatever comes. After all he moved an entire mountain and crossed the seas..
Among all of this, my brother taught me three sanskrit slokas which are the essence of our lives. I still recite them everytime I recite the chalisa. I pray to all God's I know. Some God's I connect with and some I don't. But I know that they all reside within me. Some forms I have understood, more so because of the medium by which they came to me or the people who brought them to me! The Buddha for example and his middle path is something I always try and follow!! Some shrines inspire me, some humble me, some scare me...All have aroused strong emotions within me and always affected me! I really wish to soak my self into some more forms of God as I go on in Life's journey!
The last word, is of course Akka. Love and Affection are the greatest religions on earth. She is the true epitome of service before self. I know there aren't many like her out there.I hope that as I grow in life. Among all the whirlpools that life sucks us into I can retain the purity of my soul. Karma lives on.. :)
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