Ma!

Dear Ma,

It’s the eve of mother’s day & have sat down to pen my thoughts to you….about you! The very fact that there’s so much to cover overwhelms me. Where do I start?

I am coz you are. It’s not just the biological thread that binds us. It’s your whole persona that intrigues me. Makes me feel proud & other times angry. The sacrifices you made in life. Was it worth it? The compromises you made with all? Was it ever recognized? The strength you exude from within. Does it ever get noticed?

We are a strong & loving family. There is a very strong invisible thread that binds us all. But if one looks closely…you are the fibre that is the very existence of that thread.

Ma…if one has to learn loyalty & acceptance towards family…one doesn’t have to look too far. You are the epitome of all things nice. You are the foundation that built my dad’s life. You are that individual who forgive him in his mid-life crisis. You built a strongly bonded family & gave us kids the values that we so respect.

You patiently sorted our teenage tantrums. If we ever got rebuked…it was behind closed doors. Not a whiff to the other sibling. And your way of demolishing egos... Wow! Your approach is so non-threatening that it makes the aggressor listen.

I marvel at your reactions to serious situations. There is a certain calm that automatically balances the surrounding around you. I remember how I hurt you & Papa by marrying the man of my choice. It probably made you question your role in my upbringing. You forgave & accepted. Things went horribly wrong with my naïve decision…you accepted that as well.

You have been a great Ma in more ways than one. Supportive of all my eccentricities. This morning I think we had a beautiful conversation reminiscing the past.

You were a budding writer. Why did you give it up? You were a trained teacher. What happened to your career? You have a healthy appreciation for literature. Where are the books?

Ma…I wonder sometimes about us as two individual women. You are proud of me you say. You fondly talk about my strengths. You love the way I live my life. So why haven’t you lived it that way? Why haven’t you loved yourself more? Why didn’t you have your own friends?

I’m happy my daughter accepts me this way. Though she sometimes advises me to be more patient like you. A good advise! Must work on it.

Lastly, I’m so proud of you Ma! All our (the family’s) achievements are actually yours. There is not an iota of doubt about that in our minds.

I for one am truly blessed to have you around to keep me grounded. Happy mothers day to both of us! I pray to God to be biased towards you when he is in a blessing spree!

Bunty.

Copyright © BuntysBanter 2007

Childhood journeys – The joy ride

Summer vacations bring back earthy memories of childhood. The fun n frolic, simple lives that we lead many moons ago. I traverse through the memory lanes & wham! A kaleidoscope of colorful playfulness encompasses my mind. Those were the carefree days of uninhabited innocence!

It was the beginning of yet another beautifully humid summer vacation. A time to chill- out in the horridly intense summer heat. A time to slink away from home in the middle of the sweltering afternoon to feed the resident canine who had just littered, some milk robbed from my mothers kitchen. It was an art in its own right to get back the receded milk level in the vessel by adding generous proportions of the most important natural solvent.

Summer turned us well-mannered kids into sun-tanned tramps. The day was time tabled into slots of considerably significant businesses that needed our undivided attention. We would be up by no later than half past seven in the morning & wolf down whatever was being served. We would then run like crazy to the Kanhaiya lal cycle shop to rent bicycles to ride around. The mind would be busy plotting schemes to be the first to capture the most ostentatious bicycle on display.

I often wondered about Kanhaiya lal. He was an emaciated, tall man probably born in a lungi* & vest sporting the thinnest n longest moustache I had seen in my entire life of eight long years.
Kanhaiya lal was a shrewd cookie. The meanest of them crooks. The arms of his clock definitely had more vigor. Despite all efforts of enjoying the rides on one hand & keeping an eagle eye on the watch, we often than ever reached his shop five minutes late. He would then deviously bully us kids to churn out extra payments & thus sat on a huge pile of black money. He definitely could use the services of a nag devata* to guard his riches!

We argued with him like virtuous zealots. But our circuitous meanderings would fall on deaf ears & wisdom would prevail as the quote “If you wanna live in the water, befriend the crocodile” filtered into our enlightened beings.

Despite all the pent-up resentment that we kids harbored for Kanhaiya lal….there was one thing I would be eternally grateful about. It was one of his rented bicycles that I took my first riding lessons on.

Lets tweak the clock a bit & go back a few weeks. It was the first day of summer vacations. A carefree bird like me had been confined to the books in preparation of the final exams for so long that I had begun to hallucinate about toppling the poor top ranker of the class. The delusions of being the top brass had got me all puffed up & aspire for higher ambitions. The most important one on the horizon was biking.

Now biking was child’s play in my humble opinion & something that I could easily perfect. If Gunna & Omy could do it…so could I.

So I select the bike befitting my size & marvel at its beauty! Boy! This chap was a mini torpedo! Such swanky looks! I just needed to park my rear & enjoy the ride.

So I trudge the bike uphill, sit on it & let go. Weeee! Yoo-hoo….Gunna, look at meeee! I’m going faster than you.

Gunna : Yeah I know. It’s amazing but you need to slow down a bit.

Slow down? Now how does one do that?

Gunna : Use the brakes.

Brakes? What are they?

Gunna : Whaaaat???? You’re not aware of the brakes? You should always know the dynamics of the beauty you are riding! Bah! Gurls!!!! You can never do anything right in life if you don’t know such basics.

Gunnaaaa….where are the damn brakes???? Arvind’s garden wall is rushing towards me.

Gunna : The brakes are present on the…..CRASH!

Gunna : Bunts! You okie? *Eyes wide with concern*

You moron….fish me out of this thorny bush will ya. Ouch! This hurts! OMG…what will Kanhaiya lal say when he sees his pricey bike in scratches. *More tears*
I must have been the luckiest kid in the whole wide world that day coz Kanhaiya Lal was having his breakfast in his shanty & therefore not around. His helper Ramu, a worthless lout in making was my triumph card. He didn’t notice anything amiss as I quietly parked the cycle in their shop & skulked away from the scene as quickly as my hurting feet could take me.


*Lungi - A colourful cotton cloth worn by men, tied at the waist.
*nag devata - snake god from the hindu mythology that guards treasures.

Copyright © BuntysBanter 2007

Guruvayur - The most revered temple of Kerala!

The temple of Guruvayur is the most profoundly venerated shrine in the state of Kerala. Legend says that the idol worshipped here is more than 5000 years old. The idol of the Guruvayur temple is unique as it is carved out of Pathalanjana Sila,* and is considered extremely sacred.

Legend says that this idol was worshiped by Lord Vishnu, Brahma (who handed it over to King Suthapas & his wife, Prsni), Kasyapa, Vasudeva, Sree Krishna and finally at the time of Krishna's ascension to Vaikunta,* he instructed Udhava to entrust Brahaspathi (the Guru of Devas*). A deluge had closed in on Dwaraka*, but Guru salvaged the idol with the help of his prime disciple, Vayu. Guru and Vayu went around the world in search of an ideal place. They met Parasurama who lead them to a lush green spot with a beautiful lotus tank.

Vishwakarma, the divine architect was requested to build the temple, which he designed in such a way that on the day of Vishu (Summer equinox…its on 15th april), the sun’s first rays shall fall straight on the Lord's feet.

The rituals & practices followed in this holy temple is based on Sree Adi Sankaracharya’s instance. The Chennas Namboodiris are the hereditary Tantri* of Guruvayur temple.

For the believer, the ten day Utsavam* that generally is celebrated between February – March every year is something to look forward to. All ten days, the place wears a festive look, streets dressed up with arches & festoons. Every house is freshly thatched and painted. The shrines are tastefully decorated with lights, plantain trunks, bunches of coconut and arecanut trees. The lamps & deepasthambams* are all lightened at this time of the year.

So here I was dressed in an Indian garb to visit the famous temple that was disposed to preserve the existing norms eyeing any change with prudish constraints. The hindu male devotee has to wear a dhoti* with the upper body being bare & the women should be in either a saree or the dhavani / pawadai*

Now this women was wearing a chudidar kurta* & therefore she needed to go rent the necessary clothes. Discomfited about rental clothes & yet determined to have the Lords darshan,* I rent a long flowing silken dhawani that I tie round my waist (on top of the original clothes) & the dupatta* doubles up to make a not so perfect half-saree.

I leave the mobile & camera behind since these are strictly not allowed inside the temple. Looking n feeling quite ridiculous, I enter the temple from a side entrance specifically for the ladies. I queue up in the ladies line & wait for my chance to enter the sacred temple along with many other ardent devotees.

The place is thick with devotee’s everywhere & in all the chaos, people suddenly start giving way to something at ground level. There is this young man who’s rolling on the ground doing a pradakshina* to realize his pledge to Sree Krishna. There are many who keep such pledges to appease the reverent deity.

The dhoopam’s * smoke emanating from the various temple exhausts blows right over our heads & a toddler who’s brought by his family to receive the blessing from the lord himself starts bawling so hard that I can see invisible vocal cords hanging precariously from both his ears. An unknown women offers a soothing drink that the child obligingly gulps only to start a fresh round of ragas, hard rock style.

Everyone’s chanting Hare Rama…Hare Krishna… Krishna Krishna…Hare Hare! We move ahead nudging & pushing one another with the inertia from behind that’s propelling us forward towards the good Lord! One moment I’m in front of god’s idol & as I try mentally talking to him, am shoved aside to allow the next devotee to take the darshan.

It’s unfair but then there are so many awaiting in the serpentine lines that move rather sluggishly coz everyone wants to have a personal tête-à-tête with their bhagwan*. After taking the darshan of the other gods (Ganesh, Vishnu & Lakshmi, Sree Krishna, Anjanai swami aka Hanuman) outside the main temple, I sit down to mentally say a prayer in peace.

The main temple looks rather plain with its outer walls a pale yellow with small delicate hand paintings depicting bal gopal’s* childhood days & his various leela’s*. Other tales of bhakt* Prahlad & Lord Naramsimha, a few stories from the Ramanayana & Mahabharata* are also represented on the temple walls. Fierce looking yakshasis* support the temple roof.

The temples outer courtyard has great characters from the ancient hindu mythology as well as a few saints. Few of the ones standing attendance are Subramanian, Kurooramma, Vyas, Narada (first idol I have seen sporting a moustache. Narada is always depicted in most tales clean shaven), Poonthanam, Vilwamangalam, Balaram, Shiva, Vishnu & Sree Krishna (in kathakali* clothes).

After purchasing some prasad* from the temple counter’s (got completely lost there coz all directions are in Malayalam*), I headed to drive down to visit the temple’s elephants. The camp is situated about 3 kms away from the main temple. This camp-site houses sixty-three elephants (current count) who are used during the temple festivals n processions.

The pachyderms looked healthy n well tended & for the first time I also saw some healthy looking mahouts* with rounded paunches protruding over their dhotis. Until now, the mahouts I had encountered were all emaciated little chaps. So by the looks of things, the Guruvayur devasthanam does take good care of its wards.

All in all…it was a wonderful darshan & experience with Lord Krishna on his home turf.



* Pathalanjana Sila – sacred stone
* Vaikunta - heavenly abode
* Devas – Heavenly gods
* Dwarka – Krishna’s kingdom
* Tantri - priests
* Utsavam - festival
* deepasthambams – a tall multi-storeyed lamp
* Dhoti – Ankle length cloth wrapped around the waist & is generally white or a light shade of yellow.
* pradakshina - circling the holy temple
* dhoopam – incense
* dhavani / pawadai - half saree
* Chudidar Kurta – Indian outfit
* Dupatta – an almost 2 mt long cloth used to compliment the chudidar kurta
* Darshan – look reverentially
* bhagwan - god
* Bal Gopal – sree Krishna as a child
* leela – extraordinary powers
*Bhakt - devotee
* Ramanayana & Mahabharata – great epics of the hindus
* Yakshasis – female devils
* kathakali – dance form belonging to Kerala
* Prasad – a blessed eatable in the form of bananas, payasam (sweet concoction made of wheat n milk), curd-rice etc depending on the time of the day
* Malayalam - the local language of the state

Copyright © BuntysBanter 2007

Tia's dream's (micro fiction - 100 words story)

Tia was shaking in her new shoes. There were so many battles to win. Her parents had been protective….but a young lady has got to pave her own path. The nerves kept her busy without realizing that she had arrived at her destination.
As she peeked at the huge ornate building, she wondered what future had in store for her. Ms Lily greeted her warmly & assured her that she indeed was a bright individual & would go places.
There were some other interesting faces too…but that’s later. We all started the day singing Ba ba black sheep…have you any wooool?

Copyright © BuntysBanter 2007