Diwali in three days, lights glimmer on streets and markets in cities around the world, dispelling gloom, bringing hope... here's a repost on the beautiful festival. …
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Mythology and More
And Ma Durga has come down to earth with her children again... here are some favourite stories about the children.…
ravan was chasing me. he had ten heads and ten faces and ten sets of teeth bared as he sprinted effortlessly, bow and arrow in hand. his skin was swarthy, his eyes bulged, his hair blew wildly in the wind. i could feel my breath getting shorter and shorter, till there was practically no breath left. my feet were tired. my head was hurting. how would i ever come out of this alive? then i remembered something. i stopped running.…
Nine days and nine nights Of festive fervour and bright lights Each day of Navratri a different colour Each day singing verses of valour Durga arrives in nine avatars Lakshmi, Saraswati are not far All the Goddesses descend As one Shakti they transcend Ma Durga is Mother Kali Worshipped as Mahishasura Mardhini Many names but She is one Protecting us from evil demons Krishna arrives with his Gopikas To play the musical raas leela Sri Ram too arrives with Seeta…
cap pistol (remember those?), rahul dev burman, new clothes, midnight movies, razia sultan, drumbeats, ghugni, exams, flowers in my clasped hands. the one with ten arms comes to my mind on many things. she’s been around for a long long time, quite taken for granted, part of life. to be worshiped, to be gazed at in awe, to be surrounded by noise and joy, to be danced and acted before, to be rejoiced with food and friends, to be prostrated…
Mythology and More
why the hanukkah story reminds me of madhusudan’s magic pot
Posted on December 13, 2017
actually, there’s no magic involved. both are stories of faith. perhaps the sort of faith that brings miracle. i heard one when i was a child, the other after i got married. as my husband, who is jewish, finished telling me why eight oil lamps are lit on hanukkah, i thought of a tiny pot of yogurt and the tale of madhusudan’s bhar. “bhar” means earthenware pot in bengali, and the sound of “r” at the end is more like…
First, I thought about food that my dadiji (grandmother) would make every Diwali. It was as much part of the ritual of the day as the new clay idols that my mother would buy – Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth) and Ganesh (God of good luck and success). Diyas (tiny mud lamps) with oil and cotton wicks were spread out on the roof, window sills and boundary walls. I maintained a smug superiority because we used traditional diyas over the more common…