Showing posts with label Season's Greetings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Season's Greetings. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Waiting for the day Ashtami Puja becomes irrelevant for Girls

I have been born into a family of three sisters and no brother. The next generation till now has two girls and a boy. My family has been worshipping Maa Durga since many generations. Needless to say, Navratras were one of the most awaited festivals and culminating into Ashtami which was celebrated with much happiness.

Our family has been unique when it comes to Ashtami celebration. First, it is only restricted to kids in the family and we do not gather little girls from all over for the puja. Second, just like we treat our girls equal to boys on normal days, we treat our boys equal to girls on Ashtami (Kanya Pujan) days. So, my nephew gets to sit in the puja in the same manner and gets the same gifts and money as my daughter and my niece. Third, the girls sit in the puja irrespective of their age (and after attaining puberty too) well until they get married. Last, we share poori-halwa-chhole prasad with some families in the neighbourhood irrespective of whether the families have young girls or not.

Image source: Google search (jagran.com)
Until much later in my teenage years, this was normal for me and only after I grew up did I realise how different this was from the norm. For us, Ashtami Puja had always been for the "kids of the family" and never for the "girls". By that age, I was already into a phase getting prepped to become a staunch feminist. My first Ashtami Puja at my marital home was a depressor. I had been subjected for 6 months to an ashirwad of giving birth to a son and then on the day of Ashtami, my then MIL had sent my then husband looking for small girls to sit in the puja. My now ex-in-laws were openly and vocally upset about me giving birth to a daughter (and the irony was that she was born during Navratras) and six months later on Ashtami day they suddenly relegated her to the status of Lakshmi of the house and worshipped her. My heart was filled with more contempt that day than on the days they would curse me for not bearing a son.

It hurts me to see that the girls are condemned on everyday and on Ashtami, they are celebrated. Although I still try to celebrate this festival with just as much cheer as I did as a child, but every time in Navratras, these thoughts keep circling around my head. I see happy girls in the neighbourhood and I can make out that they are enjoying being centre of attraction for a change. And then maybe one day when the grow up, they will realise what a sham it all is.

The day Ashtami becomes an irrelevant festival for girls because they start getting valued even on normal days will be the day the feminist in me would smile brighter.

Friday, August 14, 2015

Happy Independence Day!!

My idea of freedom is slightly different from the generation before me and it’s probably logical as well since my generation has only read words describing the freedom struggle. We have not known the pain and the trauma of being constantly under siege and fear and the frustration of having no rights and being treated as second-grade human being in your own land. There is, however, still trauma and frustration rampant in our country but the causes are different. The causes are casteism, reservation, power monopolism, bureaucracy, poverty, deficient rights for certain humans (like women for example), lack of security for citizens, child abuse, etc. I can go on enumerating the causes but the fact remains the same. It is not about freedom from any foreign country or body any more. It is about freedom from all that is hurting us from within. And this freedom is something that has to come from inside. And I hope that it comes soon enough so that we can at least leave a better country and a better world for our children.


I am today, like every year, reminded of Tagore’s words:


Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.




Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Have a hopeful New Year 2013!!

"There comes a day when you realize turning the page is the best feeling in the world, because you realize there is so much more to the book than the page you were stuck on."

Yes, 2012 did not end on a happy note. But, it rocked us enough towards the end and leaves us with a hope that we all will carve a better 2013 and a better future for ourselves and our generations to come. No female will ever be afraid to live with her head held high then.

Wish everyone a very optimistic and hopeful New Year 2013!!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Happy Women's Day!

You can do almost anything you put your mind to... You can swim the deepest ocean and climb the highest peak... Be a doctor or fly a plane... You can face adversity and still walk tall... You are strong, beautiful, compassionate and much more than words could ever say!


Today is yours, and so is ever other day.

Happy Women's Day!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Quips and Quotes to help you toast the New Year

One of the most innovative holiday greetings I received this new year's eve came from a friend who sent a titled "Quips and Quotes to help you toast the New Year". It contained thoughtful quotes from Harvey Mackay, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller "Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive" and more. Since I am an aphorism junkie and always on the lookout for creative and interesting ways to stay in touch with my friends and readers, I especially welcomed their effort.

In fact, I liked it so much I decided to reproduce the same here to guide you through 2011 and beyond.

  • They don't pay off on effort ... they pay off on results.
  • No one ever choked swallowing his or her pride.
  • Don't just mark time; use time to make your mark.
  • People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan.
  • Technology should improve your life, not become your life.
  • The best way to be somebody is just to be yourself.
  • The best vitamin for making friends is B1.
  • It is not a question as to who is right but what is right.
  • The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing it exactly right.
  • Many people hear ... but few people listen.
  • There is no free tuition in the school of experience.
  • The person who has no goal does not fear failure.
  • The best way to get even is to forget.
  • It is better to forgive and forget than to resent and remember.
  • Make decisions with your heart and you'll wind up with heart disease.
  • People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be—not what you nag them to be.
  • You can win more friends with your ears than with your mouth.
  • When you kill a little time, you may be murdering opportunity.
  • Education is an investment and never an expense.
  • Ideas won't work unless I do.
  • It's never right to do wrong, and it's never wrong to do right.
  • Your smile is more important than anything else you wear.
  • Gratitude shouldn't be an occasional incident but a continuous attitude.
  • Helping someone up won't pull you down.
  • Those that have the most to say usually say it with fewest words.
  • If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense in making them.
  • People wrapped up in themselves make pretty small packages.
  • When is the last time you did something for the first time?

I also wanted to share these gems from unknown authors whose wisdom is timeless.

  • Smart is believing half of what you hear; brilliant is knowing which half to believe.
  • One thing I can give and still keep is my word.
  • Those who beef too much often land in the stew.
  • Compromise is always wrong when it means sacrificing principle.
  • Most people say they are willing to meet each other halfway; trouble is most people are pretty poor judges of distance.
  • If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
  • Most people aim to do right; they just fail to pull the trigger.
  • Most people fail in life because the wishbone is where the backbone should be.
  • Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the mastery of it.
  • Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief.
  • Happiness can be thought, taught and caught—but not bought.
  • Burying your talents is a grave mistake.
  • Praise, like sunlight, helps all things to grow.
  • Life just gives you time and space—it's up to you to fill it.
  • The heaviest thing I can carry is a grudge.
  • A stumble may prevent a fall.
  • Failure is no more fatal than success is permanent.

Mackay's Moral: Not just words to live by, words to live better.

So,

Happy NEW YEAR  Friends!!!!!!!!

Here are My Wishes for You...

H ours of happy times with friends and family
A bundant time for relaxation
P rosperity
P lenty of love when you need it the most
Y outhful excitement at lifes simple pleasures

N ights of restful slumber (you know - don't worry be happy)
E verything you need
W ishing you love and light

Y ears and years of good health
E njoyment and mirth
A angels to watch over you
R embrances of a happy years!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Happy Women's Day

When God sat down to make a woman
He gave her empathy love and compassion,
By the time he finished with her
He had no more left for the man.

He gave her the ability to be a mother
And nurture and take care of others.
Slowly, on reflecting, it dawned on her
She had multiple roles to play
That of a wife, a sister, a daughter.

- Anonymous

Sunday, February 14, 2010

For all you guys in love...

The Love in your heart,
wasn't put there to stay.
Love isn't love,
till you give it away.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Happy Republic Day

On the 61st Republic Day of India, I would like to dedicate the following song to every Indian at any place in the world:

Phir mile Sur (Part 1)

Phir mile Sur (Part 2)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The festival of Lohri – Punjab’s biggest celebrations!!

Today, on January the 13th, it’s the festival of Lohri. When I reached office, everyone was wishing each other when someone asked why do people celebrate Lohri? While explaining to him I had an idea: why not put some basic facts about Lohri on my blog. As usual basic Google Search came to my rescue and here it is – a small compilation of facts about Lohri. (Please excuse me if it reads like an essay written in school).


Lohri is an extremely popular winter festival in India, especially North India. Lohri is usually celebrated in the outdoors by friends and family who get together and have a large bonfire at sunset, toss sesame seeds, gur, sugar-candy and rewaries in it, sit round it, sing, dance till the fire dies out. In houses that have recently had a marriage or childbirth, Lohri celebrations will reach a higher pitch of excitement. Lohri signifies onset of intense winter in Punjab and surrounding areas. Cold weather is good for wheat hence farmers celebrate Lohri so that their crops lead to a good harvest. In cities like Delhi, which have a predominant Punjabi population, Lohri is celebrated to denote the last of the coldest days of winter.

The origin of the name Lohri may be traced to folklores. Some believe that Lohri has derived its name from Loi, the wife of Sant Kabir, for in rural Punjab Lohri is pronounced as Lohi. Others believe that Lohri comes from the word 'loh', a thick iron sheet tawa used for baking chapattis for community feasts. Another legend says that Holika and Lohri were sisters. While the former perished in the Holi fire, the latter survived. Eating of til (sesame seeds) and rorhi (jaggery) is considered to be essential on this day. Perhaps the words til and rorhi merged to become tilorhi, which eventually got shortened to Lohri.

Singing and dancing form an intrinsic part of the celebrations. The central character of most Lohri songs is Dulla Bhatti, a Muslim highway robber who lived in Punjab during the reign of Emperor Akbar. Legendary stories are associated with the brave Dulla Bhatti. He used to rob rich to help the poor and needy. It is believed that Dulla had restored the prestige of an innocent girl whose modesty was outraged by a wealthy Zamindar. There are various versions of the actual story. Some traditions say that Dulla had adopted this girl as his daughter and arranged her marriage in the Jungles of ‘Saandal Bar’. As there was no priest nearby to chant the Vedic Hymns and solemnize the marriage Dulla had lit a bonfire and composed an impromtu song, “Sunder Mundriye Tera Kaun Vichara ! Dulla Bhatti Wala Ho! Dullaeh Di Teeh Viahi Ho! Ser Shakar Payi !” The bride and the groom were asked to take pheras of the bonfire as Dulla sang this hilarious song. Yet another tradition says he had safely rescued a poor girl from the clutches of a Mughal general and later arranged her marriage. Later on people collectively composed this Lohri song in honor of his chivalrous deed. Dulla Bhatti sacrificed his life fighting the Mughals, in one of the battles. Besides robbing the rich, he rescued Hindu girls being forcibly taken to be sold in slave market of the Middle East. He arranged their marriages to Hindu boys with Hindu rituals and provided them with dowries. Understandably, though a bandit, he became a hero of all Punjabis. So every other Lohri song has words to express gratitude to Dulla Bhatti.

There are many songs associated with Lohri, the most one being “Sunder Mundriye”. But, one song I found on the net which I found really funny. So sharing it over here:

Mukai da dana, Aana lei ke jana…
hulle hulare
asi ganga chale
sas sora chale
jeth jathani chale
dyor darani chale
pairi shaunkan chali
hulle hulare


asi ganga pohnche
sas sora pohnche
jeth jathani pohnche
dyor darani pohnche
pairi shaunkan pohnchi
hulle hulare

asi ganga nahte shava or hulle
jeth jathani nahte
dyor darani nahte
pairi shaunkan nahtii
hulle hulare


shaunkan paili pauri
shaunkan duji pauri
shaunkan tiji pauri
maiti dhakka ditta
shaukan vichhe rud gayi
hulle hulare


sas sora ron
jeth jathani ron
dyor darani ron
paira oh wi rove

main kya tusi kyon ronde
tvade jogi main batheri
mainu dyo badhaiyaan ji
Hulle Hullare

Translation

“We set off to have a holy bath in the Ganges
Mother and father in law tagged along
Elder brother and sister in law tagged along
Younger brother and sister in law tagged along
But that bitch my co-wife too latched on

We reached the bank of the Ganges
Mother and father in law landed up
Elder brother and sister in law landed up
Younger brother and sister in law landed up
But that bitch my co-wife too landed up there

We bathed in the Ganges
Mother and father in law had a bath
Elder brother and sister in law had a bath
Younger brother and sister in law had a bath
But that bitch my co-wife too had a bath

Co-wife climbed the first step
Co-wife climbed the second step
Co-wife reached the third step
I gave her a shove
Co-wife drowned in the stream

Mother and father in law wail
Elder brother and sister in law wail
Younger brother and sister in law wail
But that bastard also wailed

I said why do you wail
I am good enough for you
Congratulate me
I have returned after drowning my co-wife”

Friday, October 24, 2008

Whether you light a candle
Or a lamp
Or a firecracker
Or bonfire

Let the light you light
bring gladness to your heart,
and bring happiness and joy
to all those whom you love
and those who love you.

You are the light.
You are the bonfire.
You are Diwali.

WISHING EVERYONE A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS DIWALI.

Women should support women

​I was having a discussion today with a junior at work, a girl who I had started interacting with recently. We discuss a lot of work-related...