Stray birds...

Last summer back home was really awesome. Plenty of mangoes and lychees to eat, shopping in the crowded markets of New Delhi, going to Bangalore over the weekends to enjoy mom's cooking, haggling over the price of a skirt or a dozen colorful bangles and walking away pleased as punch that I brought the price down by a few rupees - yep life was great :)

But the one thing I really really enjoyed were the jasmine flowers everywhere - creeping up a wall at a neighbor's house, women wearing them on their braided hair, hawkers on the pavements in Gandhi Bazaar measuring strings of white jasmine and wrapping them up in leaves to hand them to me. I used to stand around and just soak in the amazing aroma of the buds ready to bloom into flowers at evening time, sniffing the air looking like an idiot. There were all these big wooden plates that had so many different varieties of jasmine, each with its own fragrance and the vendors trying to outsell each other by offering it for a rupee or two less than the person next to them. It was quite a heady experience to just stand there and enjoy it all, especially around the festivals. Its literally an assault of the senses, what with the colorful flowers everywhere and their smells combining into something that you can only experience if you are there - I cant describe it very well.

A friend of mine read a poem collection called Stray Birds by Rabindranath Tagore (she borrowed Geetanjali from me and got hooked to his works) and one rainy day, she stopped by my cube and wrote this for me (think I still have that piece of paper lying around somewhere, need to find it one of these days) -

The raindrop whispered to the jasmine, "Keep me in your heart for ever." The jasmine sighed, "Alas," and dropped to the ground.

Which brings me to what triggered this nostalgic trip down memory lane - I walked out to my patio this evening and lo and behold - my jasmine plant was blooming (again!!). The pearly white flowers are so fragrant, I am sitting right beside the plant to soak in the fabulous scent.

Wondering what all this hue and cry is over a few blooms? Well - we have always had a jasmine plant or two back home and I used to wake up early before going to school or work to pick them and mom would string them together. She wanted us to wear it on our braids when we went to school (yeah right!) just like she wanted me to pierce my nose, but to no avail. Flowers, in particular the jasmine has been a part of all occasions at home.

There used to be enough to fill up an entire basket sometimes but here on my patio, I am so happy to see a handful of jasmine nodding their heads in the wind. They have been blooming all summer long so I guess they really like the heat and humidity. The "Maid of New Orleans" was what the sticker read when I bought the plant at an Indian store here but I prefer calling them gundu mallige just the way they are called in Bangalore.

Invictus

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

- by William Ernest Henley. 1849–1903

This poem seemed so significant today.

Magic moments...

This morning on my way in to work I heard something on the radio that made me think. They were interviewing a guy who owns this company that works with you to plan the most amazing magic moment (whether it be proposing or valentine's day etc - you get the drift).

So this guy was saying his company works with you to create the most perfect moment which is so magical and is one of a kind. If its done once before, then its not going to be "your magic moment". One of them was a guy proposing to his girlfriend in a restaurant and all the people there breaking into perfect chorus singing "their song" (so basically everyone was there intentionally and not because they just walked in for a meal). Another proposal was in the Fox theater which was the venue and anyone who has been inside the theater can see how romantic the setting can be.

Quite innovative right - yet I wondered. When did creating a personal moment which is magical become something that needed to be planned ahead in advance with the help of people who are in the picture only because they can help "make the magic happen"? What happened to being impulsive and seizing the situation for what it is, doing something totally unexpected (without planning it to be unexpected by the other person of course). Why is so much importance paid to the setting/ambience/atmosphere when all that should matter is that the people involved want to be together and that it comes from the heart? Why cant it be impulsive? Why the need for everything to be "perfect"?

Gajamukhane Ganapathi ye ninage vandane....Sharanu sharanayya sharanu benaka....

These were the words of songs I used to hear as a kid growing up in Bangalore during Ganesha habba and guess what - this year, I actually played it on my laptop (when I discovered they have all the favorite ganesha festival songs on www.udbhava.com) during Ganesha Chaturthi yesterday.

Given - I didnt buy a mud idol of Ganesha that was painted bright colors and a small idol of Gowri to sit alongside or draw big rangolis in front of my house. I did not make modakas or kadubus. I didnt go to a few neighbors' houses to take a look at how much more beautifully they had decorated their Ganesha idol or how much bigger the idol was compared to what I had at home (tiny detail of being one of the only Indians living in this townhome complex) BUT I celebrated the festival nevertheless. Especially since it was the first time I celebrated a festival after I bought my own place.

I arranged a couple paintings of Ganesha and a brass idol thats been one of my favorite possessions for a while now on one of the end tables that I converted to a makeshift peetha for my fav deity. I decorated them with chrysanthamum flowers and lit a couple brass lamps. I even had yele adikke, harishina kumkuma, fruits and akshathe kaalu sitting in plates. The garike hullu came straight from a neatly trimmed yard in front my garage! The rangoli on the peetha - I drew with rice flour but I cant really say that it was great. Yet it made me feel so good that I was actually able to do something mom seems to do so effortlessly all the time.

I made puliyogre, shavige paayasa, kadale husuli (basically what I heard mom made back in Bangalore except the yummy vadas and kadubus - yeah took the slacker way out). Kept the offerings in front of Him and prayed to grant health, wellbeing and happiness to my family and friends. A friend of mine had come over and then of course - we pigged out on all that food :) because that's what a festival is all about right?

Celebrating the festival made me so nostalgic and remember all the times we had armies of little kids holding akshathe in their hands, come over to our house asking - 'Aunty Ganesha koodsidira??' and trying to compete with each other to see who would see the most number of Ganesha idols. Oh I so missed the colorful pandals that come up so quickly at every street corner with 5 ft plus Ganesha idols sitting inside and loudspeakers blaring 'Gajamukhane Ganapathi ye ninage vandane....Sharanu sharanayya sharanu benaka....'

so - i have been procrastinating on what to write about and post for the world to see although i created my blog site almost 5 months ago! after seeing a friend's blog and reading what she wrote about, i figured i had put this off for quite some time.

hopefully i will be motivated enough to write regularly and put my random thoughts into words.