A Wandering Mind

Maa-vilakku – literally, lamp made from flour, is an offering to the family deity. In our family, it is customary to make this offering on a Friday in the month of Thai (the month from 15 th Jan to 15 th Feb). Fridays in this month are considered auspicious, and even more so for us, due to this celebration. We put the M aa-vilakku yesterday, and it was even more special, since it was my birthday! The Maa-vilakku is made from rice flour and jaggery. While in some houses, the two are mixed to form a dough and then shaped into a lamp, at our house, we simply spread the rice flour on a plate and then make the lamp with the jaggery and insert a wick in it. We then pour the ghee around the wick and then light it. When the wick is almost burnt out, but not completely, of course, we take the wick out with a spoon and keep it aside and offer the mixture of flour, jaggery and ghee to the deity. These are then mixed with grated coconut and are distributed to married women along with...

We happened to see this vehicle, probably one of the new ones belonging to the police or the army. It drew all eyes towards it, and cameras and mobiles were pulled out, and the tourists went click....click....click! I wondered if it would be all right to take pics, considering that these belong to our state security forces, but there were plenty of policemen around, and none of them seemed to care about the photography, so I decided to go for it too! It looks more like a tank than a van, right? I saw a couple more such vehicles at Mantralaya later, but did not dare take pics there!!!!!

A visit to the Prince of Wales Museu m, or to give it its official name – Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sangrahalay - was long overdue, and I decided to take Samhith there on Sunday, as we were all alone in the house and there was nothing to be done at home. We started from home after lunch and took a train to VT (forgive me if I use the old names – the new ones don’t come all that easily to me). We were lucky to get one of the new trains, and Samhith was delighted, especially the announcements about the next station! I had planned to walk to the museum, but it was too hot, so I decided to indulge, and took a taxi to the Gateway of India, where we reserved seats on the Nilambari – the open deck bus which takes one around the heritage buildings of Fort and Colaba. We then headed to the Museum, which was something I was looking forward to, since I hadn’t been there in ages! I guess the last time I visited was when I was in school!! I used to think that maybe Samhith would...

Our first outing of the year was to Jalgaon where we attended a havan and a puja. An auspicious beginning to the new year, wouldn't you say? Considering that we perform so many rituals ourselves at home, I have always been fascinated by all the paraphernalia that we use for them. I used the opportunity at Jalgaon to click pics, not of the puja itself, which everyone else was doing,  but of the preparations for the puja.......... Here is the puja site.. all ready and prepared.... That's the havan kund.. where the fire will be lit... Here are the essentials - water, haldi(turmeric), kumkum, chandan...etc. etc. etc... i love that kamadalu-like vessel with the spout.. Don't know its correct name.... look at the tiny different shaped wooden articles next to it. They are used for the havan for making the offerings... Fruits and flowers... and the spoons used for the havan... again, sorry, but the names elude me. The Kalash - the central item.... and fi...

The two black kites in our colony are presently the most visible ones around. All the bulbuls, sunbirds and robins seem to have disappeared! I wonder why that is so. Meanwhile, the absence of birds has given me very little opportunity of using my camera, so I jumped at the chance when the kite came to sit on our terrace for a while, giving me some good pics... Here they are....

The Standard chartered Mumbai Marathon took place yesterday, and the papers are full of Marathon News – about the celebrities, the figures, the statistics, the problems, the heroes… and so on and so forth. Here is an experience of none of the above – a group of young girls, who, unable to register for the marathon (the registrations were over even before we awoke to the fact that they were open!), decided to gate crash and participate in the event nevertheless! The group consisted of my sister Kanthi and her friends Manasi and Pranali . Here is their experience in their own words……….       The Mumbai Marathon - An unforgettable Experience This is the first time   I am trying to write my experience which will be posted on the net! Warning to all my sister’s blog friends: I am not as good writer as my sister, so bear with my English!!! The reason I am writing this article instead of my sis is that I participated in the Mumbai marathon which was held...

I have always been fascinated by the Maharashtrian way of drawing rangolis. While I love drawing the traditional ' kolams ' with rice paste, I am no good at using the kolam powder or rice flour. These are typical Maharashtrian patterns drawn at Jalgaon, where, as I mentioned earlier, we attended a puja. The girl was young, must have been younger than me, and she drew these two rangolis in a matter of minutes! Normally, when we use rice flour, we can only draw one line at a time. Here, in the next rangoli, she drew 4 at a time!!! It was fantastic to watch her, and I tried taking a pic of her drawing the rangoli. Unfortunately, it was dark and they did not come out well. These pix were taken the next day, and I wasn't able to locate her and ask her to pose next to her creations. A wonderful job,isn't it? what do you say????