Maha Shivratri

Today is Maha Shivratri. The day and the night long worship of Lord Shiva is performed along with fasting this day. In India we have a big pooja at our house, and it been going on for generations now. This is the only day in the entire calendar year that I observe a fast for too. Below is the story of the Maha Shivratri:

Once upon a time King Chitrabhanu of the Ikshvaku dynasty, who ruled over the whole of Jambudvipa (India), was observing a fast with his wife, it being the day of Maha Shivaratri. The sage Ashtavakra came on a visit to the court of the king.

The lord asked the king the purpose of his observing the fast. King Chitrabhanu explained that he had a gift of remembering the incidents of his past birth, and in his previous life he had been a hunter in Varanasi and his name was Suswara. His only livelihood was to kill and sell birds and animals. The day before the new moon, while roaming through forests in search of animals, he saw a deer, but before his arrow flew he noticed the deer's family and their sadness at its impending death. So he let it live. He had still not caught anything when he was overtaken by nightfall and climbed a tree for shelter. It happened to be a Bael tree. His canteen leaked water, so he was both hungry and thirsty. These two torments kept him awake throughout the night, thinking of his poor wife and children who were starving and anxiously waiting for his return. To pass away the time he engaged himself in plucking the Bael leaves and dropping them down onto the ground.

The next day he returned home and bought some food for himself and his family. The moment he was about to break his fast a stranger came to him, begging for food. He served the food first to stranger and then had his own.

At the time of his death, he saw two messengers of Lord Shiva, sent to conduct his soul to the abode of Lord Shiva. He learnt then for the first time of the great merit he had earned by unconscious worship of Lord Shiva during the night of Shivaratri. The messengers told him that there had been a Lingam (a symbol for the worship of Shiva) at the bottom of the tree. The leaves he dropped had fallen on the Lingam, in imitation of its ritual worship. The water from his leaky canteen had washed the Lingam (also a ritual action), and he had fasted all day and all night. Thus, he unconsciously had worshipped the Lord.

As the conclusion of the tale the King said that he had lived in the abode of the Lord and enjoyed divine bliss for long ages and now he was reborn as Chitrabhanu.

Aall Izzz Welll!!!

Yes this 3 idiots quote seems to be overtaking Gabbar's "Kitne Aadmi The" one in a big way. The impact this film has made is huge and so is the message that it conveys. We loved the movie, so did Aarav as he plays the "Aall Izz Well" song a few tens of times a day. And then imagine the thrill of meeting Aamir Khan recently face to face and actually having a chat with him for some time. It was an amazing experience, especially since I being an ardent fan of his and his films for the past 20 years. Yes that does make me sound a bit old, but then there are very few actors in bollywood about whom you can say that for such a long time. After his recent film, the Aamir Khan is certainly the biggest brand in Bollywood right now and with an envious success rate. To top it all, the film which he produced - "Peepli Live" had been selected in the competitive films category to play at the Sundance Festival in Park City. It is the first hindi film to be selected to play at Sundance which is a great achievement.

As soon as the news of him coming to Park City was out, we started looking for tickets to the film's screening. On the opening show, we missed him by a tantalizing 10 mins. The next showing was then in Salt Lake City itself, but we knew it would be difficult to meet him as there would be a big desi crowd. And is what happened, we were not able to meet him personally as the crowd went berserk and he had to leave early. We did get to see him during the Q&A session. We did manage to take some snaps with his wife Kiran Rao who was very nice to talk to. Also we managed some snaps with the director of the movie Anusha Rizvi and the actor Onkar Das. The film was nice, a black comedy on the topic of farmer suicides in Indian villages. After the movie we did get an autograph from Aamir Khan, but the thought of not meeting him personally lingered and we decided to try our luck again a couple of days later at the film's next showing in Park City.

Fortunately for us, since the showing was in the morning, we did not run in to any crowds and got to meet him personally. First he seemed busy but then agreed to meet with us on the way out. We talked for quite some time, about his padma bhushan, the blog and his movies. Yes one can say that it certainly was the experience of a lifetime. He seemed like a very genuine person to talk to and signed some more autographs for us. I being from Bombay, know how diffcult it is to meet a celebrity there and hence it was a big deal I guess. Last time I met someone was Aishwarya Rai who was sitting next to me at the American Consulate, but thats a different story and for a different blog article.

Tai...

Today is 29th Dec and Tai (my grandmother) is in my thoughts as it was this day that she passed away. It has been a long time but some days you do not tend to forget irrespective of the passage of time. Every one called her "Tai" and my grandfather "Dada". The so called best days of life which usually are the childhood days were spent in their presence. My brother and I were lucky to have them live with us during those days. They nurtured a pretty big family I must say with 5 girls and a boy, which I still wonder how they managed to do during those days. I have a very hard time with just one.

But today I want to write about her. She was the go to person for me when both mom and dad were angry at my wrong doing. She would be the protective shield. She liked entertaining people all the time, no matter how big the crowd or how small the place. And for that, one has to be a very good cook which she was. She was also a cleanliness freak and also very detail oriented. She always had answers to our naive questions. She liked paan and ice cream quite a bit. She was always excited to take us out for ice cream once our final results were out. That was kind of a ritual for us. She used to be there with me when going to school, waiting for the school bus and was never afraid to give a piece of her mind to the driver if he was running a little late. She always said what was in her mind. She had a very good dressing sense with special nav-wari sarees for special occasions. She was like every other grandmother in the world, and then some more. That extra special quality that every grandmother has, to make her your grandmom :).

Winter has set in!

Winter has set in! It really seems like a whole season has gone by since I have written anything on my blog. I guess there is always a phase when you just don't feel like writing anything if you are a blogger. Well actually a season has really passed since I blogged last around Dassara. Diwali has come and gone, and along with it the taste of the faral and the sweets that were made during that festival. Our first Diwali, in our home, so it was special in a way. We did put up some lights and celebrated with fire crackers, played teen patti and managed not to lose a lot of money, was involved in organizing a Diwali event for the Utah Marathi Mandal which surprisingly turned out very well for the first time. Then we celebrated our birthdays, threw a party in a very nice banquet room which we managed to get due to one of our friends living there. Someday we plan to throw a party where the kids will get to enjoy more than us, that would have to mean, no alcohol and at a place like bouncing off the walls or the jungle jim's playland. The next day, my cousin and her husband visited us from India. It was really good to have them over for a few days, always feels nice when the house is filled up. We went to Moab for a couple of days as that was the warmest place within our reach. Moab is always fun, the downtown reminds me of Matheran and Mahabaleshwar for some reason, I don't know why.

I got myself the Canon Speedlite 430 EXII external flash as a birthday gift. I first used it during the birthday party and boy was it worth it. The external flash along with its powerful light, and bounce and tilt features make the photographs look so much better, got some really good captures. Then as I had promised my self a few years earlier that I would never go in the early morning to a thanksgiving sale, I somehow landed there at 4 in the morning, this after a party earlier which went pretty late into the night too. After that I have renewed my promise once again with the exception of online shopping. I always think that Cyber Monday and Pink Thursday after the Black Friday is kind of a lame concept. Why don't they make the black friday deals even better so that they don't have to deal with left overs?

Yesterday was a feel good day, why?, just because I watched Sehwag bat for 6 hrs and beat the s**t out of the so called lions. I do not remember seeing a more demoralized team than SL. It was sad that he could not reach 300, but I am pretty sure there are more of these special innings to come. He really does not get the praise and the attention he deserves and finally when Sambit Bal wrote on CricInfo, comparing him to Viv Richards, one of not so ardent fans of Richards commented from across the border saying "This is rubbish, only Hindu mentality can think like this.", to this I would like to say, thank god for the Hindu mentality and thank god for it was SL else you would have already killed the coach and called off the test. For now though, I am eagerly waiting for the team to be the #1 test team after tomorrow's result.

Happy Dasara!!!

Today is Dassara, the 10th auspicious day after the 9 days of Navratri. The day when Ram was victorious in the battle against Ravan and killed Ravan version 10.0. Effigies of Ravan are burnt down against the back drop of Ram Leela in many places. The day is marked with different kinds of festivities starting with an early pooja. Even the cars are worshipped and garlanded. Even we did pooja of both our cars this morning before I headed out to work. This day comes I think exactly 20 days before Diwali.

The 9 days of Navratri are filled with people gathering to play the garba and the dandia raas. Originated mainly in Gujrat, this has become a very popular social event and has spread not only across India but also worldwide. I myself not being a big fan of either of those, we decided to skip the event this year, even though I heard that it was very well organized and attracted a huge crowd. I remember going to this huge Durga pooja at the Shivaji Park and gasping as to how fierce but beautiful the huge idol of Durga looked.

Getting back to Flickr, below is the link to my photo stream:
My Photos on Flickr

Yellowstone Trip

Its been a week since we went to Yellowstone this summer and I am still going through the vast pool of photographs, deciding on which ones to upload. Since I bought my first digital camera, there is an exponential increase in the number of photos I have had to manage. My Picasa account is also almost full and am now considering buying a Flickr Pro account. It costs to create a Pro account but seems like its worth it and has less hassles to worry about space and other issues. Although I prefer Picasa any day ove Flickr due to its simplicity, I am warming up to the idea of switching to Flickr. Have some 500 plus photos to go through for this trip and it has been time consuming. Add to it the processing time of the photos in RAW format. But I like doing it and thats all that matters.

Weekends recently have been also busy with playing a cricket tournament. So there is even less time then. I don't know what the article is supposed to focus on: the awesome yellowstone trip or flickr or our cricket tournament? None the less, we had a great trip to Yellowstone this summer. It was our second time to that place and it was just as good as the first one. Though we did not get to see the same amount of wild life as the last time, it was a good outing with our friends. We saw a 2 hour documentary yesterday on Yellowstone, I think it was called "Yellowstone: Battle for Life" on Discovery and it was nothing like what we have seen there. This was about the survival tactics of the wild life there in winter. I had heard that they were going to keep all the loops open this winter in order to attract more tourists. One thing I would like to do there is camping, may be not in winter though. This time our group consisted of 14 of us. When in such a big group its always fun and cheaper to book a cabin/lodge there and we did just that. Our wooden lodge was in Island Park, Idaho, though a good 20 minutes from the west yellowstone entrance, it was gorgeous and most importantly tremendously spacious with an awesome wrap around deck/patio. As the path to Norris was closed we had to drive a lot on the first day to get to Mammoth and were kind of dissappointed to see just one point in the entire day, but it was fun when we returned to the lodge and grilled some juicy spicy tandoori chicken. And did I mention all the booze that flowed as if it was water. Then a few hours of the game Taboo which was cool with such a big group. Next day we managed to cover some important points on the way and managed to click some good photographs. Then some more food, booze and taboo. The final day started with an ugly hangover but we were in no rush to get back to SLC and slept in.

In the meanwhile I had abandoned this article for a while and have created a Flickr Pro account and have successfully uploaded a bunch of snaps of our trip. Out of those some have gone on Orkut too. I have also been looking out for a long time now for some good photography lessons/classes. But have not managed to find one. The one I found was really basic, like at a 'Dummies' level. Also in the mean while the cricket tournament has ended. We faired a notch better than the previous one but still have a long way to go. Hopefully the next year will be far better than this one. And with the season coming to an end we are trying to get in as much cricket as we can play. Apart from the results though, it was a wonderful experience, and has become some sort of a social event as our wives get to meet each other and gossip as well. Hardly a single sqeuak or a cheer is heard on the field as they gossip away. Alright it looks like its time to go for another of these socio-cricketarian events.

Science of Swing

Here is an interesting picture detailing the swing bowling grips and their effects.

9 years!!! Wow!!!

Today it will be 9 years since the first time I left India to come to the US. Yes 9 long and eventful years. It is unbelievable how fast time flies by. Almost a decade gone by in a flash, it seems like. It seems like only a few days back that I had decided that the job which I was working in India was far too boring and that I wanted to study more and had decided to give my GRE exam. After some time it was time to say good bye to the family. There were parties being held before the departure with some enthusiastic relatives handing me flower bouquets at the party as well as the airport. I had flown just once before this and the excitement of flying was there initially. Then set in the fact that I was going to be away from the family for the very first time in 23 years and that too at such a distance that only digital communication would be the way to get in touch with them every now and then. After saying the goodbyes we went to check in fearing that the nice things that mom had prepared would be confiscated. Yes I had my future college roommate accompanying me during our Swiss Air flight. I remember meeting a sardarji sitting next to me and ranting about how he did not get a last minute flight with British Airways as they are the best in takeoff and landing. He literally gestured with his hands to show how the BA flight lands differently than all the other flights in the world. I thought that was funny at first but then it got irritating. During takeoff my roommate’s eyes were as wide as an owl staring at a flashlight.

After the long flight and some desperate measures to prevent our luggage from being stolen at Zurich airport, we landed in Atlanta and then took a flight to Kansas city. There was a person waiting for us who looked a little like Kurt Cobain. He was generous enough to drop us at our residential on-campus place. There we were pleased to see a swarm of Indian students ready to greet us. One of my very good friends now, this guy cooked for us rajma/chaval. I'll be meeting him after a few years now when he comes to visit me during the Labor Day weekend this year.

There are some of the small things you tend to remember distinctly and some not so small things you tend to forget. Some first encounters with people in your life now are strikingly eventful, some are not. So after this initial phase of trying to find an apartment we finally moved into a nice polished one and were 6 of us. The 3 years thereafter were filled with some amazing memories to cherish forever. The doctor, the pretender, the ballerina, the boxer and the baby [since he was the youngest] were some really great guys that I had roommates during this time in Kansas City. The journey so far has been interesting with some achievements turning into fulfilled dreams, some not. We'll see how it goes ;).

M.J.

Can't believe MJ's gone. I was in a flight to Atlanta when I saw it on CNN. As they were flashing this breaking news story it was one of those moments where you want to rub your eyes to see what you are seeing is really happening. As the news sunk in one starts to wonder the frailty of life. The king of pop as they call it was no more. Thriller was my first compact disc growing up and it was awesome. It was worth every rupee as CDs were expensive and tapes were the way of life then. I do not remember the number of times I tried to immitate the moon-walk without success or throw the hat in the air trying to land it on the head and forget about standing on the toes. His entry on the stage where he shoots up from below the stage was simply mindblowing. SRK tried that in DTPH but looked stupid. Even now, listening to Billy Jean at full blast gives a different kind of high. RIP MJ.

Trip to Moab

The last few weeks have been crazy. I finally see some sanity returning and now do have some time to blog, finally. I am still reeling from the hangover of our trip to Moab, in a good way though. It was an amazing trip, finally some good weather, the road trip and then the breathtaking views of the saffron colored decor at the Arches National Park and the Canyonlands. The delicate arch picture on the utah vehicle license plate does not do justice of any sort unless you take the time and hike there to visit it. Natural formations at their best. Will post some pics soon. Here is one from Dead Horse Point.