Friday, October 19, 2018

Happy Vijayadashmi

Happy Vijayadasmi  everyone.

Saraswati namah: sthubhyam
Varathe kamaroopini Vidhyarambam karishyami Sidhiru bhavathu mei sadaa"
Salutations Mother Saraswati, giver of boons, fulfiller of desires,
 Bless me, so that I begin my studies successfully, may there be accomplishments.

I woke up to the above message sent by Amma this morning :)

And with the message " Don't forget to write Harishri ." It always makes me smile every year when she says that, back to when I was a kid.

There are so many times in the recent past  when we argue with her why should we do it now. We are no longer in school, we are not studying anything etc.. Then and now  she always has the same answer - learning is a continuous process and everyday we should be open to learning something new. This should never stop. May the Lord bless you with a good mind to utter good words and grant you the wisdom to know the right and wrong  be good human beings in life.

Takes me back to those nostalgic school days when we used to wait for Pooja holidays. Being an NRI kid, Pooja holidays was never of much importance in the early years since we never used to have any celebrations or functions in Kuwait. But yes Amma used to dutifully make us write Hari Shri even there. However once back in India and that too in a joint family, this was a wonderful time we as kids looked forward to. My cousins and myself had a gala time- school would be closed for 5 days . My elder cousin told me the first time when we had the holidays:" this is the only time our Ammas wouldn't ask us to study across the year - wish we had Vijayadasmi at least 3 times a year 😀 But yes it was true, there was no question of studying for 3 days once we kept the books for Pooja. Looking at the entire experience I remember had so much festivity and happiness in it . Making sure we got all our books, packing them nicely, have the names pasted on them neatly, take them to the nearest temple diligently, handover the books and then its BLISS :)

Come home and sit and chat, play board games, watch TV unlimited :) , and no tuitions :) There was a ground rule that we don't read even story books at this time....  Ufff , these 3 days don't know why I have always so desperately wanted to read and write , its a feeling I would never feel across the entire year. But these 3 days the artist / poet / author in me would be brimming to read and write :) Forbidden fruits are always tempting maybe :) Even the newspaper looked so very interesting only once across the year ;)

The 3 days would quickly pass with fun and galore with cousins ,movies and non stop games and late night ghost  stories . No one would bother us at all.

But yes , all good things come to an end fast and its already Vijayadashmi day.  You need to get up early, have a shower , write hari Shri in the rice grains and go to the temple to collect the books you had kept for Pooja.

I used to love to wait at the temple while the Pujari would read out the names on the school book bundles and hand it back over to us. Every year while I wait, I have always had the secret thought, what if my books package had gone missing ? What if it was not to be found ...would I not to go to school because of that..maybe then  I could convince my Mom that maybe God had better plans for me and that's why she vanished away my books :) But alas it never happened in all the years. These poojaris at the temple should be given ISO certification- not a single kid's books were misplaced or missing. So once we get our bundle of books , we rush home to enjoy the remaining part of the last day of holiday. Once you reach back home you can see a stark behavioral change in our parents "take out any 2 school books from the lot , read them out loud..... tomorrow school opens, enough of all the games ... sit and study for sometime now... @Wow.. military back in action :)

That's the end of the Vijayadasmi day for us as kids. The fun, galore, temple visits , pooja days, excitement, the smell of those books wrappers, the Om chants at the temple , these are a few of the thinsg my mind runs to on Vijayadasmi day.Tagging my partners in crime on this post ...for our childhood days..

As years passed, everything has changed except for the  message that Amma sends.. don't forget to write Hari Shri.:) and yes I did write my Hari Shri :)

On this day , I wish each of you and your family a lovely and blessed Vijayadashmi day.

Let our words be good and kind;
Let our words be not to hurt anyone .Oh God of words !...bless me to be so.

May all of us have kind words for each other, may our thoughts and deeds be to make someone's life happier or better in at least a small way possible, may we have the wisdom to understand right from wrong  and thus may each of us evolve to be a good human being to make this a better place for everyone .