Frangipani

This song comes to mind each time I think of all that has been going wrong in my country for these past few years and months … What did we see when we saw the group molestation of a girl in Assam…how could such things come to pass? How could people just watch? How and why did it happen? The violence in Assam… people ousted from their own homes by outsiders…violence, homelessness, arson, killing …. It is their home…why should they be asked to leave by outsiders? The protest in Mumbai against the violence in Assam which erupted into violence with death, fire and devastation…  it was supposed to be a voice against violence…then what happened? People from the North East leaving en masse from the south of India…being apparently threatened… with murder in their own cities, in their own country… how did this happen? All of these are not real. There has to be something which is at the core of it, something which is tangible. All of us during our growing up years are taught the s...

It is not the most pleasant of weathers these days - not in Delhi, nor in Puri. Yet this is the time that divinity chooses to come to our doorsteps. I'm talking about the rath yatra - the Jagannath rath yatra which takes place each year around this time. The Jagannath rath yatra is THE festival of all Oriyas and all Jagannath followers. And I too have my favourite moments of this festival. I'm not an overly religious or traditional person but I do have festivals that I like. And moreover, the whole story and the human-like behaviour of Jagannath is what pulls me to this awesome threesome. To start at the beginning, Jagannath, Balabhadra, and Subhadra are the three main Gods of Orissa. And what makes this combination different and dearer to me is that this is a combination of not couples like Radha-Krishna or Rama-Sita. Instead, it is a combination of brothers and sister. Jagannath is a form of Vishnu while Balabhadra is Balaram. Subhadra is their sister. All three of them ar...

It has been some time since I posted anything to my blog...Many a times, an idea takes shape somewhere at the back of my head (just above the top of the neck to be precise) and I let it stay there for many reasons. The first and foremost reason is my loathing for logging into a laptop after spending the working day looking at one and typing away. There are also the long hours of commute that cause this decay and delay. Hmm...so, well today, I intend to cross over to the other side of this hiatus and hopefully, pen down something worthwhile.