Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Aaagayaa August..

Every year August seems to be the most eventful month of the year for me,since it starts with my birthday on the 2nd and has much more to offer in terms of Independence Day,Raksha Bandhan,Avani avittam,Krishnar Jayanthi and sometimes Vinayagar Chaturthi too!
Just going to jot down some interesting happenings and thoughts on the eventful days of this month!

Aug 2nd - So,there it was..Yet another birthday.The day,for some reason I dreaded the most this year,as it announced my transition from being a 26 yr old youth to a 27 yr oldie :(
Initially I was feeling bad about the way suddenly these million friends made sure they remembered this fine day and wish very well in advance!I was wondering..'adapaaviingala..wer were u guys all along?Suddenly a birthday reminder knocked ur email boxes and you very conveniently pushed off an e-greeting..huh?'

But then,that thought didn't last for long.It did start to feel good that there was goodwill and kind words in so many minds for me and they had taken pains to make sure I undertood it well!It did make sense : What other day than one's birthday entails such a greeting?
Thanks a million,Folks...for all those wishes..!
A special thanks to the 3 close buddies who made sure the cake cutting formality was done,although I had expressed my wish not to have such an event!
Heartfelt gratitude to the sender of the only postal greeting that I received :)!You are the best!

Avani Avittam & RakshaBandhan:
Both of these are gonnabe on the same day I guess..Both of them involve the sporting of threads,but the irony is..
I need 1 of its kind for the former,i.e the poonal and I don't have it;
I don't really need more than 1 of the latter,i.e the Rakhee,but I am sure there would be dozens of them waiting for me,some already travelling thousands of miles and some already embedded in thousands of e-mails! :(

For those who are serious about following the procedures and chanting the prescribed mantras/shlokams during Avani avittam,here is the link to the audio commentary..

Also for folks,who like me,get vivid images of some Sandhya/Vandhana/Gayathri from college days when they hear the phrase 'Sandhya-Vandhanam/Gaayathri',heres a website trying to explain what they mean.

Independence Day...
What used to command some attention and respect from me while in India,due to atleast the holiday factor,has been reduced to mere reading of some patriotic forwards and news articles related to 'riots happening during the parade somewhere in India'!
This might sound stupid,but what the heck..
I tried to think what would have been my state or India's state had it not been bestowed with independence!I couldn't continue too far in that thought process as it seemed really scary!I would have most probably been forced to work in one of the kerala temple devasvom boards where my grandfather worked for very many years during the British rule!

Krishnar Jayanthi and Vinayagar Chaturthi !! :
Wow..2 of my most cherished days all these years!Again,mainly because of the holiday factor and the delicacies in the form of cheedais/kozhakattais that I used to devour upon quite limit/shamelessly.
But then the past 5 years,they have just been mere dreams and visualisations of those unqiue food items that were available in the memorable yester years!

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |