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Friday, August 31, 2012

Celebrating Our Myths




Tulika is celebrating Our Myths! This hugely popular series of books features timeless stories drawn from popular and marginal sources, which gently question stereotypes and rigid notions about myths.

Myths may share beginnings, meet in the middle or find themselves face to face at the end. Sometimes they're as multi-layered as nesting dolls, with one story concealed within the other. They unravel as they are told, and change as they travel from one place to another, one storyteller to another, one listener to another. And so there is always another version of the same story...

SITA 
My earliest recollection of the story of Sita is that King Janaka prayed for a child and he was advised to prepare for a yagna to appease the Gods. Before the yagna he ploughed the land himself and while he was doing so, the lower portion of the plough hit something. On exploring further, he found a baby girl in the fields and adopted her as his daughter. He named her Sita because the land ploughed by the yoke of the plough is called Sita.

Recently, I heard of another version and read the same in a book by Ashok Banker. This connects to the story of Sita being found in the fields by Janaka and therefore creates a reason behind the same. 

Sita was Ravana's daughter. Astrologers had predicted that she would be the cause of Ravana's death and therefore he had her abandoned and buried in a distant land. Where she was found by King Janaka, adopted by him and raised to marry Lord Rama. 
Circumstances cause Ravana to abduct Sita and therefore she becomes the reason behind his downfall.


VIJAYADASHMI

I like the festival of Vijayadashmi/ Dusshera / Navratri as there are multiple reasons for celebration of the same.

One it represents the war of Lanka and therefore most of Northern India play the Ramlila - the story of Ramayana and the final day of Dusshera is celebrated with the symbolic annihilation of Ravana, Kumbhkarna and Meghnad.

Two, it represents the defeat of Mahishasur at the hands of Goddess Durga.

The similarity between the 2 reasons of celebration is triumph of good over evil.


SHIKHANDI


Shikhandi plays a pivotal role in the Mahabharata. 

The simplest explanation of his presence is that he was the reincarnation of Amba one of the three ladies who were abducted by Bhishma to marry his brothers.

Another explanation I read in Devdutt Pattanaik's book The Pregnant King was that Shikhandi was born a woman and was raised as a man. He was married to a girl and on his wedding night, he entered into a deal with a Yaksha. The Yaksha became a woman and Shikhandi became a man on mutual exchange.



Monday, August 27, 2012

Stories

Tejas- V's mamma tells him dirty stories.
A boy was drinking juice and there was a lizard inside!


Tejas' friend- I am naming my baby sister Brinda
Tejas- that sounds like Mirinda

Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Mandatory Birthday Post

37th this year....and no, there were no flashes of regret or enlightenment or any other fireworks or bulbs glowing. In fact the bathroom bulb fused and I rang in the birthday sitting on the throne with a book and with stomach pain and nausea....ha...doing 2 of my favourite actvities after all

I realize that now I have learnt not to equate celebration with food even though we do end up eating while celebrating. But I am trying to reduce the focus on that.

That coupled with the fact that I was not feeling up to it, we did a simple lunch at home and a small party with very minimal snacks and dinner with very few friends.

I also did another of my favourite activity that is shopping for a couple of pieces of jewelry for office wear. Not the types that go into the locker. 

The next day, the spouse's birthday was celebrated at Mainland China which was our combined birthday lunch and watching the Dark Knight Rises on popular demand from the kids. And a simple cake cutting back home.

It gets so tiring on 12th that the spouse's birthday celebration on 13th gets compromised....
May be I should start celebrating a month late to spread the celebrations!!!






Just Married Please Excuse Contest

  Yashodhara's book  Just married Please excuse is out and she is running a contest on her blog. 

If you're one of those people who know that married life can have its hilarious moments, please pay attention to this one:

It's really very, very simple - 

1. You write a post on your blog, describing an incident aboutsomething funny that has happened to you as a part of married life, preferably when you were 'Just Married'. (By 31st August 2012)

2. HarperCollins and I select the 20 best entries and they will be sent copies of my book; and 10 Delhi-based bloggers get to join me and VK Karthika, (Chief Editor of HarperCollins and all round super-cool person) for a leisurely Saturday lunch at the new Mamagoto outlet in Gurgaon for some really great food ( I'm told the Khan Market outlet is never less than packed, and for good reason). Oh, and there'll be some good conversation too :).


Some things to keep in mind to be eligible for this contest: 

1. The Title of your post should be The 'Just Married, Please Excuse' Contest 
2. Please include in your post a link back to this post, so that your blog readers know what the heck is going on, and more people can participate.
3. Please leave a link to your entry in the comments section to this post.
4. In case you don't have a blog of your own, do leave your entry in the comments section to this post and we will consider that story, too. In case you face issues while commenting, email me your story at yashodhara dot lal at gmail dot com (But only up to two such comment/email entries can win, so you better make it funny)
5.Note -If you're not married, but still want to participate, you can do it - just tell us about a funnyJust Married story about someone you know! 

Finally - if you can promote your entry on Facebook and Twitter, it will help spread the word.

Also while you are at it, please read my review of the book here. 

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Executive Behaviour

Me- Ojas, if you want to drink water ask Dadda to open the car door with the remote and you can run and get the bottle

Ojas- Tum jao, yeh tumka idea hai

(You go, it is your idea)



Title Courtesy Nandhu

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Forgetfulness

Ojas- Mamma, did you give me Kurkure in my snack box.

Mamma- no. You remember everything na!!

Ojas- and you forget everything Mamma