Namaste!

This morning we went to meet Nirmala Row a very sweet and good friend of many years who owns a shop where she sells sarees,salwar-kameezes and also has a team of tailors who stitch dresses and blouses .

She also keeps a range of designer sarees and other dresses that cater to the younger crowd.

She was talking very animatedly to a 'client friend' who was about to leave.

And as my sister-in-law and I entered her shop she said,"From today I am going to say Namaste to each and everyone who comes to me".

I for one am a traditionalist and from my childhood was taught by my dear father and mother to say Namaste. 

Very elatedly I joined her with enthusiasm and told her how today many people in the West are using Namaste as a written as well as a verbal greeting. 

She was taken aback and she loudly re-resolved that she would henceforth say Namaste. 

And then the very same day something very odd and strange happened.

We came home and were in the lift.We wished to go to the 11th floor but 'accidentlally' went down to -1.

And bang came in a young woman with a little boy between 7-8.

There was an icy silence as we all stood together ascending the floors.

It all seemed very wrong to me.Such silence among people living in the same apartment block!

So I took the step, perhaps a 'bit too far and precipitous'.

I 'heckled' her by saying Namaste.

She in turn said Hellooo to me with a dead-pan expression. 

It really put me off and I again took another 'dangerous' step and said in Hindi -

Kya aap Namaste nahin bolte hein?

(Do you not say Namaste?)

She replied very matter of factly- Mein to Namaste bolna hi bhool gayee hoon.

Aajkal to koi bhi Namste nahin bolta hei. 

Sab log HI ya HELLO  hi karte hein.

(I have forgotten to say namaste. These days people say HI or HELLO). 

So I said -Arrey aap to boliye chahey  aur bolen ya na bolen.

(O, whether anyone says or not, you should say) 

So pat came another reply when she said -Main to Sikh hoon Aur main Sat Sri Akaal boltee hoon.

Then I said -Avashya boliye -main bhi boltee hoon Sat Sri Akaal.

( I am a Sikh and I say Sat Sri Akaal).

( Do say so- I too say Sat Sri Akaal).

Our conversation was very sage and friendly.

We parted as we arrived on our 11th  and she was on the 14th floor.

Now this leaves me wondering as to where is our Bharat and what is this new India?

How do we revert this process of getting back to Bharat from this new India?

Can we reverse this?

However,on a positive note,I must not forget to state that this young woman was indeed very respectful.

She could have 'barked' back at me and said -Who are you to tell me how I should greet people?

And I would have been at the receiving-end with no answer.

Again this shows that Bharateeya Samskriti has not been fully lost for she spoke with respect.

Who knows what will happen in the coming years or perhaps when I speak to the next person on such lines?????

But I am an optimist and I pray and hope ...........Namaste!

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

We are drops in the ocean of Life but will we meet exactly as the same drops in this ocean of Life?

The Eternal conundrum!

My paternal grandmother used to say that we humans are like pieces of driftwood that are brought together and also separated by the Force of God.

I do believe in this truth.

While meeting is always joyful parting is terribly painful.

My question today is will we ever meet again as we met before?

Will our memories revive and will we know and relive the past that we had together?

There are so many questions but I seem to get no answers.

The only thing that gives me solace is to remember how you would act and react under these circumstances.

And this I shall do.

The Compleat Rambler

I returned to the Gurvayoorappan Temple a few weeks after the visit that I have mentioned in the previous post. The cycle rickshaw driver taking my husband and me from the Mayur Vihar flats to the temple turned out to be from Rajroopur in Allahabad, the city of my birth. Rapport was instant and the chat about Allahabad was continuous over the 10 minutes that he took to deposit us at the temple.

The temple is run in traditional Kerala style. A combination of simplicity, order and discipline marks the ambience. We request a special archana giving the name and nakshatram amd then wait for the purohit to complete the dialogue between manushya and Krishna. The garbhagriham is only lit by oil lamps and the vigraham can only be seen by the reflected light of these lit lamps. My thoughts and prayers take me to my late grandmother who had been a Krishnabhakta. I recall her stories of naughty Krishna, brave Krishna and timeless Krishna who came to the rescue of all those who called upon Him.

I sit for a while in the temple yard where I hear a devotee reading in softly audible tones from the Bhagvad Gita. The piece which catches my ear said that nothing was impossible for Krishna. Was this a direct message from Him to me, I wonder.

As I wait for the garbhagriham to open, a sweet old lady comes up to me and quietly offers me white jasmine flowers. She does the same to others around me. What was her heart seeking ? Others around me stand, wait, perform pooja and do pradakshina to the One who knows everything, does everything and yet is a silent witness. Krishna, I say to myself, do what you know is best and let me mould myself into accepting whatever you do. In the course of my pradakshina I see a lady in yellow sari scrubbing and polishing the brass deepams. She looks up frequently in the course of her work and greets the temple visitors with a beatific smile.

People experiencing a vibration, a harmony with something both deep within and high outside.

If, thus far, you, dear reader, have been with me inside the temple, let us walk together to the world outside till we meet again at another temple. If, on the other hand, you have been outside and merely watching I wonder what you think of my ramble.

SHUBHAARAMBHAM

We all have to begin somewhere and at sometime and so here I am blogging for the first time .

I am a bit apprehensive to put down my thoughts but I am under the cover of my 'invisible cloak' of annonymity as no one can see me .How wonderful technology is! We can pry into one another's innermost recesses and yet remain strangers. 

As a child reading books of fiction and mystery always made me wish for a cloak that would make me invisible to others even as I could see others .And today we communicate with the world without revealing one's identity !

The sun is playing 'hide and seek ' and it is a warm day.

I hope to record my innermost thoughts candidly so that after I am gone whoever chances to read them may perhaps vibrate with them here and there and feel the Truth. 

Though I had put these thoughts into words long ago, I found them in the drafts section. It is better to be late than never....... So here it gets to see the light of the blogosphere!