Sankranti is celebrated in many states and in different ways.

In the south it is essentially a harvest festival.

In our traditional way cattle have a honoured place. so it is common to see decorated cows and bulls being taken out in processions.

We also have a native version of barbecue when families gather in their fields and have a feast. in some states it is celebrated over three days.

“Bhogi” as it is called, in Andhra Pradesh gives prime importance to fire.

Fire is always a cleansing agent .It is our way of saying that the past be buried and a fresh beginning made !

That beginning again is symbolised by sesame seeds though polished for the occasion. accompanied by jaggery or some sweet figurines they are shared with friends and relatives.

Is it another way of stregthening bonds?

Or our way of thanksgiving to the almighty who is marching forward by changing the course from south to north.

That is also the start of auspicious period, an event looked forward to by Bhisma Pitamaha resting on his bed of thorns.

So it is generally believed that the people who pass away during this period reach higher realms.

This is all about beginnings.

In yet another ritual the sesame seeds play a prominent part.

That is when we bid goodbye to our dear and near ones.

Punarapi Jananam, Punarapi Maranam as the saying goes is the underlying message , or so I understand.

It is not advisable to club the auspicious and the Inauspicious together

But the awareness of the greater truth perhaps will resore us equanimity.

The poise to treat both success and failure in life alike because in  one  sense they are imposters.

It also enables us to live aright.

As a wag once remarked , life is a passing show.

So enjoy what comes to our lot but with the feeling that it may or may not last.

Better still, ponder over the goal of life , Yours as well as others , so that proper relationships are established.

Happy Sankranti and may this season Herald a Happy new year for all of us, that is my prayer.

#bhogi #sankranti #newyear #festive #festivities

 

 

 

The Miracle Worker

 

This is the case of a Miracle worker. Unlike others he was a Reluctant one.

A government servant in a South American country , He was a faithful follower of Christianity , A householder who upheld higher values, and little known to wider  society.

He suffered from searing headache . No doctor could cure him. He would hear a voice, agree, agree.

He knew  not where it came from .

In a fit of defeatism he heeded the voice.

And the headache troubled him no further.

One of the family friends was suffering from terminal cancer.

He went along with his wife and stayed there for the night.

Earlier he had offered the usual consolation  to  the patient .

In the middle of the night he woke up and entered the kitchen.his wife was a silent observer.

She followed him.

He picked up a knife, went upto the patient’s bed, and plunged the knife in the region where the tumour was.

He lifted it , went back to the kitchen, placed the offending flesh in a glass jar and returned to his bedroom.

His wife , who was the witness , was too stunned for words.

Next morning she checked up, and the tumour was in the container.

The patient was taken to the hospital . surprisingly , the doctors found the tumour missing from her body.

Bar a small cut in the flesh which healed by itself there were no complications.

Thus started a healing mission that startled the medical community, gained him massive publicity and of course such negative attention that he was jailed for quackery.

A sympathetic politician supported him to the hilt and he was freed.

Thus ends the first phase of his mission.

We will take up the second phase later.

#healer #spirituality #philosophy #journomurthy

A bit about me!

 A bit about me!

Here is a classic of the subject becoming the object.

My young associate who is assisting me in this endeavour suggested a piece introducing myself to myself and others.

Expectations.

I hail from a laid back town not far from Bangalore, Hosur.

Laid back is the wrong word in the present context because it has grown and grown beyond anybody’s expectations.

Proximity to the city is one of the reasons. Tamilnadu government was quicker than ours in exploiting this fact.

The corrective measures taken by Ramakrishna Hegde preserved the advantages to some extent.

I studied in board high school , Hosur and one of my classmates was H.Nagarajaiah Setty , since deceased , who became a IAS officer.

Going further back, I may lay claim to another distinction. This was the very school where C.Rajagopalachari, former governor general of India studied.

When I was in eighth standard he walked into our school and our classroom and said the very bench I was sitting on was his too when he was a pupil there.

Proxy glory indeed!

After my sslc I moved on to what was then known as Intermediate college. It is still situate opposite Central college though the name has since been changed.

My Finest move in education was my choice of Maharaja’s college, Mysore for my Bachelor of Arts course.

Incidentally it was also the postgraduate centre at that time .

Manasa Gangothri came up later.

When I visited Maharaja’s recently the old lecture halls remain as they were.

The academic atmosphere is subdued but that cannot be helped when the focus is on Manasa Gangothri.

The university library where I spent several hours poring over books and magazines which I may not access now whetted my appetite for knowledge.

I was an indifferent student , shy too, and failed in the final examination for a reason you may not appreciate---- to taste failure for the first time.

I was just out of teens then.

A friend who had close relatives among journalists would speak highly of Frank Moraes who was helming the Indian Express then.

Thus was sown the seed for a journalist job within me.

No, I did not join the journalism course there .

Mine was the royal combination, history, economics and politics.

How I wish I had opted for Politics, Sociology and Psychology.

Psychology, then as now, has fascinated me.

A senior wellwisher would hand over his copies of Psychology Today and I benefited a lot from that in my underemployment days.

#aboutme #myself #blogging #blogginglife #journalism #journalist #freelance