Life is easy kya karein

Navratri had a different flavour in Dhanbad and very different in Jharia. Dhanbad was very very hep for me when I was small.There was a banjara family living in a big hut near Jalaram mandir. My mama house was overlooking their house. They would listen to music lodly and they fought very loudly with sticks and all. Their women were in ghagra cholis with thick silver payals. My fascination for payals and thick silver ones comes from there. The second brother was Dhiru Bhai. He was tall dark lean with a thin moustache in a very rustic way very Mills and Boon kind of a guy. He had intense eyes. One month before navratri, he would teach boys Dandiya. They boys would range from 7-20 years who would want to participate. The practise happenned in Nandvana Wadi and no one was allowed to witness the practise. Nandvana wadi was a wedding venue with a very big rectangular chowk. The show waould happen on ashtmi or Dusshera and was the most waited dance for the whole town. All boys were dressed in...

Yoga class walk is very interesting. There is a restaurant, beer bar, ac repair shops,paper shop, tailors, idli dosa atta shop, car battery repair shop, . I love the smell of all these shops. I love the smell of petrol, fresh paper and the cooling liquid in batteries. I can eat all of it. The class celebrates navratri next friday. They said id you go to shivaji park you see half of India. They speak in Marathi. I am translating all that I understood. At Shivaji Park, there is Durga Puja like West bengal, there is Ramayan play going on with the bhajan and dohai. The male characters play Sita, Kaikeyi, Kaushalya and Mandodari. Then the gymkhana has garba so thats Gujarat for you. She wanted to know if students know what happens in Maharashtra. Two ladies stood up and shared. The girls got together sang songs in the evening drew an elephant and played games around it, danced and made prasad. The songs were all of how a child bride goes to her mom s house and all in laws try to get her bac...

Loss of words is not what happens to me generally. I am happy because I am happy. No causes and no reasons. Just me and it is all about me. Yoga class having a navratri function collection per person is twenty five rupees. After paying so much in school every now and then for this and that, this amount is a pleasant surprise. The teacher showed shirshasana. Too much! Life is easy and Life is so good.

Sometimes I want to write the blog to bash someone and sometimes to criticise people. I am generally not so thrilled when people dont respect you and your privacy. This is an encroachment of a different type. Cannot be qualified as harassment but is bothering nonetheless. I have my circle of friends of both sexes, married unmarried, divorced, married again or going to be married. One thing all of us have is respect for each other. There is no crossing boundaries, no innuendos sexual or otherwise. There is mutual love and respect. There is also respect for that person s husband/ wife/ family. No one passes comments which could be misconstrued. Each spouse is ok with all friendships because they are so above board. It does not mean we do not share our lives with each other or talk out our problems with each other. No one is artificial or pretending to be someone else at any point of time. I am grateful to all my friends and really thankful to all their families.In all this the sanctity o...

I have joined a yoga class. It is funny but all the things that i resisted earlier is what i love now. Two things made me do Yoga. One is a friend I truly admire, adore , idolise. She said she gave the churma ladduprasad from our Ganpati to her yoga teacher. She learns yoga! Wow , then I surely must join. Second is Madonna, she practises yoga and is fab at fifty. Actually the Holly wood actresses, models who practise yoga seem very inspiring to me. Toh aisa hai ki ,Yoga yahan se hai aur mujhe wahan hota hai uske kaaran yoga karna hai. Me and my craze for all things imported. This class is in a quiet hall which is just a hall with a compound. There is nothing else and the hall is used for yoga only. In Mumbai all things places are so multi purpose that I find this rather unique. There are a couple of huts inside the compound. Bambai hai toh encroachment toh hona hi hai.The ladies in the hut keep stitching godris out of old clothes and drying them on the wet ground. The men of that hou...

Being in Mumbai for Ganpati Visarjan is a completely wow experience. One must be here at this time of the year atleast once in your lifetime. The traffic is most well managed today better than when the President is visiting. All is happy colourful and Bappa is ready to take his voyage into the sea. devika was crying at Visarjan on watching immersions. I told her even Ganpati wants to go back to his parents Shiva Parvati after ten days of festivity so he leaves. She seemed pretty satisfied.Though the fear of loud drums, lots of people and crackers is there. Jaideep and me love it completely. Some societies give free water and biscuits to people who are going for immersion. The vada pav walas do max business. The politicians put up stages, hoardings and help desks everywhere. All big Murtis after Lal Baghcha Raja in Parel come to Shivaji Park for visarjan. Near my house is a small bridge/ flyover above the railway tracks. This bridge ends into a turnabout. The main road leads to the sea...