Quo Vadis?

Conversation 1 “So why do you go on this pilgrimage?” “It’s because my favourite God is there!” “Really, then what about the places of worship nearby?” “They are there but my favourite God is there and since childhood I like going there” Conversation 2 “So why are you going on this pilgrimage?” “I am going to see God there” “What do you mean you are going to see God there? Is not God everywhere?” “Yes but this is special” “So where do you see God?” “Inside the sanctum” “But that is an artist’s personal idea of God and how can that be God” “That is God!” Conversation 3 “It is the time to wake up God” “Are you serious? You are going to see a ceremony to wake up God?” “Yes, it is very special, they have songs and chants for this, it is a great experience” “I would be very worried if God were to sleep, what will happen to the world at that time?” “God is in control always” “So why would God sleep?” How little we know about God, how often w...

There was some noise on my TL yesterday about an Italian Odissi dancer getting beaten by two servitors in Puri for getting on the chariot. I learnt a few things from the article and I thought that I will share with you: Indian culture is appreciated more elsewhere than here, the TL that went orgasmic over Exotic (not seen that yet) never seemed to react to this There exists a word called servitors which the dictionary tells me is an old word for servant, the article failed to mention servant of whom   You can pay your way up even the juggernaut. The temple car procession has provided a word to the English language juggernaut, phonetically it comes from the name of the presiding deity but goes to mean “something very powerful, usually with a bad effect”. If you have been to Puri, you will be amazed that the town or at least a great part of the town is controlled by the priestly clan who monitor your movements’ right from the train and they are deeply suspicious of ...

Driving home from yet another official road trip this time from Chittoor, I came across a traffic holdup and it appeared to be one of those funeral processions with loud music and noise. I was frankly shocked when I saw that it was not a funeral but a religious procession organized by a religious party. What was shocking was that several young men had put hooks on their bodies and were pulling cars and lorries on the road and worse there was a merry go round mounted on a truck and hanging from the wheel were four men suspended by hooks into their bodies. The sight was revulsive to behold and I just moved away.  The people on the road were watching the procession with mixed emotions while kids and grown men danced along to some awful songs. I understand that penance for some involves mutilation and many other similar actions, but I cannot understand why this song was used for a religious procession. The fact that a religious party organizes this and that penan...

I love road trips for family outings especially for short out of town breaks. I did one trip to Coorg last year and last month I did one to Munnar. As usual I got the car serviced, asked for the brakes to be checked, tyre topped up with N2 and we left. As we worled this trip around a a wedding in Palakkad we took a circuitous route which was nevertheless very adventurous as we drove through a sanctuary for a major part of the journey from Palakkad. As we were ascending for most of the journey we encountered speeding vehicles on the other side, sometimes forcing me off the road and considering that there were no boundary walls and usually a deep drop off the other side made it slightly uncomfortable. Around 20 odd kilometres before Munnar I was forced off the road yet again and this time I had a flat from a sharp stone. It is for such instances I have become a convert to N2, the tyre did not deflate instantly as the gas is inert but we needed to change the spare. Fortuna...

                                                                                   (image courtesy Google Images ) On Ash Wednesday evening the morning sermon remains with me as I begin this post, actually one line of the sermon struck me hard and kept me thinking. The highlight of the sermon was “slow down; in life we go so fast that we miss the most important things”. I wonder when I have last paused to admire or appreciate all the graces that I have been blessed with. Every day is a miracle and waking up from sleep is probably the biggest of them all is it not? We go to sleep with the belief that we will wake up to a new day and once we sleep we completely cede control, few people never wake up. But since we wake up every day we take it for granted. We rush e...

On the last day of the Christmas season the Epiphany, thought I will share with you a song that I made with my friends in 2011. This is an original composition by Mr. Samuel Abeysekara, organist for over half a century of the Wesley Church, St. Thomas Mount. He had graciously permitted me to use it as a part of my album. The singers are my friends under the banner CREW 150: 6, words & music by Samuel Abeysekara. (P.S. The wife and I have sung also)

The sermon this Sunday was on the Lord’s Prayer and it gave a new definition to the term prayer, prayer is a relationship and that is captured in the first two words of the prayer. It is true the first two words offer universal son-ship and brotherhood, children of one God, makes us all brothers and sisters. On the note of fatherhood Trinity is now giving so many fulfilling moments that make life so wonderful. Her eyes that light up when I enter home, the pure joy when I lift her up, the impish smile when she has done something that she knows is not permitted at her 10 months, when she cuddles in my arms, the baby steps the list goes on. Trinity also has reopened my eyes to the small joys of life; every time I watch her amuse herself with just a piece of paper I wonder why I get bugged when I have nothing around me and retire to the idiot box. We have tried to amuse her with Fischer Price and Funskool but lose to a discarded sock, a piece of paper, a spoon. The entrepreneurship bug ha...

It seems to be the wedding season with people around me getting married and this brought about a new post. Weddings are made in heaven, but all the support roles are played here and unfortunately the support roles tend to take precedence on the big day. If you don’t believe me, accept the fact that weddings are fixed based on the availability of the wedding halls and this availability throws up the auspicious date issues. Wiktionary throws up the following for “auspicious” Adjective auspicious (comparative more auspicious, superlative most auspicious) Positive auspicious Comparative more auspicious Superlative most auspicious 1. Of good omen; indicating future success. 2. Conducive to success. This is an auspicious day. 3. Marked by success; prosperous. What it simply means is that a wedding on these days that have been decided by some one based on whatever divination techniques can bring success. Please note that the operative word is can as many weddings have been doomed even after...

IPL commentary is a sure fire cure for insomnia and the only saving grace is one gentleman who went in for hair transplant before Sehwag. If it were not for him you would simply drown into parrot talk that will kill you with its monotony or clichés. How many times can you stare at a blimp and be reminded of the contributions of the Pace Foundation to Indian cricket, maybe its time that some of the superstars get back to the Foundation to remind themselves of the basics. I fear that IPL 4 will have a sponsor for every delivery that will be bowled at the rate things are going and overkill can kill you painfully. And another word for omnipresent is Lalit Modi. Crime pays big time and in India it can be a great pension scheme, can’t remember the number of criminals who have swindled the public, shot to infamy and then with fickle public memories retire out of the lime light to enjoy their ill gotten wealth. Justice delayed is justice denied, one of the foundations of justice but the Indian...

Heard this anecdote during sermons twice over this extended weekend and thought I will share it with you at Father's day... There was an aeroplane that hit heavy turbulence during a flight and caused the oxygen masks to come out. As the turbulence increased the passengers grew disturbed and restless,but one little girl was deeply engrossed in a book and seemed oblivious to the goings on around her. Her neighbour asked her if she was not scared at the situation, the little girl replied that her father was the pilot of the plane and she knew that he will take her home safely... Every day we knowingly hand over our lives to so many unknown people in the auto, taxi, bus, plane, train etc and we do it without a second thought, yet when our life needs piloting we do not have enough faith on the expert and we try to drive ourselves.

The problem with weekends is that they invariably end. That may not be a bad thing but when it ends leaving you exhausted it can be very bad, so bad you wonder what the cure is for a weekend ending blues. It was a hectic weekend that involved some very heavy duty eating. One HUGE pot luck lunch, a wedding dinner, a non-veg meals at a Chettinad hotel and yet another wedding dinner can leave one tired. At least it left me tired as in between all this eating was a lot of traveling and some singing which resulted in me ending up in bed for most of yesterday. Staying on the topic of food, I am contemplating starting my own food blog, ever since I have become a kind of resource person to my friends and colleagues on the eat outs in Chennai; I guess it might actually work. The IPL airtime has been taken over by the T20 world cup and since the commentators are not hyping it like the IPL there is absolutely no hype on this world event. At the time of writing this the Aussies have got beaten by ...

I led the Stations of the Cross in church for the first time. I would like to share my thoughts with you... Many centuries ago one man carried a heavy piece of wood up a hill, what made the job even more difficult was that he was battered, bruised, dehydrated having been beaten up by the soldiers just a few hours earlier. If this were to happen today, it will be reported over and over again with graphic visuals in many of the news channels we would probably watch it repeatedly, debate a few times at the kind of atrocities and after some time just move on, just as we did when Orissa burned or when nuns were raped. Why? Simply because it did not happen to us, it happened to somebody else, what can we possibly do? After all we have jobs to do, food to cook, kids to be taken care of, it’s not our job. Today we live in an insular world, an indifferent world where if it does not affect me directly, it does not matter to me. As we reflect on the Stations of the Cross we will ponder over this ...

Hi, at the outset let me warn you that this is a controversial post. The objective is not to provoke anger or fury at any reader but it is just an attempt to think about the issue being posted. Recently I happened to hear two friends talking (no, I was not eaves dropping!) and the topic veered to the recent trip to Thirupathi that on of my friends had made. To those in the know, the seven hills of Thirupathi are sacred to Hindus and is one of the biggest pilgrimage sites in India. It is also the second richest religious institution (it is a massive institution) globally. I have been planning to visit this temple for awhile now but somehow it never worked out. I am a big fan of visiting the South Indian temples of architectural importance to revel in their sheer beauty and I take immense pride in my culture and my ancestry. I must add I have visited many temples and I delight in these visits. So coming back to the topic, I was not paying much attention to the discussion of my fri...