Lord Shiva and the small girl

There was a small village in Tamilnadu where a brahmin lived with his wife and daughter. The brahmin was the priest of the near by Shiva Temple. The small girl was thus brought up as god-fearing person who always liked to spend her time in the Shiva temple talking to shiva. She always believed that one day, Lord Shiva would come and marry her. Her parents let her be, believing she would come out of this once she grew up.

Everyday the brahmin used to carry pots of water to the temple to bathe the Shiva Lingam. He would then decorate it with sandalpaste. The girl would weave garlands of flowers and give it to her father, who would place it on the Shiva Lingam.

But unknown to the father, the girl had a habit. As she finished weaving the flower garland, she would wear it around her neck and look at herself into the mirror. If she liked the way she looked, only then she would hand the garland to her father to be placed on the Shiva Lingam. She told herself, “My Lord should get only the most beautiful garland. So, if it looks beautiful on me, it would look beautiful on Him”.

One day, as she is wearing the garland around herself and looking into the mirror, her fathers comes into the house. He sees the girl with the garland around her neck and is red with anger. He shouts at her and says, “Don’t you know we should offer to God only those things that we have not worn, eaten or touched? We should offer only pure things to Him. Since how many days were you doing this?. She honestly responds, “Every day, father”. The priest really loses his cool. He feels she has dirtied the temple. Mad with anger, he rushes towards his daughter. And she sees his anger and runs towards the temple crying for Lord Shiva to save her.

As her father comes closer to catch her, she runs into the sanctum sanctorum. He rushes and catches hold of her long plaited hair. At that very moment, the Shiva Lingam breaks into 2 and the girl gets pulled into the broken Lingam only with her plait left stuck to the Lingam. That is when the priest realizes what a great devotee his daughter was and that he never understood her greatness. He is left to cry for his loss – both for his daugther as well as missing to see her devotion.

Idea of God

Yesterday, I was reading an article published in Vijayakarnataka, where the author had shared his views on God. The author had commented, “I like a God who is almost human, very reachable and child-like”. He then proceeded to share a story (of Lord Shiva/Parvathy) that was close to his heart. As I read through this story, I remembered yet another story that had a similar streak in it. This story makes the God so human, so attainable and very much amidst us.

In a small village, there lived a widow with her only son. She used to do odd jobs and run the family. Since the child had expressed his desire to be educated, she gets him admitted to a school in a far off village. In order to reach the school, the child would have to cross a dense forest area. For the next few days, the mother diligently escorted her child to his school. But then realized that if this continued, she will not be able to earn their livelihood. Hence, she asked her son to travel to school by himself.

The first day the child travels alone, he is really scared. The forest is dark with not much sunlight streaming in. Occasional cries of animals disturbs the eerie silence often. It is not a comfortable feeling to the small child. However, he does go to school and back. He comes home and cries his heart out to his mother. He tells her how scared he was and if she could accompany him the next day. The mother is at cross-roads. She then prays to the Lord Krishna and tells her son, “Son, I had forgotten to tell you that you have a cousin. His name is Gopala. He stays close by the forest area. He has asked me to tell you that you could call out to him whenever you are passing through the forest area. He would come to your help/rescue”.

The simple minded child believes her. The next day, as he is passing through the forest, he cries out to his cousin, “Gopala anna (brother Gopala), Gopala anna, I am scared… Please come to my help”. And soon, he sees another small boy, as tall as himself, but bluish in color with a peacock feather stuck to his hair with a flute in his hands walking towards him. The bluish boy introduces himself as “Gopala anna” and reassures the boy that from that day onwards, he would also be with the boy to and fro his journey between school and home.

Days pass by and the child is very happy. He comes home and regales his mother with all that happened in the forest between him and his Gopala anna. The mother assumes that her child is imagining things, but listens to him. She is happy that he is happy and has overcome his fear.

One day, the school teacher decides to have a potluck lunch at school and asks all children to bring one or the other food item from school. He tells the little boy to get a pot full of curd.

The child comes home and tells his mother about the potluck and requests for a pot of curd. However, the poor mother has no money to buy even a bowl of curd. Again, she prays to God and tells the child, “Ask your Gopala Anna. He will help you”.

Next day, when the child meets Gopala Anna, he requests his help to buy a pot of curd. And truly, Gopala anna gives him a small pot full of curd and sees him off.  The child hands over the same pot to the teacher, who smirks at the size of the pot. It would be the smallest of all pots other kids would have brought.

Nevertheless, the potluck starts and all kids share the goodies. Its time to eat the curd. The teacher starts serving curd to all students and to his astonishment, the small pot is always full to the brim. It never receeds down. He requests other teachers to bring big earthern ware and vessels and fills them with curd. Despite which, the small pot still remains full.

He eyes the little boy with suspicion and asks him, ” Child, tell me where did you get this pot of curd from”. To this, the child honestly answers, “My Gopala anna gave this to me. He is the one who escorts me every day to and from home to school”. To this, the teacher asks to be taken to Gopala anna. The child agrees.

That evening, the teacher accompanies the boy through his journey home. As they start into the forest, the child starts crying out to his “Gopala anna”. But Gopala Anna does not turn up. The teacher asks the child to describe his anna. The child says, “he is bluish in color and always wears a peacock feather in his hair. He wears garland made of flowers and wears yellow silk dhoti. He plays the flute so well and all cows just love him”. Now the teacher is really suspicious and accuses the boy of lying.

When thus accused, the child starts crying and calls out loudly to his beloved Gopala anna. He pleads, “Dear Gopala anna, why are you not coming today? Would you like me to be called a liar? My teacher is here to meet you and yet you are not showing up. Why are you doing this to me?.

At that instance, there is a voice that speaks to them. It says, “Master ji, you are right in guessing that it is I, Lord Krishna, who was helping the child through the forest area every day. I am visible only to those, whose hearts are pure and who believe in my existence to the fullest, without an aorta of doubt. I helped him with the pot of curd too. He is my beloved devotee”.

Hearing this, the teacher is ecstatic. He hugs the little boy and tells him there is no greater devotee of the lord than himself.  He also escorts the child to his house and shares this incident with the mother. She is muted to hear this but her heart fills with pride. From that day onwards, the small pot of curd becomes their life source. By selling the curd in the market, the mother starts earning enough money for their livelihood, and she also starts helping other poor people of her village.

From that day onwards, the child never sees his Gopala anna. But for whatever reason, he has no fear crossing the forest area. He feels safe with the knowledge that his Gopala anna is watching over him.

Mahashivaratri

Unlike other stories of Lord Vishnu, Mahashivaratri has a very simple folklore behind it.

Once the pralaya was over and there was calm and peace reigning all across the universe. Shiva’s consort, parvati asked him which day does he like the most. In response to this question, Shiva is believed to have responded, “The 13th day of dark fortnight in the month of Phalguna is my most favorite day”. Parvathi shared this with her friends and thus word spread far and beyond.

On this day, devotees observe day/night fast and stay awake (jagarane). Devotees offer Bilva patre to Lord Shiva and temples hold Maha Mangalaarathi, Abhishek Prasadam distribution through the day and night.

Memories – Lost and Found

It was yet another summer vacation and all of us cousins had gathered together at Malleshwaram. At 4 p.m., my aunt sent Roo to fetch milk from the milk booth. (Do you remember the milk booth where you had to drop coins to collect milk?). All of us thought it was an honor to be given the task of getting milk from the booth – for the sheer pleasure of dropping the coins !!!

The rest of us were playing cards in the spare room – apna adda – on the first floor, very oblivious of happenings on the ground floor. We were just waiting for the “kaapi” call – where aunt would serve best home made filter coffee with tidbids like sev, churmuri etc. Trust me, aunt still makes the best coffee I have ever had!!!

So, Roo went with the money to get milk and did NOT return. I guess it was almost 6 p.m. by the time Aunt realized that Roo had not returned. That was enough for her to have a panic attack. She called all of us down.

Hearing the panic in her tone, was enough to bring us down without tantrums and questions. She sent us all in different directions to search for Roo. We split ourselves as 4-5 search parties. One went in the direction of 8th cross, one towards Malleshwaram Ground, one towards Guttahalli, etc.

And eventually, all of us returned with no clue about Roo. Aunt was so shocked, that she started crying. She was feeling guilty of sending Roo instead of her own daughter. She started crying and would not get out of the shock.

We called our uncle, who was at his stores (or Angadi), we called our parents, who rushed to Malleshwaram and most importantly, we called Roo’s parents. I guess, all elders were too shocked for words. And we too were really worried about Roo, who was perhaps in her 2nd or 3rd standard (can’t remember exactly!!) when this happened.

However as time flew by, Roo came home (Or did she reach uncle’s shop and was brought home by uncle, again, these details are too hazy to me). But importantly, she came back.

And we heard what had transpired first hand from her. Apparently, a man approached her near the milk booth and told her that her mother had ordered for a Gas (LPG) cylinder. He had the cylinder with him and wanted Roo to go with him to guard the same. Now, poor Roo had heard her mother talking about booking the cylinder. So, thought this was true and went with that man.

Now, this man took her all the way to the triangle park at Guttahalli, which again was very familiar to her because it was us cousins usual playground. She knew it like the back of her hand because my parents house is close by to the Triangle Park.

The man made her sit in the park saying he would bring the cylinder. Luckily for Roo, a lady came alnog and asked Roo what she was doing there, all alone. Roo shared with her what had transpired. Immediately that lady cautioned Roo that there were too many kidnappers around and Roo should run away. May be the man was not telling the truth Or that he may be after Roo’s gold earrings. If I recollect, he had asked Roo to take off her earrings and give it to him so he could keep them safely.

When Roo heard this, she got worried and I guess decided to just walk out. So, she started walking all the way to our uncle’s shop (luckily for her, all that area was very familiar – thanks to our regular walking jaunts to movie halls and our hotel for snacks, etc).

But when she reached Uncle’s shop, it was closed. And closed because uncle was summoned home to search for Roo. Nevertheless, the gutsy girl walked all the way to Malleshwaram to a glorious welcome from all of us. What a relief it was to see her back.

And very scary incident when I look back… From then on, none of us kids were sent to the booth to get milk. If only we could go, we had to be escorted by an elder.

But I guess this was a sensational incident that we talked for months and months – and shared with all our relatives in and outside Bangalore….

Memories – Movies

Our parents never brought us up in a secluded and safe kind of environment. They had left us to grow on the streets.

Even when I was studying in 1st standard and 2nd standard – All 8 of us would go to theater to watch movies. Predominantly in the malleshwaram area, which was very close by. Pestering Grandpa for money and going to movies was our favourite summer task. Whosever birthday it was at home – they had to give us money to watch a movie – whether the birthday was of one of us OR one of the elders.

The other unique way we had to collect money for movies – was to hold our own exhibitions at home. To look back, I think we had most innovative concepts – to keep us occupied for 2-3 days at a stretch and also to make money. We used to have exhibitions – where we used our Origamy skills to the fullest. We used to tear newspapers to make boats, chakras, airplanes – what not. We, then, used to invite our elders (forcibly and it was mandatory attendance nee extortion) to these exhibitions. They had to pay an entry fee (of Re.1 or Re 1.5) to enter the exhibition room. They had to mandatorily praise our “efforts”.

On Day-2 we would schedule few hours as theatre time. We used to gather all the elders of the family into the main hall and enact skits, jokes or few of us would sing songs and regale them with our own dramas. Again, elders had to pay to watch these “shows” antics, perhaps would be a better word!!!

I think we were really skilled and innovative – because elders definitely enjoyed the theatre time and a hearty laugh was a gauranteed take away!!!

Once we made enough money to fund for 8 tickets, we used to walk down all the way to Geetanjali or Sampige Theatres to watch kannada movies. Antha, Bhaktha Prahlada, list goes on.

One particular incident that stays in my memory is as follows:

One of our cousins, Sud, had come down from Mumbai. And since he was in Bangalore, we had pestered our elders for money to go to a movie. I guess it was some festival time. So, we went to Sampige theatre. Now, Sampige has 2 separate movie theaters within its compound. I don’t remember what movie was running in Sampige, but the adjoining smaller theatre was running “Africa dalli Sheela”. And it showed pictures of a girl amidst lot of animals with Jungle in the backdrop.

We were not sure which movie to watch – and for some reason, I was fascinated about the animals and jungle. I thought since I had brought so many kids to watch a movie, it was better to watch something with animals rather than something with romance and fights. So, I took the decision and declared to the rest of the lot, “I have decided, lets watch “Africa dalli Sheela” – I can close my eyes and see the look of “disbelief” that flashed on my sister and other cousins. But for whatever reason, none of them opposed me.

And we took 9 tickets (including Sud) and watched the movie. To my embarassment – though the movie had jungle and animals, it seldom was a kids movie And to watch a half-dressed sheela prancing around and dancing in a copy-cat movie of Jungle book (except that there was a big girl involved), I would have died 100 deaths before we came out of that theatre.

And not to mention all the “leg pulls” I was subjected to by my sister and cousins post the movie. I was ragged mercilessly

Needless to say, from that day, I let of my “decision making” skills