Partly Yours, Partly Lost

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Some places stay with you long after life has moved elsewhere. There is something strange about destiny. You just cannot overcome it, but at the same time, you cannot simply do nothing because something is destined to happen. In India, it is not uncommon to have your horoscope charted about a year after birth. Grandparents wait with bated breath to hear how well the stars were aligned, and what remedies might be needed to appease the Gods. So when I was a year old, my grandmother took my birth date and time to Dharmaraja Ghanapadigal, one of the most revered astrologers in Pudukkottai. He apparently told her that I would do reasonably well in studies, travel to multiple countries, and eventually live abroad. Here was an old lady asking about her grandson from a small town. My parents were then living in Gobichettipalayam. This was the eighties, long before economic reforms had changed the country. My grandmother thanked him politely, but quietly wondere...
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Avani Avattam

Hey! Wondering what this mysterious word is? It is nothing but one of the most sacred and religious ceremony of the Brahmins. It is the Upakarma. Belonging to the Yajur veda, the thread changing ceremony ( to be simple) fell today and the three of us in our room were ready with our waishtee ( dhoti ), vivudhi ( sacred ash) on our forehead, dharbe, new poonal ( thread ), pancha pathra ugruni, arisi ( rice) or to be appropriate akshadhai and of course water.

A scanned copy of the Kanchi madam upakarma copy was there on my lap and with great vigor and challenge, I was reciting the Sanskrit words written in Tamil. Never easy to get a good foothold in the subject if you've never read it before. All the time we are involved in science and technology that you realise what you've been missing in the long run. Vedic knowledge has always been a boon not for a particular community but for the whole wordly sphere. It encompasses all that we can think of and a lot more.

Life gets too intricate and complicated if we don't understand the real meaning of our deeds. I think with the advancement of science and technology, the values, morals and ethics are taking a backseat. The competitive edge is so razor sharp that fellow feelings are not anymore being administered in the right sense. Its always a trade off! Do you want to spend more time thinking about your progress or do you want to spend time for the society? Its a tough call considering the kind of circumstances that one has to go through to earn his bread.

Vedas, Upanishads and other religious manuscripts have mesmerised me as well as baffled me. It has so much of content that we pretend not to have time so as not to read them. The content is obviously over the head but the process is worth it. I would consider it a Once in a lifetime experience to come close to reciting the vedas let alone mastering them. I have always had this fancy of learning the miniscule of atleast one of the vedas - Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana veda but then I don't have time!!

It is never easy to change but a change for the better is really worth it whatever maybe the ordeal that one has to undergo for it.

A little too philosophical but I just hope that it does sound a lot pragmatic!!

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