I am a devotee of Sabarimala Ayyappan and if someone asks what are the parameters of a devotee, then here is what I can confidently say. I believe that a trip to Sabarimala isn’t a holiday trip or a journey to prove a point. But it is an inward journey into yourselves, when you test your tenacity, your tolerance, your self-will while renouncing worldly comforts and abstaining from indulging in negative thoughts and actions. It is a huge commitment and cannot be taken up by a full time mother, wife and daughter like me. I would rather wait for that age when I have a stronger mental disposition ,when I can hold my head over all the responsibilities binding me down and with a calm and focused mind spend 41 days extolling the name of the lord and live in penance .Only then I am fully an Ayyappa Bhaktha .I see no inequality here, as even now I possess the right to have a darshan of Lord Ayyappa in the numerous other temples across the world.I see no need to panic or wound religious se...
Back in the 90s, while in college, "a family that ate together... ", was the norm. Privacy was not a word often uttered, let alone having any importance in simple middle class households. A room to yourselves, even if you lived in a fairly large three bedroom house, was not very common. Closing the door to the room and staying most of your waking hours in your own utopia was a big taboo. So, I studied in a bedroom which had a study table and which ensured that I was in tune with the day-to-day household happenings. My concentration power depended on my interest in studies. Everything happened in tandem with the inner and outer microcosm. And in the ladies hostel where I was put up, space was at a premium. Three narrow beds occupied the whole of the room and the rest held our bags and other paraphernalia, a small curtain with just enough space behind, to extend folded hands was all the privacy we could have. But, that closed space ensured a little world in...
Uprooted plants, portulacas dismembered , torn leaves- off late my garden witnessed mysterious attacks which had me baffled . No amount of arranging and rearranging or repotting, had an impact. The Sherlock Holmes in me , looked for clues and could find none. I decided to keep a vigil during the day and positioned myself on the sofa to get a full view of my balcony . Before long, a handsome hunk, adorned in astonishing multicolours, appeared . After an end to end inspection of my plants, with a look that said, "uff, cant she have some exotic ones instead of the obvious Portulacas or Vincas,," he started plucking them. No, 'plucking them' would be an understatement, he was pulling it the same way I shred the coconut with my hands, with all my might.. My heart froze in icy horror for a second. My babies, my precious , much looked after plants were suffering. Then regaining my wits, I jumped up from my cozy sofa and with a war cry , ran out in to the swelterin...
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