Skip to main content

Featured Post

2023 - The Year That Was

Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with

Colours of the Festive Season



The month of July brings along more than just the rain – it marks the beginning of the most auspicious period of the year, a period dotted with festivals. The first of these is the Varalakshmi Puja, the south Indian equivalent of the Lakshmi Puja during Diwali. This is strictly a family festival, the right for performing the puja being handed over from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law. I would love to give you a glimpse into the grand way we perform the puja at home, but unfortunately, we are in a period of mourning, and haven’t performed the puja for the last two years. Hopefully, the period will end this year, and we can get along with our festivals… Meanwhile, I accompanied my sister to buy the flowers required for the puja. Join us in our trip…..


The flower market at Dadar is certainly the most popular, the most crowded, and the place to be if you want fresh and wonderful flowers, at the best rates, of course…… Here is a photoblog of our journey…


Our very first halt - all sorts of  flowers.....
              

These are special.... we call them 'Manglore Malli' - literally, the jasmine from Mangalore..


... and I have no idea of the name of this one... my mom says they never wither......


The goddess is believed to like these pink flowers -  called 'Arali' in tamil..



Lotuses galore... pink and white....





Masses of roses..... of every hue...






A dash of pink.... against the green....



Now white and orange... my favourite flowers - Mogra and Aboli...those are the marathi names - the tamil ones are Malli and Kanakambaram....


Flowers of every colour.....













Neatly stacked in piles....


These are the flowers already tied up.....ready to be worn....... a temptation, no doubt, but too expensive today!!!!


A sample of what the market has to offer....


Here are the flowers tied up again, but now the marathi way.... Gajras....


Mounds and mounds of flowers of every colour....







The credit for the next photo goes to my sis.... she had a vantage point of course, thanks to her height....





And here is my sis herself...... haggling with the shopkeeper............


....choosing none but the best.......

Happy now, Kanthi????? Hope you like the pics......




And finally, garlands for the goddess..........

If you liked this post, the person you must thank is my sister, Kanthi... For once, she was the one bargaining and selecting the stuff while I went click-happy.... 



Comments

  1. Nice photographs Anu, it seems that your sister did had a hard time bargaining. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh what a fest of colors! Beautiful. I just love flowers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. lovely snaps anu....

    hmhm--

    I love flowers... :)

    such colors and such life... :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. So many flowers,
    Fantastic pictures ^__^
    So colorful post :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey akka,
    Thanks a lot. The pics are really nice n ya i loved them. I am very happy!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow great colorful flowers.
    Anu madam have u travelled chennai coimbatore

    ReplyDelete
  7. WoW...some very beautifully captured shots!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment for me so that I will know you have been here....

Popular posts from this blog

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw

Rama Temple, Gokarna

To my right , the waves rush to the shore, eager to merge with the sand. To my left, the same waves crash against the rocks, their spray diverting my reverie as I ponder over the beauty of nature, and wonder what first brought people here. Was it this beauty that encouraged them to build a temple here, or was it the fresh, sweet spring water flowing from the hill here that made this place special? No matter what the reason, I am glad my auto driver brought me here. We are at the Rama temple in Gokarna, just a few minutes away from the Mahabaleshwara Temple, yet offering so different a perspective.

Pandharpur Yatra 2023

The first time I visited Pandharpur was back in 2007 . The names Vitthal and Pandharpur, were just names to me. I had heard of them, but that was about it. Seeing the lord standing on the brick, hands on his hips, was memorable, but more memorable was the sight that greeted us as we walked out of the main sanctum of the temple. In the mandap just outside were a group of devotees singing abhangs , and dancing. This was the first time I had heard abhangs , and even almost 15 years later, I can remember the welling of feeling within me, listening to the songs, and how fascinated I was by the sight of the devotees dancing, lost in their love of the Lord. Over the years, as I have read more about Vitthal, and participated in Ashadi Ekadashi programmes at Puttaparthi, that first experience has stayed clear in my mind and heart. Every time I tell my Balvikas students of the saints who sang of Vitthala, it is that experience that I re-live. I visited Pandharpur again, in 2010, but that experie