The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
Two women and a child , at Goa, in the monsoons – quite an unusual combination, right? That was me, my mom, and my son, making the most of our unexpected monsoon break to take some time off. It was the first time in Goa for my mom, the second for my son, and my third trip to the state…. Expectations were mixed, especially when we were greeted by heavy rains, which continued through our stay there. What did we expect? It was the monsoon after all!! As it turned out, the rains showed us a different side of Goa, which none of us had expected to find. Samhith with my mom on Varca Beach, Goa