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...
This year, everything seemed to conspire to keep us at home in the sweltering heat of May. Shankar hates to travel in the peak of vacation time, and says it is better to make the most of home then, and refused to step out even for a short trip. I therefore made some grand plans to take Samhith to places in Bombay, but then the heat dissuaded us from travelling and we ended up at home, Samhith mostly in front of the TV, and me in front of the computer! Towards the end of the vacations, I was frustrated enough to take Samhith out by myself, and we opted for a visit to the Nehru Science Centre and the Planetarium. These are two places I haven’t visited for ages, but have been meaning to take Samhith for some time. My memories of both places were flaky, but I thought Samhith would find it interesting, especially since he keeps asking so many questions…. The Nehru Centre We started our day out with the planetarium first , since we had to book tickets for the show, and I wanted the ...