The city of Kashi is filled with temples, big and small, old and new. There are temples at every corner, and you never know where you will stumble upon a small shrine. There are idols beneath what remains of trees (there are hardly any trees any more within the core area of the city), there are saffron covered forms resembling deities which seem attached to walls, an especially incongruous sight when the idol itself appears to be old, while the wall is evidently new…. And there are surprisingly large temples rising from what appear to be a bunch of houses. The city is sometimes colloquially said to be as old as time, and some of the shrines and temples are said to date back to times unknown, at least the deity itself, if not the structure. Not much remains of the ancient structures anyway. The city has seen more than its fair share of good and bad times. It has seen the heights of grandeur, and the lows brought about by destruction. The city that exists today has grown so haphaza...
Maa-vilakku – literally, lamp made from flour, is an offering to the family deity. In our family, it is customary to make this offering on a Friday in the month of Thai (the month from 15 th Jan to 15 th Feb). Fridays in this month are considered auspicious, and even more so for us, due to this celebration. We put the M aa-vilakku yesterday, and it was even more special, since it was my birthday! The Maa-vilakku is made from rice flour and jaggery. While in some houses, the two are mixed to form a dough and then shaped into a lamp, at our house, we simply spread the rice flour on a plate and then make the lamp with the jaggery and insert a wick in it. We then pour the ghee around the wick and then light it. When the wick is almost burnt out, but not completely, of course, we take the wick out with a spoon and keep it aside and offer the mixture of flour, jaggery and ghee to the deity. These are then mixed with grated coconut and are distributed to married women along with...