Navarathri reminiscences

Dear Varloo
Your coming to my thread is indeed a big bonus! I thought your visits were reserved only for the VVIPs! A big thank you!

I can relate to whatever you have written about Navarathri at Trivandrum having spent a little over a year there in the late sixties in SBI. But my love for Trivandrum has remained intact to this day. I go there at least once in three months. My next visit is actually due next month for a wedding at Sreemoolam Club!

Padmanabhaswamy Temple is one of my favourite temples of the country and I gaze with awe at the bats as huge as cats hanging from the trees in front of the Temple. Once we are inside the sanctum sanctorum, we can feel the powerful vibrations. For intense, 'Saannidhyam' we cannot beat Kerala temples.

In my days, there used to be regular carnatic concerts during all the nine days of Navarathri or should I say nine nights of Navarathri.
Trivandrum is really God's own country!
Sri

Originally Posted by eshammu

hi mam
pls help me mam
now u r online
is keeping kolu only for last 3 days of navaratri is correct
and while keeping kalasam(purnakumbam) should ther be any contact between water and coconut?
pls reply mam

Dear Shammu
I only said my mum used to dress me up like a girl when I was a child and you still call me a mam! Further, this is a question that should be addressed to 'Ask Chitvish' Forum and that grand old lady of IL will have the answers for all your questions!
Sri

Dear Appa,

Two things to prove you wrong for the first time

1. You are always in our thoghts and not only during festival times
2. How could you imagine your daughter to be a la SPB...a very bad guess appa. Defintely I was not anywhere near SPB...till my daughters were born I was quite thin...Neengalum ippadi ellam ninaikkallama...idhu nyama, idhu adukkuma, idhu muraiya....

Originally Posted by Cheeniya

Dear Lalli
You think of Appa at least at every festival! I am indeed lucky there! Wish you happy Navarathri! I was trying to imagine how would you look like when dressed as a boy. You would probably look a close second to S.P. Balasubramanyam!

Chithra Mami calling me incorrigible is like the kettle calling the boiler black!
Sri

Dear cheeniya sir,
"A wonderful FB from you Padma! Thanks a lot for coming in!
Sri!" Sorry to disturb you sir, but this sentence from you made me to wonder weather you are addressing me or Padma Srinivas? Mistaken identity?But you have addressed as " Pad" so I am in little bit confusion. Sorry!
with love
pad

Dear Sri,

You dressed as a girl for 7 years ? HAHAHAHAHAHA.I cant stop, dear friend, imagining u as a girl, and drinking a peg of u know what .HAHA


I must say, yr mother is very sensible that she is ready to go, and her views on the other world.Yes how true, if that place was so bad, why would everyone want to got there and not want to come back eh ! so it must be a good world for sure.

And for me, this world is the best, where i have lovely friends like u.Who knows what typles i may meet there.A Sri in hand is better than others in the Bush !

I dontknow much about Navratris, when they start or end.My family never followed it, nor do i.We never kept the long hair, and vegetarianism, we eat all thryu the year, and drink as well, shave.

I guess Navratri is to stop hardcore drunks and louts to give up the habit for the 9 days, and see the change in themselves, andmaybe a few in a hundred, leave it totally, and turn into better human beings.

For me, i turn a better human being after i drink, where i forget the anger, and the disappointments, think welll of everyone, and am at peace with myself, so Navratri does not suit me at all

Soory to those friends , i dont mean to offend anyone, these are my personal views.For me all the days of the year are the same, i celebrate veryday of the year, people buy gold on Dhan Teras, i buy whenever i have the mone in the pocket, same with clothes, so i dont get bogged down by rituals and festivals.So what is there for me to look forward to.

Yes, if it was , that i would speak to Cheeniya only on Diwali and express my friendship, then yes certainly i would look for ward to it, but when i speak to him a few times a month, then for me it is diwali when i speak ot my dear friend Sri.

Sorry for being carried away Sri, here's a toast to u, and to all i lites.

Regards

kamal

Lalli
It is not just enough if I am in your thoughts always. It must be shown now and then! I did not compare you to the modern SPB. I compared you to the youthful SPB when hopefully he was less fat! But you do have as chubby a face as he has! Hence the comparison.
Sri

Dear Padmini
Of course it was addressed to you and meant for you! So there is no need for any confusion. Padma Srinivas incidentally has not given any FB for this thread. So rest assured, it was for you!
Sri

Dear Cheeniya,

Your navrathri reminiscences has made me sit here and dream of the the good old sixties when i was being dressed up for the ocassiona nd later in the nineties when i tried that trick with my daughter., But sigh! , no Nothing here , except for the reminiscences!
My daughter is back with with me this year after completing her studies, so i told my hubby that i am keping Golu and inviting etc, ...he gave me such a glare and said he will pack us off to India! I happily took him up on the offer, and thats when he realised that i was pulling his leg abt the Golu and everything which goes with it and he escaped !
Of course; i did not give up, .... i kept all my liitle idols in a varisai and made my own sundals and listening to the sahasarnamams, dressing up in our best sarees and What do we Do....SIT IN FRONT OF TV! ( watching Abi and Adi in their never ending squabbles!)

But i hope to visit the temple at least once to get the feel of navrathri.....and see some of our own Manusha, kith and kin from our land to satisfy my soul!

Glad i got to read this writeup , i can sit and Reminiscence more on this topic.....and really
Pranams to your mom.....what a philosophical bent of mind she has and what Attitude at her age, like you have said.....i wish we have more such people around us.....thats what we dont realise we are missing by not having the elderly parents with us! How much of their experiences and attitudes we can imbibe from and not only us, but the next generation is also missing that! And unfortunately all that our age group thinks of is that Parents are A BURDEN! Its lovely that you have your MOM with you and you are passing all those lovely thoughts she shares with you to us too!
As usual enjoyed your pranks as Krishna and also the tidbits Chithra added to them....and
HAPPY NAVRATHRI to you and family....remember us when you hog on the Sundal!

Cheeniya Sir,
Luckily Navarathri is celebrated for 9 days...eventhough I read this article of yours on your 1st day of posting..I made it a point to give a fb before Saraswathi Poojai..

to your mom on her thoughts of the other world...I am sure to remember it, from this day onwards and be brave to face it, when the time arrives.

As you had mentioned...having the qualities of both the genders would definitely create an understanding for a better life..on this earth.
sriniketan

Dear Cheeniya sir,

Namaskarams to your mom on her positive thoughts.

It is a scientific fact that men have the chromosome pairing of xy and women have the pairing xx. But men like Hitler seem to have a lot of y (why) in them.

I have a few recollections of Navrathri. My mother used to keep a large collection of golu, while my brother assisted her with the extra decorations such as park, cricket stadium etc. Every year the two of them would create a new theme, which would be kept secretive from the curious neighbors until the day of navrathri .

My role in this was to go door to door like a traveling salesman and invite neighbors all through the season. As I am the youngest and only daughter for my mom after four sons, I was in great demand for this job. We lived in a cosmopolitan colony and during my teenage years (wearing pattu pavada and all), I was not comfortable with this assignment at all. I wished mom and dad would dress one of my brothers and send them for inviting.

After I bring all the sundal and sweets home, my brothers would screen them and keep only the tasty ones and discard the others.

I enjoyed your pranks as Krishna and the tidbit added by Chith!