Pitru Paksha

September 15, 2019

Baba ji's (Grandfather) Shraddha

Have you watched the movie 'Coco'? It was a beautiful movie. You probably know the Dia De Los Muertos or the 'Day of the Dead' from that. But do you know what 'Pitru-Paksha' is? 

In Sanskrit, Pitru (पितृ) means ‘father’ and Paksh (पक्ष) means ‘fortnight’ or a period of roughly 2 weeks of the lunar calendar. In Hinduism, during Pitru-Paksha gratitude is expressed towards one's ancestors in the form of prayers and food offerings. The ritual is called पितृ श्राद्ध - that which is done with श्रद्धा (faith). I know less about the pauranik katha and the rituals but the contributions of those ancestors to our moral, intellectual and spiritual life are worth remembering. It is the time devoted to remembering those and their gifts to us. Many are on my mind right now. Among those my grandparents have been the eldest, I have been with 3 of them and only seen the picture of the other. 

Sometimes I notice many similarities in my habits and that of my grandparents’. It could be genetic or likely childhood influence. I particularly saw my paternal grandmother (‘amma’) as a very self-reliant person who won’t take help from anyone unless needed. I saw her taking care of all her things (including washing all clothes etc.) herself even at that age regardless of how much we tried to convince her not to. I saw her as a woman who had lived in a conservative society yet became open-minded when needed and would silently appreciate everyone around her. I see the same person in me now and then. 

Memories with my paternal grandfather are a bit weak (I was 8yr old when he left) but the habits have come down. I saw a few of his diaries of daily expense log records. I found myself doing the same many times just because it helped me resolve my internal world. At that time I didn’t think about him but I think it was coming from there. He was the one who somehow transferred the skills of sewing in our family that I felt it's customary to have a sewing machine at home. His bravery was such that when a snake bit him, he didn’t bother to disturb others and did the first aid himself in the darkness of the night. 

My maternal grandmother was a pillar of strength. I wrote this small poem as a tribute to her when she left 3 years ago.

वर्ष २०१६ मौनी अमावस्या को

ले लिया तुमने मौन अनंत 

आज तुम्हारे जाने पर 

ये मन है थोड़ा खिन्न 

शब्दों में ही लिखकर 

अब करे याद ये तुमको। 

थी गहन आवाज़ तुम्हारी कितनी 

सबको करती अनुशासित

सब सोचे था वो कड़कपन 

पर हमने देखा चिंता और प्यार। 

केश तुम्हारे थे काले कितने 

वृद्धावस्था ने भी घुटने टेके थे 

सारे नाती पोते भी करते थे 

मन ही मन में गर्व उन पर। 

पूजा पाठ में ध्यान था कितना 

करतीं सबके सुख की कामना 

कितनी भी कठिनाई आयीं 

पर हार कभी ना तुमने मानी।

इस जीवन में तुम अपने 

काम अनेक कर गयीं 

मुझको तो बड़े उपहार में 

माँ तुम मेरी दे गयीं।

पर अपने ही हंसालय से

तुम आज विदा क्यों ले गयीं?

Such is the legacy of these ancestors that I am not sure if we can ever compare to them. The little glimpse of them that I see in myself will forever be treasured!

Teachers Day

September 5, 2019

Inspiration for this post is a school friend who pinged me this morning and told that she was waiting to see an article on Teachers’ day :)

What makes one guru? 

गुकारस्त्वन्धकारस्तु रुकार स्तेज उच्यते |

अन्धकार निरोधत्वात् गुरुरित्यभिधीयते ||

(‘Gu’ means darkness or ignorance, ‘Ru’ means light or the essence. Guru is the one who removes the darkness of ignorance with the light of knowledge)

I have been fortunate (like most of us) to have found wonderful gurus in my school teachers all my life, even while studying in a government college where you really don’t pay to get an education. I was remembering all those dedicated teachers who gave me that much attention and brought out the good in me. Each one of them was an epitome of knowledge. May be they were the reason that becoming a teacher has always been a hidden dream somewhere. 

My teacher in 1st grade was the one who asked my parents to get my eyesight tested. I must say she really took me from darkness to light. I won’t have been able to grasp the fundamentals of mathematics without the middle school teacher who made them so easy to understand. They still make every single day bright with their good morning wishes. That foundation likely prepared me to support our intermediate maths teacher by being her writing hands when she could not see. Should I really say she could not see? don’t think so, given that her mind was so sharp to see everything. All I had to do was quote the problem and she would start telling me what and how to do. I couldn’t have understood what force means without the गुरुत्व of the physics गुरु who taught बल and गुरुत्वाकर्षन. I couldn’t have learnt to avoid the common english grammar mistakes without our wonderful english teacher. There were teachers who called us to their homes when the school was shut down due to protests. The teacher who encouraged me to try to maintain the good handwriting that even today when I write in cursive, it reminds me of her every single time. 

The expenditure on my education may have been लघु but what I got from all these teachers is really गुरु. On this teachers’ day, quoting the first verse of the guru paduka stotram by Adi Shankaracharya: 

अनंत संसार समुद्र तार नौकायिताभ्यां गुरुभक्तिदाभ्यां |

वैराग्य साम्राज्यद पूजनाभ्यां नमो नमः श्री गुरु पादुकाभ्यां ||

(I prostrate to those padukas of my guru, which are a boat helping cross the ocean of samsara, providing with the sense of devotion towards the guru and by worship of which I gain the empire of vairagya)

Nandi - Clay work

September 1, 2019

Art has fascinated me from childhood. As a kid I would draw and make simple greeting cards. When we use to go to my grandmother's place, I would take out all the wedding invitation cards and save those beautiful Ganeshas on them to draw. None of those folks would know that I cut the Ganeshas out of their wedding invitations before the cards go into trash. I must say some of them really spent a lot of money on those invitation cards. Then there was stencil and spray work, the wall hangings we made by bending the glass bangles, the modern Aipan where we would spend hours sitting at the Dehali (the door threshold). This blog has the most recent sewing crafts that I also learnt as a kid watching my grandfather, aunts and mother do. All my life I wore clothes mostly sewn by my mom or aunts. I bet they could open an etsy like store if they accepted their talents.

I joined a clay sculpting class recently where we make Indian clay art - specifically Hindu god sculptures. I had been thinking of taking this class since last 2 years but the time commitment didn't just fit in earlier.

As part of this 3 months class we meet weekly for 2 hours (so far every time the 2 hours got stretched to 5 hours) and then do our work at home. We are making 2 sculptures. This is the first one we made - Shiva's Nandi. Preview of the second one in the end. This class isn't about just doing some clay sculpting, you learn the basics and the science of how these temple sculptures are made. The different standards that are there and how the rocks (if they are sculpted on rock) are picked for each idol etc. The class is a mix of elderly and young folks including a good gender balance. The version below isn't the final product as we would be making the Nandi sit down. The ornaments on the feet are also missing right now if you noticed.

Here is how it looks so far. Completely immersed into the second sculpture so will get back to it in between that. It was interesting to see how much focus one needs to do anything in this work. One of the days I tried to multi task - listening to something while doing this work and it turned out to be a complete disaster. From then on I put my phone away and just focus on it. Will be updating this once the sculpture is finished.

This picture below is how we receive feedback. Notice that a lot of details including the Nandi head is missing in this. Yes, had to remove that blue line of bells after spending a good amount of time making them and putting it on the Nandi.

Adding a few more pictures of the Nandis carved on rock. I don't think I could get it any close to these but I am content with my Nandi.

[Update: Jan 1, 2020]

Here is how the completed Nandi looks. It has found a nice spot on my book shelf alongside the Shiva.

We are sculpting a Hindu God as part of the second sculpture. Below are the hands I made for the chaturbhuj bhagwan. Note how I have not made any mudras yet, bending those fingers is tough without breaking them.