Perpetually Perplexed

  I went in search of God. To a place called Gokarn where Lord Shiva is supposed to be present. Well what did I find? Traffic jam. As they say in kannada, ಪಾಪಿ ಸಮುದ್ರ ಹೊಕ್ಕರು, ಮೊಳ ಕಾಳುದ್ದ ನೀರೆ ( ಅಥವಾ ಪಾಪಿ ಸಮುದ್ರ ಹೊಕ್ಕರು ಟ್ರಾಫಿಕ್ ಜಾಮೆ )     It was a family tour, kind of. My son and his cousins wanted to go to beach. They convinced their grand dad and arranged the trip. We 3 sisters and our husbands went as baby sitters or rather teen watchers. But why Gokarna, you may  ask. Gokarna also has a beach. And on the way, we went to Dhareshwar beach as well.     Let us come back to Gokarna. I feel for a temple town, it has far too many vehicles. Or may be most of them are tourist vehicles as ours was. On a road, which can allow one car only, there was a line of around 15 cars. Every time, we wanted to go to our lodge from the priest's house (where we were supposed to stay but could not as all the rooms were full and where we had our meals) and back, it ...

A headlines - A dog howls everyday when there is mangalarathi going on outside the temple. The story. It was late in the evening. I wanted to purchase a packet of curds. Suddenly it started raining. I ran and ran with all my might to the temple. See! This is called dramatization. It was evening but did I say it was dark? Nor was it lonely. It was a busy street. And I did not run a kilometer. Temple was just across the street. Then why did I run ? It was raining, right. I did not want to get drenched completely. Why temple? Why not? Though I have not made up my mind whether to be an atheist or a budhdhist or a plain hindu, waiting for the rain to subside in a temple is better than waiting outside a grocery shop for the crab I am (Less people in the temple you seee. If you don't include the Gods!) I made one round of God (pradakshina) or rather gods. There are 3 of them. I did one big namaskara as . See Ramdev says it is a good exercise. Then I saw smal...

You might remember my opinion about this ceremony. Last week had to attend the marriage. Found plenty of humour there. There is a custom called antahpatala (hope I am right). The bride is brought (ideally carried ) by maternal uncle. Bride and the groom stand opposite to each other while the priest chants some shlokas. All the while there is a thin cloth (normally a panche) separating the two so that they can not see each other. Well it might have been meaningful fifty years ago where boy and the girl get married without seeing each other. Now a days, this custom does not bring many surprises. It is the same old face the bride(groom) has consented because (anyatha gatirnasthi - there is no other alternative). Well now imagine how you can add an element of surprise here. The priest removes the cloth and the bride shouts "GUMMA". Second possibility, when the separation is removed, groom sees not the girl but her great granny shouting "April fool!". Third one is so...

Now "Men are from mars and women are from venus" is a cliche used for all types of opinion difference between them. But my question is why do these people from different planets need to stay on earth? Together ? Could not they have stayed in their respective planets ? Imagine. The martians and venusians go to extent of staying together- in one house. And then they give it a name marriage. The pomp and the festivity of this occasion is unbelievable. And on top of that , they take ridiculous oaths like "till death does us aprt.." etc. Remind them these oaths an year later, they will gladly give death to each other to make them apart. Just like Buddha's disciple could not get a house without death to bring mustard seeds, you can not get a house without fight between martian and venusian. It goes on and on , non-stop , 24x7 in each and every house. While the little martians and venusians sit and watch and gradually learn. Learn how to fight th...

In the good old days, people used to call not so smart person as tube light. Our contribution to this nomenclature was, the dumber he gets, the longer is the tube. But now in my house, not the tube, but the switch itself is tube light. Put in another way, it is not flashing, igniting, burning fast. But ask my husband, he says I don’t know how to switch on the light. Well, I am 43 and not such a long tube and I might have switched on and off million times. But no, he is convinced that it is me who is having a problem not the switch. Well when you switch on a light, you expect it to glow or not glow. You don’t expect it be in a tri state. I go to kitchen for dumping a dish into sink, I switch on the light, dump the dish, wash my hands and come back. While coming back I religiously switch off the light . ( Otherwise "Is it Deepavali today, why all the lights are on?" Roars the husband). But all in vain!! Because that @#!!$ switch did not turn on at all. ...

"Ek machchar … "all we hindi film loving Indians remember this dialogue of yesteryears. May be for once a movie dialogue is truthful. These mosquitoes do really make us impotent. We live in an developing area. So there are many empty sites. And we believe that is the major reason for large number of mosquitoes. It is believed that they come inside the house just before it gets dark (like pre-teen kids). So I religiously close all the windows ( all 17 of them) at that time and then sit getting baked in the heat. Then around 8 pm when we feel we will scream because of heat, one of us will open sitting room window. Ha, they are all waiting. They dutifully enter the house and start attacking us. But I felt they have some consideration towards me. If I sit on sofa, watching some worthless soap, they bite and bite and make me getup." Do you want to become even heavier(if it is possible)" they ask. "Get up and go to the kitchen and cook something ...

I think I am in love. Don't start telling what else do you expect? watching the tv day in and out. That too what type of soaps!! Heroine who is married fifth time is longing for her third husband who is having an affair with first husband's sister who will run away with her cousin who.. The ridiculous stories they show! So obviously being a stay-at-home housewife (read rot- at-home), having no better work, I will ofcourse fall in love!! And then you will start guessing who the fortunate (fortunate, with my all grey hair and far sighted eyes !!) person is. Don't do that and break my poor husband's heart. In fact I think I am in love with my own husband. Ridiculous !! Preposterous!! Can anybody fall in love with one's own spouse, that too after one and a half decades (decayeds) of marriage? After three sixty five times fifteen bitter fights ? Impossible!! But it has happened. And you have to believe me. You see, my husband went on official tour six days,...