Kshema's 7 Quick Takes Friday (Volume 19)

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Last week I took a break from writing. At times I feel that life is becoming lifeless. My routine does not have scope to include anything else in between office-eat-sleep-office; so much so that on Sundays sometimes I am total loss of thoughts and ideas to pass my time constructively as I feel too tired to explore anything new.

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"Three things are certain: Death, taxes, and lost data. Guess which has occurred?"

-- Japanese Haiku

Data loss, certainly! My pen drive is a toast. I used to store huge amount of data in that. It has been reliable for past six years. A tiny power fluctuation that resulted in restarting my PC (to which it was connected) rendered it lifeless. I tried all fixes like attempting to format, both in Windows as well as on Linux; all possible data recovery tools on the net; sifting through a plethora of fora discussions. Alas! what is lost is lost forever now. I could recover some data partially from various other sources like my backup, emails etc. But my write-ups for my blog and others could not be recovered. I had prepared some notes and anecdotes from my personal life, which were stored in it. Nevertheless, as they are my own experiences, I can rewrite at my convenience. In our library profession we learn the concept of LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and third party archiving. But I am blaming myself for learning the concepts theoretically and not practicing frequently.

Lesson learned (but tend to forget or ignore due to laziness): Keep back ups often; clean pen drives periodically. Hope I will not forget again.

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Durgashtami

It is Dusshera time again. Today is Durgashtami. This festival is also called as Navratri (nine nights) and starts with Navratri sthapana, seven days prior to this day. Last three days i.e., ashtami which is also called as Durgashtami, the eighth day, navami or Maha Navami, the ninth day and dasami or the Vijaya Dashami mark the culmination of this nine-day festival. According to Hindu mythology Goddess Durga's nine incarnations are worshipped during this festival. As a demon slayer Durga has ended many a demons like Raktbeeja, Mahishasura, Madhu, Kaitabha etc. King Rama also slayed Ravana on Vijaya Dashami which marks his victory of good over evil. Durga Pooja in Bengal, Ram Leela in Uttar Pradesh and Navratras and Garba in Gujarat are the popular ways of celebrating this festival. Many of us know about these traditions, epics and mythological stories. At present what comes to my mind is the kind of paradox that is prevalent in our society today. Most of us worship Goddess Durga in some form the other. Not just worship but also believe that she protects us and also bestows us with prosperity. If our mythology and religion so strongly preaches women empowerment and reiterates her high position in our lives, why then are we failing to accord the same equation to our women folk in practicality? Be it the case of Damini, Shakti Mills case, IAS Officer Durga Shakti Nagpal or hundreds and lakhs of unnamed females ranging from infants to octogenarians or even more, they are all witnesses to, and victims of a variety of ill treatment in its unimaginable form to normal humans. A woman certainly has to face a lot of hardships in this male dominated world, at home, at work, everywhere in normal course. If she stands up for herself, then her hardships are multiplied several times. I guess, we should all stop, stand and think whether we are justifying the purpose of the rituals we are performing in the name of Goddess Durga? She has not appeared before anyone of us in return to our offerings to her, till now. But what if she really appears? What will she have to say to us looking at the kind of paradoxical duality we have created for ourselves?

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The little Durgas

Come Dusshera and my grannies (mother and aunt of my dad) would become very busy. In South India we have this tradition of "Bommala Koluvu", a display of dolls during festivals like Dasara, Deepavali or Sankranti. We also followed it and it was a big exercise during Dusshera in our house. My grannies were the in-charges of this festival in our family. This display is usually put up for four days, ending on either ashtami or navami, leaving dasami for family celebration. We had two trunks of dolls, all wrapped up in cloths and newspapers, neatly stocked up on the attic. Before the start of Dasara Navaratri, it was the duty of my youngest uncle to climb up the attic and carefully bring down the two trunks; then grannies would inspect the dolls and certify them for display. Some would either need a minor repair or would not be passed for display due to their wear and tear. New ones would replace them in due course of time, like the ones from my "three-rupee-erasers" collection. We would place trunks and boxes carefully as a step formation and cover them with silk saris. Then the dolls would all find their appropriate places on the steps. Each year we used to add a small project like a prototype of a village school, agriculture, panchayat, a zoo or a residential colony etc. For such projects we used to bring some mud and sand from outside, carefully place it on a plastic sheet for arrangement. Then we used to moisten it and sprinkle some fenugreek, coriander seeds, and rice for plants, which would resemble the greenery. I remember, once I made a prototype of Kailash mountains using kilos of salt. The display would then be beautified with paper lanterns, reapers, and lights.

A typical "bommala koluvu" example

Then we would go to my friends' houses to invite them for visiting our "koluvu". The invitation would be served by applying "kumkum" (vermillion) on the forehead of the girl and her mother or female folk in their house and inviting them to our house to see and enjoy the "koluvu" for next three or four evenings. Being festive season, we would also receive such invitations as other girls would also arrange such displays. In the evenings the girls would dress up in traditional silk "parikini" or "pavadai" and go to see the "koluvu" in groups. Its also a tradition to sing bhajans like Tyagaraja Kritis or some carnatic music at the place of visit. The reason being most girls usually learn to sing Carnatic music in South India. I used to sing in every home I visited for this purpose. It is entertaining to the guests and hosts and also a sort of encouragement to the girls learning to sing. Television was not very popular as a daily-watch activity then. People used to enjoy these simple pleasures rather. Well, then as a small present for visiting, the hosts would distribute the "prasadam", a handful of overnight-soaked-chickpeas, a plantain, a couple of betel leaves and nuts, a small packet of turmeric and vermillion. I love the aroma of scented incense and prasadam. This activity always remains fresh in my mind. I still remain bemused when I see the images of little girls dressed up for "koluvus"; they all look like little Durgas to me :)

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This week's recipe

Courtesy: www.sharmispassion.com

This Dasara (Dusshera) is reminding me of my grandmother. She used to make a variety of sweets and savouries for the festivals, ranging from kajalu, kajjikayaku, maida biscuits both sweet and salted, murukulu, savoury mixture, etc. She used to make them in large quantities and store them in big canisters so that we can enjoy them for a little longer period, post festival also. Sharmi has reminded me of those delicacies by posting sweet diamond cuts recipe on her blog. The recipe is fairly simple; kids and adults both will enjoy them alike. However, my granny used to fry them without mixing powdered sugar in the dough; after frying she used to dip them in one-thread sugar syrup. That way they would get coated with sugar syrup. Kids generally enjoy licking the dried sugar syrup coated upon the biscuits. I hope you'll enjoy them too! Missing my grandmother and her affection a lot.

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This week's book(s)

Absolutely no time for any book or even book review. I hope I can catch up with some reading in the near future.

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This week's media clip 

It has to be on Durga, no doubt! As a child when I was learning to sing Carnatic music, I used to like to recite "Mahishasura Mardini" strotram very much. I did not know its meaning and importance then. But the rhythm and beats would attract me. Learnt that it was written by Adi Guru Shankaracharya; found this clip on youtube; very nicely depicted. I am sure you will enjoy this video and audio very much.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous Dasara, Dusshera, Durga Pooja, Navaratras & Vijaya Dashami!!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!