feels good when ppl do remember u on occations like these even though we feel tat we've wasted 21 yrs of our lives doin nothing...!!!!
after a few hours of sleep.....we left on our 3 hour drive to my dad's native place..... a small village in hassan dist....felt really bad looking at the condition of the road.....how can the authorities responsible do nothing abt such things???? considering half the members in the cabinet rite now are from these very own rural areas....
after the usual hi's and hellos, i dove into the temple wearing full traditional white panche and shalya. there before me...with his wife on his lap....sat our home deity...Sri LakshmiKantha Swami....looking as majestic as ever....fully decorated from top to bottom with fresh flowers ...my god!! an awesome sight to cherish...:)
my 2 uncles who were handling the pooje in the temple were relieved to see me there. they said they'd come bak in sometime and asked me and 1 more cousin of mine to handle it in there....
i straight away went to the task........reciting some slokas which i had learnt in school (even though i knew they were not relavent) and doin the aarthi to the Lord....made me proud....!!! proud to be an Iyengar....
well...."sometime" is very relative.....!!! it was arnd noon when i finally came out of the temple...the camphor smoke had made my eyes sore....i wasnt complaining though....:)
i....being considered a successor.....was made to climb to the top of the Ratha.... was expected to continue the pooje there.....to worship the utsava moorthi....little did i know tat there would be a thunder storm of bananas ...!!!!
those ppl there....the natives( i am using this term coz they were lookin at us as though we were aliens) there derived some strange kind of fun by hurling bananas at the diety..... but what a disaster....they were very very bad at aiming....!!! my uncle, out of the several 100s thrown at us, was lucky enuf to get away with some 3 bananas finding his face and couple more his head....
but i wasnt this lucky...:( when i came bak after the storm subsided....i looked like i had just finished some dredged task in stick goo (remember fear factor episodes???) ....only this time it was bananas.....ripe ones...:)
hmmmm.......the best part abt the village is the food.....!!! my dad...showing his rebellious nature ditched the food at home and we went to another place known for sankethi food...the sankethis are great cooks and even better.....awesomely generous servers....!!! what a tasty delight it was...!!! the 3 servings of kesri bath just slid down my throat so effortlessly....that too after a lot of other things.....wont get into the details though...:)
i guess dads aways find pleasure in scolding their sons....:) my grandpa went straight at it when my dad and me went bak home.....i just stood and saw the fun......:)
what would be the best thing to do after a tiring morning and an awesome meal....???? Sleep ....!!!!:) the cold cemented floor of the temple with just a jamkhana on it, was too inviting......
it was evening when ppl started waking up.....we all...(my relatives and uncles ,dad and me) decided to go to the river kaveri for an evening swim.....i'd say....the best decision of the day...
after almost a 1Km walk in the midst of the paddy fields.....i could see a familiar sight...inviting waters....!!!
the current started to quicken and the sun sarted to go down....it was time we left the place.....the elders said tat it was a dangerous place in the dark....the villagers still do bury the dead near the waters it seems.....well, none of us wanted to question further and we decided to go bak.
after whiling away some more time in the Anjaneya temple (also taken care by my grandpa)
i decided to go bak home.....my grandpa seemd alrite when we(my dad esp) finally had the food at home....ev1 was happy...:)
after helpin with the arrangements to sleep in the temple......we all decided to call it a day....but alas....little did i know abt the many music directors we had in our family...!!! i heard my uncle sighing "aah....what a day it has been!!!"....made me started contemplating abt it...lying on the temple floor, lookin at the stone pillars and roof....buit over 300 years ago....
the final few sounds i heard before sleep came to me was the snoring of my uncles.....
Aaah...what a day it has been....!!!
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