| Navratri is a Sanskrit word which is made of two words – Nav and Ratri. Nav means nine and Ratri means night. During these nine nights and ten days, the eight different forms of powers are worshiped. Navratri occurs twice in a year – at the beginning of the spring and at the beginning of the autumn. The spring Navratri is known as Vasant Navratri and the autumn Navratri is known as Sharad Navratri. |
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| How is it celebrated Both the Navratris are celebrated in a similar fashion except that Sharad Navratri has an additional custom of sowing the barley seeds. On the first day of Sharad Navratri, barley is sowed in a pot and the pot is kept in the kitchen, fully covered for the fast growth of the barley. Every day the head of the family waters the barley lightly after taking bath and before eating anything except on the eighth day, when it’s not watered. Sharad Navratri ends with Dushehara on the tenth day, which signifies the good winning over the evil. Vasant Navratri ends with Ram Navmi on the ninth day, which is the birthday of Lord Rama. |
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| Traditionally the lady of the family fasts on all eight days of Navratri. Men of the house may fast too if they want. The fast is always kept in even numbers. The fast is a simple one. One can eat things made of kutu (buck wheat) flour, ramdana, potatoes, green chillies, sea salt, fruits and milk products. None of the spices can be used in preparing the food for the fast. |
| On the ninth day, seven stacks of couple of puris each, halwa and chane are prepared and offered to the Goddess Durga. Incense sticks are burnt and an earthen lamp is lit. Each member of the family offers two cloves to the lamp and does Tilak to all the Gods and Goddesses in the Pooja place. Seven young girls are invited and offered this food. They are also given a small gift (generally some money). All the members of the family eat after the girls have eaten. |
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| Philosophy There are eight basic powers of the soul, which are depicted via the eight arms of Goddess Shakti (see the picture below). Individually the eight powers are depicted in the form of 8 Goddesses, namely Parvati, Durga, Jagdumba, Santosi Maa, Gayatri Devi, Sarasvati, Kali and Lakshmi. All these symbols/Goddesses were created by the illustrators in Dwapar Yug so that it’s easy to relate to a power just by looking at a symbol. The idea was that on every day of Navratri, people will remember a Goddess and try to inculcate the power she represents. |
| The purpose of fasting is to eat light, which generates good thoughts and cleanses the body. Also it is advised to abstain from non-vegetarian food and sex because it generates impurities in the body. |
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| What each Goddess stands for
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Navratri
Written By: Ruchi
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Apr•
19•13
Holi can be fun
Written By: Ruchi
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Apr•
16•13
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Recently we celebrated our first Holi in India after coming back from US. Holi is the most colorful festival, when people throw colors on each other. So it was exciting to be celebrating it after 20 years. But as the day came closer, I started hearing from people that they were not planning to play Holi. Some said that they get allergies from the colors, others said that it’s too messy and the colors don’t come off for days. People started telling me that I should oil my hair and skin so that the colors do not stick. As I was hearing all this, my enthusiasm was slowly evaporating. Why will I want to play Holi, with all these hazards, I thought. |
| Then I noticed on Internet that some Holi events were going to use flowers instead of colors. It sounded like a great idea and I decided to give it a try. In the beginning, the family was a little skeptical. They started giving all sorts of arguments like what’s Holi without colors or colors are actually auspicious etc. Undeterred, I bought 3 kgs of fresh flowers in different colors. On Holi day, we separated the petals of the flowers and started showering each other with the petals. It was so much fun. People actually wanted to get more petal showers unlike the regular colors from which they wanted to run away. Someone actually commented, “After my wedding, this is the first time that someone showered me with flowers”. Wow! Our neighbors still used regular colors but we showered them with flowers and they all appreciated it. |
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| I must say that the experiment was successful. It was the best Holi ever – no skin rashes, no mess, no dodging of colors, nice natural fragrance and everybody felt good when showered with flowers. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. I am sticking with it forever, do you want to give it a try? |
Why do we like dark characters?
Written By: Ruchi
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Feb•
14•13
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Last week I went to a few local events, finally! Saw an English play, a Hindi play and went to Comic Con. I was desperate to go to the events but couldn’t get any company so I decided to venture out alone and it all worked out great. |
| I have seen a lot of plays in last few years but I have never been to Comic Con. I had heard of it only in the Big Bang Theory (BBT) ;-). Since Comic Con was like Mecca for all the nerds in BBT, when I heard about the event in Delhi, I decided to check it out. Unfortunately the most exciting part was the anticipation of the event. It was crowded, not many folks were dressed in costumes and no performances were happening. So I hung around for an hour or so, and then headed back. Got a couple of pictures though 😉 |
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| Then I saw an English play in Sri Ram Center for Performing Arts. It was an okay comedy. The best part was that it was free. What didn’t work for me was that they had the same scene throughout the play, which made it a little boring. |
| Then I saw a Hindi play by the students of National School of Drama (NSD) and it was fantastic. It was a musical comedy. The plot was interesting, the scenes were changing and the performances were fabulous. Again it was a free event. It seems like that this is a quick way for NSD to expose their students to the general public. It will be hard for them to attract 1000 people to pay for the play by amateur students. Frankly, after watching the performance, I won’t mind paying for it. |
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Traditionally at the end of the plays, the director introduces the whole cast to the audience. We have watched a lot of plays in US and now I have seen a couple of play here also and there seems to be a common pattern in the response of the audience. They applaud the most for the dark characters and the sexy dialogues. At least in US, I know that the gentry used to be well educated but I guess that did not change anything.
It can’t be human nature, we don’t like dark characters in our own lives. Then why do we appreciate them on stage? |
The fun of seasonal vegetables
Written By: Ruchi
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Dec•
25•12
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These days the vegetable market in India is overflowing with leafy green vegetables like spinach, mustard, methi and bathua. Most of these vegetables are available all year round, except bathua, which is available in winters only and probably that’s the reason I love it the most. I think, earlier when the vegetables used to change as per the season, we enjoyed them more because we used to look forward to the new vegetables of the new season. |
| That reminds me of a funny story. My marriage was fixed in the month of March, to be married in May. I was working at Uptron, Lucknow and did not know any cooking at that time. Yeah yeah, you can laugh at me. First of all, I was too much into studies, sports and handicrafts so I never had the time for cooking. Secondly we always had a cook so I never needed to help in the kitchen. Anyways, since the wedding was only two months away, I decided that it’s high time and I needed to learn cooking. So I told the cook that every day in the evening, he should do all the preparations for the cooking and then cook in front of me when I come back from the office so that I can watch and learn. The trick worked and I learnt all the basic preparations. Got married, and was able to manage the cooking in my own kitchen in Delhi. |
| Then the winters arrived and I realized that for some reason the food was not tasting as good, especially the new seasonal vegetable like bathua. At that time, we did not have the phone so I couldn’t call up my Mom and ask for the tips. A couple of months passed and then finally my Mom came to visit me for a couple of days and I asked her. It turned out that bathua is prepared in a very different way and that’s why it was not coming out well. Then I realized that since I learnt to cook in summers, I only knew how to cook the summer vegetables. I was trying to cook the winter vegetables like summer vegetables, which is fine in general but I did not know that special thing that is required in each of those vegetables to create the magic. For example, I did not know that cabbage needs amchur, or carrots need tomatoes or that bathua needs to be boiled first and so on, pretty funny. |
| The Y generation does not have this problem because first of all they get all the vegetables all the time, secondly they always have the Internet and they can find all their favorite recipes at www.ezpzcooking.com. However now they have a different problem. Now they can’t tell the names of the raw vegetables, especially if they are other than beans, carrots, potatoes, onions, bell peppers and cauliflower 😉 |
It’s a happening place
Written By: Ruchi
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Nov•
23•12
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In US we used to live in Fremont, in a nice quiet area. As Tushar grew up, he often told us that Fremont is a dead city, there was nothing happening there. He said that there is nothing to do outside the house and that he wanted to work in the city where there is always something happening. Even after a bit of probing, I didn’t quite understand what he meant. I always felt that there are so many places to go like movies, restaurants, malls etc. What does he mean that there is nothing happening? |
| Anyways, now that we are in Delhi, pretty settled, I see ads in the newspaper or hear them on radio everyday about what’s happening in Delhi. I keep telling Anil that I want to see this play, or attend that dance festival or go to the trade fair etc. And then it dawned on me as to what Tushar meant all those years ago. Delhi is a *happening* place. There is so much to do. If you have good company and you want to spend a day outside your home, there is a ton of stuff happening all around. There are plays, art galleries, exhibitions, trade fairs, book fairs, handicrafts fair, dance festivals, fashion shows, cricket matches, formula one racing and so on. I guess I am a little slow ;-). |
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I haven’t started going to all these places yet but I intend to. BTW, I drive stick shift like natives now 😉 |
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