| Teej is a festival for Hindu women. It is almost synonymous with the mehndi and the swings. It is celebrated mostly in North India but it’s slowly dying. The main reason is that it’s not a holiday for most working women so they don’t have time to celebrate it.
It takes place on the third day of Shukla Paksha (bright moon fortnight) of the Shraavana or Saawan month of Hindu calendar that normally falls between late July and early September. |
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| Significance Dedicated to the Goddess Parvati, commemorating her union with Lord Shiva, the festival is celebrated for the marital bliss and the well-being of the spouse. |
| Teej Amongst the Baniya Community
Teej is an important festival amongst the baniya and marwari community. The festival is meant as a celebration for women. They decorate their palms with mehndi and sing special Teej songs on the temporary swings put on the trees. One of the meals is prepared as pakka khana (meaning puri/kachodi with curry and raita). |
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| It is customary for mother in law to give the newly married daughter in law a piece of jewellery on her first Teej after her marriage. In the later years mother in law gives daughter in law bangles and bindis, basically symbolic things of a married hindu woman. These days they simply give them money so that they can buy things of their own liking. Daughters in law, take out Baina. Baina is a short pooja and a gift for mother in law. |
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| Hope you are celebrating Teej like I am. If nothing else, prepare a special meal and don some mehndi. |
Teej
Written By: Ruchi
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Aug•
09•13
Position and connections is everything
Written By: Ruchi
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Apr•
25•13
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In India most people don’t value other people unless they know them. They only value the position and the connections of a person. For some reason, the normal processes just do not work smoothly. If you want to get your work done, you need to get the orders from the top brass. |
| For example, the LPG cylinder that gets delivered to your home for cooking is almost always underweight. You complain to the agency and they promise to send you the right weight cylinder but they never do and in the end you run out of patience and use up that same underweight cylinder. On the other hand if you know a hot shot at the top, you call them up and the right weight cylinder will be on your doorsteps next day at your convenience. That same agency person who ignored your numerous legit requests before, will bend backwards to please you because now his job is on the line. I don’t understand, why on earth does he not pay attention to the legit requests in the first place? Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question. It’s simple greed and this is not a one off incident, it happens every day in every walk of your life here. |
| Basically if you want to survive in this country, you have two choices. One, you accept everything as it is and hope that everything works out, which normally does but it’s less than optimal. Two, you pull your position and connections. I hate both the choices but unfortunately there is no other choice. Oh wait, I almost forgot. There is a third choice, you can bribe the person. Sad but true. |