Give it to me!

There is a Hindu tradition of falling at the elders feet to take their blessings during special events and occasions like birthdays, marriage, festivals etc. There is lot of history and science behind it. I will add some references in form of links later if you want to know about it. But what also happens is that once we fall at our elders feet and take their blessings, they give us some cash. No idea why and when that part of handing money became a part of the tradition. Cash in form of 10Rs note, when we were kids, which used to be a huge amount at that time. But that was only for our birthdays. For other events, it would be a 1Re coin or such. We were taught to save it or use it wisely. It has been so long since I have actually taken someone’s blessings by doing a pranama. But I don’t like people falling at my feet to take my blessings. During my brother’s & sister’s marriage when they were made to fall at my feet to take my blessings, I almost jumped a feet away. It felt so odd. That deed should not be done just because I am an year and half older than them. When I was at my brother’s place last time for my first niece’s birthday, she did her pranam to my parents (her grandparents) and was handsomely rewarded with cash. Seeing her get some money, my other niece and nephew also did the same and demanded cash. 😆 So when they were asked to do pranam /namaskaram (as we call it in Tamil) to me, I told them that it wasn’t necessary. ( I have had enough of people falling at my feet and not for the right reasons 😉 ) My second niece looked at me and said, that is alright, you can just give us the cash and get it over with then.

Some references:

Why Do We Touch The Feet Of Our Elders?

Touching Feet Of Elders: Mere Tradition or Science?

Science Behind Touching Feet In India

 

---

Post for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “cash.” Use it in your post as a noun or a verb… or a name! Enjoy!

 

 

SoCS Badge by John Holton@ The Sound of One Hand Typing

Saturday Night

It has been a while since us friends have had a get-together for a fun evening. Finally after figuring who is available and when, we have zeroed in on today and hope that everyone is able to make it. We are also planning to Skype our friends who have moved to different countries and states. Let us see how that goes 🙂 But what is a get-together without a drink or two? That wine bottle that was opened last time (last year some time, actually) we had a get-together at my place is still 3/4 full. I better take that with me today (the venue: another friend’s place) and hope that it gets over. It has been more than a year or so since I have had that bottle. And hopefully today is the day..

And may be we will do some karaoke and some feet tapping.  😉 Wanna join in?

---

Post for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “drink.” Use it as a noun or a verb. Have fun!

 

SoCS Badge by HopeFloats@ My Leaky Boat

Earth Hour Dilemma

Tomorrow (19th March, Saturday) evening 8.30 to 9.30 pm is the designated Earth Hour. Every year we get an official email about what we should be doing and why we are doing it etc. Thankfully this year it is in the evening. Once it was during office hours during the lunch time which led to some funny moments. Dark corridors, people getting scared by colliding with someone from around the corner etc. It’s broad daylight you say. Well, not exactly when you are in a closed office space where the only light is from the tube lights or bulbs.

But this year’s Earth hour does come with its own share of a dilemma. You all know that cricket is a very important sport in India and World T20 matches are going on. Even though I don’t follow them anymore I know, from the advertisements, that there is an important match tomorrow (19th March, Saturday). Clash of the Titans – India vs Pakistan. It is always a very emotional game where these two countries are involved, thanks very much to the media hype that tries to gain more TRP ratings. And guess what, the match starts at 7.30 pm. Now I stopped watching that game, so I will be able to adhere the Earth hour (which I do every year) but what will the fans of cricket be doing? Lots of people are giving advises to share the screen and watch the match. But what about the stadium? Are they going to switch off the floodlights? Gonna be a tough decision.

Stack up

This Saturday I learnt a new game called Jenga and had lots of fun with it.  We went on till the 30th level and then crashed and burned. Have you played Jenga ? How far did you go ? It was supposedly a Truth or Dare Jenga, but since we were the only ones in the restaurant early Saturday morning, we decided to skip that part of the game and just get the levels going. Nothing like learning a new game and having fun with friends 🙂

Working on a Saturday is sometimes

….liberating 😀

But it has to be in an office where you have the whole floor , if not the whole building, at your disposal. Not a soul around, the occasional checks by the security or the housekeeping who keep coming by at times to check on the pantry doesn’t count. Here I am in my office, muted from all the sounds from the outside world,  playing my songs ‘aloud’ (that word is the key here) , my phone not in vibrating mode , occasionally let my singing get the better of me , all the while working on the just-there-solution for an issue at work. I would hate to do it all the time. I don’t like working officially on weekends, because that is exclusively for my other non-official activities but when the going gets tough and the work demands a little more attention, I am fine with it. Nothing like getting it done and feeling relaxed that I finally got to solve that problem 🙂 and getting that peace that there are still things that can be solved and not everything is a mystery, even though how the problem came up in the first place might sometimes be a mystery 😉