Food and Vasthu

I was searching for a jpeg of Indian thaali which had all the naivedhya items placed as per paak vidhi. But could not find any such pic even after hours of search. Hence this pic.

This being food Vasthu, mom adds the following effects of eating facing various directions:

1. East – Spiritual Growth
2. West – All round prosperity
3. North – Gives Diseases
4. South – Increases material wealth

Order of serving:

1. To start with little payasam on right bottom – EESANYA
2. Cucumber or any pacchadi on top right – VAYU
3. Three types of veg curries; mostly with Okra since it is balancing for all 3 dosas and 6 tastes to the left of pachaddi – spread over VAYU TO VARUN
4. One two kootu or aviyal to the left of pachadis - VARUN TO NAIRUTHI
5. Vaddai or other bakshanam at leftmost bottom – AGNI
6. Pickles at topmost left with salt under it - NAIRUTHI
7. Paruppu served in the middle bottom of the leaf
8. Rice in center
9. Sambar
10. Rasam
11. Payasam
12. Thick flavoured buttermilk
13. Betel nut

For paakviddhi:

http://chiraan.blogspot.com/2011/03/paak-vidhi.html

Water Tank and Himalayas

This was the water tank, N (Rose), Narmada and I tried to scale when we were kids.

Our new quarters is very near the water tank we climbed more than two decades earlier. We three started to climb after our exams got over. We had still worn our KV school uniforms since we had not yet gone home. There are so many mango trees all around the water tank. I was almost stepping over the tank roof, when a nearby school authorities came, bid us to come down, noted down our names and class standard. We were not smart enough to lie at that age and gave our real names. That school authorities called our school principal, the principal informed all the teachers, parents were summoned. So every teacher gave us a round of scolding before they started every class and one ma’m even made me and N write imposition longer than ‘I will not go to another school and climb water tank’ 500 times within one night. The truth was that we had not actually gone to another school, the tank was just in the middle of quarters.

I simply love viewing things from the top. Trekking or flying, doing anything that takes me to the top of the mountain. The bird’s eye view. Of course, once you climb a mountain, there is always another mountain to climb. I want to see the Himalayas, especially the Trishul Peaks in Himalayas, Nainital, Uttarakhand sometime.

source

This peak beckons me because it is picture perfect for the swarajathi Shaambashivayanve raajita giri in kamaas.

Nila Kaihirathu Niram Theihirathu

I was just sitting under the tree waiting for music teacher to come. All around me, girls in whitish green kurti and phthalo green pajamas were dancing bharatnatyam.


And suddenly this song floated in the air. In RSK HSS school, this was the song, we sang for a group singing competition. We missed 1st prize and had to be content with 2nd prize. Lovely lilting song from ManiRatnam's Indira.

From Wiki

"As a boy, Clive is reputed to have climbed the tower of St Mary's Parish Church in Market Drayton and perched on a gargoyle, frightening those down below........ on 22 November 1774 he committed suicide......Though Clive's suicide has been linked to his history of depression and to opium addiction, the likely immediate impetus was excruciating pain resulting from illness which he had been attempting to abate with opium."

I vaguely remember one of the English lessons in NCERT textbooks, where some small boy climbs a church and amuses people. "Michael Goes Climbing" was the name of the lesson.

Home Alone

Mom had been summoned to Chennai for final discussions regarding sister’s marriage. So I was home alone after a long time. My sleep had been snatched thanks to strange midnight UK call to which I finally managed to put a full stop in the evening. So I was asleep most of the day, waking up to read, and then sleeping, reading and sleeping taking turns.

I went as usual for vocal classes after watering the vegetable patch and partly collecting the fallen tamarind pods. After classes I made a trip to local temple and was just returning, when periyamma called me. She told me that she was waiting at the locked door entrance. Only then I realized how much mom had been feeding me. I feel hungry only if mom is there. Left to myself, I didn’t even feel like stretching my hands to drink water placed next to bed. I didn't feel thirsty even after 2 hours of singing. I wonder why people precisely give me what I don’t need – making so much hoopla about food. I didn’t even roll my tongue up (my attempts with kecchari mudhra). I just did nothing. I simply had no appetite today. And my periyamma was thinking that I was starving, when I was actually not.

Permaculture update

Pasalai Keerai

We planted the stems after making saag. This one has survived the daily treadings of cows. :-) I wonder if we would ever get to pluck any of its leaves for cooking. Either mom has to put up the fence or the cows and goats have to spare few leaves for us. :-)

Ponnakanni Keerai

Supposed to be good for eyes.

Pudhina

Curry Leaves (Karuvepu illai)

These ones are simply growing wildly all over. I have to walk carefully, so that i don't step on them accidentally. Very good for hair and eyes.

Ara Nellika (Amla)

Ascorbic acid. This along with the lemon tree nearby gives me my daily dose of vitamin C. After drinking lukewarm water of lemon juice with honey on empty stomach, rubbing the left over lemon on skin purifies the skin and makes it glow.

The voice of the silence

Am yet to read The voice of the silence. Panguni Uthiram is a grand fasting and feasting day for Lord Muruga near our place. The full moon on that day was the closest to earth after many years. It was spell bounding to see the full moon that night. Many a full moons, I would just put up a chair on the terrace or balcony and sit simply gazing at the full moon till kingdom comes. There was a line in a contemporary biographical story on Buddha’s life, where it was mentioned that his mother MahaMaya bared her breasts to the full moon to obtain its full grace for her son. There was this Mecano’s song Hijo De La Luna which was on my loop for many a days.

That was the day, I sent a facebook friend request to my teacher who transformed my life. I thought about nothing else in sending my friend request to my teacher, that I uploaded my mobile number also in facebook to quicken his response.

You can guess what happened, folks from all over the world started calling me at all unearthly times. My god, to receive calls with unknown country codes at 00:44 a.m. that woke me and my sleeping family members with a jolt yet with an agreeable nimitham made me wonder. Folks would just speak without coming to the point. To receive greetings sms’ from foreign numbers was unnerving. So I had to remove my number.

My policy is everyone in this world is a friend of mine. Silence and good thoughts are more efficient than alarming phone calls at odd hours. Silence is golden. Friendly and positive thoughts and feelings are more sublime than words and languages, internet and mobile signals.

My useless yet meaningful Pasam trip to Kodaikanal

Man Without Feet - There once was a man who complained of having no shoes – until he met another man with no feet.

My friend and I don’t need words to speak with each other – we simply trust each other and can continue our conversation as if we had just spoken seconds earlier even after years of silence. (If you are curious, he married the same girl written by agasthiyar naadi jyoshiyam 7th kandam, he shares my brother’s dob and his nakshathra is my favourite, aspirational revathi). So his sms about Kodaikanal Pasam Hospital triggered my unresearched trip there right after my discharge on March 15th, to find a free way to remove my surgical scars.

It was written in my horoscope 2 decades before i met with any of my accidents, that lagna lord mars in scorpio (incidentally lord of 6th as well) would result in body scars. I had thought that my 9 surgeries and the resultant scars were the worst thing to happen to a girl before my Kodai Paasam trip.

My mother and I had to fight hard to keep the caring smile on our faces with compassion in our hearts and stop our tears from spilling out, as we saw the close to hundred, various - usually 3rd degree burn victims, (earless Goan girl, etc) – prioritized for free scar removal from amongst mostly young girls out of the 900 patients who had registered for the annual free plastic surgery by German doctors in Paasam hospital.

Catch Me if You Can

So next year at least, I will register in time and see if at least my lower lips can get efficient and humane treatment in Paasam. Consultations had closed just the day before and patient prioritization had been done and surgeries had started by the time we reached there. So our only option was to catch the German doctors as they emerged in between surgeries, explain our case and see, if we coax them to operate on us as well. There were many worse cases than mine. I was thankful to god, for sparing my face from glass pieces in my vehicle accidents. It was an exact reflection of the thought that portrays the meaning, that when I complained to god that I didn’t have good shoes to wear, God showed me people who had no feet.

Beautiful Kodai

Chithappa’s spiritual contacts worked here as well. My host (descendant of Pudukottai royal family) had a spacious villa, right in the neighbourhood of Dhayanidhimaran. He picked us up, bought us lunch and snacks, provided Green tea in his home, took us for a lake view ride in his car, time was up, else we could have gone for a boat ride, let me trot wildly on a docile whitish mare to my heart’s content and helped me find a Christian samaritan who could command the attention of anyone for actually getting the doctors to even speak to me in the first place. I figured out that my case comes under cosmetic surgery and not plastic surgery, which is not done in Pasam incidentally. He showed us the Shruthi place where Sai Baba stays, when he comes there every year.

We returned home the same day, thankful to God. Our host came home today all the way from Kodaikanal to return the discharge summaries and snap on horse that I had forgotten at his residence. Strange boding. :-)

Music Teacher’s Gift

My ma’m has this habit of giving something or the other to us for every occasion. Last time for Vijayadashami, I got a plate. This time for the Thyagarajar Aradhana that I missed, this is what she gave me this evening. A pink serving tray with a golden rim. My childhood’s favourite colour. Those were the days, I viewed the world through baby pink glasses, every dress that dad bought me, right down to slippers were all baby pink. Later my dress shades changed to earthish biegish shades. Am no longer wondering, why girls are obsessed with pink. :-)

With my cleansing Karpuravallis and mini oranges for Tuesday



My experiments with music

I had always wanted to learn carnatic music after struggling with the pronunciation and song form of LalithaSahasranama in 2006 when I bought my yellow sapphire (Kanaka Pushparagam) and had to do its associated sanctification pooja. Somehow only last year, I got a chance to enroll for formal carnatic music classes. So I researched net and I was surprised to see that the 7 swaras and chakras had the link. So I used to close my eyes for the sarali, mel sthayi, janda, dhatu etc and visualize the corresponding chakra region. Somehow, to synchronize thalam, chakra visualization and to sing was tasking. To top it all, talams for geethams, swarajathis and varnams etc varied making it difficult for me to practice swaras and the corresponding pallavi charanams keeping in mind the chakras region. All this because I have not still memorized most of the songs. Finally I let go, forgetting the chakras, forgetting the talams, just swaying and moving my hands and finger tips, just following and flowing with the nerve sensations in my body as I sang.

Thalams and Mudhras

I had put a list of 6 vedic areas for my study plan and mudhras was one of them. The most efficient form of exercise without any strain. No gymming, no swimming, no straining yoga asanas and pranayams. Suits the lazy me. Karagre vasathe gives layers and layers of meanings each time it comes in mind. Now all I have to do is 8 minutes surya mudhra per day in summers for my weight, various other mudhras for digestion, relaxation, concentration and other health aspects all lying down on bed or sitting in one place after setting the timer. Amazing. Tested, Surya Mudhra works for sure. :-) Hats off to the teachers who figured this out in the first place. 72000 naadis?

Dasa mudhra samaradhya - She who is worshipped by ten postures
Karanguli nakhothpanna narayana dasakrithi - She who created the ten avatharas of Narayana from the tip of her nails (when Bandasura sent the Sarvasura asthra (arrow), she destroyed it by creating the ten avatharas of Vishnu)
Nakadhi dhithi samchanna namajjana thamoguna - She who removes the darkness in the minds of her devotees by the sparkle of nails

For more details:
http://complete-education.blogspot.com/2008/12/prithvi-shaamak-or-surya-mudra.html
http://www.healthandsoul.com/hasta-mudra-beneficial-for-age-groups-part-1.html
http://thetaoofgoodhealth.com/6-awesome-health-benefits-of-bananas-9/