A Tribute to Lord Shiva......

Today is Maha Shivratri! On this day, I must tell you all a small story as to how someone as powerful as Lord Shiva got a dose of my ire and tried his level best to find me a perfect match!! Well, he was hugely successful in doing that, I must admit.......

As goes the belief, that Shivji is the sole distributor of "ideal grooms", like all young girls, I also started worshipping him eversince I joined my B.Tech course in Jadavpur University (JU) as JU is believed to be the "nurturing ground" for "ideal groom" in the shape of Computer Engineer, Electronincs Engineer, Electrical Engineer and so on.......

I stayed there for three years and moved to Delhi to pursue my career without getting hitched by anyone but my faith was unshakable that He must be having someone better waiting for me in the big city of Delhi .....I continued worshipping him with more dedication keeping fast for full day(unimaginable as I can not tolerate hunger for more than 10 seconds) and standing in queue for hours to offer him all those sacred stuff ( unbelievable knowing my patience level)!!

Almost 6 yeas passed after I got down to New Delhi railway station from Purva Express on an August morning and i could not even manage a decent affair with anyone in the city (not that I didnt try, but failed miserably as I was too snobbish to choose someone to strike an affair with below the level of a Chartered Accountant)! Oh, by the way, I was by then a qualified Chartered Accountant and was practising!!

All these years, I did not stop believing neither in the power nor fair treatment ability of mighty Shiva and I continued making a trip to the nearby Shiv temple on this day particularly and quite frequently.....to remind him that I was still waiting in the queue for an ideal match.

In the 7th year, on the day of Shiv Ratri, I just couldnot hold my tears and grudges that I had been waiting for too long and labelled him as incompetent, powerless and unfair (by that time so many of my friends got married without even keeping fast on Shivratri) and I decided not to visit him this year.....

In the evening when I came back to my rented apartment from office, the elderly landlord asked me as a matter of fact," Which temple did you go today to offer prayer to Shiva?". To his astonishment, my answer was a blunt,"nowhere Uncle. There is no point in worshipping someone for something who actually does not have any power at all. I am done with it after so many years."

My landlord and landlady were a very gentle and sweet old couple and traeted me always as one in the family.....they immediately sat down with me over a cup of tea to convinced me to visit the temple next day early morning and I did quite reluctantly ....

While going to the temple, I bought everything that was part of the ritual and instead of buying a green coconut, I bought a big, round bael with solid surface ( a fruit which is also Shiva's favorite, i dont know why). I just threw all those flowers on Him without even a hint of devotion and cracked the bael on his head ( literally ) instead of keeping it at His feet just to make Him realise my level of frustration.I left the temple without even bowing my head to Him and with a threatning," If you do not sort this issue within this year, I will never visit you in my life, forget about worshipping."

In that very year, in June 1999, I met my soulmate quite unexpectedly and we got married next May. Well, journey from June 1999 to May, 2000, was not as normal as it may seem as I had to gather all strength and courage to ask him," Will You marry me, please?" as I was neck deep in love after the third meeting. Now whenever I narrate the incident to anyone, the reactions vary from," OMG, how could u do that? Proposing a boy? Adventurous!" or "Really? so interesting! you must be kidding!" or " So what was his reaction?".......

In retrospect, whenever i think of those few months and the hilarious, courageous, one - sentence adventure, I think Lord Shiva gave me the courage or shamelessness or whatever it takes to propose a boy!! After all, His reputation was at stake and He just could not afford to loose an ardent devotee like me... I keep fast and go to see Him every year wherever I am and after the prayer, offer my apology for hitting Him so hard with the bael.

Happy Maha Sivratri to all who have already been lucky and to all who are still waiting in the queue!

Blogging woes.......

When my Misti became a young blogger for her school, I was bursting with pride and emotions! Little did I know that for a mother of two young kids (read rivals!), nothing lasts for more than few fleeting minutes....

Between brother nd sister, Misti is at the receiving end, almost always as Chhutku has unlimited ideas of bothering Misti - sometimes unknowingly but most of the time, with the purpose of irritationg her! When a fight is inevitable, Chhutku wins 'hands down' as he is a stronger opponent than Misti. ....but didn't we hear the age-old proverb - Pen is mightier than the sword?

The first piece on the blog that Misti wrote was 'about my brother' which started with the opening sentence,' My naughty brother....'. As morning shows the day, the opener was good enough hint as to what the rest of the piece might contain! As a kind gesture (or was it a part of her strategy to settle score?), Misti allowed Chhutku to read it but the smile on her face said it all! Chhutku took this with a pinch of salt but couldnot do much as it was her 'personal thing' and had already been approved by the teacher!

So far so good .... but I failed to notice the sign of a storm brewing within Chhutku. He came to me with a visibly distraught expression on his face and complained,"Ma, you also write for your blog but you have never written anything as 'my naughty Chhutku....' and look at Babu! Was it necessary that she had to write on me ? Could not she think of some nice words? Dont I love her?" and the floodgate of tears opened.

Mothers are the best diplomats !

.....and after a long discussion, Misti agreed to edit her writing only to the extent of adding some positive words like 'my amazingly naughty brother....'. Chhutku was by then choked with sobs and acknowledged with lots of hiccups that 'amazing' indeed was a positive word and allowed Misti to go ahead with the rest of the writing! A sigh of relief for me!!

On thursday afternoon, when the kids were busy playing and listening to music, I decided to have a shower. Within minutes of entering into the bathroom, I could hear thumping footsteps followed by loud knock on the door and Misti demanded that I must come out immediately or else she would kill Chhutku! She was outraged that Chhutku stole her password and opened her blog without even seeking her permission! Before I could pacify her, the devil arrived to add salt to Misti's wound,"Babu, we are a family so we dont need permission to see each other's things. Do we Ma? ...and then, I was only checking whether you have again written something 'negative' about me! Remember - Ma told you to write only 'positive' things , if u at all write something on me".

Misti packed a punch," Don't I have anyone else to write about except you? The blog is not for writng about ' naughty brothers' ; dont you have brains to understand that?"

In a state of desparation, I ordered Misti to call up Dubai Police so they could give them a solution - I was too tired to think of some diplomatic answers!!

The innocent devil of mine is very scared of police for unknown reasons and he immediately changed track," Ok Babu, my mistake. I will never do it again. By the way, I opened it for you to write something, just in case.... But I promise you Babu, next year when I will also have my blog, I will write about you first with sentence like 'my crazy sister...' and no positive word" and both went back to their respective activities.

A mother needs to walk on fire and ice and practice makes it as easy as breathing!