Feb 25, 2009

My first tag, ever

I have been tagged by Shilpa to do this picture tag.

First, the rules of this do:

Pick the 6th picture of your 6th photo folder.
Tell a story around it.
Pass it on to six other people you like.

Well, I don’t have folders in my picture album at all. Yes, I am that organized and I don’t call the computer we have at home, ‘mine’. My husband and father-in-law exercise complete rights over the piece. So, of whatever I have on my comp at the office, I am trying to string in a couple of them together and make a story.

I am going to post about the Varalakshmi Nombu at my place. It is called ‘Varamahalakshmi’ here in Bangalore, Karnataka. My in-laws do not observe this function, mostly because they are from Palakkad, Kerala. We celebrate this at my parents place even as we are basically Tamils (guess many sects of Tambrams do). So a year after we got married, I asked my m-i-l if I could take this up in our home. Of course, she said. And this function apparently requires a lot of preparation, commitment and devotion. You just are not allowed to skip a year in between for whatever reasons. The fast as well as the festivities are observed in the coming week or at some one else’s place who celebrates the same.

The first year of this puja, my parents and sister came down from Chennai and it was so much fun, donning the nine yards saree and chanting the mantras and all. The last year, in 2008, I had arranged for a purohit to come home to help me perform the puja and because my in-laws do not have an idea what to do, I had to get all instructions from my mom and do all the prep here myself. My father-in-law came out shopping with me for fruits and flowers and my mother-in-law fully did all the bakshanam (prasadam and other eats). I just helped her in parts and left the scene as the purohit came home. I love this function for some unknown reason, perhaps it’s the aura in the house, the smells of so many flowers, the ‘bagyada lakshmi baramma’ song, the mantras, the sense of satisfaction – something or all of it…..I love it.



I am otherwise not a religious person, but there are some rituals, functions and festivals that we follow that I feel binds us together and I love the feeling that I have Aditi as a witness to all that I do, she understands bits and pieces of it, wears the ‘pattu pavadai’ (silk skirt and blouse) and all of us at home prepare for it – so much peace.


And that is all I want!
Btw, I don't know whom to tag, so please feel free to take this up if it interests you.

4 comments:

Shilpa said...

Sowmya,
first of all, Aditi is choooo cute.

back to the tag, yeah, we don't celebrate Varamahalakshmi at my in-laws. It is forbidden for some reasons. But we do at my parent's place. The whole extended family including grand mom, aunts, uncles, cousins get together to celebrate the festival, prepare delicacies and enjoy them. I usually take half a day off from office and go there.

Thanks for bringing back those memories. Waiting for July/August now :)

Sowmya Srikrishnan said...

Thank you very much Shilpa. As you can see, this was last Aug...this lady is a little grown up and lost some portions of innocence now :) LOL

Thanks again for tagging me....it was great to relive it all.

Swaram said...

Nice post. Back home @ my mom's, we too used to celebrate the Varamahalakshmi Vratam. Brought back fond memories.

And the second snap is so cute.

Idling in Top Gear said...

Nice post. Varalakshmi nombu reminds me of something. My dad was at the bank a couple of weeks ago and he saw a yellow string around the neck of our regular relationship manager (a girl some 25 yrs of age) who had just gotten back from a vacation. Being pretty close to everyone at the bank, my dad yelled at her for not giving him a wedding invitation. The girl blushed and hushed him and said, "Sir, please lower your voice before people here start thinking I am married - this is just my nombu sharadu!"

And I am surprised that Palakkad Iyers don't celebrate nombu. My recently married PI friend had to fly back home for nombu!