Wonderful Dussehra
Durga Asthami: It was Friday, the 19th of 2007. Anand Srivastava, a friend on mine from school called me and invited me for lunch on Sunday. Enjoying the mid-semester break, I accepted his invitation and was also glad to know that he has invited a few more of my schoolmates. That was the beginning of this year's Dussehra celebrations for me. I also had another get together planned for the weekend. That was visiting my cousin who has moved into Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi, after her marriage. She had been cajoling me to drop in at her place for the past three months and it was getting postponed due to some reason or the other. I had suggested a visit during the festive season but she had plans to go for a vacation to Rishikesh and Mussourie. On Friday, night I got the news that she has canceled her vacation, so I decided to go the next day. I also remembered that I had not yet kept my books for Saraswati Puja and resolved to do so the next morning.
Maha Navami: On Saturday early morning (7AM is pretty early for a late riser like me), I set out to the Ayyappa temple in RK Puram along with my friend Anoop. After some inquiry (inquiry was needed as everyone was supposed to put the books for Puja on Ashtami itself), I managed to give my books for Puja after shelling out a nominal amount. Another good thing about going to Ayyappa temple on festivals or weekends is the tiffin counter, which is open there. We had a nice breakfast of idlis and vadas and a hot cup of tea. Getting back to the hostel, I was surprised by the dosas there for breakfast, as it was not there on the usual menu. As south indian food in the mess is a rarity, I gulped down a couple of dosas before leaving to Gurgaon. The temple visit and a sumptuous breakfast gave me a premonition of a great day ahead.
Reaching my cousin's home was pretty easy after flawless briefing of the way and landmarks by cousin's husband. As I had expected, the day went by with more food (and good homely) going down my throat and lots of gossip and general discussion. Food, food and food seemed to be the agenda of the day as I had yet another breakfast (I wonder how many times I was breaking a fast that morning) and a late lunch. Three breakfasts in a day is something I had never imagined, considering my infrequent visits to the mess in the morning. The homely food also reminded me of the last year's Navami day when I had lunch at one of my schoolmates' house.
To finish off the day in style was the Twenty-20 cricket match between India and Australia. And of course, India won it and proved to be champions of Twenty-20.
Vijay Dashami: As was the previous morning, this morning also I woke up early and reached Ayyappa temple to get my books, blessed by Saraswati Devi. There was a huge rush as it was a Sunday. A guy was announcing names from the pile of book packets and after some 30min I got my books. In the meantime, I met a couple of other mallus from IIT.
Lunch was arranged at Anand's house and I was there in time to join another schoolmate Abhay Pratap. Rest of the guys who were supposed to join failed to come due to other personal commitments. Lunch was excellent, as we were treated by the expert cooking of Anand. We never knew that he was such a good cook. There was a new dish - poori filled with aaloo - on the menu. Post lunch session was a small intro session to share market and sensex by Anand. He was the only commerce guy and he tried to tell me and Abhay (both science graduates) about shares and its business.
In the evening, Abhay and me set out to meet another couple of friends at the other corner of Delhi. Well when we started we didn't know that it was that far, but from the time it took on the Metro we guessed how bad it would have been to travel the same distance by road. And that too on a day when half of Delhi would be on the streets watching the Burning of Ravana and the processions of Ramlilas. We had a nice time meeting Saurabh and Naresh. In fact, we were meeting both of them after a gap of 12 years. Getting back to Anand's house was tough as the transport facilities in Delhi are poor at late night. We had to struggle to find a rick at India Gate at 11PM, which is not so late in other metros.
In all, it was a wonderful Dussehra catching up with old friends, meeting them and getting updates of lot of others.
Notes:
Few things that we missed:
1. We dint see even a single Ravana effigy being burnt and the fireworks display, as we were travelling on the underground metro most of the time.
2. We dint go Pandal hopping for the durga pooja. We had plans to go on Saturday but the Twenty-20 match withheld us to the Common Rooms of our hostels.
Maha Navami: On Saturday early morning (7AM is pretty early for a late riser like me), I set out to the Ayyappa temple in RK Puram along with my friend Anoop. After some inquiry (inquiry was needed as everyone was supposed to put the books for Puja on Ashtami itself), I managed to give my books for Puja after shelling out a nominal amount. Another good thing about going to Ayyappa temple on festivals or weekends is the tiffin counter, which is open there. We had a nice breakfast of idlis and vadas and a hot cup of tea. Getting back to the hostel, I was surprised by the dosas there for breakfast, as it was not there on the usual menu. As south indian food in the mess is a rarity, I gulped down a couple of dosas before leaving to Gurgaon. The temple visit and a sumptuous breakfast gave me a premonition of a great day ahead.
Reaching my cousin's home was pretty easy after flawless briefing of the way and landmarks by cousin's husband. As I had expected, the day went by with more food (and good homely) going down my throat and lots of gossip and general discussion. Food, food and food seemed to be the agenda of the day as I had yet another breakfast (I wonder how many times I was breaking a fast that morning) and a late lunch. Three breakfasts in a day is something I had never imagined, considering my infrequent visits to the mess in the morning. The homely food also reminded me of the last year's Navami day when I had lunch at one of my schoolmates' house.
To finish off the day in style was the Twenty-20 cricket match between India and Australia. And of course, India won it and proved to be champions of Twenty-20.
Vijay Dashami: As was the previous morning, this morning also I woke up early and reached Ayyappa temple to get my books, blessed by Saraswati Devi. There was a huge rush as it was a Sunday. A guy was announcing names from the pile of book packets and after some 30min I got my books. In the meantime, I met a couple of other mallus from IIT.
Lunch was arranged at Anand's house and I was there in time to join another schoolmate Abhay Pratap. Rest of the guys who were supposed to join failed to come due to other personal commitments. Lunch was excellent, as we were treated by the expert cooking of Anand. We never knew that he was such a good cook. There was a new dish - poori filled with aaloo - on the menu. Post lunch session was a small intro session to share market and sensex by Anand. He was the only commerce guy and he tried to tell me and Abhay (both science graduates) about shares and its business.
In the evening, Abhay and me set out to meet another couple of friends at the other corner of Delhi. Well when we started we didn't know that it was that far, but from the time it took on the Metro we guessed how bad it would have been to travel the same distance by road. And that too on a day when half of Delhi would be on the streets watching the Burning of Ravana and the processions of Ramlilas. We had a nice time meeting Saurabh and Naresh. In fact, we were meeting both of them after a gap of 12 years. Getting back to Anand's house was tough as the transport facilities in Delhi are poor at late night. We had to struggle to find a rick at India Gate at 11PM, which is not so late in other metros.
In all, it was a wonderful Dussehra catching up with old friends, meeting them and getting updates of lot of others.
Notes:
Few things that we missed:
1. We dint see even a single Ravana effigy being burnt and the fireworks display, as we were travelling on the underground metro most of the time.
2. We dint go Pandal hopping for the durga pooja. We had plans to go on Saturday but the Twenty-20 match withheld us to the Common Rooms of our hostels.
Comments
And I completely forgot what i did for Pooja :-S
Definitely, no books to give for Pooja (coz books are being Poojified since we passed out as engineers)
:-D
on the other hand I in usa woke up early in morning to catch up with some premier league matches and then spent the whole day mulling over existential questions in bed. For example : how many hours spent on youtube are necessary for survival?
Ok , i wont rub anymore of this into you , lest you develop some sort of complex which is only recognized when your two generation from now one of your offshoot ends up on the couch.