Murgod Dindi

Absolute beauty!

Last week (12 and 13 August) I participated in the dindi (padayatre) of Shri Chidambar Mahaswami of Murgod. The dindi is conducted on last Shravan Monday every year. It begins from Belgaum on Saturday and reaches Murgod on Monday. This was my third participation- last 2, some 6 years back.

We joined the dindi party on Sunday morning at Pant Balekundri. The grandeur of the dindi can be estimated from the fact that over 1000 people- children, youths, adults and old and from different walks of life participated with great fervor and vigor. It was a great celebration- for a great cause of realizing our Higher Self.

The route that the party takes is Belgaum- Pant balekundri (night halt, dinner, freshening up) - Marihal (Breakfast) - Karadiguddi (Snacks)- Hanumanahatti (Lime juice) - Sutagatti IB (lunch) - Nesargi (Snacks, dinner, night halt, freshening up, breakfast) - Inchal Cross (Snacks, Inchal is my ancestral place) - Chachadi Cross (Lunch) - Murgod Cross (Snacks) - Murgod. A total of over 50 kilometers. The arrangements made for the pilgrims are par excellence.

The entire party is submerged in the sea of joy. For these three days, everybody forgets tensions, stress, mundane issues, fights and grudges and seeks Freedom and Divinity. All through, the pilgrimage people get involved in namasmaran and bhajan. The happiness found during the journey and after reaching Murgod is pristine. Everything seems divine... pure. It brings one close to Nature. I cannot go further than this as beyond a certain point words fail to convey the feelings.

We had dinner (mahaprasad) arranged by the Chidambar temple on Monday and rested there for the night. Next day we left for Belgaum to take a bus to Bangalore.

Courier boy

After having lunch as I picked a newspaper for reading, I saw a young man seated beside me. He was tall, slim and dark with vermilion on his forehead. I saw that the poor chap had a broken wrist. He had plaster wrapped around it.

He was in hurry. He was calling a few people from my company from his mobile phone and was asking them in broken English to collect their parcels. He was fiddling nervously with the electronic equipment that's used to get the receiver's signatures. He carried a big bag with scores of parcels in it.

I felt sorry for the young man. He would have taken so much pain to reach here, with his broken hand and a heavy bag. Looking at his furrowed brows one could easily tell that he still has a lot of unfinished business before he calls it a day. He may even not have had his lunch still, tough it is over 30 mins past 2. He would have so many pressing problems back home that he was working without even caring for his broken wrist.

Life seems so hard at times. It seems so merciless. But accepting the conditions as they are and working sincerely has always been the only way to lead a meaningful life, after all.

"Forward"

'This generation is very "forward" ', I was told, some how meaning I don't belong to "this" one. I got various explanations to support the statement. "They" have "many" girl friends/boy friends even when they are in school. They look "trendy" and wear fancy clothes, I was told.

That got me thinking. I checked the meaning of 'forward' in an online dictionary and it meant 'advanced'. So, I was ok in understanding the meaning then.

Now what is the unit of "forward"? Number of gf/bf you are "maintaining"- A is 5 forward points and B is 7 forward points?

Though I am not and don't want to behave like an oldie that says- "this generation is spoilt". But I would like to share a few points. Love, they say is the purest and most divine experience. Now if you "fallen" in and "risen" from "love" tens of times, then you have not experienced love. And if you have not had the purest and most divine experience, then how can you be "forward"?

People say times have changed. But I feel times have not changed but people have grown stupider. There was, is and will be no replacement for wisdom, intelligence, fearlessness and hard work be whichever times and whichever era. May be our workplaces and type of work have changed, but that's no change. Those who do not possess these golden qualities cannot be called "forward" in any respect.

No sane person ever wears dirty or torn clothes out of choice. So any neat and decent dress that is not odd for the occasion should be good enough. Everybody need not like being in flashy dresses, do they not have space in this world? I am not saying do not wear such clothes, but just that they need not be the deciding factor for anything. Gandhiji (in his khadi clothes) and JRD Tata (in his 3 piece) both were great icons. It’s their work that made them that. They were forward.

A person's "forward"-ness should be in his thoughts and actions. It’s the gilted gold that shines more than the pure one.

Water bottles

Among only a few things that I dislike in life are the water bottles- the one that are ubiquitous in any IT company. Yeah... right. The same ones that are filled religiously every morning and are adored on desks. I have a strong dislike for these bottles- in particular the purple color ones.

Readers, I believe are intelligent enough to by now have inferred that this bottle is not among my prized possession. Despite thinking hard for several hours and several times, I have lost terribly each time to understand why they are required and how anything for that matter is affected by their presence or absence.

Water bottles are ok with school boys and girls or if you diseased or aged or if you are engaged into any physically challenging activities like cycling, trekking or may be if you are in a desert. But here, its 25-30 year olds and not diseased and people in IT company are known for their potbellies, so no question of physically challenging work either and with AC at 16 degs, its far from being desert. Then why water bottles? I would say why not walk a few steps to the water-filter and have sips whenever you are thirsty? There are a few guys whose only work in office is filling these little witches.

Another issue is the problem caused to the people who are sensible like me to not have a bottle. These pig-heads stand for hours filling that little thing careless about the irritation caused to the guys waiting behind them with paper-cups in their hands.

If you too possess a water bottle and got hurt by my blog, then, I will congratulate myself for my blog served its purpose.