Bullock cart ride anyone??

I was around 6 or 7 years old I think. It was in our old house in Karama. I decided it was time I looked through and sorted out our family albums ( or mess it up rather ). I came across this one particular picture that brought tears to my 6 year old eyes...
I went running to my mom whining more than crying, "Maaaa....Look at this picture!! IT IS NOT FAIR!!!".

My puzzled mom looked at the picture and continued to be puzzled, "What? What happened?"

And with all the righteous indignation I could muster,
"How come you took my BROTHER on a bullock cart but you never took ME on one....sniff!?!"

My mom and a couple of neighbors she was with just burst out laughing while little me was standing there wondering what in the world was so funny when I felt so betrayed!

The picture was of my mom, brother (who was born 11 yrs before me) and cousin sis-in-law (yeah we have a lot of extended family) on a bullock cart with my brother trying to handle the bullocks.

Now as I mull on about the lecture given by Nand Prabhu on Varnasrama and farm communites ( Side note: Excellent lecture really....he made wild cheetahs around the farm sound like cute little adorable cats you can play with ;D. He also made riding on a bullock cart sound like go-karting or something! Hence the bullock cart anecdote), I wonder if I have it in me to live simply and I mean SIMPLE SIMPLE in a village on a farm...producing your own cloth, no cell phones, no electricity, growing your own food...the works!

I mean I've always had an inclination really to villages and village life. My last visit to India just held me in pure fascination for ways of life and things in my dad's old village and farms...




Milking a cow..... :D An 'interesting' experience...








Climbing a haystack is quite fun. Should be on your list of things to do in life.....










Eating coconut chutney that is ground on a stone grinding mortar has this taste that none of your blenders, Sumit or Preeti grinders can duplicate......
Btw, my arm muscles were screaming in pain after attempting to grind the chutney for 2 minutes. My kind aunt took over taking pity on the poor city weakling that I am... :|








My cousin's kids educating this ignorant on the proper way to stoke a fire.... That was my bath water boiling by the way so I could have hot water to take a bath. :)







Mmmm......freshly churned butter from milk! My aunt is such an expert, it takes her only around 10 minutes to churn the milk that produces the butter that is transformed into the most fragrant and tastiest ghee that I've ever eaten....



I really loved every minute of living there with my family, breathing in the fresh air, seeing green fields all around, having fresh food. But can I do it everyday for life? Maybe....sounds like fun really.....heck I'm still young! I can afford to try it out.....

BUT...one question pops into my mind. Please forgive my vanity.....but how in the world will I wax? and thread my eyebrows?

Escape escape.....

Dostana is supposedly a hit at the box office. That makes me so sad that I have to resort to chocolate to emotionally uplift myself or maybe I'll just listen to some Aindra...


People ( and I mean sane people) generally like a movie because they can relate to the characters in it. A sad state the society has come to if they relate to such vapid and insubstantial characters like the ones in Dostana. No really, has Karan Johar even heard of the term character development? Or maybe it was the 'sexy' bodies of Priyanka chopra and John Abraham that people (and I mean lusty animals by that) got gratified by... god, get some depth in personality people/poor excuses of human beings!

Shoot me before I indulge in escapism of this sort again. I'm going to stick to indulging in my favorite (yeah America's spoilt me.....used to be favourite) escapist pastime of kirtans and Krsna's pastimes. Though it is escapism relative to this world we live in....it is the absolute reality after all.

One of my favorite tunes.......ahh I can drown in this tune..... It sounds like singing on a boat on some river or something....

Tangible Mercy

Obviously one of my first posts has to be about Mayapur....

Indistinct are the matter and living on this land
Appear it does - rock as rock, stone as stone, water as water
But breathing in this air day after day
Visible and tangible life becomes on this holy land

Sound and smell of life forms passes on to the inert
Smell of the dust of the dham, waves of the ganga
the ringing bells, resounding conchshells....
Life permeates everything....

What musical notes do these lifeforms sing?
Straining to hear them - they slowly form a melody
Melody that is the mercy of Gauranga
Once you hear it, then you smell it-feel it, see it, drown in it...

When will I drown again in these waves of mercy?
Walk again on the dust touched by Nitai?
See the dust and trail of a thousand devotees
admist fields that witnessed the ecstacy of Jiva Goswami?

O Mayapur, embodiment of audarya.... call me back.

nähaà vasämi kailäse
na tvaà vasasi mad-gåhe
na devä divi tiñthanti
åñayo na vane vane

sarve vayaà navadvépe
tiñthämaù prema-lälasäù
gaura gaureti gäyantaù
saìkértana-parä bhuvi

" I do not reside in Kailasa. You do not reside in my home. The demigods do not stay in the upper planets. The sages do not stay in the forest. We all stay in Navadvipa. Overwhelmed with love, we perform sankirtana, singing "Gaura! Gaura!" in the earthly sphere." - Text 18-19, Pramana Khanda, Navadvip Dham Mahatmaya

Genesis

My attempt at jotting down random thoughts. Really random. Really really really random. :)