Friday, October 26, 2007

Durga Pujo, 2007















































































Durga Pujo, 07
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Like every year this year also Pujo came and went. For some it is worship of goddess Durga, for some it is the time to go out for pleasure trip from the daily hum drum of city life, for some it is pure adda with family and friends, some will go pandal hopping and sampling the roadside food.
I really like the ambience of Pujo, for me it does not necessarily mean that I should be going gaga over pujo. I like the distant sound of dhak in the morning when I wake up during pujo. The early morning gives a feeling that winter is round the corner, the sound of children running around in their new Pujo dresses makes me feel happy as the innocence of childhood is still there. I try to soak in the sight, sound and the smell of Pujo. As far as food is concerned during Pujo, I really like the khichuri bhog with labda, oom heavenly. Somehow during this Pujo though I had the khichuri bhog two times but unfortunately it did not meet the standard set by me.
Someone jokingly told me that practically every Pujo pandal worth its salt in Calcutta got prize as all most all the channels, news papers, product companies were eager to give out prizes to promote them. Left to me I would have given prize to the best khichuri and labda….will some one pass this massage to the future prize givers.
The thing which I don’t like about this Pujo is the pollution of Ganges after the immersion of the idols. Some innovative solution has to be found to check this grand pollution. I could take a snap of a washed out idol on the bank of Ganges, the Sadhu in the picture was also quite disturbed by the pollution.
I have deliberately started the picture series from the end, when ultimately all the idols become like the washed out one snapped by me.
I have posted a few of the pics taken by me when the crowd was thin. By the way the traditional Pujo used to start from Sasthi with Pranprathista of the Devi but now it has been integrated backward and shifted to chaturthi as it can’t be forward integrated after Dashami. I apprehend that gradually Pujo will start from Mahalaya, a ten days long carnival in Bengal.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

The little man with a long name















































































The little man with a long name
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Yes he is Ashvyn Samar-Owen Roy, my grandson. To my knowledge he is the first person who had 2 baptisms in a span of one month. He was first baptized to Hinduism and then to Christianity. All these happened in Gold Coast, Australia. The bottom line is not what religion one follows but is whether one is good person who cares about others. Like the song in Hindi..” Tu Hindu banega na Musalman banega, Insan ka aulad hai tu insan banega….roughly translated it means “neither you will become Hindu nor Muslim but you are off spring of human being so you will become human”….We were sad to leave him and his parents in Australia on 2nd October, 07, but we were happy that he took the trouble of coming to the Brisbane Airport to see us off. He kept us busy with his antics before we proceeded for the security check
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

When we were in Australia,August-September,07



























When we were in Australia, August-September,2007
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This year visit to Australia was very important for us, a new generation was getting added to our family tree.

I had my weekly quota of Golf and Badminton. We had gone there for the biggest event of our life.......the birth of our first grand son Let me think what exactly we did in Australia during our 2 months stay this time.We did not go to those zoos, water worlds, innumerable amusement parks and all those frills of Gold Coast. Yes we went to those shopping centers and as usual sampled the food of KFC, NANDOS......tried the flat coffee of Zarafas. We skipped Starbucks this time. Ok,we located one Indian Curry joint run by a Bangladeshi lady Dolly Rehman. Yes we located a Lebanese restaurant on Tamborine mountain range and had barbecued chicken there.
As I said this visit was more focussed on the birth and watching the growth of the grand son Ashvyn.He was born on 12 th August,07. The grandson kept us busy....it is wonder of the world how an infant grows so fast...one can make out the changes occurring,it is visble every day...

Like last year this year also we had family Badminton at Telebudgera court courtesy our good friend Doctor Tan. We had good friendly games followed by Yam Cha lunch hosted by Doctor Tan. As usual I was lost in ordering Chinese food but with active support of Doctor could sample some delicious Chinese food.He kept us rolling with his nonstop jokes.
The dogs in the house Silly and Azlan kept us occupied and of course I was busy in uploading my blogs as well. This pretty much sums up our activity in Australia.

There is a slight correction in the sum........this year I could manage to shed about 3 kg of weight...cheers



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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Silly and Azlan








SILLY

















AZLAN






















Silly and Azlan
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When we came to visit our son in 2006 at Australia then Silly hugged us and shyly introduced her new friend Azlan. Lo behold..he immediately stood on his hind legs and started licking my face.
My son informed that he is the new addition in the family. A cross between German Shepard and Rottweiler. Silly is of course an Australian cattle dog and she is the leader between the two. They are having just the opposite character. silly loves to play with balls, energetic and intelligent. Azlan is a gentleman, requires his hourly dose of cuddle and loves food, he will occasionally camp out side near the wicker gate. He longingly looks out, but he is not yet clear about outside world. The other day he went out of the gate but then could not make up his mind so stayed fix near the front door.
Here are some gems about dogs as expressed by various people
From the dogs point of view, his master is an elongated and abnormally cunning dog.
The dog is the only animal that has seen his god.
I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. for me they are the role model for being alive.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Ashvyn's first encounter with religion,4th September,2007

Ashvyn's Hindu baptism in ISKON temple,Australia
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All religions , arts and science are branches of the same tree.All these aspirations are directed towards ennobling man's life; lifting it from the sphere of men's physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom....Albert Einstein

Religion is what an individual does with his solitariness.
Religions are many and diverse, but reasons and goodness are one....Elbert Hubert