The Maharashtrains are set to celebrate their New Year tomorrow as Gudi Padwa. My hearty greetings to all my Maharashtrian friends on this occasion.
The gudi, a long pole which has at the top an inverted silver or copper pot, is most important and essential to all Gudi Padwa celebrations. After all, it symbolises the victory flag representing Lord Ram's victory over Ravan and his subsequent return to Ayodhya. The gudi hoisted in the villages are indeed grand and tall. It is generally a bamboo pole on the top of which a bright, colourful cloth (generally yellow or green) with a zari border is tied. It is adorned with coconuts, sweets, mango, neem leaves and marigold flowers. An inverted jug of water, generally made of copper or silver, is placed over this. Everyone worships the gudi after the customary oil bath. If the celebration is in a locality or an open space, sometimes, the boys and men form a pyramid and break the coconut placed in the gudi. While one cannot deny that the village celebrations are grand indeed, city folks have also not entirely discarded their traditions and celebrate this occasion in a very special way. The gudis are erected on the right side of the main entrance of the house on a swastika rangoli with turmeric and vermilion used in them. The area is decorated with mango leaves and rangolis. Most people dress up in traditional clothes during the occasion. Local delicacies like puran poli, soonth pak, shrikhand form a major part of the festivities.
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Tongue very much in cheek…
"Instead of thinking outside the box, just get rid of it!"
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From the world of medical science…
Aggressive prostate cancer gene identified.
Prostate cancers spread more quickly and are more often fatal in men who have inherited a faulty BRCA2 gene, a new study has warned. Such patients need immediate surgery or radiotherapy rather than being placed under surveillance, as their disease is more aggressive than other type.
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Psychologists have found that writing about your feelings can help the brain overcome emotional upsets and leave you feeling happier.
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Digging, planting, weeding and other gardening chores are excellent forms of low-impact exercise.
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What's the most powerful of all antioxidants?
There's a new antioxidant kid on the block. It's so new, yu probably won't find it in health food stores. But you can order it online. It's called seanol, it comes from a seaweed, ecklonia cava, that grows off the coast of Korea and Japan, it's 100 times more powerful than any land-based antioxidant!
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News of the day… (Courtesy: Mumbai Mirror 10/4/13)
Indian man stabs his ex-wife to death in Italy…
Rome: An Indian-origin man, Kumar Raj, 37, has been arrested in Italy for murdering his Italian ex-wife Francesca, 57, and her daughter Martina Incocciati, 19, in their home in the village of Flora in Central Italy last Saturday. The Haryana native attacked the two after a dispute over money that he owed Grazia for helping him gain Italian citizenship.
(Comment: (1) hmmm. One has quite often heard of the murky marriage-of-convenience that many Asians resorted to, a short-term "arrangement" whereby the foreigner lady is offered fat monetary incentives in exchange for these Asians getting permanent foreign citizenship. (2) Rumour mills suggest that the Haryana state government must plead their son-of-the-soil's case with the union government for a barter deal with their Italian counterpart to release him in exchange for the two Italian marines…)
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Man to wife: "Do you think I'm getting hotter as I age.. or is it just global warming?"
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Lessons on how to propose…
Sam Sheppard from Monmouthshire, Wales, who was disappointed by her boyfriend's attempt at popping the question, is offering lessons in how to propose.
(Me: wonder if she is offering practical lessons, too…)
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TN politicos and their double face… The Wikileaks revelations…
"US cable credits Jaya with flushing out LTTE from TN
A cable adds that Jaya is an "iron lady" and "even her fiercest critics acknowledge that her aggressive approach went a long way towards pushing the LTTE out of TN"
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A man said to his wife one day, "I don't know how you can be so stupid and so beautiful all at the same time."
The wife responded, "Allow me to explain. God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me; God made me stupid so I would be attracted to you!"
