varalakshmi vratam


so i decide to postpone the vratam for today. Got the whole house on a roll, shouted, screamed and blackmailed everyone to chip in, cleaned the multitude of spots on the carpet, set up the pooja area last night. And donno what got into me, I opened up the phone book and called people whom I haven’t spoken to in a while.

got up in the morning, and a mad rush again – for the CD. Found the cassette with the puja on it, and the tape’s all twisted. Okay! so, what do i do, but turn to my good pal for help.

Type “varalakshmi vratam” in the small google search, and it handed me on a platter multitude of links, that I could download or listen to the whole puja. so, d/l i did, and finished the nombu. I told this to a couple of pals who think am a little too much of a scatterbrain and a lil too hi-fi to resort to teh internet for the religious ritual.
But then, look at it this way, for a person like me, I take less time finding things by googling them, than by searching through my filing. Even to the extent that i hardly have any bookmarks on my system. Why bother?

Varalakshmi puja always scared me. it just seemed to be too long, and too tedious as a kid. Now, the realplayer says it is 51.00 mts. That ain’t bad at all.

A fresh-of-the-boat friend exclaims ‘wow, u guys do it so well’ – well, there’s no reason not to, when even the puja is being streamed down to you, when betel leaves are sold 10/$1 and coconuts are found aplenty.
Either way, this year was good. I feel good at least. My k1 voluntarily woke up, showered, dressed in a kurta and jeans, raced and joined me in the puja. She closed her eyes and bowed her head with serious intensity.

It felt all worth it.

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5 replies on “varalakshmi vratam”
  1. says: Usha

    Hey good! I think when you have grown up with certain functions it seems so important to be able to do it as “it used to be” at mom’s place. And it must be a real challenge to do it in a foreign land ( vethalai at 10/$ huh! I could faint!!) May be you should have a creeper in a pot!!!
    And it is nice when we can give the kids a flavour of our traditions and culture right? Wish you had posted some photos too!

  2. says: Baliga

    religious (read family) functions are not my forte.. but there is some peace found in faith, that reassures us all. 😉 and add to that a family willing to participate and you have a kodak moment.

  3. says: rads

    Usha – It’s so easy to follow than to lead, and by that I mean, it’s so much easier to join the festivities when everyone is doing it. Here, we have to bring it from within, and mostly the burden lies with the mom. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt 🙂

    archana – your age you have the freedom to be responsible for yourself alone, at mine, I have my kids – so sometimes we gotta do what we feel is right, whether we like it or not. It’s their choice what they do when they are all grown up. 🙂

    deepa – hehe, yep. what do we do without google? 🙂

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