Birthday- The Christian way

Yesterday I attended a birthday party with my wife in our society/Apartment. We hardly know the family and rarely interacted with them in last 1 year but as a custom, invitations are sent to every flat no. 

It was the 1^st birthday of the child nick named as Cherry. The reason I decided to write a post is that I have never come across such a party. 

Party started with the head of the family announcing that we will going to start the meeting in next few minutes. It confuses me when he mentioned the word meeting. The meeting started with a short prayer in Telegu which we hardly understand. Then he invited priest for sharing something religious on this such as wonderful occasion. The priest delivered the very enlightening session for the next 15 minutes. 

He discussed why the God wants everyone to become childlike. He shares some of the amazing qualities of the children that we all should try to inculcate in our life. He explained each of the quality further in detail. Various qualities he mentioned:

1. Simple faith which is not supported by the complex logic of the mind
2. Honesty
3. Forgiving
4. Do not wear the mask/  they are not hypocrite
5. Hunger to learn and curiosity 

After that there was a cake cutting ceremony and post which, priest/father asked each of us to close our eyes, raise our right hand towards the child and give him our blessings for 2 minutes. I have never seen anything like this in a birthday party. I was really enjoying the party.

In last, head of the family asked the parents of the child to give a vote of thanks to all of us who have taken precious time out of their schedule to attend the party and everyone was asked for the dinner. 

It was very simple party and there were lot of things to learn from it. In North India, birthday parties are incomplete without DJ, without everybody dancing, all halla gulla. Also, here the people were dressed in a very simple manner. Also, we never offer prayer like this in birthday party which we should do, however there is lot of show off in north Indian parties.

I truly enjoy this down to earth party with my wife.

Trip to Mallikarjun in Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh - Part 1

This post is about our recent trip to Mallikarjun which is one of the twelve Jyothirlingas of Lord Shiva situated at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh state.

Let me also list down all the 2 jyothirlingas to avoid the confusion between various other Shiva temples and to assist you if you already started recalling them on your fingers.

S. No	List of 12 Jyotirlingas	Status if visited (Yes)
1	Rameshwar Jyotirlinga	Yes
2	Mallikarjun in Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh	Yes
3	Bhimashankar, Near Pune in Maharashtra
4	Trimbakeshwar in Nasik, Maharashtra	Yes
5	Grishneshwar, Near Aurangabad in Maharashtra	Yes
6	Mahakaleshwar in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh
7	Omakareshwar in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh
8	Nageshwar in Dwarka, Gujarat
9	Somanath in Gujarat
10	Vishweshwar Jyotirlinga, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh	Yes
11	Baidyanth in Jharkhand
12	Kedarnath in Uttaranchal

By the grace of god, I was lucky enough to visit the 5 jyotirlinga, however, only 3 are covered as travelogue in this blog. 

8^th August 2013

Our journey was started at 6:30 am in Toyota Innova from our flat near Kondapur, Hyderabad. We were 5 members, me, my wife and parents in law and brother in law. The weather was cloudy and perfect for the road trip. Our driver was kind of maniac and drove very fast. After driving at average speed of 120km/hr at 40 km long toll, he gave a glimpse of what is in store for us in the remaining part of journey. This speed was calculated by toll plaza only and was mentioned in the toll bill. 

Our first stoppage was at check post when we were about to enter the forest. We have already covered the 150 km and reached at the slopes of Nallamala hills. The next 70 km drive through the forest was very interesting, full of excitement of spotting the animals but apart from numerous monkeys on the road and Boards enlightening the visitor about the importance of flora and fauna, we didn’t find anything. It was, however, expected. The greenery, road, weather was perfect. It was one of the beautiful tracks that I have covered in my life. The complete track was covered with trees on both the sides and forming a sort of canopy providing us a shade. There was endless picturesque and a very good place to spend some time in lap of nature.  I want to cover this track slowly but the driver was driving at 100 km/hr beside the Policeman warning that killing any monkey will attract a fine of 5000 and any other species/animals will be dealt on case to case basis. There were some truly amazing views of the distant roads hidden amidst the mountains while ascending the valley. Road safari packages were also available which will take you inside the core of the forest, however, we were not here for any adventurous trip, and rather it was a spiritual trip.

 Click here to read part 2

Lines that touched my heart-1

I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least—and it is commonly more than that—sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements. You may safely say, A penny for your thoughts, or a thousand pounds. When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shopkeepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon, but all the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so many of them—as if the legs were made to sit upon, and not to stand or walk upon—I think that they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago.--Walking, by Henry David Thoreau