a post, post-lunch

I’m back from lunch. It’s one of those days when my regular lunch partner has taken leave. Eating lunch alone can be a boring/ fun activity depending on how one wants to look at it. I, for one, don’t find it boring. Not that I enjoy eating alone, just that I don’t mind.
‘Main aur meri tanhayi…aksar yeh baatein kiya karte hain…‘ 😀

I prefer walking to the food court, which is the common eating area for the 4 odd companies housed here in the campus, as opposed to eating at our exclusive-for-MT-employees teeming cafeteria. Apart from being spacious and well-aired, there is definitely more scope for observation.

The tables occupied by the various types of crowds, with the clatter of plates and the chatter of voices is a perfect setting for half an hour of entertained and interesting musing. The snatches of conversation , in different tongues – random but still comprehensible; the odours of cuisines floating down from the counters, which with luck, will be something you like; the stranded pieces of your favourite song playing on WorldSpace that you strain to hear over the din or the occasional non-Himesh Reshammiya videos seeking your attention on the TV sets… and of course the people – as varied as it can get, with their interesting looks/ airs/ actions/ dressing… it is an amalgamation of scenes which forms an intriguing collage to keep you occupied.

And if these obvious sources still fail to distract you, as it sometimes happens on a particularly hot and irritable day, there are always your thoughts that you can fall back upon – loyally dogged they are. As a bonus, you enjoy the luxury of having these all to yourself; who can guess the millions of muses that flit across your mind in seconds or the wacky and cunning one-liners you come up with, in an imaginary conversation you’re part of? Who knows what ideas are being bandied about, behind those ostensibly innocent eyes and expressions which seem to savour only the food in front? Aren’t you secretly glad that you’re not heard? 😀

I completely agree that lunch is the perfect setting for a stimulating argument/ debate, but eating alone is no-sweat too – especially if the alternative is being a mute spectator in a group where the conversation is as interesting as yesterday’s newspaper! 😀

Rant

Words – they spell doom.
They are the nemesis for human existence. More often than not, they are these seemingly harmless disguised carriers of misery.
If you come to think of it , aren’t these the seeds from which sprout the saplings of hurt, misunderstanding, bad vibes, anxiety, dejection, sadness which grow on to spread their roots and thrive as jealousies, hatred, sorrow, tears, depression…?

Speech is silver, silence is golden – it is said… wish all of mankind could be made deaf and mute; atleast that way we’d keep our thoughts and opinions to ourselves! 😦

Shivaratri special!

Today is Maha Shivaratri – the day when Lord Shiva is worshipped with special fervour. Several characteristic means of worship mark this day with people fasting the whole day and staying up the entire night, praying and singing bhajans in praise of the lord.

For me, the day brings memories of the small temple near my parental home. This otherwise non-descript temple – one among the several little ones that spring up in a locality, gets completely transformed on this day. The festivities begin a week in advance, with the temple premises being thoroughly cleaned with all nooks and corners scrubbed and shiny. The deities are given special baths and decked with various adornments each day. The small gopuram and the temple structure with the compound and surrounding roads are set ablaze with serial lights and there is a general air of excitement all around.

Visiting the temple on this day for the lord’s darshan is never an easy task. People start thronging the place right from dawn and this continues throughout the day. One has got to plan to time one’s visit to avoid the crowds. I remember this used to be a tedious affair during my engineering days, inevitably this would be around the time when we’d have our semester exams and I would be in the throes of exam-anxiety. One such year, the temple visit had taken an inordinately long time and I remember it was excruciating – waiting in the queue thinking about the chapters to be covered and all the while feeling guilty that it was wrong to think about my time being wasted when I was there for the lord’s darshan! I would fervently pray for my exams to go well 😀

This is also the day when the differences in the social strata are blurred, albeit temporarily. People – rich and poor, high and low are treated equal. The temple is graced by the political luminaries and dignitaries from the surrounding MLA layout; the ministers choose to walk down with their families for a special pooja and darshan and what’s more, nobody is in awe of them on the occasion 😀
As the day progresses preparations are made for the nightly celebrations and ‘jaagarane’. A pandal is put up at the back of the temple and TV and music systems with big speakers are set up. People start settling in to spend the night singing bhajans and songs. I never really got to know what the TV was for; probably some devotional movies are played over the night. Though the music with the blaring speakers are a nuisance for the surrounding neighbours people do take this liberty once a year.
I don’t remember staying up the whole night anytime, but yes exam times would inevitably see me up till late nights – I would call it studies cum jaagarane!

Finally, on a lighter note, my earliest memory of Shivaratri jaagarane is quite funny. I remember accompanying my dad to a nearby tent to watch a movie of Baby Shamili named Durga or something of the sort. Well now, neither does the tent exist at the place nor is Shamili a baby anymore!! 😀

Wish you all a very happy Shivaratri! 🙂