September 27, 2009

e- Saraswati poojai

Happy Saraswati Poojai to all of you. For the uninitiated, this is the second-last day of Navarathri (Dussera) on which the Goddess of knowledge, Saraswati is honoured by a festive celebratory prayer/poojai. It is typical for people to place their study books, work-related material, musical instruments, bank documents and anything else that they need prosperity in, in front of a picture/idol of the Goddess and pray for prosperity. Other than that, pooja is performed for all vehicles and utility devices to pray for their running smoothly. This is part of the ‘Ayudha Pooja’. That apart, this is a very important day for kids too. Guess why? It’s the official break from study! Yes indeed… one is not ‘supposed’ to study on this day while giving the Goddess a break for one day a year while otherwise constantly seeking Her blessings to study well and perform well at school/work. As kids, this was a great day to celebrate. The parents gave us a voluntary break from the whole – ‘Go to your room and study for the semester exams’ sermon. In fact we were encouraged to see TV, catch up on the phone, play games and what not, while being served yummy feast including payasam, vadai, sundal and what not. Ah bliss… of course everyone knew that the break was for exactly one day. because the day after Saraswati Poojai is Vijayadasami; And that’s the most auspicious day of the year to start something anew. It is traditional to do a bit of everything you want to/have to do on this day because there is a traditional belief that you will continue doing whatever it is that you do on Vijayadasami for the rest of the year. Typically in south India, classes (music/dance/cultural) are begun on this day for it’s auspicious nature. And hence, we had to study, paint/sing/dance/blah etc on this day and it was just as full as activity as Saraswati poojai was void.

While back home in Chennai the celebrations remain traditional, living in Paris means having to improvise. So that means that the shlokas are crooning off Youtube. The only photo of Saraswati we have is the current desktop wallpaper (only just downloaded from the Internet). So the velakku (diya) is lit in front of the laptop which currently serves as a photo frame, the incense sticks shown to it (and also thus performing the poojai for the laptop as an ayudham (utility) – orey kallula rendu maanga (multipurpose single move), hehe). The prasadams (Pal payasam and vadai) are placed in front of this, so are the books, cheque books, housing lease and whatever other papers that could be found along with contraptions such as the cell phone, PS3, etc. This is the age of the e-poojai.

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Happy Saraswati Poojai and Vijayadasami everyone!

12 comments:

Googler said...

So cute! Good girl :)

krish said...

Happy Saraswathi pooja to you also. Where are the pics of the paysam and the vada??

Anonymous said...

Nice idea. Great improvisation!
-RATS

Jaya said...

Googler->Thanks man. :)

Krish-> It would be redundant boasting don't you think? :( I have posted pics in the past. lol. And this gives excuse for people to "search" my blog and find these random recipes. :)

Rats-> Thanks Rathish! :). Keep visiting!

Musing Gal said...

Wonderful.. I ended up keeping the kolu here :) this reminds me of the picture I printed of the net overnight for the Onam.
Happy Navarathri!

GeekGrl said...

I love the new term :). e-Poojai. The Siddhivinayak temple has already been allowing its devotees to do somethingsimilar - but no one has contributed to the lexicon in such a way :).

Jaya said...

Musing Gal-> Winderful.. you kept golu!! Been wanting to do that. but then i'd have to invite myself for vettrilaipaaku and give it to myself. Lol. Thanks for the comment. Happy Navrathri to you too!

The Muse-> Thank you thank you. Some meagre contribution to the endlessly expanding dictionary of english words. Thanks for the comment n keep visiting!

Madhumathi said...

now i know someone in ur household works for Motorola....
after looking at tht pic, i terribly felt like gifting u a photo of the Goddess!!

I still like the traditional way of doing things!!

Jaya said...

Madhumathi-> Thank you. Yes I agree traditional ways are the best ways. But don't you think it's better to do something like this than not do anything at all? That said, I would welcome a gift of the Goddess picture. Do you need my postal address?:D Thanks for the comment n keep visiting!

Madhumathi said...

i really dont mind sending it to u... i can well send a calendar of sorts which would have most of our Gods/Godesses... so u could use it for many of our festivals.

But do u trust me to gimme ur address ;)??

GeekGrl said...

Okay - I'm confused. I was trying to figure out how you posed the laptop.Caant see the keyborad - cant see a frame around the screen. So question is how? how? how?

Jaya said...

Madhumathi->Hehe.. That's a good point. But well, I still maintain that something's better than nothing. :)

The Muse->Hahaha.. My laptop converts into a real sleek tablet. it's folded all the way backward (so the keyboard is behind it);) Smart, huh? :)

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