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.

Happy Saraswati Poojai and Vijayadasami everyone!