In Southern India Pongal is a four-day harvest festival and one of the most joyful events. In Tamil Nadu, newly harvested rice is ceremonially cooked. In Karnataka, the festival is called 'Sankranti', and cows and bullocks are gaily decorated and fed on Pongal, which is a sweet preparation of rice. In the evening, the cattle are led out in procession to the beat of drums and music.
All the four days of Pongal have their own significance as separate deities are worshipped each day.
Anu made savory and sweet pongal for lunch buffet today....delicious, I am going to the festival to see the celebration later on today...will tell you all about it.
What a day.....
My day started with being able to sleep in until 8am....sweet...no practice today....was happy to sleep in a bit as last eve there was a howling dog across the street that woke me up....OMG....she was very dramatic.....Anu quieted her down with a bribe of some bread....did the trick....I must say, I would love to take one of the street dogs home with me.....they are so very sweet and the indians dont treat them very nicely....
I started with a walk to Chakra house for some delicious cardamom coffee, fresh squeezed pineapple juice and a smoothie for breakfast....saw that it was going to be a hot day as the sun was shining bright with not a cloud in the sky so I decided to head to the pool for a bit....was planning to go to the market, however Mahesh (my richshaw driver) said alot of shops were closed because of all the celebrations today....a big harvest day celebration....after a lovely time at the pool with some great conversation and networking exchange with a lovely irish yogi I decided to head home and have lunch at Anu's.....I met a couple of Long Island girls there today, Stacey from Huntington and another gal from plainview (cannot remember her name), also met some other gals from London, Korea, california, portugal, italy....it is amazing the mix of people....they told me about a trip Anu had organized to go to a village to see the harvest celebration and invited me to go...I jumped on the chance....so glad I did as what a special trip it was....It started with about a 30 minute drive out of mysore (with Anu, the owner of the house I am living and the chef amazing chef at the cafe, telling us stories of history as we drove, so intriquing, I felt such beautiful feelings of joy, contentment, peace and happiness) to a village called Vaddara Hally, we were met by the head of the village and so many smiling happy children who love love loved to have their picture taken....it was so interesting to see as they begged to have their pic taken and then look at it on my camera....brought such smiles of pure joy to their faces....the head of the village sayed that we made the children so happy by coming today and taking their pictures....imagine that....the simplest thing brought such joy and appreciation to their hearts....we were guided by the head of the village to walk around the village to explore this way of life.....we were welcomed into their homes which they seemed to have such pride for.....so clean, so simple.....I felt so fascinated and curious about this village....such simplicity, such innocence....we were guided to the head of the villages home for some delicious lemon water, cookies and bananas....such a sweet simple home with a beautiful prayer room for puja....had an experience with my first very simple indian toilet....easy...no problem, very simple no waste....the people are very conscious about waste and conserving....makes me think about the states and how we are such a wasteful, unconscious society....sad....not everyone that is....I know for me, how I grew up, my parents were conscious about waste, instilled in us the importance of conserving...one of the things I value in what they taught me....recyclye, compost, re-use....at the time it was annyoying, however now I can appreciate it....
Giving and receiving help us enter the river of spirit that connects us to each other. To give to others to feel the joy of creation spilling from us... To receive is to be humbled, to shed our ego and allow another person to penetrate our barriers. We let them know they matter to us, Our receptive heart becomes a gift to the giver....When love moves through our hearts, tears may rise....joyful tears....love flushes out everything that is buried....
By being open to the children I saw today....giving them a photo, watching the joy and laughter on there faces as they looked at the photo....was one of the purest ways I have every felt giving and receiving.....such tears of joy in my heart....I am truly blessed by this experience.....
I love what you write in the end. I am not so gifted with words, but you speak whats in my heart. Thank you Lorna.
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