Shinto is the dominant religion in Japan, though it is more of a way of life than a way to worship.Visitors to Shinto shrines can purchase small wooden plaques called ema, upon which they can share their hopes and dreams. Then, they hang them amongst other ema from people who have come before them, in the hopes that spirits will grant their wish This week, show us a wish.
“World without hatred
And violence of all kinds
A wish we all wish.
Quiet and a serene life
A wish that is but a dream.”
The serene waters of the lake in our place makes me wish that life everywhere could be as serene. A dream, no doubt, but we can always wish.
The Daily Post Photo Challenge : Wish
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Two harmonium players, Chaitanya Kunte from Maharashtra, and Ravindra Katoti from Bangalore had come. They talked about the harmonium and also played it. They said the harmonium came to India from outside and in the early years it was not accepted by musicians. But over the years it has become an integral part of any music concert. Kuvara did not come for other sessions because we did not want to leave amma alone the whole day.
All the sessions were very interesting. Writers from Tibet, Bhutan, and from our north eastern states had come. We came to know so much from them. The session with the Bhutanese writer, Kunzang Choden and the Tibetan writer Tenzin Tsundue was moderated by Aravinda’s friend, Chintan. Aravinda and Chintan studied MA and MPhil at the same time in EFLU, Hyderabad. On the 9th, Chintan stayed with us. He returned to Bombay on the 10th morning. He and his parents live in Malad.
Sushama Deshpande spoke about Tamasha and Lavani, it was very enlightening. There is a Hindi Literary society called Goonj in Manipal. Its members mainly students who are studying in engineering college. Their poetry recital was very good. Aravind and I met them later and told them we really appreciated their recitation. It was nice to listen to people whom I had not even heard of.
(The Tibetan writer, Tenzin Tsundue, my son Aravinda, he is Assistant professor in the Department of European studies and his friend Chintan who moderated the session)
Yesterday my friend from Asare sent some photos of the Teacher’s Day celebration in a special school Spandana. Teachers in Asare had been practising a song and a folk dance. She told me it went of well. Every year Teacher’s Day is celebrated in different special schools and there are cultural events. Teachers from Asare always take part with great enthusiasm.
Aravinda did not have to take German classes during m.i.l.a.p but now he will have to take classes on Saturdays too. Yesterday evening after leaving him in his college, we went to the Syndicate bank training college grounds for a walk. Amma walked one round. Our friend, Mrs Sudha Rao was there, she walked only one round and said she was feeling very tired. She is 80 plus. Sometime she feels sad that she is not able to walk as much as she used to. We sat there for some time watching the changing colours of the sky as the sun was setting. It looks so beautiful.
After returning from there, I made ‘pathrode’ for tomorrow’s breakfast. My neighbour, Rekha gave me the ‘kesavina soppu’ (colocasia leaves). I will make ‘oggarane’ tomorrow. We all like it and Aravinda likes it very much. It is now 8.15, Aravinda will be back home at 8.45 from his German classes.
Yesterday one of our neighbours’ celebrated the 75th birthday of their mother. They had invited many of the their relatives and friends for lunch. Their house is near our house. In the evening we all went to Endpoint for a walk. Kuvara and Aravinda went ahead. Amma was able to walk almost to the end. There are seats there. She was very happy that she could walk till there. From End point road we can see Swarna river flowing towards Arabian sea. On weekdays Aravinda has his German classes from 6 to 8.30. At 4.30 he and I go for a walk near our home for 25 minutes.
Boating is a prominent pastime in all the lakes. Near Saathtaal we had lunch in one of the lakeside hotels called Lucky restaurant. Sahil recommended this place because they serve vegetarian food. The food was very tasty. We saw rotis being baked in the tandoor. We decided to taste rice kheer which was very tasty.
Then we set off to the next lake. On the way purchased balmithai to take back with us. We reached Bhimtaal at 4.15. Here we enjoyed boating on the waters, which were surprisingly not cold at all. The boatman said he had been in this occupation for more than thirty years. There was a small island with a building which housed an aquarium. But we did not go there.
From there we went on and reached Naukuchia lake at 5.15. The word Naukuchia means nine corners. We sat by the side of the lake for half an hour watching people enjoying adventure activities on the lake.
At 6.30 we stopped to drink tea at roadside hotel. The tea was hot and very tasty. While waiting for the tea we watched with fascination water pouring out of a pipe on the other side of the road. It was from a natural spring. People were stopping to drink water, and others were cleaning their cars collecting water in their cans.
In cities there is shortage of water but here there is a surplus of the resource. People do not worry about this because they say it flows back into rivers.
After dinner we caught our bus to Manipal at 10.45. We reached home at 8.30 on the 20th morning. Fortunately the bus driver stopped very near our home. It was raining. Fortunately it was a two minute walk to our home. It was good to be back.
