Mountains and Patterns

This week’s (almost gone) photo challenge was ‘Patterns‘ and A word a week challenge was ‘Mountains’.  Having spent the last few vacations in the mountains I have a whole horde of pictures of beautiful mountains and I decided to combine the two themes. SO here goes–

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

A very interesting challenge this week : Pattern. Patterns are everywhere around us. Nature shows off her patterns everywhere; in plants and in animals. Man created patterns, sometimes plagiarizing nature itself. Today I share with you two patterns that are an intricate part of our lives… or should I say our wardrobe.

These are two very famous styles of Tie-dye patterns of Rajasthan.

The first one is called the ‘Bandhani’ or ‘Bandhej’

A saree in this pattern is a must in every bride’s trousseau.

The second pattern is called ‘the Laheriya’. “Laher” in Hindi means waves and that’s how this print in tie-dye looks.

Sarees in this pattern is a favorite of women, specially during the festivals of the Monsoon(rainy) season.

Weekly Photo challenge:From Above

Summer vacations are here and its time for some relaxation and fun. And the fun grows ten fold when you get to meet your cousins after years. The years in between cease to exist and we just get back as if we were together just yesterday!!

Travel Theme: Dance

This week Ailsa’s theme: Dance. I was waiting for a theme like this, and got my wish.

Kathak is a well known classical dance form of north India. The word ‘Kathak’ is derived from Sanskrit word ‘katha’ which means ‘a story’ and ‘Kathaka’ means ‘one who tells a story’. There are three major schools or ‘gharanas’ of Kathak- the Jaipur Gharana, the Lukhnow Gharana and the Benaras Gharana.

My daughter has been learning Kathak (the Jaipur Gharana) since she was eight years old.

now more than ten years since she started, her course is near completion. One more year and she will get her final graduation degree in Kathak dance.

Recently she performed along with her fellow dancers for the regional branch of the national TV ‘Doordarshan’

and though this picture is a bit shaky, but it the typical Kathak movement, The Chakkars, or the Kathak pirouette.

Weekly Photo Challenge: UP

The pictures here were taken during our trip to Ladakh, and I’m sure they will speak for themselves .

 

 

 

          at Diskit Monastery in Ladakh

32 metre statue of Maitreya Buddha near Diskit Monastery facing down the Shyok River .

 

Ganagour Festival

The third day of the Hindu new year is celebrated as the ‘Ganagour Festival’ in Rajasthan and by all rajasthanis in any part of the world. The festival actually begins from the day following ‘Holi’ and is a sixteen day festival.

During this festival, goddess Parvati (as Ganagour), along with her husband lord Shiva (as Isarji), are worshipped by young girls and women. Young girls pray to the goddess so that they can get a good husband and the married ones pray for the long lives, health and prosperity of their husbands. Women offer prayers for sixteen days or just on the last day as they wish. Newly wed brides have to offer prayers for the duration of the sixteen days. During these sixteen days women get together, and programs are organized which includes a lot of singing and dancing. Ganagour fairs are also organized at many places.

Women apply henna just before the last day of the festival.

The last day is the day when Ganagour goes back to her husband’s home with him.  So women and girls keep a fast, offer prayers to the Ganagour, dress her up, offer sweets and tell each other stories about Ganagour and Isarji.

gathered for the ‘pooja’..

Apart from all the colorful festivities, what I like the most about all our festivals is that how our ancient sages, philosophers and thinkers wove some social message or included an ideal way of life into all our festivals. Here, after the pooja (offering prayers), women tell and listen to stories of Ganagour and Isarji. These stories carry with them messages of how how to lead a happy married life without too many frictions or misunderstandings. They become all the more relevant in India because in India the marriage is not just between two individuals but between two families and the onus of maintaining a happily balanced relationship between the two automatically falls on the women folk.

Here, I’ve shown and written about Ganagour as we celebrate it, and it may differ from region to region. In some places idols of Ganagour and Isarji are worshipped whereas we perform the pooja on a wall painting.

Happy New Year!!!

Today marks the New Year according to the Hindu calender, the ‘Vikram Samvat’ and the year that begins is V.S.2070. The new year falls on the first day of the waxing moon of the month of ‘Chaitra’. This day also marks the first day of the ‘Navratri’ or nine days during which goddess Durga is worshipped. The ninth day or the Navmi is also the birthday of  Lord Ram hence the day is called Ram-navmi. So the new years brings a whole lot of festivities along.

In Rajasthan, the third day of the new year, is celebrated as the ‘Gangour Festival’. This festival is celebrated by the women- folk and is by far one of the most colorful festivals. The women pray to goddess Parvati, the consort of  Lord Shiva and the feminine power of the world (goddess Durga is the warrior incarnate of Parvati to slay the demons and restore balance to the world).

Wishing all a very Happy New Year!!!