A Really Strange Festival- Bhunda Narmedh Mahayajna

I came across this video via Indiamike. I was looking at some information about festivals in India and that is where this thread cropped up. If you follow the video links from Indiamike, there is a part 1 of this video too. It has so much (for me) animal slaughter on camera! Ihave to admit, I closed my eyes and peered between the fingers to see if we are on to something else. And I am not embedding it too.

Here is a description of the festival taken from the Tribune newspaper.

In the freezing heights of Bachoonch village in the prosperous apple belt of the Spail valley, Bhunda mahayajna stole the thunder on Christmas. More than 70,000 people thronged the village, 9 km from Rohru town, to watch this death-defying rope trick held there to please the local deities after a gap of 70 years. For locals, the Bhunda practice is nothing unusual in fact, for them it is as old as the hills. But for strangers, the rope trick was a crazy ritual that could have plunged Kunwar Singh, a traditional ‘Beda’ man, into the jaws of death had he fallen from the rope into the deep nullah.

But he did not. Kunwar performed the rope trick for the eighth time. Interestingly, if Kunwar, who belongs to Lohar caste (family of silversmiths) performs the rope trick 19 times, his family will become twice born — Dvij, the Brahmins. Bhunda narmedh (human sacrifice) mahayajna went almost unnoticed all these years.

Happy Holi!

Wish you all a very happy Holi. This is my tall nephew (Brat 1, Brat 2 is giving 12th board exams) and small niece playing Holi.

It has been ages since I played Holi. I don't know how it happened but somewhere along the way, I have completely stopped playing Holi. Like this time, I did not go anywhere near the colors.

Only at office we had a small get together. There too I kept standing quietly. Only when one of the senior professors put colors on our foreheads I too reciprocated. Some of the color sticked to my hands and instead of properly putting it on someone's face (there were four people sitting next to me) I was looking for something to wipe it off! I politely asked a young colleague who was wearing a white shirt that was already colored, "can I wipe my hands on your shirt?" He let me do that!

Next time at Holi, I am going to relive one of my wilder years (not that I was really wild ever) and play Holi like my nephew and niece are doing above.

Christmas Carols with Kids from Ujwal Niketan

We had the pleasure of meeting the kids from Ujwal Niketan (All India Ujwal Charitable, Trust Ujwal Niketan 2096/4, Gurgaon Haryana -12201. It is run by two awesome ladies, both named Sister Lily) as they were in the Christmas mood. The kids filled an entire room and suddenly the room did not feel so cold in the Delhi winter. I think after school (and that was ages ago), yesterday was the first time I met the Santa Claus again!

Santa Claus: Hmm, I Know your Name Now!

These five young brats (with one sister Lily in the background) played the Christmas carols on violin and how well they play. And I think I have a reason to take a little bit of extra pride in that. My husband teaches violin to the kids every Sunday morning when we are in town.

PS. The first pictures from my new DSLR that I have put on my blog. I know, if I would not have said this, no one would have noticed the difference. The date with the Canon manual cannot be postponed beyond today or else it is going to become my holiday reading and I would hate that.

Deepawali Thoughts!

May there be light! And may we all travel more!

Ayudha Pooja in Bangalore

I was in Bangalore just before the Dusshera festival. On the 9th (or is it the 8th day?) I saw many vehicles decorated with banana leaves and flowers.

Vehicles get Decorated for Ayudh Pooja in Bangalore

I was quite surprised as I have not seen something on this scale in North India. I was told this is called Ayudha Pooja where people worship their means of living. I found the way of celebration quite interesting.

Vehicles in jainagar at Ayudha Pooja, Bangalore

Then the other day we were going to a place through quite narrow by lanes, when we came across this procession. My brother-in-law was driving the car and we had to pull aside. I immediately got down and started clicking pictures.

From the Bylanes of Bangalore

I had been discussing my plans for buying a new camera all around and my brother-in-law said "if you are this crazy, you should buy a digital SLR!" Amen to that.