Celebrating festivals

"Why is that we celebrate festivals" - This has been a thought wandering in my mind for quite some time. Thought of extending it more and blog it.

The snap I have here is of my daughter, Anagha handing over "yellu" to her grandmother. This is the usually traditional practise (in Bangalore, and if you were to be localite of Bangalore) to exchange "yellu" during the festival of "Sankranthi". Usually more popular among the girls, as they go around the neighbourhood during the evenings, sharing "yellu" and taking blessing from the elders. Being a boy, my only job was only to eat "yellu", particularly the collection we would get from the neighbour hood.

Some how this year it ended up being very different. My wife, Supriya took all the pains of preparing it fresh at home (as against to picking up from Malleshwaram, which is such a easy job). On the festive day, we followed all the rituals of pooja and began our trip of visiting relatives in the city. As Anagha loves travelling and meeting people, she was in an exciting mood the whole day. We just loved seeing her handing over our "yellu" and collecting them (was more happier while collecting).

The day ended with a good dinner (with all the specials sweets that was cooked at home) and a little sense of acheivement as parents.

Until Anagha was born (or until I got married), the pattern was so different from what we did that day. Supriya and I had put in all our efforts doing what all our parents did when we were kids. And I guess this is one of the easy ways of passing our culture and tradition to the new generation and (also) enjoying the same.

Running into my memories of Avedat, Israel

I was going through some of the snaps I had taken during my visit to Israel in 2004. This one posted here is taken in the deserts of southern Israel, in a place called Avedat.

Avedat was one of the key stops for the traders who travelled by the Spice Route (Route taken by traders for getting spices into Europe from India).
The residents of Avedat knew the desert very well and were the one who were guiding the traders in the desert. . Over a period of time, this places grew to become one of the key trading region in the areas of Israel.

As of today, this is just a tourist spot in the middle of the desert. One can see houses carved out in the moutain, and remains of a fortress on the top. There is a video (with English subtitles) at the tourist center giving an insight into the history.

This picture is taken in one of the houses carved in the mountain. Transition is one word that I can think of, seeing this picture. (Tuely reflecting my current phase, as I prepare for a long term assignment to US.)