Ramnavami and Bangalore...

Yesterday was Sri Ramnavami and during this time, entire Bangalore is geared up for celebrating the birth of Lord Sree Rama. The festival is marked by the distribution of diluted butter-milk ,lemonade and lentil salad. Pandals ae put up and pujas are held. Awesome season,spring afterall!! Our city resounds with Carnatic music during this time and the concert season in Bangalore now is comparable to the December season in Chennai.

To my knowledege, there are about 10 Sabhas all over the city. The most popular are Fort High School Grounds,Chamarajpet and the Seshadripuram College Grounds. To perform here is a matter of honour. It is amazing to see tradtion being continued for more than 75 years out in these places.

For me personally,this is the day on which my dear grandpa was born. He lived life like the Lord himself,simple and unassuming. I love the smell of mango leaves,the butter-milk and jasmine. This used to be the time our summer vacation would begin. I recall how we would sleep really late and when we woke up, th sun would be blazing hot and the house would be full of bright light.The scent of summer is characterised by various flowers that blossom at this time.

During the evening,it would always be music. Getting well dressed and going upto the venue, meeting old aquaintances,making new friends whom I term as casette buddies has always been the nicest part of my life. I started attending these concerts about 17 years ago. This part of my life has been one of the best,I can claim. During the years when I just started to appreciate Carnatic music,these venues gave me some brilliant music in the form of Maharajapuram Santhanam, Nedanuri Krishnamurthy,Yesudas,Sanjay Subramanyam ,Sudha Raghunathan,Nityasree Mahadevan ,Sowmya,Mysore Nagaraj and Manjunath,Prof T N Krishnan including the greatest M S Subbulakshmi. Unfortunately, I heard the divine voice in person only once, the year was 1992 I guess.

Today my life is a lot different from then. The concerts have got diversified,more sabhas have sprung up, I have become too busy to attend many concerts,my life and interests have also broadened,etc, in short, I can say life is more complex!! The job,the car,the friends,the fun,the relationships,expectations,downfalls,shocks,thrills,let-downs,most importantly the ego - each of these have succeeded in moving my life away from what I term simple. But every year,come spring and the birthday of Lord Sree Rama, atleast for a month or so, am taken back to that life of simplicity,of good old music,of tradition only to be reminded of the core value system Hinduism has.

There is a big black-hole in my living inspite of the job,car,money,friends,fun and my pursuits. I have been doing things I like and wanting to do for years now. I have succeded in some and failed miserably in others. The hole seems to get wider by the day and at times it appears to engulf me. I have tried to dig at the root cause of this void (in a typical s/w enginner style) only in vain. Just a couple of days ago, the final nail was hit which left me in a state of shock and clueless about my priorities in life. Sitting down and taking stock of the situation,I realized that the only thing missing in my existence was 'SPIRITUALITY' and it is a big thing. It is the only thing that answers every question I pose. It is the only thing that makes me truly happy. For,it has nothing to do with people. It is a wondeful connection to a long lost space in this vast universe called 'Atma', in other words to the ONE residing in there! I realize that if I indulge in this, I will be happier no matter what other pursuits of the world fail. And the best thing about this is, it is not a replacement for whatever materialistic,instead, it is a way of interpreting every materialistic pursuit!!

Somehow Lord Rama still has his effects on us after so many years, what ?

peace-knocking-at-my-door
-Rekha