Bandra fair

I have been staying in Bandra for the past six years and each year , the first week of September becomes a nightmare for commuting even within Bandra. Reason being the ever increasing crowd coming to Bandra around this time for Mt. Mary fest. I have seen devotees walking to St.Mary's church at Shivaji Nagar, Bangalore too. But since the apartment I stayed at Bangalore was not on the main thoroughfare to the church , I never realised how inconvenient this time of the year could be for the residents of the area. Bandra , for instance , is dominated by Christian community residents and even they resent the crowd coming to the fair. It has been increasing each year, and I can't imagine how worse it could get in another decade.
Other than thinking that its a nuisance for the residents, I never gave much thought to the faith or the importance of the occassion itself and till this year, I didn't even think of visiting the church just to see what attracts so much crowd. My interest in churches has thus far been only as a tourist and nothing more.

But, thanks to my friend, who pulled me out of my nest this year and forced me to walk to the church and see and experience the fest. Initially I was scared as to how long it could take to enter the church. It was a Saturday evening, and the weekend crowd was close to few lakhs. But I was pleasantly surprised that it was very much organized and the police and church security were doing a great job. Another pleasant factor was that we had to queue up along the road parallel to the sea front and we experienced a nice , cool breeze and there was hardly any discomfiture despite standing in the queue for close to an hour. In fact , I started enjoying the sea breeze after a while and vowed to come back regularly for evening walks around that area.  Then , I saw people buying wax idols from the shops along the road to give as offering. I got curious, and enquired what they were for. The shopkeeper told me that if a family member suffers from some ailment, we can buy a wax idol representing the ailment, for example, a heart shaped idol for heart patients, kidney shaped idol for kidney ailments, and various kinds of body parts can be given as offering. All of a sudden, I remembered my mother in law asking me to buy a eye shaped offering sold in amman temples in south and give it as an offering for my husband's eye problem.
I realised that I had not done that, and I immediately bought a pair of eye shaped wax idol and offered it at the church. Maybe this was the purpose that drew me to the church. Whether it is "Mary amma" or "Mariamma", it is the faith with which we make the offering that matters is the lesson I learnt this week.

Diamonds are forever! Really?

I am a big fan of the television serial big bang theory, especially of the science geek Sheldon! In one of the episodes he goes to buy diamonds for his girlfriend and he is aghast that they are expensive. His argument is "how can the carbon which I buy locally everyday is so cheap and just slightly rearranged and polished carbon , that is diamonds, are so expensive?".
There lies a lesson for all of us..... in particular the tambrahm community which still thinks that a wedding is incomplete without diamond studs being gifted to the bride(of course not by the groom's family , but by the bride's parents!).
First item of discussion between mamas and mamis in a family on hearing the news of a wedding being fixed is whether or not diamond studs have been demanded and which place is the best one to buy, how one has to check the doshams for the stones etc, etc. They seem to know more about the diamonds and also ways to find fault with the choice others have made.

  There are scores of middle class girls in tambrahm community whose wedding is delayed just for the reason that the parents cannot afford to buy a pair of diamond studs. What a shame! even the so called educated grooms don't realise that diamonds are just a form of carbon and can become ash in no time. The utlimate goal of a middle class tambrahm family is that of buying diamond for their daughter and this ranks next only to owning a house. I just hope and pray that future in laws of my daughters realize that diamonds are not forever and have the magnanimity to accept them for what they are!