Stories from Ancient India: Lord Ganesh

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These days BB and GG have been asking me stories from the Indian Mythology. This new obsession for them is due to the number of books they’ve been reading on this subject and hence they want new stories about the various Gods and Goddesses. These stories are not new or original, but have been passed down from parents and grandparents to children for the last thousands of years. These are my versions of the stories my grandmother and mother told me which I am retelling to my children, thus keeping the chain of oral traditions alive.

Lord Ganesh Pulls a Fast one on his Brother

One day Lord Shiva was relaxing in Mount Kailash with his wife Goddess Parvati and sons, Lord Ganesh and Lord Kartikeya. Suddenly the sage Narada Muni appeared before Lord Shiva and prayed his obeisance to him. Now the sage Narada was known to cause mischief wherever he goes and it looked like this was also going to be one of these times. Narada had a golden mango in his hands which he gave to Lord Shiva.

Shiva was surprised and asked Narada, “Why have you come so far to Mount Kailash just to give me this mango?”. “This is no ordinary mango” Narada replied, “This is the golden mango of knowledge and whoever eats this mango will be granted eternal knowledge and wisdom. However, there is a condition to eating this fruit” he warned. Lord Shiva, who was in the process of cutting the fruit into four pieces stopped and muttered, “I should have known. If Narada gives something to someone, it has to come with some conditions and I am sure, there is some mischief also afoot”. “Tell me Narada, what is the condition to eating this fruit” Lord Shiva asked Narada. With a smirk on his face, Narada replied, “This fruit has to be eaten by only one person”

While Narada was explaining to Shiva about the fruit, Parvati, Ganesh and Kartikeya appeared there. When the boys saw the golden mango, each wanted to eat it. Both the boys wanted to prove that they were superior and hence should eat the fruit. Shiva was frustrated as he did not want to be partial to one son over the other and neither did Parvati. So they decided to repay Narada with a tactic of their own. “Boys, Sage Narada will decide who gets the mango” Shiva intoned, passing the buck to the person responsible for all this in the first place. Narada was caught in the trap of his own making and so tried to get out of this by saying, “Boys, the person who covers the world three times first will get this fruit”.

Even before Narada finished saying these words, Kartikeya jumped into his vehicle, a peacock and was soon out of sight. Ganesh remained where he was with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Ganesh, child, aren’t you going to go around the world?” a worried Parvati asked her son. “Wait, Mother, let me think” replied Ganesh.

At this point, Kartikeya zoomed past them shouting, “I’ve finished one round, Ganesh get yourself off the ground and atleast start, I don’t want to win just like that!” Kartikeya was 100% sure he would win. His vehicle was the peacock as against that of the lowly mouse that Ganesh had and he had already completed one round while Ganesh was still sitting in Mount Kailash.

By this time Ganesh had decided what he would do to win this competition. Just as he started to get up and move, Kartikeya zoomed past shouting that this was his second round complete and he just had one more round to win.

Ganesh slowly made his way to his parents and bowed low before them. He then started circling his parents three times. Shiva and Parvati were perplexed and asked Ganesh, “Child, you were supposed to circle the world, so why are you circling us instead?”. The answer they got surprised and impressed them for Ganesh replied, “You, my parents are my universe and my whole world. So if I circle you, it means that I have circled the entire world”. Saying this, he finished his third circle just as Kartikeya reached Mount Kailash after finishing his third trip across the world.

“I won, I won”, yelled Kartikeya. “Ganesh, you are still here, while I have circled the world three times”.

“No my son”, said Lord Shiva, “Ganesh is the winner”.

“But how, he was still  here when I finished all three rounds”, asked Kartikeya with a pout.

Lord Shiva explained what Ganesh did and handed over the fruit to him. Kartikeya was upset that his brother had pulled a fast one over him, but he could do nothing as what Ganesh did was absolutely right and had proved to be much more intelligent than him.

Chica learns something new

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Every day, around 4 pm, Chica could be found at the window of her room. She would be in for about an hour and when she came out, she would be in a very funny mood. Her mother was perplexed at this and one day decided to go down to the root of this mystery.

So one day when Chica was, as usual at the window, her mother, entered Chica’s room and peeked out of the window too. When Chica saw this, she quickly turned her face, but not before the game was up!

“Chica, why do you sit here every day?” mama asked. Chica didn’t want to reply, but had to reply to her mother and said “Mama, I want to learn how to ride a bike like these girls there”. “So what’s stopping you?” replied mama. “I’ve heard you fall when you learn to ride, so I am scared”, this from a scared Chica.

“Nonsense” countered mama, “Yes, you will fall down a couple of times while learning to ride a bike, but that is part and parcel of the learning process. If you have the will to learn, you will learn”.

So Chica decided to start learning to ride a bike. The next day, she went down when she saw the girls riding their bikes and asked them to help her learn. The girls were happy to teach her and with so many teachers around her, Chica quickly learnt to ride. Of course, she did fall a few times, but remembered what her mama told her and didn’t bother too much about that.

A week after Chica had learnt to ride a bike, there was a surprise waiting for her – a pink, shiny new bicycle just for her. Chica was overjoyed and soon was happily playing on the bike with all her new friends!

The world tomorrow

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Somewhere in the world today, we will welcome the seventh billionth person into this world. We’ve added one billion people in the world in just about a decade! According to a United Nations estimate, there are about 2 babies being born every second and we will be adding another 3 billion babies, reaching the world population figure of 10 billion by 2100, that’s just 89 years away!

The world is seeing a huge variance in terms of population growth, first world countries do not have enough and third world countries have too much! This means that in the very near future (if it is not already happening), you will see a lot of movement of population from the less developed countries to the more developed ones. This will lead to other problems like integration, resentment from the established to the newly arriving etc.

So this is a new thing for parents to worry about – as if we have less things to worry about already. With the world’s population reaching stratospheric heights, it is inevitable that the levels of competition for literally everything will increase proportionally.  Everyone will be chasing after the same pie and it’s going to be a free for all, unless you have the resources to beat the competition. One of the best ways to succeed in life is through education and guess what, that’s going to be the one place with the fiercest competition.

Children in Singapore, which is a first world country in a third world region, are already pretty complacent, even though we’ve always had competition, not just from the region, but also from India and China, but the competition facing our children, 10-15 years down the line will mean facing people who are hungry for success not just from the above mentioned countries, but also from Africa and the rest of the world.

What does this mean to us as parents? In my opinion, this means giving our children the best we can – in terms of education, experiences, knowledge and learning and making them the best we can with the strongest values and foundations so that they can make their own way in the world that they are being dealt with as the kind of adults who will make us proud to be called their parents.

My only hope is that 10-15 years down the line, GG & BB grow up to be adults I can be proud of – articulate, helpful, intelligent, loving people who are a success in whatever they choose to do and be in life!

What a Week…..TGIF…Really?

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This week’s kinda been a bit weird! We had a break right in the middle of the week and when I went in to work yesterday, it was with the feeling that it was Monday instead of Thursday. But today’s Friday and the weekend beckons! Not that this weekend’s gonna be anything but relaxing – think exams times two….


Wednesday was Diwali when the whole world has the excuse to hog like pigs! One of my friends said you start chewing in the morning and don’t end till night and he was right. But were all feeling the effects of the excesses and yesterday was a day of eating less and giving tummies a break!

This is me till Tuesday

BB and GG’s written final exams start today. They’ve done with the orals earlier this month and will have the written papers starting today with English, then Maths on Monday and rounding off the year’s examinations with Chinese on Tuesday. Then after another 10 odd days of school, they end the Primary 2 and get ready for Primary 3. Primary 3 is supposed to be a big jump from the ‘easy’ years of Primary 1 & 2. Science gets added to the mix now. I wonder how they they will cope, especially with Hindi! Got to keep the momentum going on even during the holidays.

Once the exams are done, I plan on cleaning the whole house, throwing out accumulated stuff that somehow seem to develop tendencies to give birth to more stuff! I want to do this before my helper leaves for her leave in December. Then it’s planning and shopping time for our trip to visit family in India in mid December. We’re all so looking forward to this. Another thing I hope happens in the next two months is me getting a new job and starting in a new place in the new year!
Got a lot to accomplish in the next two months. Wish me luck folks!

Bombay/Mumbai – what do you call it?

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Image from here

Mumbai, India’s commercial capital (debatable now, but I like the ephithet), the city that never sleeps. I found this in my previous blog and thought this was a beautiful tribute to my hometown. This was actually circulated to me by email eons ago and I am not the original author. I do not know who that is, so can’t give credit where it’s due. If you do know the author, please do let me know and I’ll give credit.

Gateway of India

Image courtesy from this site
Bambai meri jaan….

  • A City where everything is possible, especially the impossible.
  • Where lovers first love and then marry, Where there is place for every Tom, Dick and Harry
  • Where telephone bills make a person ill, Where a person cannot sleep without a pill.
  • Where carbon-dioxide is more than oxygen, Where the road is considered to be a dustbin,
  • Where college canteens are full and classes empty, Where Adam teasing is also making an entry,
  • Where a cycle reaches faster than a car, Where everyone thinks himself to be a star,
  • Where sky scrapers overlook the slum, Where houses collapse as the monsoon comes,
  • Where people first act and then think, Where there is more water in the pen than ink,
  • Where the roads see-saw in monsoon, Where the beggars become rich soon,
  • Where the roads are levelled when the minister arrives,
  • Where college admission means hard cash, Where cement is frequently mixed with ash.
  • This is Mumbai my dear, But don’t fear, just cheer, come to Mumbai every year!

The iconic Marine Drive or Queens Necklace

Picture from here

23 Things that prove you are a Bombayaite 

  1. You say “town ” and expect everyone to know that this means south of Churchgate.
  2. You speak in a dialect of Hindi called ‘Bambaiya Hindi’, which only Bombayites can understand.*
  3. Your door has more than three locks.
  4. Rs 500 worth of groceries fit in one paper bag.
  5. Train timings (9.27, 10.49 etc) are really important events of life.
  6. You spend more time each month traveling than you spend at home.
  7. You call an 8′ x 10′ clustered room a Hall.
  8. You’re paying Rs 10,000 for a 1 room flat, the size of walk-in closet and you think it’s a “steal.”
  9. You have the following sets of friend: school friends, college friends, neighborhood friends, office friends and yes, train friends, a species unique only in Bombay.
  10. Cabbies and bus conductors think you are from Mars if you call the roads by their Indian name, they are more familiar with Warden Road, Peddar  Road, Altamount Road
  11. Stock market quotes are the only other thing besides cricket which you follow passionately.
  12. The first thing that you read in the Times of India is the “Bombay Times” supplement.
  13. You take fashion seriously.
  14. You’re suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you.
  15. Hookers, beggars and the homeless are invisible.
  16. You compare Bombay to New York’s Manhattan instead of any other cities of India.
  17. The most frequently used part of your car is the horn.
  18. You insist on calling CST as VT, and Sahar and Santacruz airports instead of Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
  19. You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.
  20. Your idea of personal space is no one actually standing on your toes.
  21. Being truly alone makes you nervous.
  22. You love wading through knee deep mucky water in the monsoons, and actually call it ”romantic’.
  23. Only in Bombay , you would get Chinese Dosa and Jain Chicken.