Tag Archives: Family

2017 Week 2 Update

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This week also flew by quite fast. I was quite busy preparing for my two interviews in the week that I hardly had time for much.

Speaking of the interviews, both interviews were the shortest I’ve had to date. The first one should take pole position as the absolute shortest interview, it only took 5 minutes of a couple of questions before they started asking me if I had questions. With my questions, I managed to increase the time spent to slightly over 10 minutes. I know I will not get a callback here, as usually if you know you are not going to proceed further with a candidate, you don’t really spend time with them. But they’ve said they will let me know in a week or two if I make it to the next round. Another reason why I know I may not get a callback is they need someone urgently with a very specific skillset and experience as they need to hit their KPI by the middle of the year and I don’t have that experience. I don’t understand why they invited me to interview, though!

The other interview, in the same general vicinity of the first one also lasted just slightly over 15 minutes. This was probably the most unfriendly panel I have met – they didn’t bother to introduce themselves and I assumed the main interviewer would be the potential boss and one other person the HR. No idea who the others were. This went better than day 1, but the biggest negative about this position is that it’s based on a project which is initially expected to run for two years, which makes this position only a short-term one. Anyway, they too should let me know either way by next week. In the meantime, I need to still apply and no reply….

S’ cousin and his family are in Singapore this week for a family holiday. They are staying with S’ mum and so we invited them for dinner yesterday. Since I knew we had to go out for GG’s award ceremony after lunch, I did as much of the prep work as possible in the morning and even made a couple of dishes before hand. So all that was left for me to do after the ceremony was to make sure the house was nice and sweet smelling and some last minute cooking. R came home early from her off day to help me make rotis. It was an enjoyable evening spent talking and chit-chatting.

This was my week, hope this week is better than the last and may your week be awesome!

 

Festivals of India: Thiruvathirai

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Chidambaram Temple..Source

A festival unique to the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Thiruvathirai or Arudhra Darisanam is a Hindu festival celebrated on the full moon night in the Tamil month of Margazhi (approximately in December–January), which is also the longest night in the year. The Thiruvathirai vrata is one of the eight significant vratas dedicated to Lord Shiva as it is considered to be the nakshaththram of Lord Nataraj and is the longest night of the year. The word

 

Thiruvathirai or Arudhra in Tamil means “sacred big wave”, that was used when this universe was created by Lord Shiva about 132 trillion years ago. The famous Chidambaram temple in Tamil Nadu, celebrates this temple with great pomp and splendour and has been celebrating for more than 1500 years, as evident from literary and historical evidence in the form of stone inscriptions.

 

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Main Statue of Lord Natraj at Chidambaram Temple…Source 

The festival celebrates Lord Shiva’s cosmic dance of Natraj. The cosmic dance of Lord Shiva represents five activities – Creation, Protection, Destruction, Embodiment and Release. In essence, it represents the continuous cycle of creation and destruction. This cosmic dance takes place in every particle and is the source of all energy. Arudra Darshan celebrates this ecstatic dance of Lord Shiva. Arudhra or Thiruvathirai signifies the golden red flame and Shiva performs the dance in the form this red-flamed light. Lord Shiva is supposed to be incarnated in the form of Lord Nataraja during the Arudra Darshan day.

 

Lord Shiva never took birth and therefore there is no nakshaththram dedicated to celebrate his birthday. It was mentioned in the Hindu mythology that once Lord Vishnu was resting on the great serpent and Adhi seesha felt that He was in some deep thinking. On asking Lord Vishnu told Adhi seesha that he was remembering the dance of Lord Shiva. This answer invoked the desire in Adhi seesha to witness this great dance. He asked Lord Vishnu how this desire could be fulfilled. Lord Vishnu then urged him to do rigorous ‘tapasya’ at Chidambaram’. Adhi seesha followed his advice and devotedly prayed to Lord Shiva for a very long time. At the same there, a muni and devotee of Lord Shiva known as Viyaagra Paadha also lived in that same place. He worshipped to Lord Shiva to obtain the legs of a tiger in order to pluck flowers at the dawn, without being touched by the bees for offering to the God. He also observed ‘tapas’ to see His great ‘Nataraj’ dance. Finally, Lord Shiva was pleased with their prayers and devotion and he showed his ‘Nataraj’ dance in Chidambaram on the day of Thiruvaadhirai. From then onwards the ‘Nataraaja’ image of Shiva is worshipped here with great fervour on this day.

 

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Temple processions during Thiruvathurai….Source

Tamil hymns of Maanikavasagar’s Thiruvasagam (particularly the hymns Thiruvempavai and Thiruppalliezhuchi) are chanted in temples instead of Sanskrit mantras. On the very day of Thiruvathirai, the idols of Nataraja (Lord Shiva) and his consort Shivagami (Parvati) are taken out of the temple premises for a grand procession. It is one of the major events in almost all the Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu.

 

In Tamil homes, during Tiruvathirai, a special dish called Thiruvadhirai Kali is made. The kali is made with rice, jaggery, moong dal, coconut, cardamom and ghee. The kali is usually eaten with a special curry called Thiruvathirai ezhlu curry koottu which is made out of seven vegetables, that is cooked and served on this day. The vegetables used for this kootu include pumpkin, ash gourd, raw bananas, field beans, sweet potatoes, colocasia, potatoes, eggplants etc.

 

 

Sumangali Pooja Part 1

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So last weekend, I did the Sumangali Prarthanai which is usually done by a married woman in each family or clan when there is a major ceremony happening in a family like weddings or thread ceremonies. Some families (like my mum) also do this on an annual basis.

The Sumangali Pooja is a typical brahmin function, I can’t say I have seen other communities doing this. In our community, this pooja is done to invoke to seeking the blessings of the ancestral women of the family who enjoyed a long and prosperous family life and left this world as sumangalis (those who died before their husbands) and any young unmarried girls in the family. Every family will differ slightly in the way they do this function, but by and large, the procedure should be more or less similar. Unlike most other functions or religious poojas, this function is a 100% ladies function. The men in the family are only for decorative or helpful purposes and have no real role to play. Usually, the oldest woman present will take the mantle of the master of ceremonies and lead the function as she will be the most knowledgeable of all present.

Usually, these days people have around 5 Sumangalis and 2 young girls, though you can have any odd number like 3, 5, 7, 9 or even 11 and 13! You can invite both married women from within your family or outside for the function. The day before the function, all the invited sumangalis are given sesame oil, shikhakai, and turmeric and henna in advance or in the early hours of the day of pooja. The tradition is they have to apply mehendi and take oil bath and also apply turmeric while taking a bath which is considered very auspicious. They will come home the next day by taking oil bath and wear a 9 yards saree which has been made madi (means they have to wash and dry it separately without touching other clothes or even with their hands). These days, especially in places like Singapore, where a saree is getting rarer, people may not be comfortable wearing a nine-yard saree, so sometimes, they wear a normal six-yard saree or even other clothes, come to the host’s house and then change into the nine-yard saree.

Generally, if a daughter is getting married on the girl’s side they will do it compulsorily before the wedding and keep the daughter who is going to get married as one of the pondugal. But in the boy’s house also they do the sumangali prarthanai but they can either do it before the wedding with their family members or they can either do it once the daughter in law comes into the house. This function should also be done only once a year by a family. So in our case, since I just did the function, if S’ cousin gets married anytime in the next one year, his mum (S’ aunt) can’t do it before the wedding, as it’s usually done. The ideal day of the week for this function is a Friday, but these days with people working and children in school during the week, Fridays are not practical so most people do it on a Sunday. The inauspicious time of Rahu Kaal is also to be taken into account when choosing the time. On Sundays the Rahu kaal is in the afternoon, so this function which ends at lunch is perfect to be done on a Sunday.

 

An Unforgettable Trip

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While in India, one of our smaller trips was to Bangalore to meet my maternal grandmother who is nearing close to 90 and also to meet an uncle who is suffering from a double whammy of Alzheimer’s as well as Parkinson’s!

The four of us plus my mum were supposed to be taking IndiGo both ways, with us taking the 12:30 flight from Mumbai, reaching Bangalore around 2:15. The new airport in Bangalore is very, very far away from the city and to get to anywhere in the city is at least a 90 minute drive, this is assuming the horrendous traffic that Bangalore is famous for is clear and non-existent at that point! We’d planned for a two hour drive to my aunt’s place which is in one of the outer suburbs, the other side of the airport and which should take around 70 – 80 minutes at that time of the day and had expected to reach latest by 4 pm. We’d also arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the airport.

In the morning, while getting ready to leave, I got a message from the airline that the flight had been retimed to an hour later than it was supposed to leave. Though it was irritating, we shrug it off and changed our plans accordingly. We left around 10:30 which should get us to the airport around 11:15, which would be well in time for the 1:30 pm flight. On the way to the airport I received two messages from the airlines – one after the other, which now changed the flight’s departure time to 4 pm!

I was thus, quite upset when I reached the check-in counter. The person who checked us in told me that it was a technical problem and he could check us into the next flight to Bangalore which left at 3:45 pm. When asked, he said there was no guarantee that our scheduled 12:30 flight would make it at 4 pm, but the 3:45 flight was assured to leave on time. So we did the change and spoke to my dad. My dad was by that time not interested in us going to the city, he wanted us to cancel the tickets, get a refund and return home. My mum, on the other hand wanted to meet her mum, sisters and brothers-in-law. Around 3 pm, when we were waiting to start the boarding process, I got another message from the airline saying the 3:45 flight had now been postponed to 5:30 pm.

At this point, I completely lost it! The boarding gate area at this point was resembling a small town bus stand with passengers all over the place. The domestic airport didn’t even have decent places to eat and we were hungry, bored and super angry. I then went to the airline counter and spoke to one of the supervisors. What she told me was a completely different story from what the check-in guy told me. Her story was that since all their flights originate in the northern part of India and that part was fogged up, all flights were running 3-4 hours late, there was no technical problem at all!

Then me and another lady who had to get to Bangalore also urgently spoke to her and when I told her what I was told while checking in, she decided to get it reconfirmed. That was a lie I was told initially. Then that sweet lady (I did write down her name, but now I can’t find the paper) told us she will put us back in my original flight (the 12:30 one) which was now going to land shortly and depart for Bangalore at 5:30 pm.
We (the five of us plus the two of them) then were led out of the security area and had to re-checkin for the 5:30 flight. Clear security once again and then start the wait all over again. We finally got in the bus to get to the aircraft around 5:15 pm and when we reached the aircraft, we saw that all the passengers had not disembarked. What we saw made everyone on that bus comment again! We saw groups of people who used the gangway to take photos and selfies! This sheer selfishness of people really threw me away! These people have also been delayed by 3-4 hours and they know this flight has to go to another destination, yet they spend, nay waste precious moments taking pictures that they can do outside the plane.

We finally boarded and the flight left around 6 pm. We reached Bangalore around 7:15 and got to my aunt’s place at 9 pm! What was roughly a 6 hour journey door-to-door became an almost 12 hour one!

The return journey was nothing like what I wrote above! It was a breeze and what IndiGo is renowned for and we made it home by 3 pm (We had taken the same 12:30 flight from Bangalore to Mumbai)!

This is one trip that none of us are going to forget in a hurry I am sure!

Penang Holiday Part 6: Shopping and Return to Singapore

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The story so far… Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5

We woke up a bit later on our last day in Penang knowing that we had planned a day of shopping and there was no point in leaving the hotel before 10 as nothing would be open before then. After another scrumptious breakfast, we went back to the room with the idea that BB & S would go swimming. But BB was more interested in playing his game on the iPad and so we decided to just laze around till it was time to leave.

We left around 10:15 and headed to Queensbay Mall. We decided on this mall as against the others in the city mainly because it was one of the biggest in Penang. Another reason was this was close to the airport and I wanted to map our way back the next day as I would no longer have my unlimited data plan at midnight that day.

The mall, which is managed by Capitaland, a Singapore company was typical of any Singapore mall. The only difference being that due to the Malaysian Ringgit being comparatively lower than the Singapore Dollar, we got a few bargains especially for clothes. We were there for a couple of hours and had lunch at the food court there at an Indian stall. BB & GG along with S had wanted to try the famous Penang Chendol and we were planning a trip to the store later in the evening when we saw they had an outlet in the mall, so that craving was also satisfied.

After the mall, we decided to visit the Tropical Fruit Farm to pick up the coconut oil that S’ friend had wanted. I spent a bit of time trying to check if we could get it elsewhere but drew a complete blank! This was literally in the middle of nowhere and a 45 minute drive through the hilly areas and interiors of Penang to get there, but since we had a car at our disposal and nothing else really to do, decided to go ahead. I was the navigator as always and during the trip there, we felt we were in another country altogether…

The Tropical Fruit Farm is situated about 800 ft above sea level on the hilly terrain of Teluk Bahang and covers 25 acres. They have around 250 different species of trees, which include rare and exotic trees from Central and South America, Central Africa, India, the Middle East, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands etc. They also have tours and tastings sessions there. We didn’t do all that, just brought the oil and then took away fresh juices to drink later.

Back at the room around 4ish, S and BB decided to have a nap and read while R, GG and I decided to walk to a massage centre we saw across the hotel earlier. We did another foot massage each and though much better than the one we did at Batu Ferringhi. This one was for 45 minutes and cost us RM 53 each. They also had a promotion of a body and foot massage for RM 84 which though I was tempted I didn’t take as we didn’t have the time for it.

Back in the hotel, we decided to explore the Georgetown malls of Komtar and Prangin. These are slightly oldish malls, and this was where we found the same stuff that were being sold in Batu Ferringhi at cheaper prices! We felt cheated, but this was a lesson we learnt and hopefully someone else learns from our mistakes

After having Indian for almost every meal, we decided to do Italian at the Piazzaiola at Lot 33 which is at the basement of the Prangin Mall. This one was opposite to the side which had the Bata store which we had to ask around before we found our way. The food was good, but the most expensive of our trip. It was ok since it was our last night in Penang! Again some great deals in the mall because of the stronger Singapore dollar and we came back lugging shopping bags…

The next day, after a quick breakfast, we left the hotel around 8. Since we had to return the car fully topped up with petrol, we decided to fill it up at a petrol kiosk across the street from our hotel. This was the only time we topped up during our four days there and filled up around RM 40 worth! This made the car super cheap!! Oh, I think I didn’t mention what we paid for the car – we paid around RM 500 for three days.

Just before we left the hotel, since I still had WiFi, I tried to map us to the airport and when I refreshed the map at the petrol station, I was pleasantly surprised to see it worked! So inspite of misgivings on whether we will be able to make it to the airport relying solely on expressway signs, we did have the map with us and reached the airport without incident before 9 am for our 11 am flight.

The Tiger Airways queue was super long and took us almost 30 minutes to check in. We had a bit of a problem at security check. While packing our things the previous evening, I had put everyone’s toiletries into one suitcase and it was pulled up! I was confident that there was nothing that could not be carried on as all our toiletries were less than 100 ml. The officers opened the bag and checked and then let me go! Guess if this had been distributed across four bags which we had done flying in, it would have been beneath the radar!

Anyway, after a bit of looking and seeing the airport, we boarded the plane and got back to Singapore in one piece. I was actually quite impressed with Tiger Airways and will now look at that for regional travel options since they allow you 10 kg of carry on luggage and if all four of us fly together, that makes it a massive 40 kgs….

With the return back to Singapore it was the end of our holidays! Now waiting for our India holidays in December, but before that the PSLE results 😦

Hope you enjoyed this series as much as I did writing it. If you have questions or comments, please do write in!