It was Janmashtami, So?

As I had mentioned earlier too, I would be a very good example of Festival downer. This Janmashtami, B's parents were visiting us, and hence, we all kept a fast, ate enormous quantities of fatty, fried food items, and that too mainly consisting of potatoes. Well, I would not really call it a fast, it was anything but.

The birth of Lord Krishna is a day which is celebrated all over India, and is given various names. A funny fact was that there is a difference in the day, as its celebrated in the south and north of India. The festivities on the day are also very different. The fast, as I know it in the south, is just fruits, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which means that you do not have a heavy meal the whole day. This is also a fast which I have not done, in spite of knowing its detox effects. 

So, this was the first time in 28 years I have ever gone on this fast, and I did not particularly like it. I would certainly prefer to have the detox fast. Having only fried items through the entire day, certainly gave me a sick feeling, and certainly did not suit my tummy. In fact I was quite worried that T would also have a upset tummy due to the sudden influx of oil into her system. I tried to counter the effect with some ayurvedic tummy relieving stuff, but I wonder whether that was of any effect. A part of the food which I enjoyed was the ragi flour used for the fried potatoes, and also for the fried puris. I am particularly fond of ragi flour, the taste and obviously for its health reasons. In fact during pregnancy, I had particularly enjoyed ragi puttu all through. 

Now, we get back to janmashtami… at the stroke of 12, which is when Lord Krishna was born, there is a small pooja done and only after dinner is served. Dinner mainly consists of potato curry, ragi rotis, fruits and a salad. 

After the day, I was wondering, did we really do this with a religious bend of mind? I did not ! I took part in the pooja and had dinner after 12, but was that the only things to be done as part of the festivities? I am not aware of anything else, maybe visit the temple would the other obvious option. Do you find all the festivals particularly festive?

A Bowlful of Butterflies by Ritu Lalit

This book came by mail a few days back, but I just could not get to start reading it, with all household duties taking up the whole day. But, when I did, I sat and finished it in one go! That should really say how much I enjoyed the quick paced, very much today's story.

The book starts off with an introduction to the Ratra household and  also details the relationship between the various members. Three siblings, their fights, tiffs, and love rule the house wars. Friendship, a strong bond, which has been nurtured since childhood, has grown and been cherished till the very end of school days. How the days of school, childhood, adolescence and college bring changes to every friendship. I could particularly relate to how the friendships change and morph through years. I have seen that you gather a few friends, befriend many, but enjoy the friendships that you have shared through years. 

This is a very quick read, and it does successfully ignite some old memories and stories with the various instances. Another aspect was, since the time I read the title, I always wondered what was the bowlful of butterflies, is it a symbolism, or does it truly exist? Read the book to find out.

And now we start

After all the rant, a good friend decided I need to help myself. She shared with me this site, and me think its a great start with the limited time that I have. In fact even if I do manage to take out time, I really would never know when would that be. For such an erratic routine, this is just perfect.

Now to start with this today. I've been adviced to pick up random dailyy routines n see which is effective and do-able for me. I also do not want to unnecessarily exert myself, and cause any further issue to my back.

Another thing which is going to be a motivational factor is that apart from the weighing scale, I am also going to record physical measurements. This should be able to give a better outlook on results.

I shall keep an update on how this goes from now on.