The moving finger writes.............

Summer has hit with a vengeance. It is plus 35 already in the daytime, and the forecast for Calcutta this year seems to be 49 degreess Celsius. It is my first Calcutta summer in some time, and I take it as a (over) warm welcome :)  Having seen the worst blazing summers in Delhi, I can claim to be sufficiently immune to heat waves. But even so, I am bracing for the worst. Bottles of cold drinks   and water notwithstanding, one still feels drained , and even more so if one is outside. The perspiration also hits. This will, however, be the scenario for the next 3-4 months, so we are bracing ourselves for the worst. Some of the worst summers I spent were in Delhi, where I had to sleep on the terrace at night (with the mosquitoes and in threat of the monkeys!)   due to the infamous power cuts, nearly 7 years back.I remember how I used to drench my mattress with water (which used to evaporate pretty soon), and buy endless cold water bottles ( since there was...

Holi is the festival of colours, when the country is drenched in colours, and a general air of festivity is palpable all around. From the northern plains to the Western Ghats, the sound of “Holi Hai” reverberates. The popular Holi numbers, such as “Rang barse” enthral the mind. The story behind the festival, Holi, starts with Holika, the sister of Hiranakashyap, the father of Prahalad.Hirnakashyap had declared himself as GOD and wanted his son Prahalad to worship him and not Vishnu. When Prahalad refused to do the same, he was made to sit with Holika in an open fire. Holika had a boon that she would not be burned even if she was on live fire. When she was made to sit with Prahalad on the live fire, the opposite happened. She lost her life and got burned but Prahalad came out alive from the fire. The above story has a deep spiritual meaning. Here, Hiranakashyap represents the "ego" which when takes control makes one forget about their own consciousness and makes...