Showing posts with label Literary dreams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Literary dreams. Show all posts

2/24/2011

Naalaayira Dhivyaprabhandham - ambrosia!

My MIL and me were giving kutti "r" a bath and thats when my MIL said, there's a song for Lord Krishna inviting him for a bath...A week has passed after this conversation and we forgot to look for the song.
My MIL's MIL a fervent Vaishnavite has a whole collection of religious books and I have never tried to reach for a single one in these 2 years. Recently, I cleared her bookshelf, literally dumping her books in a bag asking my MIL to give it to her....so that she could keep those really old books elsewhere....
Her friend dropped last evening suggesting a few thaalatu paadalgal from Naalayira Dhivyaprabhandham. When I asked my MIL if we have that book, she said its among those books you cleared this morning. WOW! I had taken those BOOKS for GRANTED....Little did I realise the importance of those books...
When we browsed through a really really old book, my eyes beamed with joy to find the hymn we were looking for....

I have just started reading பெரியாழ்வார் திருமொழி  (Periyaazhwar's Thirumozhi)- the hymn "aravanaiyaai" where Yeshoda lovingly calls Krishna to nurse...only a person who has experienced the joy of feeding can compose such verses....
the verses are like ambrosia, intoxicating a person who loves reading Thamizh...Oh what love these Aalwars had for Lord Krishna....the joy they found in writing these hymns can only be felt as we read through the verses line after line, word by word!!!
The book dates 5th - 8th century AD with its modern form compiled by Nathamuni in the 10th century...

Why didnt I look into my dad's bookshelf which has atleast a hundred books, all in my very own mother tongue ?

Why was I always looking for English titles to read when I wanted to make my literary dreams come true?


1/16/2011

Still dreaming of books and beyond...

arghh....
Still dreaming....
Only thing thats been going steadily since the New Year is my baby journal...
Wishing all dreams take shape soon....
In a frenzy to pick a book to read I googled "Top ten books" and I ended up with a website which read my mind. "When so many works are within such easy reach, choice becomes torture. What to pick? Where to start? This one? That one? How about this—and that? What will I like? What's worth my time?"
and ofcourse gave out the 
Top Ten List for Top Ten Works of All-Time
  1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 
  2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 
  3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 
  4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 
  5. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 
  6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare 
  7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 
  8. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
  9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
  10. Middlemarch by George Eliot
And I am hoping I will find one of these tomorrow at the bookstore closest to my house.
My health dreams - I dont even want to talk about it. Every night I think tomorrow will be the day...dreaming on...
Kutti "r" doesnt seem to need lullabies...He's happy to fall asleep by himself...Doesnt need a miracle blanket nor a pacifier....He does need his ammathaatha's shoulder though just before bedtime...So lullabies need to be modified...The whole of Margazhi went without me chanting the entire paasuram. Gosh! I feel so bad at times...but then "baby time" has always been the excuse that I have been giving myself...
One thing I did this weekend was when "V" came home, made him some good veggie sandwiches but nothing after that morning breakfast. 

It is sheer luxury when you are your parents place. My mom and granny go beyond their ways to make sure that I get what I want...They hardly call me into the kitchen. Granny takes care of washing kutti "r"'s cloth nappies while mom takes care of everything else. Its sheer bliss sometimes when all I do is feed kutti "r" and hand him over to my parents and granny. They provide him all the stimulation he needs during his waking hours. Wonder what I am going to do without them when I am back 2 Blore.