Short and Sweet Break

14th January, 2010, just one day before the day when solar eclipse was observed this year. The day on which people in some part of India celebrate festival known as "MAKARA SANKRANTI", whereas the same festival in South is being celebrated as "PONGAL". For me this day was a remarkable one.

14th January, 2010 was on wednesday. My aunt and cousins forced me to apply leave on that day. Because they had planned to go to the place called Mulbagal, just 65-70Km away from Bangalore city. With the grace of God, I anyhow managed to get a leave on that day. Tuesday evening I left early from office and straight away went to busstand, where we all were supposed to meet. I had been informed to reach there before 7.30pm as it was the last bus and after 7.30pm no bus were there to go to that place. I managed to reach bus stand by 7.15 pm. Go to see, these guys were late. :-) Finally they reached at 7.35pm and bus left at 7.50pm. Every one got settled and our journey started. We reached our destination at around 11.10 pm.

One of my aunt's son stays there in Mulbagal. He is married and has two small kids. One boy named Vishnuteertha, and one girl named Vishnupriya. Well, this visit of mine to that place was exactly after 9 years. So many new houses, constructions, etc had come up. But the house was same. No much changes were found. Since, i had directly come from my work place, they had arranged dinner for me. All other my companions had come with their stomach full. After completing dinner, everyone started to sleep. Now since it was our meeting after a long long time, we were chatting for a long time and slept late at around 2am or 2:30am.

Next day morning, I got up from my dreams at 6.15am. But accept my grand mother and my aunt no one else was awake. So I also slept again and got up at 8.30am. My aunt suggested us boys to have bath over head. As usual, I was feeling lazy to get up from bed.:-) The time when I got up was good I guess, full day later was so good. I guess you people might have seen in some movies where on some festivals, mothers apply oil to their son's/husbands, to have bath on head. After that nice hot water is poured over them. This is a tradition in south India which people still follow. Same thing was done with me. My aunt applied oil, on my head, to my hands, legs, face, back etc. Oil was overflowing from my hairs. Then hot water bath was arranged. My aunt was pouring hot water bath on me. All the while, when i was being bathed, Vishnupriya was stading at the door entrance and watching me, being bathed. She is really cute looking girl. Then when my aunt was applying shikakai on my head, that girl came closer and asked my aunt, "why are you applying again and again?" Actually, that was third time my aunt was applying shikakai on my head. My aunt smiled and said, "We should apply and rinse it till foam is formed. THe foam is the indication that the dirt has gone off."

Then cute girl with innocent face, asked, "Can I also rub?"

My aunt said, "Sure".

Then she came closer and told me, "Close your eyes uncle, or else it will burn." and started rubbing.:-)

I couldn't stop myself from lauging. Being a small girl, she is giving me instructions as if, she is my mothe and I'm her kid. After having bath, I performed my daily rituals. Then we went to a place called, Narsimhateertha, where Sripaad Rayar Matha is there. One speciality of this place is that, there are lots of Monkeys around. You can imagine the temple environment. A small, sarovar near the temple, a big banyan tree, and nice cool breeze blowing. It was a great feeling. Visiting that place after 9 years, each and every object was making me to think what all fun we were doing there 9 years back. In other words, old memories became gold. After coming out of temple, we went home. While going back home, my cousin purchased, milk powder. I asked her "why is this required?"

She said, "A surprise is waiting for you."

I also smiled and kept mum. After reaching home, I had lunch as I had to come back to bangalore. They were forcing me to stay back. But, I had to resume my work next day, as I had got leave for only one day. After having lunch, I become busy watching Photos. There were so many photos, that it took almost, one and half hour to finish scanning all of them. Then when, I was about to get ready, my cousin came with a cake, gave me a piece of cake, and said, belated birthday wishes. That was a real surprise for me. Actually, we in our family, celebrate birthday according to hindu calendar. And this year it was on 12th January. I said, thanks. Ate cake which she gave me and got ready. Finally, after saying alvida to everyone, I started my return journey. I was actually feeling to stay back. But, was forced to go. This day will be memorable one because, it was festival for us, spent time with relatives after a long time, got a surprise birthday cake, and lots of love from our own people. I thanked god for giving me this fortune of celebrating the festival with these people and started walking towards bus stand. On reaching bus stand, saw that the bus was ready with lot of empty seats. I got into the bus, and luckily i found that it was a bypass bus. So that was a short and sweet experience of my visit to Mulbagal to celebrate "MAKAR SANKRANTI" :-)