Friday, February 19, 2010

An Experience


The saying goes like this “ Experience makes a man perfect”

My little modification in the saying is : Experience makes a man believe”

A simple lady in a remote village in Orissa, illiterate, unsophisticated and may not be an eye candy for many. People worship her. Worship her as GODESS!!

I heard about her from my brother’s friend whose family was a great devotee. The educated and well-placed family calls her “Maa” and spends almost all of their time, money and energy for her. For a logical man it may sound ridiculous. For them it’s the life giving potion.

I never believed it. But I did not disbelieve too.

Being born and brought up in a god beliving, hindu family and a spiritual atmosphere and having a natural appetite for spiritualism, I had a patient ear towards the words spoken about “Maa” but the logical mind of mine always restricted to have faith…or complete surrender to that particular form.

How can GOD reside in a human body?

That was the simple logical question…..

Time, time and again gave me opportunities to meet her, talk to her and feel her.

I saw nothing special except a simple warm and welcoming smile sprinkled with lots of affection and something special and rare about her EYES. The eyes were very special and I was forced to look at them time and again….she talked normal and told few things about me and others. They were generalist but correct. It did not make me surprised much but I felt good about everything.

Last week got a chance to visit her peeth (I tried going there before but could never make it in the last moment). This time I made sure I must visit Orissa exclusively for her and surprisingly this time i made it very smoothly. I was new to that area and had decided to travel by public bus and felt that a car travel would not have been better in any case.

It was almost evening when me with my lil brother reached there. She greeted us as if she was waiting for us. She made us comfortable and made all arrangement for us to stay there that night. I wanted to speak to her alone and she was surrounded with lots of people. After two hours when I finally decided to start speaking she told me to wait in the room so that we can speak in isolation. It seemed as if she could read my mind even without telling. (She hardly speaks to her bhakts in isolation)

She spoke to me for atleast for half an hour and the conversation forced me to think about her on a serious note.

She may not be GOD, but she is far above than a normal human being….this line was established in my heart and mind at the end.

Two hundred orphans stay at her ashram and there fooding, lodging and education are borne by Maa…How? No one knows…..becoz she does not have any potential source of income. But all activities at the ashram run quite smoothly.

We spent the night and in morning after having breakfast and being blessed by Maa, started for Bhubaneswar.

On the return journey I was thinking what to believe and what not to. Believing in Maa needed complete surrender and shradha, which sai baba also has told. Mind as usual always questions the validity…

Undecided, I bowed my head to almighty and prayed for the proper direction for my faith…. :-)
Hope, Maa wil bless me someday to understand the fact beyond my mortal understanding!! OM.. :-)

Thursday, February 4, 2010



Its 10.30 pm....

Not sleepy...

The pizza for dinner at Domino's dissatisfied me and the newly introduced pasta was a disaster. The one litre pack of pulpy orange was the only consolation (many dont like it though)...finally the orange cake and some tea made my stomach filled for the night. Felt like writing some lines and could not find any other topic than the pizza (which is controlling my thoughts right now), so here i am penning down my things about experience and encounter with Pizza, the foeigner dish in Indian yard.


Food, the very name makes my salivary glands activated at once and my body happily gets ready for accepting few more pounds. The street foods have always been the prime obsession...chicken roll in Bhubaneswar, aloo tikki chat, paneer tikka, mushroom tikka in delhi, puchkas in kolkata, or bada pav in Mumbai...idli, dosa n all udupi restaurants, samosas, dhoklas and the sindhi special dal pakwan (thanks goes to my sindhi friend)....slurp...slurp!!

I have seen my friends being mad for Pizzas and some of them even make it at home and try different experiments with it. The newly introduced delicacy at a Pizza serving outlet have the Indian flavor and doing well in indian market.


But surprisingly, Pizza has never been in the list of my saliva stimulators.

It has always been the last minute option for home delivery when all other options for the world is closed.


300 bugz for a round shaped pav with pinches of some veggies or so, never seemed to be a wise deal for me. The typical indian road side foddie in me have always been advocating the so called unhealthy street foods and i have always been relishing them to my heart's content without worrying much about the health my stomach. Surprisingly, it has never bothered the health either.


Apologies to my pizza lover friends, taste buds varry from person to person...the indian foods still dominate my taste buds and India, my mind and heart..!! :-)