Madras by 11H

Last Saturday (26 December) dawned with me agreeing to my bossy sister, Jayashree’s suggestion that I make a trip to Paris Corner for her jewellery material purchase. I am not so confident about my expertise in checking out stuff, so I agreed quite reluctantly as it was an urgent requirement. 9.45 am saw me getting dropped by Ranga at Teynampet bus stop, wondering which bus I should take to reach the place fast. An 11H express service came in two minutes. Little did I know that I would be blogging about this trip! The bus was fairly crowded and I could not get a seat initially. As I crossed VTI, I recalled that it is such a nice place to spend time with lovely antiques to look at. Then came Spencer’s Plaza, a great place to hang out with friends. By this time I got a seat and the LIC Building appeared on the other side. How many times we have looked at this building in awe as this used to be the only high storey building in our Madras for a long time! The bus winded further through Mount Road, crossing Higgin Bothams, Tarapore Towers, touching the new assembly complex under construction as it curved into Wallajah Road. Many important buildings passed by and the bus turned into Kamarajar Salai (Beach Road). The imposing University Building was a great sight to behold right at the turning. By this time the bus was quite empty and I turned to the other side and what a sight it was!

The beautiful Marina Beach was looking so calm in the morning Sun with very little crowd. Out of the blue, I started praying to Goddess Mahalakshmi for the safety of my Madras city as this was the day Tsunami struck here five years earlier.

My eyes did not leave the beach until the bus reached Island Grounds. I was so tempted to give up my trip to Paris Corner and get down there. The replica of the Museum Art Gallery looks so majestic!  

  

However, the bus crossed this and went further down. Why have I never been to Fort St. George? I felt fierce pride for my city seeing the Fort. However the politicians are, they should feel honoured to have been elected by the public to be seated there, in that building. I had a glimpse of the Fort Museum and the huge walls of the Fort with a few cannons that are on displaly. Once again I felt the rush of pride seeing the imposing building of Reserve Bank of India! Even before the bus turned into NSC Bose Road, I was thrilled to see the wall of the High Court, recalling my Thatha’s pleasure in talking about his experiences there! The bus then crossed Kuralagam and entered into the Broadway bus stand, which happened to be the bus stop I had to get down and also the last stop for the bus.

I love my Madras!

TV programme

Morning on Jaya TV, for Marghazi they telecast Sri Vittaldas Maharaj’s upanyasam for about 10-15 min everyday. This morning’s (29.12.2009) episode was beautiful.

Mahavishnu is sitting on Adhiseshan with Mahalakshmi nearby. The Maharishis come for darshan and start crying on seeing the Lord. Mahalakshmi wonders why they cry, all these days they have been craving for darshan and now on receiving it, shouldn’t they be happy? She wonders why they are crying instead.

The explanation given by Sri Vittaldas: Mahalakshmi does not know how it is to be away from the Lord, because she is always in his heart. On the day she came out of the Paarkadal, she landed in his heart and has been there all the time. Even during Vamana Avathaaram when the Lord took the form of a Brahmin boy, she was there and he hid her with his melvasthiram (something similar to a dupatta worn by men). The Lord had promised Indra that he will give Mahabali’s kingdom and wealth to him. If he had not hidden Mahalakshmi with his melvasthiram, Mahabali would have had her blessings and the Lord couldn’t have kept his promise to Indra.   

An example: A mother leaves the child in the care of the grandparents and goes to work. The child gets up; notices that the mother is not there and cries for some time. Once distracted by toys, the child stops crying and is okay. In the evening, as soon as the mother comes home, the child cries again seeing her. It may be a strange sight, but the child has missed the mother so much, that it cries on seeing her. That is how the Maharishis cry on the Lord’s darshan.

Parents’ blessings: Nowadays, it has become the duty of grandparents to take care of their grandchildren as both the parents go out for work. Instead of being a pleasure, it has been forced on the old people now. The best way to remove the pressure is for the couple to fall at the feet of their parents every morning before going out so that they are blessed. Also involve the old people in day-to-day activities at home and important decision-making so that they don’t think of taking care of the children as a duty but as a joy.

You can catch this programme all days of Marghazi at 610 am on Jaya TV. His Bhakta Vijayam discourse is being telecast on all Sundays at 6 am. Here is a short bhajan  http://vittaldas.com/audio/GovindaGiridhari.mp3