Lai Haroaba Festival

Few days back on one of his visits to Manipur, my husband was fortunate enough to attend the festival of Lai Haroaba, in the states of Manipur. The festival of Lai Haroaba is celebrated every year in the month of May. He attended the Maibi Dance, a dance form performed in this particular festival. I do not know much about the festival, so just sharing the beautiful photographs he clicked there. Below are some informations I collected from Wikipedia......

Wikipedia Information : Lai Haraoba is a Manipuri festival, and is associated with Meiteis, celebrated to please traditional deities.Celebrated in honour of the sylvan deities known as Umang Lai,the festival represents the worship of traditional deities and ancestors. The festival is in part a recollection of the creation stories played the deities with the first origin of this universe and evolution of the plants and animals through the will of Atiya Shidaba. Translated, Lai Haraoba means "merry making of the Gods".

The musicians

The drummers and singers

Wikipedia Information : The origin of the festival is that the gods held the first Lai Haraoba on the Koubru hill, so that their descendants should imitate them and perform the same as it had been done by the deities so that they will never forget the secret and sacred story of the creation of this universe and the birth of the different lives on this earth.

Wikipedia Information : The participants, the maiba and maibis (priest and priestesses), the dolairengba (the bearers of the palanquin), the pena khongba (the player of an indigenous string instrument), the chong paibas (the special umbrella bearers), the sword and spear (Thang-Ta) bearers, Kwagok-Sengok pubas (the bearers of the ornamented vessels for betel nuts, flower and money for donations and awards to the top participants) and all the other members who should take part in this festival strictly follow the disciples of keeping celibacy during the festival.

New Hope

Photo courtesy : Google 

Yesterday was a memorable day for our country India, one of the largest democracy in the world. Of late the whole of our nation is under turmoil. There is price hike in every sphere of life, unemployment, value of money fell considerably, terrorism, illegal invasions, inflation was at its high, corruption was also at all time high, no safety for women, the government was convicted of one scam after other,. etc etc. In short the government of our country was a total failure. They were not able to deliver or it would not be wrong to say that they were least bothered about bringing any difference. It was like a total monarchical reign. People seemed helpless. 

But for how long can the general public be fooled in a democracy. The people were annoyed. They wanted a change, they wanted a person who would be able to deliver and a leader who would be fearless and lead the people. They, the one whom the ruling party had taken for granted had shown that in a democracy you cannot take everything for granted and that to be in power you will have to deliver.

We, after casting our vote. Picture quality is poor.

The people of India have elected their new leader Mr. Narendra Modi. Their annoyance was so much that they almost wiped out the ruling Congress party from the national scene. They have voted for Mr. Modi's party and have given him more than he needed to form an independent government free of any allies. Now, it is up to Mr. Modi and his team how they live up to the expectations of the people of the nation. We too feel proud that we voted, though our contribution did not help him as his party candidate in our constituency did not win. Still we are happy and content to practice our democratic right.

We, as the citizen of a free democratic country can do nothing but hope that this time we would get a stable government who will work for the development of the country as promised. Else he should not forget that the results can always be vice-versa. Happy that this time the whole nation has come out in huge numbers, fearless of any outcome. The people were desperate for a change. 

There were great celebration in the whole country in the hope of a new beginning. We too celebrated at our home. Lots of friends and relatives visited and long and short distance calls kept us busy the whole day. There were talks of new government, new hopes, disagreements too, songs, dances etc. Akanksha made a cake for the occasion and I prepared many dishes for the guests to relish on. 

Cake with the party Logo prepared by Akanksha

Starters served by me and many more served but did not get chance to take pictures..

The Secret Scroll

The scroll made by Akanksha

Yesterday night after returning from her dance class Akanksha was doing something with paper and sticks. I scolded her of again cutting papers and dirtying the house and asked to go to sleep. She said that she need to carry it to school. Without bothering to find out what it was I asked her to complete it in the morning. She also obliged and went to sleep. 

 Today morning we were supposed to be at Akanska's school for a parent's orientation program. I was not liking the idea of having the same on a Saturday because only on Saturdays and Sundays I am able to sleep a bit more. Also after the child attending the school for six long years I was wondering what was the use of a parent's orientation program all over again. Since, we were supposed to reach school by 10.50am I slept a little more than usual. After I woke up I found Akanksha again toying with the paper and sticks. She awoke before me. Some how three of us got ready by 10.30am. Since my husband had office he was not very happy with the idea that he also had to accompany us.

We reached school 10 minutes behind schedule. We were being welcomed by a senior girl and guided to our seat into the auditorium. The principal was already delivering her welcome speech. Listening to her speech we could make out that since the children had recently been promoted to middle school the parents are invited for a formal introduction to the class teacher, the subject teachers, the co-ordinator, the councillor etc. My husband was not feeling comfortable and was complaining in my ears that he was unnecessarily been fetched there. He said that he had many important tasks at office. I did not react to any of his allegations as it might have messed up the situation. 

After the speech of the Principal, the vice principal came on the dais and introduced all the teachers to the parents, then the co-ordinator had a power point presentation and one to one interaction of the parents and teachers took place which was very informative. All this was followed by a colourful dance performance by few students of both the sections. 

Words scrolled by Akanksha

The Principal concluded the meeting by inviting the parents to join her for refreshments arranged outside the auditorium after the children hand over a scroll with a  secret message they had written for their parents. All the children who were sitting at the back came running to their parents and handed over the scroll. It was the secret thing that Akanksha was doing yesterday night. I opened the scroll and found a beautiful message written for us. She wrote -"Dear Mom and Dad, you are actually the message of God sent to me by him because he can't come to me. From Akanksha".

Going through the words tears rolled down my eyes and while showing the same to my husband I saw his eyes moistened too. After I looked around I was surprised to see the emotions in the eyes of each parents. I do not know from where she wrote it, if anybody helped her or had she written it herself, I am least bothered but I am happy that she had chosen such wonder words for us. 

It was an utterly pleasant and emotional moment the teachers created. The act made us speechless and we could expect nothing more from the teachers but just bow our heads in respect of how wonderfully they are helping to grow our children. We are really proud to send our daughter to Loreto House which always make us realise that our daughter will grow to a well mannered and respectable human being. 

My husband was so touched by the gesture that he called it a magical thing that the teachers did. He no more complained of accompanying us. He said it was just wonderful and it was wonderful indeed.  

Bishu

Today is a special day for us. It is the last day of the Hindu calender year. On this day we the Bishnupriya Manipuri community make special offerings to the Lord. We cook different pure vegetarian delicacies and make the offerings on a banana leaf outside the main gate. The offering is done by the eldest member of the family. After the offering is done the cooked items are exchanged among the neighbors and relatives and than consumed. This festival is known as Bishu.

On this day the whole house is cleaned and the kitchen is mainly cleaned of all non-veg items. Once properly cleaned the food is cooked. On this day the alters and deities of every household is cleaned and new clothes are worn by all. It is said that in ancient times on this day the offering was made of 108 food items. But now a days due to many reasons it is practiced no more.

It is believed that by cleaning the house, wearing new clothes and worshiping the Lord everyone is preparing to welcome the new year with fresh enthusiasm and hoping for a smooth new year. 

But since this year my mother-in-law expired we are not supposed to perform this ritual. But I am sharing with you all a few photographs taken last year.

 

Since in this congested city life it is not possible to make the offerings outside the main gate, we offered it on our terrace.. 

 

Anindya doing the offering..

 

 Akanksha doing pranama after the offering..

 

The platter ready to be consumed. On this day we sit on the floor to eat our food..

 

Anindya and Akanksha sitting in the traditional way to have their food..

Since here we have no relatives nearby and no neighbors of the same community we do no exchange of food but we always share what we cook, with our landlord. On this day, we prefer to stay home and welcome the new year in a peaceful manner and also make it a point not to eat outside.

Emotional Farewell

Akanksha is gaining proficiency in the art of cake making. After the first cake she made she had excelled a lot. Now, she is always ready to bake a cake. Now my neighbours come and ask for recipes of cake from her. They even invite her to their home to make sure that the cake comes out properly. Is not it funny?

The above cake she baked on the 31st of March for our landlady whose birthday Akanksha never forgets. Our land lady was overwhelmed to see Akanksha bake a delicious cake for her.

Yesterday night she baked two cakes - a farewell cake for her cousin brother who is leaving Kolkata for Assam where he is going to join a new job and a birthday cake for her cousin sister who stays miles away. The cake was shared through facebook.

The birthday cake for her cousin sister

Her sister was very happy to see the cake on facebook and messaged back:

awww....thats so sweet of u all  thanks to all of you n special thanks to my lil sister..she made my day wid dis cake 

The farewell cake for her brother

Her brother cutting the cake at night since he will leave when she will still be in school today.

Everyone relishing on her cake

The two naughtiest cousins trying to tease her

Overall it was an emotional moment. From today we will be missing Ricky and Akanksha will miss her brother with whom she shared everything. Ricky too got emotional and wrote the following on his facebook timeline:

It's an emotional night for me.. M leaving this place without my will. Leaving another home..Kaku-Kakimoni, thank you will not be enough for what you did for me. Bappa da my roommate my brother.. thanks for being with me.. My lil sister Shikhi(Akanksha).. will always love you n thanks for the cake.. it was really very tasty.. Thanks to all.. thank you for the surprise.. Will miss you all  

I am happy and content that merely for baking a cake  may be, Akanksha will at least remember occasions and be able to value relationships.

Fan's resentment

Now a days, as I mentioned earlier, I am able to somehow control my anger and emotions to some extent, which was not possible earlier. it is not that I do not have mood swings and neither it is that I do not get angry. But now, I seem to realise and control it.

We women had lot of things to get disturbed. Moreover, we Indian housewives are pampered by the maid servants so much that their absence seem to make us mentally misbalanced. Since my maid left me in the mid ocean with all the uncleaned kitchen utensils, laundry, cleaning, cooking etc., my temper always remains at the saturated level, ready to explode at the simplest of pretext. 

But of late, I am somehow able to guard my anger. But yesterday was an unusual day. The whole day was passing off quite pleasantly. Hurriedly I tried to complete my house hold chores as in the evening Indian cricket team was going to have its world cup final match against Sri Lanka. 

May be, as I was born in a family of sportspersons or may be because of the cricket crazy country I belong, I am not sure, I am very much inclined towards the game and its outcome effects me a lot. In this series India had won all the matches. So, there was a believe that it will win the final too. 

With all the positivity in mind and prayers at heart, we sat before the television at half past seven in the evening. Maybe, because the Indian players were not good at bat or the bawling was not to the mark or maybe the Sri Lankan's played a better game than ours. Whatever may be the cause yesterday we lost despite a wonder game by Virat Kohli. We lost the T20 World Cup Final.  

As the match ended I felt as if all my energy was drained out. I felt sick. I was angry. All of a sudden everything seemed to disturb me. Suddenly I realised that the whole day I was busy with my household chores and the husband went to his sister's and even after the match got over he was not home. I called him and asked him to come home. I had such an unusual feeling. I felt like crying. 

Getting my call my husband came home and at the very sight of him I was caught by the women instinct and started attacking him with all the stupid allegations. Basically I used him as my punching bag to drain out my anger. When I do something like this, he never reacts but yesterday it was different. As I punched him with sour words he punched back with harsh words not at me but at his nephews, who came to visit us. I felt very bad. I was ashamed that for me the innocent boys were attacked by their uncle.

But then I realised that the resentment of loosing the game was not within me only, it was in him too. The whole house was silent as if we were mourning somebody's death. Such is the craze of cricket in India I suppose, where no 'Secret' works.


Photo courtesy : Google Images

The Secret

 I am basically a very impatient person. I get irritated at the smallest of things. I do not like when things does not work out the way I want. Also there is a believe in me that if the morning when I wake up is not pleasant my whole day gets ruined. This attitude of mine effects the people around me, I understand that but I cannot change my attitude.

Yesterday was the worst of such a day. In the morning I woke up with a call from my maid that she will not come to work anymore because of some personal problem. The news was as if I was struck by a thunder. But for a change I did not react. I just started to do the house hold chores. 

The next was that my daughter was driving me crazy from quite few days to visit our neighbour who had shifted to another locality. They have a little boy for whom she is mad. Since her school is beginning from today I thought of taking her to visit them yesterday but after calling came to know that they are out of station and that they would be reaching home at night. That plan too did not materialise. But we have fixed a visit today. 

Then, I was all ready to go to the lake for an evening walk. Our driver, one of the most punctual person I have seen in my life, for the first time did not turn out without informing. After calling I came to know that he had some urgent task for which he could not. This task also did not work out.

After that I thought of visiting Akanksha's doctor. No, Akanksha is all hale and hearty. We are to visit her because her swimming enrolment form needs her doctor's declaration that she is fit for it. The doctor, whom on our tenure of 10 years of regular visits have never seen to cancel her chamber, did cancel it yesterday. For a change I did not have any mood swing.

The AC mechanic did not turn out even after repeated reminders that the AC is not working in such a temperature when the mercury had touched 40 degree centigrade and we are just boiling in the heat but still I did not loose my cool.

Normally, one or two such incidents are enough to  loose my temper but to my surprise I was normal yesterday. I could not bring out the reason of my change. But at night when I was in bed a thought struck me - Is it the outcome of reading the book 'The secret' by Rhonda Byrne. 

From last few days I have been reading the book. I  completed the first book and started with the second edition 'The Power'. While reading the book I thought that some things are very good but most are bluffs, which are always better said than done. The book says that when you think something negative you attract more negativity to it. So, we should divert our thoughts from thinking more negative things to something we love to do or thinking about a person you love. I was not practicing anything as such but unconsciously I was trying to ignore whatever unpleasant thing is happening to me. Though the whole day everything that happened were negative yet it was for sure that it did not effect my mood. 

So, now I am wondering if it is the effect of the book? If it is than I am glad.

Photo courtesy : Google Images