Beauty - A five sentence Fiction

Dorothy, the dark plum lady struggled to change her father in-law’s clothes, suffering from dementia. It was tough, but she felt contended and preferred doing all this herself, though her husband had employed Nancy, the gorgeous damsel for all his nursing needs.

Tring Tring ! - Nancy opened the door and burbled “Your father is really tough to take care of bla blabla…”, adjusting her red dress.

His eyes struck on the beauty, her complains as if falling on his ears from far, when suddenly the charm got broken by the hoarse call from the corner of the room– “Pls help me hold him so that I change the wet pants”. 

Beauty -  intrinsic is more important and real, he sighed and moved towards her.

Aditya Sinha
02.04.2020

B FOR BUDDHA PURNIMA, BASANT PANCHMI & BAISAKHI

A to Z challenge 2016

Festivals of India

B @ BUDDHA PURNIMA, BASANT PANCHMI & BAISAKHI

Buddha Purnima, Basant Panchmi & Baisakhi all are important festivals in India linked with different regions and cults. They even have different messages.

BUDDHA PURNIMA is associated with birth celebration of Lord Buddha and is celebrated amongst Buddhists all over the world with a message to make special efforts to bring happiness to the unfortunate like the aged, the handicapped and the sick. The festival is celebrated in the month of “Vaisakh” as per Hindu Calender, which falls in May and is thus also called Vesak. In Nepal, the birth-country of Buddha, it is celebrated on the full moon day of the Vaisakha month of the Hindu calendar, and is traditionally called Buddha Purnima, Purnima meaning the full moon day in Sanskrit.

Statue of Lord Buddha

 

BASANT PANCHMI on the other hand is the Hindu festival to commemorate the onset of spring. This festival is usually celebrated in “Magh” month of Hindu calender, (between January and February in Gregorian calendar). Ladies in Northern part of India esp. Bihar wear yellow colour dress on this day to match with the season which also sees blooming of Mustard fields with yellow flowers. 

Basant Panchmi

Goddess Saraswati (associated with knowledge, music, arts, wisdom and learning) is worshipped on this day and so the day is also referred to as Saraswati Puja. Idols of Goddess Saraswati is adorned at street corners and worshiped with happiness and joy asking goddess for the blessing of knowledge.

Saraswati Puja Celebration by students

Devoting immersing Goddess Saraswati idol in river after Saraswati Puja

BAISAKHI altogether different is a Harvest Festival & is celebrated in the northern state of Punjab. Farmers observe this as a thanksgiving day whereby they pay their tribute, thanking God for the abundant harvest and also pray for future prosperity. The Punjabi new year also falls on the same day. It is celebrated on 13 April and also coincides with Khalsa Sirjana Divas (formation of Khalsa in 1699 by Sikh 10^th Guru – Guru Gobind Singh) and Mesha Sankranti festival. April 13^th marks the beginning of the solar year. Visit to Gurudwaras, Vaisakhi processions and traditional performances marks the days celebration. Local fairs & Punjabi folk dance Bhangra rules the festivity.

Baisakhi Celebration

The festival also coincides with other new year festivals celebrated on the first day of Vaisakh 13 April in some other regions of the Indian Subcontinent such as Pohela Boishakh  - the Bengali New Year, Bohag Bihu of Assam and Puthandu,  - the Tamil New Year. It also coincides with some other regions harvest festival like Satuani in Bihar.

Aditya Sinha

02.04.2016

That’s for today with B. Tomorrow it would be another festival with “C”

For my parallel second Challenge blog with A pls visit : Let the Soul Pour

For other A to Z challenge blogs visit : A to Z Challenge 2016

Bir-Billing & Baijnath

This post is written as a part of April 2015 A to Z challenge. On the second Day the word is B and I would talk of two places - Bir - Billing an abode for adventure sport Paragliding and Baijnath the famous Pilgrim site.

Bir – Billing

Paragliders Soaring in open air

Take off Site - Billing

Landing Site - Bir

Bir – Billing is a world class paragliding site in the Dhauladhar range of Kangra district of HP. It is about 90 kms from Dharamshala en route to Mandi falling in Joginder Nagar Valley near Baijnath. Bir is the village on the main route especially populated by the Tibetan refugees and serves as the landing site for paragliding. Billing on the other hand is 14 km uphill where the take-off starts. It stands second only to the paragliding site of South Africa. In 2013 it hosted the Pre World Paragliding Championship where approx 150 Paragliders from across 28 countries took part. It is also learnt that it has won the bid to host 2015 Paragliding world cup scheduled for August 2015.

Flag off as opening of Paragliding Pre world cup in 2013 by Sudhir Sharma the Urban Minister of HP

How to reach:  The nearest rail head for lower Himachal is Pathankot in Punjab where all Jammu bound trains stop. From Pathankot one can take taxi to Bir which is approx. 180 km through Gaggal – Dharamshala – Palampur - Baijnath and takes around 4hrs. Alternatively one can take flight to Gaggal Airport in Kangra and then move by taxi to Bir.

The route from Gaggal to Bir offers spectacular view of Dhauladhar mountains, the tea gardens of Palampur and arrays of Pines all the way.

Activity : Paragliding at its best can be enjoyed in support with certified tour operators and guides present in plenty over here. Aside from Paragliding one can visit the famous Shiv temple at Baijnath and Tibetan monasteries at Bir.

A guide helping paragliding

Baijnath : The shiva temple at Baijnath, Kangra has the same mythology that runs behind the Baijanath Dham temple in Deoghar district of Jharkhand. Astonishingly both the places are commonly called Baijnath. 

The Baijnath Temple

The Main Entry

The story behind both temples is that once Ravana performed immense tapasya on Kailash Parvat. Lord Shiva got pleased and promised Ravana to fulfil his wish. Ravana expressed his desire to take Shiva to Lanka and establish him there. Shiva agreed to accompany him in the form of Linga on the condition that he would not stop on the way and would not put the linga on the ground. Where ever it is put on the ground, it would not move any further. Ravana agreed and moved with the Shiv Linga but on the way he felt natural call and he asked help from a passer-by to hold the shivling for time. Ravana natural call took a longer time than normal and so the passer-by put the Shiv Linga on the ground. On returning Ravana could not move the Shiv Linga so the temple got established around that Linga.

The Baijnath Temple Garbha Griha having Shiva Linga

Route to Baijnath is same as to Bir. It is about 9 kms before Bir.

That's for today. Tomorrow would be C. Do visit again to know more.

For other posts on Himachal written as part of Ato Z Challenge : List of post on Himachal Pradesh written as part of A to Z challenge.

Aditya Sinha

For other participants in the challenge visit : A to Z Challenge