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KCA ‐SC is pleased to release a new monthly journal depicting the rich culture and heritage of our State under the title 'Karnataka Vaibhava.' We have started with the theme' Naada Habbagalu' featuring articles by our youth. Kindly share this with your family and children We request you and your children to participate and share your experiences pertaining to the theme of the month with our Kannada Balaga.
Themes for the upcoming months
Nov: Rajyotsava/Deepavali ‐ article due by Nov. 25 Dec: Popular scenic spots/landmarks ‐ article due by Dec 20
Here is what you need to send us:
1.) Stories/Poems around the theme 2.) Special Family Experience (Along with the photos), while in Karnataka 3.) Does your home city or region celebrate the festivities in a unique way? Do you know of a special place(Temple, City or Region) which is famous for the related topic? Then tell us all about it! 4.) Do you have a special recipe that you always make to celebrate the current month’s festivities? Share it with your KCA families! 5) Photos that capture the various facets of the festivities – along with captions.
Send all entries to Pratibha Shastry at [email protected] or Girish Kannalli at [email protected]
Theme of the month
Naada Habbagalu
Ganesha Chathurthy and Dassara
Contents
THE JOURNEY OF MY GANESHA Madhulika Shastry, age: 10 years, grade: 5th
Gearing up For Ganapathi Pooje Festivities Sathvik Shastry, age: 15 years, grade: 11th
Shri Mangala Gowri Vratha Arushri Girish, age: 8 years, grade: 3rd
THE JOURNEY OF MY GANESHA by Madhulika Shastry, age: 10 years, grade: 5th
This year, as a KCA Children’s activity, I made my own Ganesha idol, and the various stages of his journey including the Warehouse, the Workshop, the place of Worship, and finally, the Visarjane are listed here. I will briefly describe each stage to you. My mother and I first went to the Aardvark Clay and Supplies Warehouse, to pick up bags of clay. The warehouse itself was very exciting, with lots of clay samples, and sculpting tools and accessories. We picked up a total of 200 pounds of red modeling clay!! It sounds like a lot, but it was packed in very compact boxes. Then we made our way home. I couldn’t wait for the next day, Friday Sep 17th, to come! That was the day we would all be making out own personal Ganesha idols! Hurray! We held the workshop in our background, and there were about 17 children. Prasad uncle was our teacher, and I have to say that he is amazing! He led us through several simple steps, and it was awesome to see how a simple block of clay soon transformed into Lord Ganapathi! We each followed the exact same method, but each and every Ganesha looked different, with unique personalities. For myself, I found making his feet to be the hardest part. I put googly eyes on Ganesha, wondering if he would look funny, but he looked really handsome and strong with very muscular arms and legs, and a very round belly. I really enjoyed making my work of art. And it was quite simple to follow the instructions – our chief tools were our own hands! At the end of the workshop, we had several impressive Ganesha idols, and I was proud of myself.
On Sunday, September 19, we attended the KCA Samoohika pooje at the Jain Mandir, and I did pooje to my Ganesha idol. I showered him with my arshana‐kumkuma and flowers, and at the end, I could barely see him, since he was fully covered with flowers! I could feel him though. When I stood in line to do Visarjane, he was certainly very heavy! Finally, at the time of Visarjane, I felt emotional. The very first time I dipped him in water, the clay started dissolving. The third time, I let go of my Ganesha, bid him farewell till next year, and went to eat a delicious lunch.
Gearing up For Ganapathi Pooje Festivities by Sathvik Shastry, age: 15 years, grade: 11th
Last year, my family and I were in Bangalore during the summer holidays. During my
stay, I witnessed the city gearing up for Ganesha Pooje. The street corners, fields, and market places of the city brightened up with Ganapathi idols. Overnight, roadside stalls kept springing up, covered with plastic sheets, housing row upon row upon row of Ganapathis and Gowri idols. There were Ganeshas in different poses, in sizes ranging from 3 inches to about 5 feet! Dancing Ganeshas, seated Ganeshas, relaxing Ganeshas, simple Ganeshas, grand Ganeshas – it was mind boggling. There were Ganeshas who looked like, well, Ganeshas. Other Ganeshas were sporting peacock feathers like Lord Krishna, as well as in dancing poses like Lord Nataraja.
A vivid memory is the decoration of the idol of Lord Ganapathi at Raagi Gudda temple,
in Jayanagar, Bangalore. Each night, the temple priests would decorate in a different style, with vegetables or fruits or butter. Just to get a glimpse of the idol was a slow process, and outside the temple, the throng of people was even greater. The roads were roped off, a large makeshift stage was set up, decorated with huge amounts of fresh flowers and flower garlands. Cultural
programs were held there, well into the night. The road to the temple has a huge archway that was decorated with lights outlining a figure of Ganapathi.
One more pleasant memory is about the time when we had gone to Gandhi Bazaar to eat masala dose at Vidyarthi Bhavan . When done, stuffed with dose, and barely able to move, I rested on a bench outside. All I could see was a sea of roadside stalls, overflowing with tons of flowers, and flower garlands, mounds of lotus buds, piles of banana leaves, and tiers of betel leaves arranged in a circular fashion. Wow! What a colorful palette! And there was a comical side too – a couple of cows kept heading towards the leaves, and were constantly being pushed away.
And finally, the best memory of all was feasting on the delicious festival treats, with my
grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. And I certainly understand why modakas are Ganapathi’s favorite – they are certainly delicious!! Now I can’t wait to go back to Bangalore, and relive these memories again!
Shri Mangala Gowri Vratha by Arushri Girish, age: 8 years, grade: 3rd
This Shravana maasa (month of August/Shravana) was a special one for me. As my grandmother taught me how to do “Shri Mangala Gowri Vratha”. I would like to share my experience on the same. First of all let’s understand What is Mangala Gowri Vratha or pooja? It’s a Vratha / pooja that women and girls perform to deity goddess Gowri/Parvathi. Why do we do it? Married girls perform this pooja for well being and long life for their husband and pray for welfare of the family. Girls perform for the wellbeing of brother, father and family members. Unmarried girls pray to goddess Gowri to bless them with good husband. There is a story associated with this pooja: In ancient India there was a king who had a son with only 16 years of life. An astrologer advised the king to marry his son immediately so that the bride would be able to get him a longer life. The son was married to a girl by name Susheela. The very next day after the marriage the King’s son died. His body was placed in a container with liquid so as to preserve the body. Susheela’s uncle advised her to perform the pooja to pray goddess Gowri to bless her husband with life. Pleased with her pooja goddess Gowri blessed her and gave her husband long life and she performed the pooja for 5 years . What do we need to perform the Pooja? The Gowri idol needs to be kept in a clean place preferably on a plate to perform Pooja. Also you need to make one ‘Harshina Gowri’ (Made from Turmeric powder in the form of a pyramid) and keep that over Jagri. Two deepas (lights) need to be kept on the either side of the god. One small kalasha with water filled and decorated with beetle leaves and a tiny mirror in front of that Kalasha. Also, we need flowers,fruits, kumkum, turmeric powder and akshatha for pooja. There is one more special thing you need for this pooja and that is “Tambittu Deepa”. You need to have 16 Deepas. (This was my favorite). Tambittu is a special sweet made from Rice flour, Jagri ( Bella) and Ghee. How do we do it? This pooja is performed on four tuesdays of Shravana masa for minimum of 5 years. I got up early in the morning took a head bath and got refreshed. The previous day I had kept the dress which I was going to wear so dressed up wearing that. My Grandma helped me to wear the sari and Langa Daavani. We can also wear Reshme Langa. I wore some jeweleries as well like bangles, gold necklace, ear rings etc.
My grandma started reciting the vratha pooja vidhana and I followed her instructions. We started offering kumkum, arishina and flowers to the Godess Gowri. While my grandma was telling Ashtothram I was putting flowers and akshtha on the idol. The final part of the pooja was to lighten all the 16 deepas. And then I also made Kajol (kaadige). Took a small knife and applied little Ghee to that and while my grandma was reading the story I was holding the knife over the deepa and slowly the knife portion over the deepa started turning black. By the time we finished the story the Kaadige was ready. After that we did the Aarathi and then Naivadya (Kosambari,Pongal, etc) and gave the kosambari, kumkum and kaadige to mother and got blessings from mom and dad . I also put the Kajol to my eyes. With that my eyes looked bright and large, that’s what my dad says. This was repeated for all four tuesdays of Shravana masa and each week my friend’s families were invited for lunch. I had fun eating and spending time with them. Gave them kaadige to apply to eyes and thamboola ( kumkuma, blouse piece, flower and small gift) for the Mom’s. In summary I really enjoyed wearing langa/dhavani, sari and doing pooja with my grandma. I enjoyed eating the special “tambittu deepa” after the pooja. I am really looking forward to do this pooja again in next year.