Office chitter chatters - Incident 1

On a casual thursday afternoon,

Friend 1 : The roads were crowded today. So I logged in late.
Me : Hey today it is Hanuman Jayanti.. That might be the cause.
Friend 1 : Oh Yeah in Orissa its Guruvaar(Thursday).

My expression :/ and I blurped out : Oh madamji its Guruvaar throughout not just Orissa ...

Well she meant it was the Lakshmi pooja that they perform on all the Guruvaars/ Thursdays in this particular month. And that day being the last one of the month is supposed to be auspicious and celebrated with zest and fervor. A good piece of information it was, received in a hilarious way.

On searching the net for more, here's what I extracted.

The whole month of Margashira is spent in worshipping the Goddess Lakshmi in Orissa.The festival is known as "Manabasa Gurubara" or "Lakshmi Puja" which is performed by the housewives.

This festivities include the houses getting cleaned and purified with the plastering done using cow dung, a jhoti[rangoli design] drawn using the rice powder mixed with water, footmarks are painted from the door to theplace of worship to welcome the Goddess lakshmi. The flower garlands decorate the roofs.

Early morning after a purificatory bath the howsewives worship Goddess lakshmi in the form of paddy measures. Varities of rice is prepared with lot of shraddha and offered to the diety which is later shared to all.

In the evening the Laxmi Purana is recited which teaches all to pay extreme regard to goddess Lakshmi. It is believed that the one who disreards her will face some evil days.



Small talks can help share different cultural and traditional values.

13 comments:

Rachna said...

Very true -- the last line!

Sahana Rao said...

So many things to learn from different cultures. And I liked the subtle humor there :P

Rags said...

culture is cosmetic.. values remain the same but in different colors alva? :)

ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ/ Ashwini said...

@Rachna: hmmm..

@Sahana Rao: Yep.. Never underestimate any culture and its values.. This was my lesson learnt:)

@Rags: Very well and Rightly said..

Bikram said...

haanji aaj guruvaar hai :)
he he he he

Can I ask one thing everyone spends so much time worshipping, praying this and that , YET the same people do so much bad once they finish the praying .. what use is all this drama then ..

instead of all this worshipping shudnot each individual treat the other nicely .. I bet GOD will be much happier and show his happiness to them all ..

Bikram's

Anonymous said...

:D It is guruvar in orissa :D This has to be one of it's kind....

Irfanuddin said...

yaa..by sharing these we can get familiar to different cultures we have....

@Bikram.... friend, i think all this worshiping n religious acts are there to make our day-to-day life little more disciplined and in a way u r right we must not do all those wrong deeds along with these noble acts.....:))

Jack said...

Ashwini,

Read 3 posts now. In Nostalgia you took me back to my childhood days. Bhuta Kola, I navigated to link and gained knowledge. It is true that sometimes little chitchat can reveal so much of culture. Thanks for sharing it.

Take care

ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ/ Ashwini said...

@Bikram: To be honest I think the same. Why do people worship hours together and finally end up committing sins.? But may be the perspective differs on the context.

@Chintan: Definitely!

@Irfan: Thanks on that note. Yes it does bring some order and discipline in one's life.

@Jack:Nice to see you back. Thanks for those humble words.

Unknown said...

really good one. i just go through it. Thank you for sharing.


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@Education: Thanks for hopping onto my blog and having read the article. Glad you like it.

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