Mi....Ek Vadval...

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Some days ago, when I came back to my desk after lunch, I found a messenger window popped up saying “Hi”. I looked at ID. Some Stranger…. Now, Generally I don’t incline to chatting requests from some one stranger unless there is a cross reference of a common friend.

But as with all rules… this one too has exception. This was that “Exceptional Case” because the ID was made up of name and surname and the surname was indication that the person might be a “Vadval”. Yeah… this is the exception….and I responded positively and continued with chat…

What is so special with being a vadval? Well, for me... it is… because “Vadval” is name of “My Community” the one I belong to (somehow I really hate to use the word “Caste”). I never find myself declining a chatting request if it is from a “Vadval”

In our daily life right from school we come across people from different layers of the society. We become close friends… all this does not involve community and all… it goes irrespective of... language… religion etc…etc…

But in all these relationships no matter how close we are, there is an invisible line that separates us at some social level. “Kahi Alikhit Niyam...” we all respects those rules knowingly or unknowingly.

The separation is at a very basic level if both are from entirely different regions or religions etc. And there are very minor differences or the separation is at a deeper level if both are belonging to different sub communities of same main community. These basically define the boundaries of interference (or rather Involvement) into each other’s social or family matters. Because after that “Rules of the Community” dominate and everyone try to adhere to the norms and rituals of “His Community”.

When we are part of same community, when it comes to interaction, the principle of “Home Centric Universe” of course comes into play.

When I ponder over this, I realize that I m missing no only my parents…close relatives and friends but I m missing community interaction too…. All those community gatherings, sports events, “Yuva Melave” so many things where we get to interact with people from our community. Since at least last three years I have not attended a community gathering…. Or yuva melava…There is a yahoo group for interaction but it is almost more than a year when I posted a mail on the group…. Mainly because there are either some serious discussions taking place about community or some job posts are put up…. There is no place for the time pass forwards that I am generally involved in.
But somehow I need to renew the ties…

Here I remember one story from “The Panchatantra”. There was one sage.
One day he sees a she mouse (bahutek kahi kaamdhandhe nasavet tyaala so...) he converts it into a girl child. Years pass by and time comes to get her married. The sage has such great divine powers even gods are not in position to refuse his requests.

He first goes to the sun with his daughter and ask her if she liked him. She says no… so the sage ask the sun to suggest someone. The sun says,"Despite of all my power this cloud can easily shadow me… so he is more powerful…".

So the sage go to the cloud… but the girl does not like him to…. Again the sage asks the cloud to suggest someone. Then the cloud said that despite of all his powers this mountain could stop him… so the mountain was more powerful…

When they go to the mountain, the girl does not like mountain too….
The mountain says,"Even though I m this big… a small mouse put me in lot of trouble by making holes in my body. So he is more powerful than me."

Eventually they end up meeting the mouse. The gal blushes when her eyes meet the mouse. She likes him and requests the sage to again convert her into a mouse. The sage smiles and agrees to it. Even when she could marry virtually anyone in the universe, she finally rejected all and chose someone from her own community… A mouse…

Maaroon Mutakun National Day

Shaniwari Kingdom of Saudi Arabia celebrated its national day....

First ever national day celebrated by the Country. Actually it was the
Foundation Day for the Kingdom

For a person accustomed to national festival celebrations like 15 Aug and 26 Jan, this was a totally diff. experience. I can not describe the apathy I saw here. At one end I saw Indians celebrating 15 Aug at the Indian consulate and at other end I saw these countrymen total apathetic about their national day 24 Sept.

No enthusiasm ...no celebrations....no functions charged with patriotism... of flag hoisting... nothing ....nothing.... I wonder if this country has a National Anthem.

The interesting thing was that the actual foundation day was on Friday and not on Saturday. But since Friday was a holiday, Saturday was declared as national day. Actual day mahatvaacha nahi... Sutti mahatvaachi. :-)

Nahi mhanaayla i saw some flags on the some shops and all... but the way they were put up, an element of compultion (may be a desperate need to display loyalty) was clearly evident...(Hence the title... Marun Mutakun.... ;-) )

And all this was done on Saturday... not of Friday!!!

I look at the episode as a good attempt by new king to get along with the people in the country. Or as we say in marathi...Navi Viti Nave Rajyaa....

This highlights a point to me...
Any National Festival can not be successful just by declaring it a holiday... the incident or the process (is this a correct word?) that is related to the festival should have great involvement of common man...and sentimental attachment to the people. And most importantly it should be in some way or the other related to freedom of people, accepting the will of the people and giving control to the people. Only then people celebrate it wholeheartedly...

Take 15 Aug... Or Independence Day of US... 4 July or the French celebration of Bastille Day on 14 July....All these underline the same thing....

Maazyaa Astrological Uchapati

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Ever since childhood... I like astrology... I always read the astrological predictions for the weeks in every newspaper that I get to read. And trust the one that is most favorable to my sign. kahi divasa poorviparyant hi paristhiti hoti.

Some days ago i was chatting with a friend. He was facing pressure for getting married.
Chat kartaa karta gadi "Patrika" ya vishayavar aali. Patrika hyaa prakara vishayee malahi
faar kahi mahiti navhate. So I trained my guns towards astrology...

First step was to get my own "Patrika" As usual..."Jai Google baba ki..." and a list of sites offering free natal charts was in front of me...
I was just trying to understand the explanation that came with the chart. I noticed that the moon was in Sagittarius....I thought it may be bcos I entered birth place as Vasai since it was the nearest available in the list of cities provided. So using Google earth, I found as accurate co ordinates of my birthplace (I mean Hospital) as I could. And prepared chart again using the actual co ordinates but still results were almost the same.

Wait... something is wrong. For Years i was being told that my moon sign is Scorpio. Mag saaheb ekade Sagittarius madhye kaay kartaahet? Kahitari chukatey... either this chart is wrong or the chart that was at home was incorrect....
This called for further study. Soon I found myself tackling terms like Zodiac... tropical... sidereal... celestial sphere...precession of equinox... ek naa don..hajaar bhanagadi.

Finally it turned out that there are two basic systems in astrology for predictions... first is the Tropical Astrology that is practiced in the western world and the second is Sidereal Astrology or Vedic Astrology or what we call as "Jyotish" The horoscope that we read in any English paper is the one based on "Position of sun in your chart that is prepared as per the principles of Tropical Astrology." on the other hand when we look at the horoscope in local papers then it is based on, "Position of the moon in your chart that is Prepared based on Principles of Sidereal Astrology" this means there are two factors affecting your "Bhavishya" first is the method and second is position of a planet.

Now it is very much obvious to think that why position can be different in two systems when everything is viewed from same planet at same time into same sky but sadly enough.... it is...

Ek simple example... we celebrate " makar sankranti" that is "Suryaacha makar Rashit pravesh" so if my birthdare is after 14 jan... than my Sunsign should be Makar or Capricorn.... isn't it? Now have a look at English paper...as per them if your birthrate is between 20 Dec to 19 Jan then your Sun sign is Capricorn. So if I m born 13 Jan or before then I have two sun signs Sagittarius and Capricorn... in two different systems and both claim to be valid. Now i refrain from telling the actual Astronomical dates... that is altogether different story...

So now I can have 2 different but valid charts showing planet positions at time of my birth and they can be interpreted by two systems. So I have 4 "patrika" giving different predictions... sounds great na?

Next... we say that there are 12 constellations... in the Zodiac... So we have 12 "Rashi's" named after each of them.
Ethehi popat....

There are 13 star constellations along the zodiac. Oops... there is one more constellation of "Ophichchus" between the Scorpio and the Sagittarius. Sun passes through it between Nov 30 and Dec 17. And Strangely enough both the systems don't recognize this constellation. So if u r born between these two dates...your sun sign is not really what is being told to u....
This also applies to all planet positions also... effect of a planet being in this 13th "rashi" is totally ignored. And funny thing is that this 13th “rashi” is much larger in size than Scorpio... now for what reasons our ancestors ignored this big constellation but considered the smaller one like Scorpio may very well remain a mystery...

Anyway... we go further... this Zodiac... what is it basically? As per dictionary,
“A band of the celestial sphere extending about 8° to either side of the ecliptic that represents the path of the principal planets, the moon, and the sun."
In normal terms celestial sphere means the sky. And ecliptic means the plane formed by the earth's path around the sun.
So, why it is only 8 degrees wide? May be because most of the planets are found within that belt for "most of the time"

Planets are found sometimes in other constellations to apart from the ones that are being considered. So, what about the planetary influence when they in some other "rashi's"?

There is one more Principle called "Ayanamasa" that affects the calculations and is highly debatable. Shit... I m trying to be as brief as I can.... but still size of post is increasing...

so many confusions... the more i read into details... more i doubt the very fundamentals of the astrology....But still we believe into astrology.. We feel that whatever is being told... that is fully applicable to us. Why this happens then? When the very system itself looks flawed why we tend to believe it?

Here I came across a new Psychological funda called "The Forer effect". It refers to the tendency of people to rate sets of Statements as highly accurate for them personally even though the statements could apply to many people.
And something called as "Selective Thinking" in which people pick the favorable evidence from a bunch while ignoring equally valid unfavorable evidence. For details on these... bolo jai Google baba ki...

I really feel weird... we put our important decisions like choosing life partner or Starting a new business under control of a system that has highly dubious fundamentals. In most of the arrange marriages first thing they check is "patrika"!!! The girl or boy who is sitting in front does not matter but the distant star does. If the system was so accurate then there would not have been so many unsuccessful marriages around. But when a marriage fails, no one blames the “Jyotishi”, but everyone blames his or her own “Nashib”. Shevati jar sarv kaahi nashiba pramane hote tar te tasech hou dyaayche na.... patrikecha gondhal ghalun nashibaat dhavala dhaval kashala karaaychi? Sounds logical..... Isn’t it?

Jevha ShaleBhovati Bhinta Navhati...

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Mazyaa shaleche he Suvarna Mahotsavi varsha aahe.
It is more than 10 years since I passed out of the school, AannaSaheb Vartak Smarak VidyaMandir, Virar; and "The Wall" I m writing about was constructed when i was in 6th or 7th standard. But still.... some faint memories....

The school now has a 15 feet high wall around it now...with a big gate..It was not the case till I was in 6th or 7th... that is around 13-14 years ago... It was a world without a Kumpan

Shaleche maidaan aata aahe tyaapeksha officially thode mothe aani unofficially barech mothe hote. Shalebhovati keval ek taareche modake kumpan hote. Pachhimela Railway yard aani shaleche maidaan yatali adhikrut seemaresha te kumpan dakhavit ase aani arthatach aamachya maidaan hyaa shabdaachya vyaakhyet te railway yard suddha included hote.

Tyaa Yard boundry war ek chhaan hirvegaar chincheche zaad hote. aani mule tyaakhaali jamoon gappa marat... aata te zaad bahutek shalechyaa navyaa emaratichyaa mage kuthetari aahe... kase vatat asel tyaa zadala? "Vaalit taakane" mhantaat te hech ka?

Pavsalyaat especially khoop maja yaaychi... sadhyaa navi imarat jithe ubhi aahe tyaa bhagaat; to be precise navyaa emaratichyaa payryaa aahet tyaanchyaa samor, may be 20-25 foot ahead ek choukoni uthal khadda hota jyaat valu hoti... aani generaly long jump compitition sathi to vaparala jaaycha. Pahili Dusari madhye asataana paavsalyaat matraa toch maidanacha lahaan kopara aamachyaasathi "mini samudrakinara" banaaycha. Madhalyaa suttitala aamacha barachasa vel tyaa valut kille aani bogade banavanyaat jaaycha.

Shalechyaa maidanacha jo bhaag mukhyaa bldg aani railway yard chi bhinta hyaanchyaa lagat aahe to thoda khol aahe. Tithe pavsalyaat baryaapaiki pani sathate.... to ek mini talaav mhanava lagel. Actually to jevadha shalechyaa maidanaat aahe tevadhach kinva thoda jasta to railway yard madhye aahe. So when the wall was not there, it was a pretty good scenery... aamhi madhalyaa suttimadhye chapate dagad panyaavar fekun to kiti vela tappe khato te mojaaycho. aata matraa to talaav bhinti mule ardhaa ardhaa vaatala gelaay.....

Aanakhi ek mahatvaachi goshta ji hyaa kumpanamule gayab zali ti mhanaje... madhalyaa suttit khelnyaasathi fukataat milnaare balls. Shalechyaa bajoola steel chyaa bhandyaana buffing karnaare barech lahaan kaarkhane hote. Buffing karnyaasathi ji kapadachi gol wheels vapartaat ti wear out zalyaavar maidanachyaa bajula eka jaagi fekun det asat... madhali sutti zali ki aamhi tyaatala ek "Buffingcha Ball" gheun cricket... catch-catch.. aaba dhubi asale khel khelat asu. bhinta aali aani to source hi banda zala...

Dakshinela shalelagat ek railway line aahe. Tyaa lagat 2-3 Gualmohoraachi mothi zade hoti...bhinta zzali aani bahutek ek don pavasalyaat ti zade dharashayee zali. Bahudha bhintichya paayaa ne tyanchi eka bajuchi mule tutali asaveet.

Bahutek sahavichyaa sumaaraas shalebhovati bhinta baandhavnyaacha "pahila prayaas" suru zala aani shalebhovati vitaanchi javalpaas 4 footi bhinta ubhi rahili.... pan ti tichyaa apekshit kaaryaat kadhich yashasvi zali nahi. Nitkrushata darjaache baandhakaam aani mulaanche prayatna yaamule lavkarach tyaa bhintichi unchi 4 varun baryaach thikani 2 futaavar aali...

Aathavit yeta yeta ekadaachi ti bhinta poorna zali. Hyaa navyaa bhinticha sarvaat lakshaneeya parinaam mhanje "Lahaan Gate" gayab zala. Aata ashalela fakta ekach gate urala. Lahaan gate mhanje ek vegalech prakaran hote. Khare saangaayche tar lahaan gate band hoiparyant barichashi mule (tyaat meehi) mothyaa gate cha vapar karit nasat. Shala sutali ki lahaan gate pashi mulaanchi gardi whaaychi. Aani mag konitari shipaai shevati to gate ughadun dyaaycha. Aani bajuchyaa chali madhun aadrastyaane aamhi ghari jaaycho.

Tyaa bhintine kahi goshti hiravoon ghetalyaa tari tyaahun mothyaa kahi goshti shaletalyaa mulana dilyaa... sarvaat mahatavaachi goshata mhanje surakshitata...aani thodifaar shista pan lavali.

My Home-Centric Universe

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Ever since I completed my diploma, I m wondering around... Starting from Bombay High... Kopargaon...Pune...Bangalore....Riyadh...Jeddah..... adhun madhun Virar too... and these are places where I spent at least 3 months.... I m not counting those short visits....like picnics and all...

When I put together all these traveling experiences I realize one thing, "wherever we go, our universe always remains centered around our home" May be I m generalizing my personal experiences but that is the way I see the whole thing.

Whenever we find ourselves in a new city and it is time for interaction strangers, people whom we have never seen... but need to trust them. Under such scene unless we had some specific contact information, we tend to choose the ones who are from a location geographically closer to our home.

Like, if I m in Maharashtra but outside of Mumbai, I feel inclined towards a person from Mumbai or around Mumbai but when in Mumbai we tend to form groups area wise like virar- vasai, kalyaan-dombivali parle-andheri etc..etc.. And once in that particular area when it comes to making a choice, our inclination changes towards someone closer to our home.

On the other hand if i m in central or eastern parts of Maharashtra I will look for someone at least from western maharashtra or konkan. But when I m in south India even a Gujarathi will be a lot closer.

When outside country; I tend to look for someone from the subcontinent if not from India itself. This reflects from the fact that we always tend to go into Indian restaurant. Always tend to hire a taxi with a driver with a familiar sub continental looks. If no one from subcontinent then we look for someone from Asia pacific, isn't it?

In Kopargaon there were region wise groups and they used to stick together always. When in a totally new city like Bangalore, we found all people from Mumbai forming a huddle together.

I remember once in Mhapusa, Goa how suddenly a shopkeepers attitude changed when he came to know that we came from Virar... he too was from Virar. He was suddenly talking about his old days in Virar... not to mention we got special discounts and all....

This is how we come across so called regional lobbies, when going for an interview we tend to believe if the interviewer is from same region or speaks in a familiar language tone , he will favor us. We expect this kind of support in all aspects of life knowingly or unknowingly.

Even when you talk to people who have spent a lot of years away from home, except a few people most of them tend to cherish a dream of returning and spending time in their native place. May be for this reason we have Marathi Mandals in many part of India as well as world.

What causes us behave this way? May be I need to turn towards psychology to find answers.....