A child's wish.....

2009-06-08T16:35:00.011-04:00

My 5 year old daughter, Keerthana is very much into Indian mythological stories, thanks to the constant supply of cartoon dvds of the same by dear old grandpa. She is a big fan of Krishna. She just cannot have enough of how Krishna tamed the serpant Kalia or how he contrived the slaying of Jarasandha by Bheema.

She does truly believe in God, (atleast for now) and also believes that if one is good natured and prays sincerely God will hear and respond.

The other day, she came up and said to me - "Mommy - I so want to see Krishna is person...I want to touch him and talk to him.....I have been really good mannered and am praying to him very sincerely as well, when do you think I would be able to see him?"

Like so many other questions from a child that has the ability to make a parent feel totally at loss for words , this one had me stumped.

I toyed with the idea of explaining that God is nothing but goodness and to not associate a form with him.
But then I decided against that - thinking that it would be too much for a 5 year old to comprehend, and would certainly dampen the joy that she derives out of watching the mythological cartoons. She had many years to realize all that.....

Guiltily I veered the conversation away to another topic....

I did not think of the dialogue much.

That evening, a cousin called up and mentioned that the Indian Cultural Society was staging a Krishna Leela play in our town's public school that evening- would we be interested?

We went over. It was a fabulous play put up by 6-15 year olds depicting Krishna's life right from his birth to the end of Mahabharatha war.

The youngster who played Krishna was unbelievably true to his character.

After the play - while the presentations were going on - he came over to the audience side and came and sat right behind where we were sitting.

Keerthana's joy knew no bounds - Krishna was there "in person"! For her , he was the real one - and why not - he was blue in colour (you see, that's a true identity of God - they have to be blue in colour ... ), she had just seen him tame Kalia, lift Govardhan mountain and kill Kamsa among other things.

She immediately went over to him and talked with him to her heart's content asking him all kinds of questions. The young boy also humoured her - speaking to her as Lord Krishna and giving her little tidbits of his - aka Krishna's life not captured in the DVDs that she had seen.

The morning's conversation with my daughter came rushing into my mind....

Her wish had just come true !!!!

I was stunned !!!

I did not know what to think of it.....

I was overjoyed myself, reassured that a child's faith in sincerity had somehow been kept intact. While on this instance I had been incapable of doing anything to ensure that, somehow it had been taken care of...

She has a long way to go in terms of realizing the meaning of "God", but she is now convinced that with sincerity and dedication you can achieve things. That I think is a very good lesson for a 5 year old....

Impressions of Paris

2008-04-20T17:56:00.000-04:00

I visited Paris nearly 8 years back - I found these notes while going through some old photographs - these were written by me immediately after the visit.
I have been conscious to not edit the original notes - to me , they provide an insight into 'me' as I was at that time...:-)

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Arrived in Paris at 10:30 hrs local time after a short journey from London by Eurostar.Our first destination in Paris was the magnificent Eiffel tower. How could we visit another monument before paying homage at the feet of the towering engineering marvel? From the moment we laid our eyes on it, it became difficult to look elsewhere. The arching base, the curving body the pointed tip - our eyes roamed from one facet to another. I am still unable to fathom the secret of it's charm - is it the sheer size (1052 feet), the perfect symmetry, the unique shape or the brain behind it all - I do not know. We travelled up the marvel only to appreciate another marvel - none other than the home of Eiffel - PARIS. I have not seen a better bird's eye view - there is not a single discordant note to disturb the uniformity of architecture across the length and the breadth of the city - the glass skyscrapers of one of the world's most modern city manage to blend superbly with beautiful 18Th century architecture of stone walled buildings and tree lined estates. After spending half a day romancing the tower of towers, we finally pulled ourselves away at 17:30 hrs. After all the excitement of the day, what was needed was a tranquil cruise on the serene Seine - drinking in the beauty and history that was written on it's banks over several centuries.
The next day dawned with us visiting the Notredam cathedral - what exquisite sculpting and carving ! The high stained glass windows are a thing of beauty.
After saying a short prayer - we moved on to explore the Louvre. The Roman look of the exteriors of the palace took us by surprise - a step inside the huge towering entrance took us back several centuries - a time of mighty kings and magnificent palaces. The palace - an architectural splendour in itself today houses most of the greatest artistic splendours of the day - the sculptures of Michaelangelo, the paintings of LeonardoDaVinci. I cannot really say anything that has not already been said about Monalisa's mysterious beauty. I must say though that some of her not so well known companions in the gallery are no less stunning. One does not need to be an avid art lover to appreciate their beauty.
From the Louvre we tread the path to the magnificent 'Arc DE Triumph' It's eternal pyre is a commemoration to the warriors of the first world war.
With the clock ticking hastily towards our time of departure from the city, we rushed to 'Sacreceur' - a beautiful temple atop a hill.
The final few hours in Paris were spent shopping - not at all an easy task - when there are so many beauties to choose from. We got on to the Eurostar at 8:00 pm with eyes full of images - captured to remain for a long long time....

~~~~~~~~~ Gayatri's musings ~~~~~~~~~

A child's wish.....

Impressions of Paris

~ Gayatri's musings ~