For me, one of the best things about being in India during Diwali – or any Indian festival for that matter – is that it gives me hope, that all is not yet lost, that there is something precious that we have, that we will still endure even though it may look quite hopeless.

Wishing you all a Happy Bengali New Year!!
I am visiting Irvine, CA, for a couple of days. Drove down from SF Bay area, part of the way on highway 1. The Pacific coast if fabulous. Then had to double back because 1 was closed a little south of Monterey. Then took 101 South, followed by I-405. Ended up driving for nearly 10 hours.
I will post pictures in a bit.

Picture resized from The Big Picture feature on Holi of 2010. Like all their photo features, this one is good. Go see them.

Greetings from New Delhi on Basant Panchami. It is also the day for Saraswati Puja. And for the worship of Kamadeva, who is also known as “Atanu” !! You all may bow in reverence to me

Today is the 8th day of Durga Puja. We Bengalis call it simply as “pujo” which means “worship.” It is the biggest festival for Bengalis across the world. In the SF Bay area, several temples have puja. I will attend a few tomorrow and have some bhog. For now, here’s something I recently learned about from a friend on the East coast: Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.

It’s that time of the year again when he with the curved elephant’s trunk, of enormous body, with the brilliance of a ten million suns, the remover of obstacles, etc., visits our homes. Here are a couple of songs to welcome him.

Om gate gate paaragate paarasamgate bodhi svaaha
I always wake up around 4 AM on Buddha Purnima — perhaps because of the bright moonlight streaming in through the window. And now I am listening to the Perfection of Wisdom Heart Sutra aka “Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra“.

I wish you all a colorful time with family and friends on Holi.

Diwali, or Deepavali, is the festival of lights. It is also the festival of wealth. Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth is worshiped on Diwali. Among Bengalis, Mother Kali is worshiped during Diwali. The tradition is attributed to a number of occasions.

Greetings on Ganesh Chatruthi.
May Vigneshwara (the remover of obstacles), Ekadanta (the One with the one Tusk), Mahakaya (One with the Huge Body), etc., remove the obstacles to your ventures. I am sure that he will remove the writer’s block that I have. I have made the appropriate invocations to him. Here’s a wonderful prayer to Nadapratithishta, the One who Appreciates and Loves Music.

Below the fold you will find another pretty good song to Ganapati and a list of his 108 names.

Dear blog visitors:
Happy Diwali, Happy Deepavali, Happy Lakshmi Puja, Happy Kali Puja, and Happy Bhai Duj.

Since Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity, Diwali is really what the stock market needs.
Here are stories about Bhai Duj (or Bhai Dooj) below the fold. And below that, the details of the Five Days of Diwali.

This morning I went to say farewell to Devi Durga at the Durgamahotsav close to where I live. I took the picture of the protima above. The traditional belief among Bengalis is that Ma Durga along with her children — Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartik — comes to visit her parental home for 10 days. Today is the 10th day, Vijay Dashmi, when she goes back to her in-laws. People then visit each other and wish “Shubho Bijoya” after she leaves.
Durga will be back next year, of course. But Durga …

I missed posting on Ganesh Chaturthi this time. I was in Mumbai last Monday. Tuesday evening was when I foolishly decided to make my way to Pune from Mumbai. As a matter of practical importance, I made the proper offerings to Ganesh, the Remover of Obstacles, before I embarked on my journey. After all, Mr Ganesh was around in the vicinity seeing as it was his time for his annual visit. So what happened? Well, I’ll tell you. Shri Ganesh failed miserably in removing obstacles from my path.

{Image above …

Deepavali Greetings! May Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, be a welcome visitor to your home and workplace.

[The Wordpress software is putting a "Japonophile" watermark on the pictures. I will have to figure out how to disable that one.]

Durga Puja Greetings
For Bengalis, this is the biggest festival of the year. Today, the last day of the five-day event, is called “Bijoya Dashimi.” Mother Durga, who had come with her children (Saraswati, Lakshmi, Ganesh, and Kartik) to visit her parents, departs today. For five days her idols had been worshiped and today the idols will be given back to the earth from which they were made.