Category: Indian Festivals

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 🙂 Continue reading “Basant Panchami Greetings”

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.
Continue reading “Durga Puja Notes”

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.
Continue reading “Happy Ganesh Chaturthi”

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.