Birth and Rebirth

Today is Nanaji's 12th death anniversary. Akshay has not seen him. He was born 23 days after Nanaji passed away. Nanima used to say that he will be reborn in Bahrain - she believed that truly. In fact, from the time he was born Akshay filled the void left behind by Nanaji - we were all so focussed on him.
Today all three of them are not with us in physical form. But their energy forms are with us, in spirit, in thoughts, day and night.

Captain Cool

Here's Akshay holding an Iguana and a snake during his holiday in Malaysia.

Notice how matter-of-fact he looks, as if he was holding a box of chocolates! Akshay has recounted this in his travel diary and mentioned it in passing - as if it was a matter of routine! Captain Cool!

That green iguana looks scary doesn't it, with its spiky back and striped tail. But I believe it is an animal with a calm nature and it's a herbivore and grows to about 5 feet in length.. The bright colours are only to scare away any potential  predator. It makes a very demanding pet and needs the right amount of light and heat. I sure hope that was snake a friendly one. Incidentally 2013 is the Year of the Snake according to the Chinese calender.

Pigeon Shower Day

Today is Pigeon Shower Day. Pigeon is an urban bird mostly found in residential buildings and our apartment has its fair share of these birds. Being large in size comparatively they don’t let the smaller birds like sparrows live in their surroundings. 

It’s a cool and refreshing morning,. A light breeze is blowing. There is a nip in the air and the water is cool but the pigeons seem to find it the perfect time for a shower.

At about 8- 8.30 in the morning, they came down in a swoop onto the lawn where the gardener had left the lawn sprinkler on. It is an oscillating sprinkler and makes little pools of water in the lawn.  The pigeon enjoy getting wet, feet, wings and all. In fact they do a thorough job of their shower, they lift up one wing make sure they get their wing pits nice and wet, now the other one very good – a quick shake to get rid of excess water. Now the pigeon is cool and fresh. So nice and so funny to watch!

Akshay would have really enjoyed this.  

For Akshay's Friends

I know some friends of Akshay have looked forwarded to the updates on this blog. So I will continue and post stuff that I would have loved to share with Akshay.
In South India during Sankranti some communities have a display of dolls just like the Kollu of Dusshera. Here are a few traditional toys depicting daily life of the common man in India. Akshay would have loved the little men- the potter at work, the shoemaker and the vegetable seller.

 

 

Our Very Own Star in The Cosmos

Dearest Akshay, One with the Universe. Time and Space seem to stand still in this beautiful image that Shekhar created to mark his first anniversary.

A Sky Lantern for Akshay

12.12.12 - a once in a lifetime date for the world. For us it is our dearest Akshay's first anniversary. Prayers, meditations and food for the orphans marked the first year of Akshay's journey in the other world. One of the last things Akshay did was to hand over a packet of food to a poor and hungry man.  We hope he is getting our messages and prayers, through the lamps we have lit, the lanterns we have sent up and the flowers we have offered. It is hard to not feel sad and cheated by Death.

Someone has said, 'There can be nothing more rude than Death. It barges in when you are right in the middle of something and doesn't bother to wipe its feet.'

How true!

Point of Light

Last Monday of Karthik month. A beautiful diya rangoli depicting the Supreme Soul and a Raj Yoga meditation for Akshay