This impulse purchase is with us for over four decades, as a good luck charm.

Before I come to the topic of the title, I must tell you the importance of Rice to us, it symbolises peace, happiness, prosperity and all things good.

Many would be aware that Rice is very important for us South Indians, as the staple food and as that which can be cooked in many fancy ways, great delicacies indeed, to suit our tastes. And Rice plays a very important role in our religious ceremonies and our traditions.

Rice preparations like Pulihora, Pongal, Payasam and Paramannam are offered to Gods as Naivedhyam (food for Gods). Rice grains mixed with turmeric and vermilion (Akshanthalu) placed in front of Gods and handed over to elders are showered on our heads invoking appropriate blessings to suit the occasion. Akshanthalu from Temples brought to us by friends and relatives are received as great blessings.

At our weddings, there is a ritual called Talambralu, where a large quantity of Rice (about 15 kilograms) mixed with turmeric is placed between the bride and the bridegroom and amidst the chanting of Vedic Slokas, the bride and groom alternatively pickup Talambralu with both hands cupped together and shower alternatively on one another’s heads ushering happiness and prosperity. And after the wedding, every few years a ceremony called Vodibhiyyam is celebrated when the couple is gifted new clothes and the wife is gifted with five handfuls of Rice mixed with turmeric by each of five different ladies.

A newborn baby is named by the father by writing the chosen name with a gold ring on Rice placed on a plate, and this ceremony is called Namakaranam. And before the child starts formal education in school, the father makes the child write ‘OM’ three times on Rice and a Slate, and this ceremony is called Aksharabhyasam.

Similarly, many rituals, rites and customs attributing great significance to Rice exists amongst Buddhists and among many others in China, Japan, both Koreas, Thailand and in other South Asian countries and also in Feng Shui.

Coming to the topic of this article, I was in Bangalore on official work for six months in 1979, from early January to early July. It was during this time that the dates for my Engagement Ceremony and Wedding Ceremony were finalised by our parents. My engagement ceremony was on 2nd April and my wedding on 9th May 1979. Before coming to my hometown for my Engagement Ceremony I bought a few gifts for my fiancée. While some were planned gifts, one was an impulse purchase at M.G. Road, at a stall in Topkapi building – A gift wishing a happy married life written on Rice grains.

With a happy message and our names on five grains of Rice, it turned out to be a good gift, captivating and pleasing. Though a simple and inexpensive gift it has found a place in our showcase of dolls, figurines and travel memorabilia, for over four decades.

With all the importance we give to Rice as I mentioned above, I sincerely consider this impulse purchase of Rice gift as an amulet, a good luck charm… overseeing and blessing us true to the message written on it, over all these years.

This belief is further strengthened by the facts I learnt later, that elsewhere in the world, Rice art is considered to bring good luck, some of its most popular forms being good luck pendants, hope bracelets, charms - where the rice grain is enclosed in a vial with a liquid or oil that magnifies the individual grain making it easier to appreciate the painstaking and intricate details. The variety of jewellery includes – chains, necklaces, earrings, bracelets and anklets. Some of the jewellery is made with paddy too.

I hope the attached pictures will substantiate this article.

You should write… some famous quotes on writing.

“You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” ~ Annie Proulex

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” ~ Stephen King

“A writer is working when he’s staring out of the window.” ~ Burton Rascoe

Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.” ~ Isaac Asimov

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ~ Sylvia Plath

“[As a writer] you have to have the three D’s: drive, discipline and desire. If you’re missing any one of those three, you can have all the talent in the world, but it’s going to be really hard to get anything done.” ~ Nora Roberts

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” ~ Richard Bach

“I only write when I’m inspired, so I see to it that I’m inspired every morning at nine o’clock.” ~ Peter De Vries

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” ~ Steven King

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

 “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ~ Maya Angelou

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” ~ Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

 “Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.” ~ Ray Bradbury

“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. “The English language is an arsenal of weapons. If you are going to brandish them without checking to see whether or not they are loaded, you must expect to have them explode in your face from time to time.” ~ Stephen Fry

 “Every writer I know has trouble writing.” ~ Joseph Heller

“Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don’t forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.” ~ Paula Danziger

“There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly: sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

“If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” ~ Dan Poynter.

“The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.” ~ Stephen King

 “The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” ~ Agatha Christie

“There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” ~ W. Somerset Maugham

 “I try to write a certain amount each day, five days a week. A rule sometimes broken is better than no rule.” ~ Herman Wouk

“Never, never, never, never give up.” ~Winston Churchill

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” ~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce

“There’s no better teacher for writing than reading… Get a library card. That’s the best investment.” ~ Alisa Valdes

“Beginning a novel is always hard. It feels like going nowhere. I always have to write at least 100 pages that go into the trashcan before it finally begins to work. It’s discouraging, but necessary to write those pages. I try to consider them pages -100 to zero of the novel.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver

“You have to follow your own voice. You have to be yourself when you write. In effect, you have to announce, ‘This is me, this is what I stand for, this is what you get when you read me. I’m doing the best I can—buy me or not—but this is who I am as a writer.” ~ David Morrell

“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” ~Thomas Mann

“The miraculous connection between writing and the immune system results from cracking through inhibition. It seems that when we don’t speak the truth of our experience, we inhibit our emotions, and that inhibits our immune function. Keeping secrets and maintaining denial requires physical energy, energy our bodies could use in healthier ways were it available.” ~ Peggy Tabor Millin

‘If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favour.’ ~ Edgar Rice Burroughs

“Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.” ~ Anon

“If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” ~ Dan Poynter. “If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule – a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.” ~ John Steinbeck

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” ~ Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“My first feeling was that there was no way to continue. Writing isn’t like math; in math, two plus two always equals four no matter what your mood is like. With writing, the way you feel changes everything.” ~ Stephenie Meyer

“There is probably no hell for authors in the next world – they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this one.” ~ C.N. Bovee

“Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Other times I have to sweat and almost bleed to make ideas come. It’s a mysterious process, but I hope I never find out exactly how it works. I like a mystery, as you may have noticed.” ~ J.K. Rowling 

Hoping to bring sunshine and smiles to my nephew facing severest winter storms, a satire…

Simply as a person

Concerned of Texas situation

And as an electrical engineer

Specialised in electrical power…

In different forms of Generation

Distribution

And Utilisation

And as one who worked

At a coal-based

Thermal power plant

I am deeply concerned

Of the Texas power predicament.

Wind turbines are frozen

Gas lines are frozen

Shutting down

Wind and Gas power generation

Hydel and Solar generation

Even if present, would not function

In such inclement weather

And in such a grievous situation

There are power outages

People are freezing

And there are reports of deaths.

Coal and Nuclear fuel is available

For power plants in ample

But that is not acceptable

To counter climate change.

A solution will surely be found

To such a power problem

Sooner or later

But for the quickest answer

The world should come to India

At this very moment

And meet our environmentalists

With immense knowledge of climate

Agriculture, freedom, environment

Human rights and every subject

Under the sky

Because this is the right time

As you can now easily

Find one expert who is in custody

Or those on bail

Or in hiding

Or someone on our roads

Or in our TV studios

Cheering

Jumping

Clapping

And shouting

In support

Of these wise environmentalists…

Don’t hesitate to seek a solution

Even if that person is aged twenty-one

And whatever that person's education.

Valentine’s Day Celebration 2021!

Dear family and friends,

Happy Valentine’s Day!

For your amusement, here are some photographs from our Valentine’s Day Celebration this year. And attached to this article are joyous and colourful videos of our Valentine’s Day Celebrations over the past few years, and this year.    

Valentine’s Day Celebration has crept into our traditions of annual festivities around two decades ago. Sometimes it is a very grand celebration and sometimes it is a very modest one but it has become an important day for us to celebrate very happily. As the world becomes truly a Global Village with peace and prosperity all around, hope we get more and more opportunities to celebrate happy international festivals like the very popular Chinese New Year!

Sweet Memories of Valentine’s Days Celebrations! – A Video:

Video of Valentine’s Day Celebration 2021!

However nice some memories, however pleasant those stories…

However nice some memories

However pleasant those stories

With the passage of several years

Some of those experiences

Tend to fade over the decades.

Here is one such recollect

From an archived cassette

The cassette has developed flaws

Not that something is amiss

But that too has faded over the years.

This brief video selection

Brings back memories of a function

And my happy interaction with guests

And being helpful to my parents.

- N. Lalitha Raghu.

The Video:

Here is a happy farmer, not agitating.

Here is a happy farmer

To us very dear

Well educated

Well refined

He has no issues

Absolutely no fears

With the 2020-Farm Laws.

He is not into politics

He believes in discussions

To sort out any issues

Not armed struggles

And violent activities

He would never inconvenience

His countrymen for whatever issue

By blocking trains and roads

And harming nation’s guards

And sacred monuments.

He loves his family

His country

His farmland

His cows and oxen

And his workmen

And he trusts his government

Because he is certain

That it is doing the best

To our Nation

Since our liberation.

He says do not go against

A popular government

Dynamic and honest

Working day and night

Paving the path

For peace and wealth.