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Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
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Collaborative Posts

My blog seems to continue on the 'silent mode' while I am busy with so many things...... On one hand, as I mentioned earlier, I have been travelling quite a lot, on the other hand, I have also been busy writing about things other than travel...... Most interestingly, for the first time, I have been part of two collaborative posts on two different sites.....



My first collaborative post on 'Naming Children' was up on the Pocket Cultures site before I left for Delhi, but I was too busy to write about it here. The post has inputs from people from 13 different countries, each with their own take on naming traditions in their own countries or families.... yours truly is just one of them, so go ahead read the post here or click on the pic below.... Meanwhile, I am now a regular contributor for Pocket Cultures, so you can read more about India and Indian Culture there too...



Now for the second.... For the first time, I am part of the Lonely Planet Blog Carnival. This is the 23rd such carnival, where Lonely Planet featured Bloggers from around the world write on a chosen topic on their own blog, and all such posts are collected and posted on the blog hosting the carnival. This time, the carnival is being hosted by Kiran Keswani, a fellow blogger from India, who writes about Indian markets on this blog, aptly titled "Indian Bazaars'. Of course, the topic this time is 'The Marketplace', and among posts about markets from all over the globe, Kiran features my blog on the Hampi Bazaar. Go ahead and take a look for a virtual tour of markets from around the world! You can read the article here or click on the pic below..


There is a lot more I need to write about, but that will have to wait till I have time to sit down and put all my thoughts down..... and since there is a lot more travel lined up ahead, plus Samhith's vacations which have started today, it looks like May will be a quiet month on the blogfront. Of course, I shall still post photos and articles about happenings as and when I can, so please do keep coming back..... and I shall be back with a bang as soon as I can!
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