Culture
Rewind & Replay: The Changing Face of Diwali!
愉快的燈節. That's Happy Diwali in Chinese, friends. The lights are Chinese, the Lakshmi and Ganesh idols too. Stotras in Chinese must be next. Diwali is now a retail season. Digital sales, corporate h…
Bol Bam: A Tradition Still Walking!
Every Sawan, the road forgets what it was built for.Trucks and buses give way to bare feet. Saffron floods the highway. Bamboo kanwars sway with the rhythm of a hundred thousand shoulders, and throug…
Netroutsav — Festival of the Eyes!
Netroutsav, literally festival of the eyes, marks the complete healing, spiritual rebirth, and first public appearance of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and Goddess Subhadra after fifteen days of i…
The Shell of Shani: Form, Silence, and Cosmic Time!
As a child, I picked up a smooth, dark stone from a riverbank and handed it to my mother saying, "Ma, this is Shiva." She didn't laugh. She placed it in our puja room, where it is worshipped to this …
THE NEW AGE SABITRI BRATA : Powered by Sponsors!
(A Satire on How Odisha's Most Sacred Fast Got a Brand Deal)Disclaimer: WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE! 6:00 AM (by gone era): Grandmother woke before dawn. No alarm needed — the gods themselves sti…
Pochise Boisakh!
On May 7th 1861, or Pochishe Boisakh of the Bengali year 1268, Rabindranth Tagore was born in Jorsanko, Calcutta. Rabindranath Tagore wrote the national anthems for two countries: India: Jana Gana M…