Hey Govinda...hey Gopala..

Somehow, and with a lot of grace, 5 years have gone by in successive celebration of this special day with as much pomp and splendour as we could manage with our time and creativities, and both the boys have proven to be very special little Krishnas. This year, it turned out to be a very lovely and flowing day which we, as a family, enjoyed tremendously! And I think for the first time, it fell on a Saturday when the mood was relaxed and the entire day stretched out before us.

When festival comes, I am usually most unprepared and scramble to get everything done at the last minute, whether it be cleaning up the house, or deciding what to make for prasadam and whatever shopping that needs to be done for it. This year, it seems all that stress was taken out of my hands and things just seemed to flow at the right times and fell into place. On Friday, I was caught up in some tidying fever and in a matter of 3 hours, set the house straight. On Saturday morning, we woke up with a lot of plans in our heads on how to spend it outdoors making good use of the remaining summer days, and those decisions too somehow left back their resolve as they made their way out of our scheming minds, leaving it....empty.

There was, instead, a relaxed preparation of lunch, followed by an even more relaxed lunch. Thambi napped through the late morning and afternoon, and Winkie graced us with his convivial company. After eating, I sat with a long forgotten embroidery kit and gave in to the lull of the rhythmic stitches. Come 4:00 PM and I started making the payasam, whilst setting the right background score. The simple aval payasam got done in a 1/2 hour, while I got the fruits and butter ready. R started cleaning out the altar area and both the boys were romping around excitedly, sensing that something different was up.

The initial plan was to just dress up little Thambi. But when we asked Winkie if he wanted to, he was completely on board. So we got out all those customary folds of pattu and cloth to wrap around them. R dressed them while I set up the altar in a more befitting fashion. I remembered to my dismay that we had absolutely no flowers. Last year, I had borrowed one flower from our generous hibiscus bush, but this year she sprouted one leaf too many and not one single flower!!! But the "problem" got solved in a few minutes. There is this one chalk board kind of desk that Winkie was gifted by a friend for his 3rd birthday. Its a very cute little thing and we have often used it to serve as a separate altar. We extracted that this time as well and R suggested that I draw a little kolam on it. And just as I was about to, I was prompted from within to just draw out a little flower. And so...there it was...one single bloom with the footprints of the Lord on either side. It seemed a fitting tribute to the Lotus Feet One, and yet another ecstatic instance of the quiet omnipresence guiding our simple efforts.

It also guided me to the guestroom, where a big bunch of peacock feather lay unused. My hands put them all in a jar and set it behind the altar picture...a little flowing umbrella of greens and blues. I lit the lamp and a lot of agarbattis and completed the symphony of all the senses....the music for the ears, the fragrance for the nose and the simple pretty sight of baby Krishna with his mother. Now, only the boys remained. They were nearly ready, and I provided all the jewellery, and before Thambi could destring all those pearls, we snapped them up in whatever impatient poses they afforded us. Thambi stole the show with his glowing babyface. And Winkie's enthusiasm radiated in all the pictures. And that was it!

We had our simple prayer chanting, and it was time to eat the prasadam after giving due interval for the Lord to indulge in them first. Winkie kept enquiring if Krishna had eaten already, and in his usual thought-provoking fashion, threw me a googly.....How old is Krishna?...he asked. Momentarily, I was stumped. But the wisdom shone from within and said...He is ageless and timeless. And so I told him that He didn't have an age. This simple answer seemed to suffice and he repeated it to himself in assimilation.


The payasam was awesome, if I do say so myself. What thrills me beyond end is how to get the sugar balance just right without tasting it. It was just instinctive measuring and it turned out perfect and was done justice to in a matter of minutes. By this time another background score took precedence, and it was THE SONG. The very song, that played on the night of my awakening. It never fails to calm the heart and set the mystical mood, and it was the divine end to this flowing, harmonious day which was taken out of our hands and given back to us with abounding blessings.