Appreciating Hindu agrarian festivals

When I was a kid, gradually entering the world of science through high school lessons in physics, chemistry and biology, I was very skeptical of almost all traditional practices that was common in our household. I sure enjoyed the numerous Hindu festivals and the delicacies that my mom prepared on these days, but I still saw them more as superstitious traditions than something with any scientific basis. For example, I thought it was superstitious of my parents and relatives to do pujas (Hindu prayer rituals) in honor of the sun, moon, the earth, tulsi (basil) plant, cow or even the cobra. After all, I had learnt through my science lessons that the sun, moon and earth were merely astronomical bodies, not really gods like they were denoted in some Hindu puranas (Hindu mythological stories). Similarly, tulsi was just a plant, cow a mammal, and cobra a scary reptile. So it had to be superstitious to worship them.

Offerings my mom made for the sun

However, now as an adult, I am gradually starting to understand and appreciate the scientific basis of many Hindu festivals. A week ago was Makar Sankranti, a Hindu harvest festival celebrated throughout India that marks the northward movement of the sun (Uttarayana), something that also has deep spiritual significance. But there has been a lot written about Makar Sankranti, so I will focus today on a relatively lesser known festival, because it is unique only to the state of Odisha. The festival is that I am talking about is very similar to Makar Sankranti in tradition and is called Samba Dashami, which this year fell on the 19th of January. As usual, my mom cooked several Odia delicacies, although the number of dishes were a litter fewer than usual because I insisted that she didn't strain too much when she was not keeping in good health. My mom (and I) then took a plate filled with these dishes and fresh fruits into the driveway of our home where there was direct sunlight, and we offered these food items to the sun (god). Just in case, you are not familiar with Indian traditions, no, the food was not wasted; once the offering has been made, we consume the food as prasad (food that has been blessed by a deity).

Legend has it that Samba, one of the sons of Lord Krishna, was afflicted by leprosy, and he was cured of his disease by Surya, the Sun God, after 12 years of penance. So on Samba Dashami, the mothers pray Surya for their children's health. So what is the scientific significance of all this, you may ask. Well, I don't know whether or not sun can cure leprosy, but there is a lot of evidence for sunlight being good for our health, helping in the prevention of certain diseases, and even beneficial for patients of some diseases. For example, studies have found that vitamin D that is produced by the body on exposure to sunlight can fight breast, colon and prostate cancers. Studies have also shown that sun can help lower risk of multiple sclerosis, help with increasing bone density, be beneficial to patients with Alzheimer's and depression, help in healing of many skin diseases, including psoriasis. Forget these specific health benefits, sun is basis for all life on this planet earth. That way we owe our entire existence to sun. Without sunlight, there would be no plants, no crops, no animals, and consequently no us. So we have a lot to be grateful about with sun. The Samba Dashami festival is then essentially a way to express gratitude to sun. Through our food offerings, in the Indian culture we humbly express our thanks to all those entities to whom we owe our existence.

And yes, even the cobra plays a big role in our existence. Without snakes—even deadly ones like the cobra—most of our crops would be lost to rodents. That I think is the reason why we have a festival in India which even honors cobras, not because we are afraid of cobras and seek protection from them, but because our ancestors didn't want us to kill all the snakes in fear of them. The extinction of snakes would be disastrous for us.

... to be continued.

The Splendor of Vancouver

This summer has been a busy one for me. Immediately after the completion of the Spring semester, I took two weeks off for a backpacking trip in Europe, but after my return from that trip I have been busy writing. I completed and submitted three book chapters, and am near completion on another chapter and a journal article. These latter two should be leaving my table within the next 4-5 days. Given this busy summer, it was a delight to travel to Vancouver, Canada last week. The travel was work-related to present a research paper at the Academy of Management Conference. As a passionate academic, I spent most of this trip attending sessions at the conference. However, my travel plan was such that I reached Vancouver a day before the start of the conference and left a day after. This allowed me to do some sight seeing in and around Vancouver.

One of my colleagues from another university mentioned that this may have been the most Facebooked Academy of Management Conference in history, because the city is so beautiful. Vancouver is definitely a beautiful city. Within the city, I liked the Waterfront and Stanley Park, two areas that helped me stay connected to nature. The rest of the downtown area didn't excite me much, because it was just like any other major city, filled with high-rise buildings. But then I'm biased towards nature. Thankfully, the outskirts of North Vancouver is packed with beautiful mountains and excellent hiking trails. I got the opportunity to hike parts of these trails on my first and last day in Vancouver. Most of the pictures below are from those two hikes.

The Grouse Mountain (Picture taken while coming down on the Skyride)

The highest point of my Vancouver trip was both literally and figuratively the Grouse Mountain. The trail up the Grouse Mountain is called the Grouse Grind, which is only 2.9 kilometers in length. However, the trail is very steep with an elevation gain of 853 meters (2800 feet). And because it is so steep, they only allow hikers to climb up the trail. You are required to take the cable car on your way down.

Thinking 2.9 kilometers to be too short a distance for an endurance runner like me, I went up the trail without carrying any water with me. That was foolish of me, not just because it was a hot summer afternoon, but because I had been out of touch with climbing mountains. Also, with my overconfidence, I started my hike by running up the trail. By the time I covered the first quarter of the trail, I was completely exhausted. So I had to take several one-minute breaks to catch my breath. With a lot of difficulty I reached the halfway mark in 33 minutes and 30 seconds. It is that point that I determined that I have to complete this climb in under 1 hour, howsoever difficult it may be. So I pushed myself hard. I finally made it to the summit with only 7 seconds to spare at 59 minutes 53 seconds. If I had planned things well, I could have certainly done better, but it felt good that I achieved my goal. My time was by no means extraordinary--the trail record, I understand is below 30 minutes--but as I always say, endurance activities are not about beating someone else's record but about competing with my one's own self.

Waterfront, Vancouver

The mountains that you see in the background are in North Vancouver. You can take a regular bus to go from Vancouver to North Vancouver. However, I strongly recommend taking the ferry (called Seabus) to cross the sea between Vancouver and North Vancouver. It's fast, unique, and much more beautiful than traveling on a regular bus. The nice thing is that the day-passes in Vancouver allows you to travel on all forms of public transport--train, bus and even the ferry.

Float planes in Vancouver

At the International Village in Vancouver

Suspension Bridge at the Lynn Canyon Park

One of the major tourist attractions in Vancouver is the Capillano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver. The entrance to the Capillano park is pretty expensive at $37.50. I didn't go inside the Capillano park, but I passed by it on my way to the Grouse Mountain. I found the place to be very crowded, probably because it is heavily advertised in the tourist guides. So if you are like me who prefers less crowded places, a cheaper alternative to the Capillano Suspension Bridge is the suspension bridge in the Lynn Canyon Park. Here the entrance is absolutely free and the place is much less crowded. The nice thing about this suspension bridge is that it is narrower than the Capillano Suspension Bridge (although shorter), and thus shakes more while walking, making it more exciting. 

Picture of the river from the suspension bridge in Lynn Canyon Park

A small waterfall (picture taken from the suspension bridge in Lynn Canyon Park)

Crossed the river while hiking part of the Baden-Powell Trail

Sat in meditation here for about 15 minutes. It's so much easier to meditate when everything around you is so tranquil.

A rusted part of a wheel I noticed on the river bed while hiking

While hiking on the Baden-Powell Trail

At one of the sessions on Emotions and Relationships at the AOM conference

To some it may be boring to sit through full days of conference presentations, but to me learning about the latest developments in my field is one of the most exciting things in life. Not surprisingly, I ended up attending sessions from 8 in the morning to 6 or 8 in the evening.

The famous totem poles in Stanley Park of Vancouver

One unique thing about Stanley Park is that unlike most city-based parks, it has a lot of hiking trails that go through wooded areas. These hiking trails are easy, but like me if you prefer quietness and spending time in woods, you should explore to the Western section of the Stanley Park and not restrict yourself to the popular Eastern section of the park. The picture above is from the Eastern section of Stanley Park.

Sunset from my hotel window in Vancouver. The picture doesn't do justice to how beautiful the sunset was.

I'm not particularly fond of fancy hotels, but the nice thing about staying on the top floors of a high-rise hotel was that I got to experience this ethereally beautiful sunset one evening.

Dusk from my hotel window in Vancouver

While hiking up the Grouse Mountain

Hiking trip to the Grouse Mountain

The most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen from a flight

On my flight from Vancouver to Toronto, I experienced the most beautiful sunrise I have ever experienced from a flight. The above picture that I took on my cellphone doesn't do justice to how beautiful the sunrise actually was. With most of the passengers asleep on the flight, this was another nice and quiet moment to connect with the beauty of mother nature.

What I liked the most of my Europe trip?

It's weekend again, which means it's time for a new weekend post. My previous two posts have been on travel, and today’s post continues that theme.

Writing about travel is not easy. The famous Scottish explorer, David Livingstone wrote in the introduction to his book, Missionary Travels in South Africa (1857), “It is far easier to travel than to write about it.” As I sat to write about my current travel experiences, I too struggled to summarize my rich and varied experiences of three weeks into a short blog post. After some deliberation, I decided to not write about the breathtaking landscapes of Alpine Austria, or the elegance of European medieval architecture, or for that matter even the captivating beauty that the majority of Eastern European women seem to possess. Surely they were all great but they are not what I'm deeply grateful for; they were eye-catching but not necessarily heart touching. In my experience, what really touches the heart is not simply beauty but the generosity of spirit. So below are some of the many experiences I had on my current trip that were very moving and uplifting to me:

• What I appreciated the most on my trip is the warmth and excitement with which I was received by my hosts in Austria. I felt welcomed right from the very moment I approached the exit out of the baggage claim area. I could see my friend, Elisabeth, waiting for me with an eager anticipation in her eyes. When our eyes met, she shouted out my name with an unbridled excitement that could have come only from genuine delight in seeing me or from drinking too much coffee while driving to pick me up from the airport. Whatever the case, I was equally pleased to see my friend, and was touched that she had chosen to wake up early in the morning to drive for over three hours from her hometown in Austria to pick me up from Munich. On our conversation over Skype couple of days before my trip I had offered to take the train to her place, but she had insisted on picking me up from the airport. You may say that this is what friends do for each other. I won’t disagree, but I’m still very grateful to have such wonderful friends in my life.

Let me now move the focus to my friend's mom. We had never met before but the openness and joy with which she welcomed me into her home is indescribable. Also, I continued to receive a lot of warmth and affection from her throughout the 9 days that I stayed at my friend's place. In today's age of Atithi, tum kab jaoge? which means "Dear guest, when are you going to leave?" my hosts insisted that I stayed with them longer. I had the implicit belief that only the sentimental Indians were capable of being caring and hospitable hosts; I was glad to be proven wrong.

• The next experience that I would like to share about happened in Prague. At Prague, I was staying at an economical hostel called The Golden Bridge Hostel. Although very economical, the hostel was clean, offered free breakfast, and was situated in one of those old historical buildings right in the heart of the old town square. It's owned and managed by a really nice guy of Moroccan origin named Redo. We chatted quite a bit in the evenings after I got back from my sightseeing walks around the city. When I returned to the hostel on my second evening in Prague, I found Redo sitting all excited in front of the television to watch the first 2014 soccer world cup match between Brazil and Croatia. Being a soccer fan myself, I joined in. Redo offered me the exotic drink that he was drinking, Becherovka. He said it was a special of Czech Republic. I first declined because I'm not fond of drinking alcohol. Also given how little I was paying for the hostel, I didn't want to take more just because it was being offered free. But then as Redo went on to describe more about the drink (that it is made out of herbs, used as a digestive aid, etc.), I got curious and decided to taste the drink. The drink was truly exquisite, the best alcoholic drink I had ever tasted. However, what moved me was not the spirit per se, but the generosity with which I was offered the spirit. The bigheartedness of Redo was again visible when I was ready to leave Prague. He had a nice little memento for me (picture above). He had earlier asked me if I had bought any mementos from Prague, and I had told him that I found it silly to buy tourist mementos. If I had actually gone and bought tourist mementos, it would have been truly frivolous, but a personal memento like the one I got from this new friend was worthy to be cherished.

I had many other experiences that demonstrates the inherent goodness of heart in people. It would not be feasible to list them out all here, but I'm still grateful for all those experiences. For example, how can you not be grateful to those random strangers who helped you with directions despite their difficulty in expressing themselves in English, or those who didn't know the directions themselves but readily pulled out their smartphones to help you with the directions? One old gentleman who spoke absolutely no English and failed to communicate the directions readily walked me to my destination before going his way. The truth is that you won't experience such beautiful side of humanity if you never venture beyond the major tourist attractions and if you rely more on electronic gadgets than on human beings to find your way. The difference between tourism and travel then is how vulnerable you are ready to make yourself and how much faith you have in humanity to help you with your needs. I by no means claim to be a genuine traveler but I am gradually opening myself to it, and that itself is a journey worth taking.

On the way to the largest ice caves in the world

Zell am See -- A popular tourist destination in Austria

Zell am See, Austria

  

Zell am See, Austria

In Salzburg with Elisabeth

Some beautiful windows in Salzburg

The city of Salzburg

Woods where I got lost on my first day of solo hiking

Beautiful wild flowers: On the way to one of the mountains in Austria

A beautiful log cabin on my hike up a mountain

There were no visible trails towards the top of the mountain, but it was exhilarating when I finally found my way to the top

Another view from the top

For part of this hike, it rained heavily soaking me wet (my jacket with hoody was only water resistant, not water proof). But once the clouds cleared up I was treated with this beautiful rainbow

Not everything was beautiful. I was upset to see massive deforestation in some places. I only hope that they are replenishing the forests

Wild flowers amid grass: Aren't they so much more beautiful than mowed and "weed" ridden lawns?

Eating Kaesepressknoedel, a traditional Austrian dish.
Ate many other delicious, vegetarian Austrian dishes. Some notable ones are Kaiserschmarrn, Apfelstrudel, Erdeermuas, Gemuesesuppe and Karfiolsuppe. The Apfelstrudel was definitely the best, but try it at a good restaurant if you don't get to taste a homemade one.

Egg salad prepared by Elisabeth
I had quit eating eggs but couldn't resist these delicious eggs from well cared, home raised hens

On the way to the Krimmler Wasserfaelle, Austria

The Krimmler Wasserfaelle in the background

View from my hostel's window in Prague

In the middle of old town square in Prague

Note: The cities of Salzburg, Vienna, Munich and Prague were all very beautiful, but I'm personally biased towards nature than architecture. That's the reason I have mostly posted nature photographs here.

Beauty from Dirt

Went on a short hike today evening after a long day, and spotted these really beautiful mushrooms.