This is an imaginary scenario of my kitty narrating her morning routine. Let’s jump into her world!!
“Oh! it’s time to take my breakfast🙀, but why is my owner still sleeping😾, she never wakes up before me nor she is active as I am😸. Let me try to wake her up😼.
Meow meow… wake up soon😿, I am so hungry, please feed me with my favourite delicious food😽.
Are you dump, still sleeping…meeoow….😾.
Hoo… finally she woke up…hey come this way to kitchen, open that jar at the left corner which has my food😻.
Meow…more… I need more…meow😻.
Quick quick…finally I got my food😺 but wait I will just have a couple of bite and go back to my sleep!😸”
Warli refers to the tribe who live in the North Sahyadri Range in Maharashtra. Warli Art is the tribal art made by these Warli tribe. Generally women are involved in making these arts. They use basic shapes like triangles to represent a human. These artforms generally depicts their daily activities and social events. They paint this art to decorate their huts. The main specialty of this artform is that they don’t use any mythological characters or any images of the deities. Mostly white colour is used which they bring out extracting the rice flour. Sometimes yellow and red dots are also used.
The origin of this art is not known exactly. But it was identified in the early 70’s. This artform has acquired a large popularity over the years and it is used in many artworks,fabric design,etc…
I have made this pot painting on Warli Art. I have given a black base and used yellow colours to depict the various activities.
I have painted women carrying firewoods from forest, the tribe playing their traditional musical instruments, a traditional hut of the warli and women who are grinding grains using a traditional mortar and pestle.
The cultural tradition of the tamil community heads a long way back to few thousand years. We had different forms of art, each one with its own uniqueness and tradition. Each form of art had its own rules and regulations that had to be strictly adhered to. One such artform which has its own cultural background is devarattam or thevarattam.
The term devarattam is derived from two words devar which meant gods/kings/warriors and attam meant dance. It is a dance form that was performed during the victorious occasions of the king. In ancient times the king was considered to be the representative of the almighty and hence they were praised as gods. This dance was performed by the kings or warriors so as to celebrate their victories.
There are many references from the history where devarattam was performed. It was initially practiced by the pandyas and latter on spread to the other parts of the southern India. The dancers are mostly male who do perform in front and behind the king’s chariot during his victorious processions. It is also said that the king himself would participate in this dance. The mighty cholas also had this practice. The songs that were sang during devarattam were generally in praise of the king and his lineages.
It is a combination of two dances ‘muntherkuruvai’ and ‘pintherkuruvai’. There are basically 72 steps in devarattam and the rest of them are combinations of those basic steps. The dancers would tie colorful turbines in their head and have colorful pieces of kerchiefs which they swing in their graceful movements. They dance to the music from a special type of drum called ‘devadundhummi’.
It is now being practiced by the Kambala Nayakar community. They are tamil speaking telugu community who are found across Tamil Nadu. They perform this dance during special occassions and also in temple festivals. They are considered to be the descendants of Veerapandya Kattabomman at Kondangipatti of Madurai district.
Devarattam is considered to be a sacred art that is being offered to the god. Although it was restricted to the Kambala Nayakar community, it is now being taught to other communities also. Many of us have forgotten this rich cultural folk dance. It has to be taught to the next generation so as to preserve our rich culture.
We live in a society where ones happiness is decided by the society itself. We keep searching for happiness somewhere around, but end up finding nowhere. That is because it lies within us but we don’t understand this and keep searching out. Let me share somethings that I found to keep myself happy. These things are based on my perception.
1. The first and foremost thing is to analyse yourself completely so that you could find those things that make you feel down. Now write down those things in a paper or may be in your personal diary if you have one. Please note that when you do this ensure that you are completely relaxed and silent. Silence is your first step to stay in peace.
2. Once you complete, read patiently word by word and think about that things. Make sure you think about that in different ways. There are things that might seem correct for you but could be vice-versa for the other because we all are brought up in different environment. This is a crucial step where you will find out that most of your problems and worries are pointless. Most of them would be created by yourself. Hope this will clear so many doubts and your worries.
3. Once all your queries are satisfied to an extend, the next step is to divert or focus your mind on positive thinkings. Think on things that make you happy and relaxed. Start practicing them daily atleast for some minutes. It could be drawing, gardening, etc…
4. Make a habit of practicing meditation daily. You will see wonders happening in those few minutes of silence everyday. It is always best to start your day with meditation. There are so many guidance videos you could get from internet, make use of them.
5. Exercise comes in next, which is definitely an important task to do everyday. A healthy mind in a healthy body. Thus makesure that you do some kind of exercise else yoga for few minutes.
6. Start growing a plant. Take care of it in every way. Spent time with your plant. This will cure all your stress and hypertension. You can also own pets. It has been proved that the risk of cardinal problems are reduced when you spent more time with pets.
7. Don’t let your thoughts in things that make you feel depressed. Always watch your thoughts. Whenever you find something disturbing. Immediately think of positive things that had happened in your life.
8. Take a jar and name it as ‘Jar of Blessings’. Whenever you feel happy or blessed write it in a small paper and put it in the jar. Make sure you atleast write down one thing daily. This practise will make you realise how blessed and gifted you are. You can read all those small bits of papers once or twice in a year.
9. Spent more time with your family. Because there is ultimately no one more loving and caring in this universe than them. Talk more with them than spending in social medias. This will make you understand the meaning of true love and sacrifice.
10.Start you day by praying god for this great day and promise that you would live it with whole heartedness and face all challenges with enthusiasm. Every day when you go to sleep there are two things mandatory. Firstly thank the universe or the almighty for this wonderful day and secondly ask for forgiveness for mistakes that you have done knowingly or unknowingly.
11.The last and the important point is to stop expecting and living your life as it comes. Always stay contented. Enjoy all the challenges that comes on your way. Hope miracles would happen in every second of your life.
There might be so many other things that I would have missed out but I found all the above steps useful in finding happiness. Happiness is not out it is all about finding in ourselves. Enjoy the little things. Love everything around you even the little plants, trees, creatures and the nature around you. Hope you find your happiness within and live your life🙂
Do we really have concern for forests…?I swear that even half of the population wouldn’t bother AMAZONS after a week.It is a shame on us that so many of us don’t even know what tree grows in our backyard but we start complaining others destroying forests.
AMAZONS have become trending in almost all social medias.They have a long history as of from the origin of the mankind.We have only discovered five percent of the total species of the Amazons.Ninety five percent of them are yet to be discovered.It is horrible that we are going to destroy them without even knowing that they ever existed.About eighty five percent of the edible species were once indigenous to the Amazons.They are the major producers of oxygen making our earth still a safe place to live in.Today turning out be exhausted in each second was once which had seen lot of growth and decline of several civilizations.
I recently read a post that describes an idea of transforming the Sahara deserts into a lush green dense rainforests,but will this really workout…?It requires trillions of money just to initiate this project.It also has several other environmental issues. If we can’t protect the treasure that we have today how will we find a new one…
We keep boasting about creating civilizations in Mars forgetting the one that created crucial civilizations on earth.We keep exploiting our nature just to make our lives more comfortable forgetting the one who gave us this life.
EVERY DROP COUNTS,EVERY ACT OF HUMAN AFFECTS THE ENVIRONMENT.
Love for our nature has to be from each and every individual.Only then initiation of conserving nature would begin.
A breezy morning could be a lazy morning. A morning one would love to fall asleep again. But I felt so strange, I could feel something pleasant. Sounds of little drops taking me to a dreamy place. Trees and plants dancing to the tune of rain welcoming a fresh morning. Birds scared of rain sitting inside the bushes. Sun feeling embarrassed hid in between the gloomy clouds. A lovely morning to listen to the beautiful melodies and fall in love for reading your favourite book.
Once upon a time people never wanted a girl baby because it would be hard for their parents to find a partner and get them married. But today people are scared to have a girl baby not for the financial reasons, it is hard even to protect a 6 months old baby from being sexually harassed. I feel so shameful and painful in writing this post. Ours is a country where we celebrated women. We have given equal importance to women as goddess, queens and lot more. There are evidences in history that tells us that once women were ruling powerful dynasties equal to men. There were great poets like Avaiyar, who was respected by the most powerful rulers. But today they are not even considered to be a human being. They are treated as sexual toys. It is quite heartbreaking to hear that a six months old baby in Warangal was sexually abused and confronted to death. It is reported that the accused was alcoholic when this had happened. The parents of that little baby are from a very poor background that they find very difficult even to have a proper meal a day. Do you think that the baby who doesn’t even know what world is would be given justice or would their parents would. This issue would be a headlines not more than a week. Again people forget and start running for their lives. Is that only enough if we share in our WhatsApp status or groups. It is time to think and contribute at least something to the welfare of women. I don’t tell you to praise women but at least not hurt them. Let us start respecting each and every women we see, let it be our mother, sister, neighbour or even a stranger.
Instead of asking or protesting for the change, let us be the change. Let us start this from within.
varsha 