Lalita Iyer

  WHEN PERIYAVA STAYED AT SATARA Satara has the best basundi ever. Who would have thought? Bought for family and earned brownie points. The town gets its name from the Seven (Sat) Hills(Taras) surrounding it. A  l ovely little place, with picturesque, narrow and hilly streets. People probably forget that it is also almost a hill station, considering it is close to three hill stations of Wai, Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar. Satara took me by surprise. And on the highway you can buy plump stawberries and  figs. We travelled the busy National Highway No 4,  for 120 kms to see the Uttara Chidambara Nataraja temple. It is the copy but smaller version of the sanctum sanctorum of the original Nataraja temple at Chidambaram. This temple at Satara was built at the behest of His Holiness Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Mahaswami, better known as Periyava. This was during Periyava's long stay of 11months at  Satara, while he was en route to Pandharpur. No one knows why he sp...

  SHASTIPOORTHY IN FAMILY Which in essence means Sreeram, (Murali's youngest brother) has reached that significant number of 60. As per Wiikipedia, the Hindu calendar has 60 years which repeat  themselves after every 60 years in an identical sequence. Meaning a person who has completed 60 has seen the complete calendar.  Apart from that, in days of yore, survival was also an issue and hence completing the calendar was considered significant. And if the wife, after delivering all those children still survived when the husband turned 60, then a kalyanam was conducted to celebrate that. The cuter explanation is also that since the kids were not there when the parents were married (I mean, seriously!!), in sheer gratitude the children have started conducting shastipoorthy to honour their parents. There is some planetary confluence also, but suffice it to say that these occasions are a huge affair, apart from being expensive.  Sreeram is a regular hoot and has quite the h...