Just About Everything

A Godavari Dutta painting on the wall of her house Did you know that there is a museum in Japan devoted to Madhubani paintings? Well, I didn't either, but that was before visiting Madhubani. Ranti village in Madhubani is home to quite a few famous madhubani artists like Mahasundari devi and Godavari Dutta.We wanted to meet at least one of them, and as luck would have it we did meet with Godavari Dutta. Godavari Dutta is over 80 years old but she is so active at this age that you will find it hard to believe that she is over 80! A Rashtrapati award winner for her excellence in painting and social welfare, She is quite a well known name in Madhubani. Love this one Godavari Dutta's Madubani painting in a museum in Japan We reached her place around 1 pm, and she was actually resting then. We did not want to disturb her because it was after all an odd time to call on anyone. But then we did not have an option to visit her later:( Her daughter- in- law...

From Kesariya we set off for Vaishali. It took us around 1 and a half hours to reach Vaishali by road. Kolhua which was a part of the ancient city of Vaishali is famous for being the place where Lord Buddha was offered a bowl of honey by a local chief of monkeys. According to Buddhist literature this event is one of the eight most significant events in Gautam Buddha's life. He spent a lot of time here. This place is also considered to be very significant because Lord Buddha announced his approaching nirvana, and converted a proud dancer, Amrapali, to a nun. Posting some pictures from Vaishali.  On the way from Kesariya to Vaishali we stopped over at a roadside dhaba to have lunch. It was hot and delicious. Just what we needed! Brick stupas Vaishali Asokan pillar, Vaishali Brick stupa in Vaishali Asokan Pillar Inscriptions on the Asokan pillar in Vaishali

Buddhist Stupa at Kesariya, Bihar India From Madubani, we set off for Muzaffarpur, we needed to halt at a place for the night. We still had Kesariya and Vaishali on our list. I was very interested in kesariya because the Buddhist stupa in Kesariya is suppossed to be the largest in the world! We started off very early the next day, around 5 am. Kesariya is around 82 kms from Muzaffarpur, it took us around 2 and a half hours to reach Kesariya. The first view was almost like a hillock; after we got a little closer, I relaized that we were looking at the largest Buddhist stupa in the world! It is quite something. The stupa was excavated in 1998 by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and dates back to 200 AD to 750 AD.Certainly worth a visit, especially if you happen to be in that area. Kesariya stupa Side view of the stupa

A wedding scene depicted on a wall Madhubani style In continuation to my earlier post on Madhubani paintings , on our way out of the village, we came across several more beautiful Madhubani paintings on the walls of buildings, homes and even huts. I am posting some more of these beauties. I especially like the one on the hut. We also visited a village by the name of Saurath. We wanted to visit Saurath because it has a rich history. This village was earlier known as Saurastra; it was supposed to be a cultural centre. It seems Sita's swayamvar happened in this village!  Madhubani painting on a hut Krishna with Gopis  This village is also popular because of an age old tradition. Every year during the marriage season maithili brahmins would meet in order to fix the marriage of their daughters and sons. There would be panjikars present who would have the list of generations of maithili brahmins. There is an interesting old Shiva temple in Saur...

Happy "Holi"day everyone. I wish each of you everlasting happiness now and every day of your life. Although, these days I am not so much into playing Holi but I enjoy the day nevertheless. The high positive energy that this day brings is absolutely infectious! Everybody is in such high spirits! You can't but get affected by it. As a child I used to love playing Holi, it was great fun to run wild! Our Holi get-together would usually happen in an Army club, my parents would have their own group of friends, and we children were allowed to just be… What fun! And every year, there was this standard lunch for Holi…Chole bhature, and I loved it! Never got tired of it. I still remember the taste. The colour from our hands would kind of mix with the gravy, and we happily gobbled that...nothing happened! I can't dream of being that bindas these days! I guess now I know why I can survive without any stomach problems, even after having a lot of pani-puris from the road s...

This is what I was humming to myself after using the Dove split end rescue shampoo and conditioner- I am so in Dove, in Dove, my split ends are all around when Dove is not here, when Dove is here they quickly disappear, I am so in Dove. In Dove, I need Dove in everything I do, in everything I want my hair to be, I am so in Dove. This is actually a song which goes like --I am so in Love...in love the moments seem to drag when you are not here... But I don't know where I heard it, and I just can't find this song anywhere!   And I have not hummed this song in ages! I don't know why all of a sudden I started humming this song. The only logical reason seems to be Dove! My love story with Dove received a fresh boost a few days back when I got this package from dove. A very nice bag with a dove split end rescue shampoo and conditioner. I have been a huge Dove fan since I started using Dove. But I had not tried out the split end rescue shampoo. I have used it around fo...

Madhubani Painting by school children  We left Darbhanga at around 10.30 am and started for Madhubani. We wanted to go to village and meet artists and see Madhubnai paintings...we were informed that a village by the name of Jitwarpur is home to some artists who are actively involved in Madhubani paintings. We set off and soon after reached the village. We were caught off guard and were very pleasantly surprised when we suddenly chanced upon a painting on the wall of a house, wow! We stopped the car and started clicking, up ahead we saw a school, and really that school was something. It has paintings on the walls by school children. We stopped the car and we were wondering if there was some way we could take a closer look at those paintings. We did not want to disturb the school's normal functioning.  We got noticed after some time, and they gave us permission to go around the school without disturbing any school proceedings. I was thrill...