Power failed - as though I was in Andhra Pradesh

I know these days I am not writing about my yatras in India. That's because it is still many months away. In the meantime, my life is not at standstill. Interesting things are happening. My previous posts were about 'Amma' and I consider it as part of my (life's) yatra. Now this post is about how to make life interesting inspite of hurdles.
Last Saturday, Dec 5th evening we were watching the movie 'My Fair Lady' from 1964. I don't normally watch much TV - just a couple of game shows and some news. But this one is my favorite and I have seen it many many times and I did read 'Pygmalion' during student days. Suddenly just around 6 p.m., the power went off. Normally, it returns within minutes. This time, it did not. I had rice cooking in the cooker. The side dishes were done by then. My husband suggested that we go out to eat. At the beginning I did not agree because, my cooking was almost done. We waited till 7:30 p.m and decided to go for a Pizza. Before that, I called the First Energy emergency number to report the power failure. Could talk to only the machine. According to that voice, the power would resume by 8:30 p.m. and I would get a call to check to see whether we got it resolved. Thanks to the Cell phones, we had alternate number.
I started singing bhajans (I remembered Amma saying 'sing bhajan') and then some old devotional songs private as well as from the movies. Then we read the first two chapters of Bhagavad Geetha. When it was 7:30 p.m, Rao disconnected the electric garage door and lifted the door up for us to take the car out.
We went to the nearest Pizza place which was empty and one young man sitting inside said that they had power gone too. The next one was Little Caesars on Richmond road and they had a large cheese pizza for $4.99. We came home with the dinner. Lighted the candles and put one in each room.(My match box and emergency candle kit were handy). Topped the pizza with my vegetable dish and had candle light dinner. We finished eating around 8:15 p.m. and the power came back. I finished cooking the rice. No phone call from the Electric company till 10 p.m. and again they called at 1:11 a.m. while we were asleep.

This dinner was more peaceful because our focus was on the food - not on the TV. There was conversation - not just listening to the repetetion on the TV. That short time was spent as a family.

I thought we have covered most major Shiva lingas, but,

I just came accross this site. Very interesting. We did not see this since we never went to Coimbatore. Dhyanalinga Temple is situated 30 kms west of Coimbatore at the foothills of Velliangiri Mountains, part of the Nilgiris Biosphere.

We will have to visit this place soon.

November 24, 2009 - Amma's darsan continues

The Tuesday session was from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Alex was doing his own things like sleeping late, working out in the Hotel gym etc.

Rao and I got ready, got all our stuff packed to be loaded in the car. Our check out time was before 1 p.m. We weren't sure whether we would be able to finish our darsan by then. So, Rao checked out early and Alex was supposed to leave the key behind in the room. We stood in line for darsan after having a cup of Starbucks coffee. By 10 a.m., there were many ahead of us. But this time, the hugging was the firat event. Surprisingly, we were almost in the first group in line to go close to her. Those that had darsan either the previous day or in the recent past, were supposed to let the first timers go first. Since the crowd was small, we did not have to do that. This batch of volunteers were extra nice and extra cheerful. Now I knew that I am supposed to sit on my knees for her to hug easily. She said the same two words, but a dozen times - I said 'you are the bangaaru thalli'. By now, I was asking her for something that was sitting like a thorn in my heart and I started sobbing. She hugged me tight.
Overall, Tuesday's darsan was blissful.
I was quite amazed to hear all the service activities her organization did. She donated a lot of money to USA organizations and relief funds and I felt that it was great.
I shared my experience with Alex and told him that he should have come again.

We enjoyed our return trip in conversation. Rao and Alex were talking to each other and I was listening. We left around 2 p.m. after lunch and reached home before 6 p.m.

I saw Bob and his wife Maryanne separately in the hallway. I shared my bliss with Bob and he was quite pleased.

Conclusion: We will visit Amma again if an opportunity arises.

Amma Amritanandamayi, Nov 23, 2009 - continued

Slowly, the darsan line was getting longer. Every few minutes, someone would come and ask me questions about the procedures, as to how long we are going to wait in this line, what happens when we go inside and so on. I could answer all their querries. Three sisters from northern Michigan were behind us in line. One of them asked me "How long have you been involved?" They were surprised when I said that this was the first time that I am seeing her. We came to the conclusion that all others that were approaching me with their questions thought I was one of the volunteers. Immediately I approached a real volunteer (with an official scarf around his neck) and verified my answers with him. He laughed and said that they were correct. The time has come to identify who goes first. One lady came and put a tiny round sticker on us and said this should tell that we should be given the token first. By 5:30 p.m. it was a long line. We were asked to go in and be seated in chairs and wait for the actual tokens. By 6:30 p.m the tokens were given to those that were supposed to be first in line. If we are with the family, we sit in a group one behind the other. If it is a couple, Husband goes first and the wife should follow.
The videos were being played continuously while we waited for Amma's darsan. The hall was full. By 7:30 p.m., I heard the conch being blown. Amma was entering the hall. In graceful steps, she went up the dias. We all stood up in reverence.
Then, the devotional singing in her melodious voice, speeches by the local politicians (one democrat and one republican), two other speakers were her followers and probably they travel with her. She gave a talk in Malayalam and it was translated into English. The essence was the same as any other lecture by a spiritual leader - see good, do good type.
Alex was behind me while we were waiting for the tokens, but now he is sitting on the floor in the front.
The hugging began around 9:30 p.m. Alex was ahead of us for this. When my turn came, Rao got hugged first and then when I leaned forward, the volunteers tried to push me down to bring me to a sitting position. In that process, they scratched my neck with their nails. Due to that instant pain, I lost my focus. Since we were asked what our mother tongue was, she said her two words in Telugu - 'bangaaru thalli' 3 times, but added 'bhajana paadu = sing a bhajan'. The volunteers pushed me away. We had a choice to set on the side for a few minutes or leave the hall by the side door. We sat for 5 minutes or more watching other devotees being hugged.
We had something to eat in the Amma's foof court around 11:15 p.m.
Alex and I were not too impressed. He did not want to go the next day.