Harishree ..

Few days back during her examination time Esther asked me if I could help clarify her doubt in Malayalam subject . ‘Malayalam! You know I don’t know much Malayalam, and you are asking doubt on the previous day of exam ?’ I asked her back concerned , she said she knows the answer but still has some doubt , and if I could help … Not sure if I could help her, I heard her doubt – The chapter was on ‘Vidya Aarambham’ ‘Start of education’ of an Adult who had no opportunity to go to school after being initiated to ‘Vidya Aaranbham’ on Vijaydashami when he was a small boy and how he gets back to learning with the help of a little girl .

I asked Esther to read the chapter, after that I asked her what was her question, and then again I asked her to read the portion of the chapter which had answer to her question. She seemed to be satisfied , and then asked few more doubts – Mummy which is ‘Modiram Verilla’ is this the one showing her Ring finger. I confirmed , then the next question and when is Vijaydashami ? Hmm from where do I begin I thought and I also wondered was this not explained in class ? then I realized probably many of the teachers are Christians and probably would not have explained when and what is Vijaydashami. So in very short I explained to her that Vijaydashami is an auspicious day to ‘Start learning’ and in Kerala small children are taken to temple where prayers and pujas are performed and one of the elder from the family holds the hand and the Ring finger of the child and they writes ‘Harishree’ on a plate of rice or sand. I knew the next question which was coming so I said  we have vidyaarambham in churches too these days.

After the exams we planned to spend few days of our Puja vacation with one of my friend whose

daughter Eesha is of Esther’s age. The day we reached, Eesha had gone to temple to keep her text books for Puja , and then next day she who is also learning karnatic music had to perform a Bhajan in the temple.Esther tagged along with her as this was her first time seeing program in a temple. The following day was Vijaydashami, and we all got ready to go to Temple  by 7:30 am.

Eesha and her mother (my friend) waited inside to get the books back meanwhile Esther and me waited outside. There we saw children aged between 2-4 sitting on floor with their grandparents , in front of them was sand, outside we saw children aged above 5 yrs and adults writing Harishree on the sand spread on the ground …. Seeing that Esther also wanted to write, I told her to go ahead and write ‘Harishree om ganpataye namah’ Ezekiel also wanted to write  so I asked Esther ‘remember what you had studied ‘Vidyarambham on Vijaydashami’ today is Vijaydashami, a auspicious day to start learning music, dance’ – then I asked her to hold Ezekiel’s hand and write Harishree in Malayalam…