Mythological Mania - Who is the stronger God?

Hi Divya,

Mythological stories are some of my favourites too and I have read numerous stories from the Amar Chitra Katha series during my childhood and well into my school days. As I read them to Abhay now, some of his questions get very difficult to explain. It also pushed to me to think about many such stories which we accepted as they were. Ofcourse we cannot change the mythology and it is certainly fascinating to read. But some of the questions that Abhay asks are sure to have crossed the minds of other children too and believe me, there are no easy answers to these questions!

I thought I should list some of these situations and questions here:- 

1. In Amar Chtira Katha's "Ganesha",  the story goes on about how Goddess Parvathi created a boy to guard her door, and how this boy stopped Lord Shiva from entering the palace. The story also shows all the other Gods eager to propitiate in front of Lord Shiva and offer help. Abhay noticed Lord Vishnu (his favourite God) also doing so. So his question was, why doesn't Vishnu have powers here? Is Shiva powerful than Vishnu?

2. When I read Amar Chitra Katha's "Mahabharata" story, Abhay could not understand how Gandhari can give birth to 100 sons. The concept of the foetus preserved in pots etc, was too much to explain and way too much for him to digest.

3. In Amar Chitra Katha's "Jarasandha", Krishna actually fled to Dwaraka from Mathura to escape from the onslaught of Jarasandha. Abhay could not come to terms with his favorite God running from Jarasandha. And then comes the part where Bhima tears Jarasandha's body apart and throws the pieces in opposite direction. Quite an extreme death to explain. Similar is the death of Hiranyakashyapu in the hands of Lord Narasimha.

I am sure we will revisit these stories as Abhay grows up and slowly he will start to make sense out of the complex Hindu mythological tales and eventually will understand the philosophical meaning behind it. For now, there is one question that constantly bothers him though - Who is the stronger God? Is it Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, Durga.. and the list grows! He likes to believe Vishnu is stronger for everyone has their favorite and Abhay's favourite God for now is Vishnu :-) and trust me this has no bigger significance in his mind than his favorite car character, Lighting Mcqueen !!!

I think as parents we have a responsibility to ensure that our kids' questions are answered in some logical way such that they do not develop fanaticism of any shape or form. These difficult to explain and unanswered questions will otherwise find their own meanings with different people who use their interpretation to cause some or the other kind of irritation to others. None of us need any examples do we? Every day newspapers have plenty!

Reminiscence of childhood

Hello Divya! Many congratulations on completing 2 years of your beautiful blog  - One story a day : Reliving childhood. It has been so good reading your blog. I like the bond you share with your son. Lucky Abhay! J

Today I would like to share some of my favourite books . My first introduction to the world of books was Ramayan - the great epic .There were many volumes. My dad used to read them to me as my bed time stories. As a result of  which I learnt the significance of “Dharma” (justice) and ”Sathya” (truth) along with the strength of character. 

Later I was gifted fairy tales and lovely books by my mom. They  mostly included the Walt Disney collection like Mickey mouse ,Donald duck, Goofy, Cinderella , Snow white , Sleeping beauty ,the Little Mermaid , 101 Dalmatians , Peter pan, the jungle book , Lady and the tramp , Aristocats , Tarzan and many more.

As a child I had a fetish for Enid Blyton’s books (it still continues).

Well, all these books taught me to dream a lot , have adventure and  lots of hope. My parents also wanted to discipline me so I was gifted self improvement books. These books have a great impact on me. They taught me how to think right. Among the self improvement books which I thought was a great gift to me was “The Road Less Travelled “ by M. Scott Peck. If  implemented , it is definitely life changing.

Whenever I feel like travelling my childhood again , all I have to do is go through some of these books. Voila ! I am back to the happiest place – my childhood.

I also love reading my dad’s  dairies .I feel alive J .

My  recent reads include The good earth ,Eat pray love , Catch 22.  

Here’s wishing you many more years of blogging. Thanks for inviting me again to contribute to your blog. It has been a delight sharing my favorites .

Dear divya warm hug and best wishes for completing two years of one story a day.
Here are few of my favourite books .

1. Speed post,Spouse,Surviving men,Selective memory and Shobhaa at sixty all the books are by Shobhaa De- iam a huge fan of shobhaa de.
2. "Power of Positive Thinking" by Dr Norman Vincent Peale,"Think and Grow Rich" byNapolean Hill,"The Monk who sold his Ferari "by Robin Sharma are my favourite self help books.
3. "Tell me your Dreams" by Sidney Sheldon,i dont read fiction much ,i finished this book in one go ,i have read few novels but the name of this novel remains in my memory till date.
4. "wisdom" - its my favourite since childhood even today i enjoy reading it...intresting and informative.
5. Linda Goodman "Star Signs" the book changed my life and introduced me to the world of Astrology .
6. "Journey through the Gaian Tarot" by Joanna Powell Colbert.

Thanks divya for inviting me to contribute to your blog.

Few of Vihaan and Vyom's favorite books

Great going Divya! Glad to celebrate the two year milestone with you.
Here are a few of ours and kids favorite books we own and hence read more often.

• Goodnight Boston, Adam Gamble, Joe Veno
• Goodnight Moon,  Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd 
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You see?, Eric Carle
• Papa, Please Get The Moon for Me, Eric Carle
• Clifford the Big Red Dog, Norman Birdwell
• Disney Storybook Collection with 20+ classic tales that early readers can easily follow
• Lady Bird Book Series-  My husband loved growing up with these books. We bought about 20+ books for the nostalgia factor and read them everyday these days.

Wishing you many more years of inspiration for One Story a Day. I am sure Abhay will love reliving his childhood through this blog when he is a young man :).

The Xmas Season!

 

Since our big move back to India, we have pretty much settled down in namma Bengaluru and found ourselves not thinking of the US as often as we used to when we had just got back. But the only time I cannot but help think of the US is during Christmas! Being more than a year since we moved back to India, I realize that I can no longer claim the “repatriate” status (a term I recently discovered in Shobha Narayan’s “Return to India” used to describe the US returned) but I guess we can always take some leeway during the Christmas and vicariously indulge in the fa-la-la frenzy of the holiday season in the West. 

So though we didn’t put up any Christmas tree like we did in the US (with our Christmas tree  now lighting up our friend’s house in Portland), we still managed to hang  Christmas stockings and had our in-house Santa call on Abhay and his cousin Vikranth with gifts!

 

Whenever I am on the look-out for an Indian publication on special events, I can always count on Pratham publications to have one.  So I had Abhay read “Sam Christmas Present” by Annie Besant and Alicia Douza a Level 1 book brought out by Pratham publications. Sam is a curious about what was his Christmas gift this year. When he asked his mom and dad, they both tell him that is hidden in a gift-hunting. Below his father’s desk, he finds a gift wrapped box but with tag that tells him that the gift is for aunt Juju. He chances upon another gift wrapped box but is disappointed to see his uncle Alfie’s name on it’s tag. Wherever he searched, he found gift for someone else but not him! But as soon as Sam resignedly sat on the floor, he spotted a gift under his bed! Did Sam open it or put it back in what was supposed to the secret place? Well, Abhay didn’t agree with Sam’s decision to put it  back under his bed and supposedly wait for Christmas! So here's wishing Abhay and everyone else a little patience this Christmas season! Merry Xmas and have a happy new year!