from USA used to tell me that I needed to pay only once for my son’s ‘first semester and the rest my son would generate himself .
This did not happen since my son was not allowed to work at the college part time or outside for two years of his study course .
Me and my wife completed 25 years of our marriage in this house and celebrated our silver wedding anniversary with our close relatives and friends .We did a Havan by Arya samaj priest who was to do this Havan for our family on all our future wedding anniversaries for many years till he died in 2016 and as a family we also separated in 2016 .
We got together with our close relatives at our home ,pushing furniture aside and kept a steel Havan kund in the middle of the hall and a fire was lighted with the help of special woods and Havan Samagri .Arya samaj Havan basically thanks god for one's health ,Nostrils ,knees and eyes , water and Fire ,the two most essential elements of our life .
In India, we have many religious groups and sub groups .Major ones are Sanatan Dharma which has many temples with a lot of idols inside for doing prayers .
Sikhs have their own temples called Gurudwaras .
Muslims always pray in the mosques .
With the coming of Britishers, India , now , had a lot of Catholic , Protestant and other sect churches in India .
Arya samaj was developed by swamy Dayanand Saraswati during 1800’s to rid Hindus of superstitions and idol worship and focused on our ancient Vedas . Arya Samaj usually performs Havana to cleanse the air within a home and pray to Fire by chanting Sanskrit mantras .
Similarly Brahmo samaj was developed in eastern India to get rid of superstitions and idol worship among Hindus .
The land of India is full of gurus ( teachers ) of al shades and hues with a large following by poor people .Many of such gurus have exploited their followers and are lodged in jails for raping young girls .
A lot of foreigners get attracted to them quite often .
Beatle group and Steve jobs were some who came to India in search of peace .
When Muslims came to India,a lot of poor people became Muslims fin order to avoid taxes .
When Britishers came to India ,these poor people became Christians to gain acceptability in an otherwise caste ridden society of India, which looked down upon the lower castes like cobblers ,carpenters and sweepers .
Most of them had adopted Buddhism to gain acceptance to the social circles in India .
My mother in law developed breast cancer at her home at Ambala during 2005 .
We brought her to Delhi and showed her to the best of doctors but her cancer had spread badly on her breast .
We ran around to get her radiotherapy treatment but unfortunately ,she had a terrible fall and fractured her hips .
We consulted orthoPaedic surgeons but she expired .
We performed all her last rites at our flat during January 2006 and sold our flat in March 2006 to send our son to USA .
My father in law tried to counsel his daughter as well as me to not to sell our only flat , since we were growing old .
We had taken a loan for a new flat and I had a good job going ,so we never bothered about his concerns .
Little did we know , that things would change drastically very soon and we would have to stay in a rented property and always thought of a wise counsel given by my father in law .
Chapter 2
2006-2016- life goes on
2006 was a great year for our family ,when our son was going to USA for his studies and I had booked another 3- bedroom flat at Gurgaon in a society for RS 38 lakhs .
My job as a General Manager with a leading healthcare group was still on , hence , I could easily get a bank loan for buying this flat .
Before my son went to USA ,our family.visited Mata vaishno devi temple to say our thanks and seek the goddess’ blessings for my son’s success abroad .
44 years ago my father had taken me to the same temple, after I scored meritorious marks in my class X during 1968 .
My father was an atheist and never went to a temple or did any prayers at home .As children we saw our parents working hard but we were not aligned to any particular religion as such .
My mother would get up early in the morning and she said short prayers after her early morning bath .But we had a faith in Vaishno Devi all along our life .
A little odd , it may seem , but it has been true all along .
At times we feel weak ,fearful or defeated in our life because of several reasons and approach a higher being for help .It could be our senior mentor or still a higher being who protects us .
Whenever we felt we were happy and comfortable in our life , we always went to Vaishno Devi temple to always bless our family and also to keep our heads in balance ,
.
We all went by air,this time , till Jammu( a part of Jammu and Kashmir towards extreme north of India ) and took a cab from there till Katra ,( the base city from where we start climbing the hills leading to the temple ) or take a helicopter , which we had booked online .Also we booked our rooms at katra and at what we call Bhawan ,the place where Devi resides .
As senior citizens ,my wife and I had a problem climbing the tough hilly terrain , so we took a helicopter till a point near the temple( called Sanjhi Chatt) ,from where we all walked or took ponies .
The ritual is to have a bath in icy cold water as and when we reach there and stand in the queue for walking upto the point where Durga Goddess resides .
There are three PINDIS ( I don't have exact translation of pindis in English but there are three heads lying there as small rocks ) where Durga ran to her safety on a lion when chased by Lord Bhairav ( a villain God ) ,as the story goes .
Previously ,we used to get through a sliding tunnel with our feet in ice cold water upto the place .As the number of pilgrims increased, authorities made a long queue system to have our Darshana.
We, in India , have a lot of goddesses like Durga ,Kali ,Parvati and others but practically , in our society women had always been given a low status compared to men in the society , which is another oddity in our society ,
The women were not required to be educated since they had to manage homes before 1947 .They would learn cooking and stitching and how to manage a home properly .
Many educated families sent their daughters to schools and colleges but largely ,women folk were kept away from high school education .
This used to be true till sometime in history but after India gained independence in 1947 , women’s education came to the forefront.
Women started working as teachers ,as fighter pilots ,as members of parliament and in all other
