According to the narrative from the Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya Purana, the form of Durga was created as a warrior goddess to fight a demon. The demon's father Rambha, king of the demons, once fell in love with a water buffalo, and Mahishasur was born out of this union. He is therefore able to change between human and buffalo form at will (mahisha means "buffalo"). Through intense prayers to Brahma, Mahishasura had the boon that he could not be defeated by any man or God. He unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the nether worlds.
Eventually, since only a woman could kill him, the trinity bestowed a dazzling beam of energy upon the Goddess Trinity (Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati), transforming her into the Goddess, Durga. Her form was blindingly beautiful with three lotus-like eyes, eight powerful hands, lush black hair with beautiful curls, a red-golden glow from her skin and a quarter moon on her forehead.


Each god also gave her their own most powerful weapons, Rudra's trident, Vishnu's discus, Indra's thunderbolt, Brahma's kamandal, Kuber's gada, etc. Himalayas gifted her a fierce whitish golden lion. On the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th day of waxing moon, Chanda and Munda came to fight the goddess. She turned blue with anger and goddess Chamunda leaped out of her third eye. Her form was the most powerful one with 3 red eyes, blood-filled tongue and dark skin; who finally killed the twin demons with her sword. This form of the divine goddess is worshipped during the sandhikshan of Durga Puja festival, as sandhi/chandi puja. Finally on the tenth day of waxing moon, goddess Durga killed Mahishasura with her trident. In the mythologies, the Goddess does kill the demons and ends the existance of evil on the earth to ensure the man kind lives well on the planet.

But through the ages, the devil has again been dwelling as manifestations of the ignoble passions in human mind. like the very evils of dowry killing, female feoticide, bribery, red tapism, castism.
Those were the ages when the Humane race was endangered for the fear of the devils who would kill them for power. Even today, the devils in the minds of Human still starving for power, make them toil again their own race.
Celebrating the festive season from Navratri to Dussehra to Dipawali as the symbol of triumph of good over evil is no use unless we kill the demons residing inside ourselves who dont hesitate to kill our own fellow beings for greed.

The sole reason behind the creation of Godess Durga becomes void if we fail to live with love and affection as we were intentend to be, in a world lacking the devil. And demons inhibiting in our minds have to be thrown out to complete the omen of these pious festivals.

Last week on an Industrial visit , with my class (I am the lecturer, though most of my students are elder than myself, they all have had work experience before joining in for MBA) got a chance to visit the sub-urbs of the city.

The scroching sun in the rainless monsoons was making us all look for drinking water with each passing 10 minutes. The Merchandise Shop located in the locality was making money, selling "mineral water bottles" n "Colas" to the thirsty crows on the Industrial visit.
As I emptied the tumbler carrying with myself, I heard some disturbances among the students.. I cornered to interrupt and ask what the matter was. Shipra seemed annoyed with the rest on being teased as "Ms. Super Hygenic" for she were asking them not to buy the "so called bottled water" for it not being actually the "Bagpiper", rather being adultered..

I had a look if she was right, n she was right. a piece of plastic paper was bound n joined together instead of a seal that should have been there on a mineral water bottle.
Its not just one case, we come across many such happenings in our immidiate surroundings everyday.
We get along numerous brands right from the dawn, when we "Colgate" our teeth, till late nights when we switch off our "Sony's", to get up to another day with trusted brands.
But sometimes when we find out that our reliable Brands aint exactly wat we bought, we feel ditched.
Many a times, we go shopping in hurry and pick up our routine things with a glimpse of familiar logos, designs, graphics on the packaging. And on discovering "FLAIR & LONLY" rather than "FAIR & LOVELY" some of us, really dont do anything like complaining against the vendor.
The fake brands are being sold in the market like as such and the counterfeiters are making money.
According to a FICCI study, the impact of counterfeiting was highest in the software sector to the extent of 70 per cent, next came auto parts where the impact was about 35 per cent, down the ladder came the pharma sector with 15 to 20 per cent impact, and then the FMCG sector with between five and 15 per cent impact.
These "look alike" products are not just a substitute for the genuine brand, but not maintaining the quality standards, these counterfeits, are hazardous to the users.
Unknowingly, we entertain such "business-people", who donot hesitate taking lives of the people as a five year old treats his "teddy- bear".


Many of us dont know how "TATA SALT" becomes "TAJA SALT" or "NIRMA" becomes "NISHMA", not even do we spot much when "COCA COLA" becomes "CAMPA COLA" and "LIFEBOUY" becomes "LIEEBOYE".
Apart from the harmful effects on the consumers, these counterfeitings, are bad for the Brands as well.
BRAND is a company's greatest asset. Brand is a promise of value and an assurance of quality that every customer looks for. Yet counterfeit products, artful lookalikes, are constantly entering millions of homes and bleeding brands of their reputation.

According to a survey was conducted in Chennai where a fake product was given to 100 customers, out of the 100 people surveyed for this, about 85 did not realise that they had got a duplicate product. About five persons said `it's my fate' ,another four were angry and were on the verge of marching to the distributor, which they did not finally do, and one person said he was going to write to the company about the fake product being in the market. Shows how much awareness consumers have about the products they want to buy.

This is a problem even higher in rural areas and sub urban areas.

Look- alikes are fun, but only in wax museums.

Need no reason to dance... Live to Dance and dance as if none is watching (though the cam was ;))!!!

The school life is sumthn u really cant forget or let go, particularly the last yr of school wen u get into the senior most class, mastying all the time, along wid the pressure of scoring good..


its been 6 yrs ive left school, but the moments tht I really cherish, are kindda embedded on the screen of my mind as such, n every now n then, the play button is pressed..
was juz reminded of one of those, so thot of jotting it down...

12th, the haunted course, (Board exams),
We used to have Eligibilty tests in mid Augusts. As the name suggests, they were meant for checking the eligibilty of the students, for the school can send the forms of the succesful students to the board.. though schools send the appearing forms for every student, still for the purpose of making students study harder, they had this formailty..



So coming back to the story,
We had our Eligibilty test.. n it was Accounts exam the next day.. n it was the day wen the movie was going to be released..


'Dil Chahta Hai'..

the most awaited movie of the yr.. n how could we miss the thrill of the "first day first show"..

Hard written practice n clarity of fundas, over confident me,
"yaar accounts ke exam ke liye bhi koi padta hai ek din pehle??"

n I dragged my Buddy Divya (she being the topper and I too not tht bad) to the show along wid a paltan of other "out of school" frnz who dint have any exam,
while other aspirants were burning their calories wid "Self Tutor" n "P.C. Tulsian"..

enjoyed like anything......
were rolling like anything wid Amir, Saif n Akshay....

n even after returning from the movie, literally "kasht nahi uthhya maine to books kholne ka"..
Divya wud have burnt her sleep of the nyt definitely..

n the dawn broke..

juz turned the pages once (quick revision), n i were all set for the exam..
Attempted the paper n came out humming as always.. another reason for humming was the "surroor" of the movie, plus the overwhelmed feeling of the exam going good without proper "last day" preps...

n the doomsday arrived.. it was wen the answer sheets were given back to us after assesment..
n as our beloved (sarcastic to the max extent) "Teji sir" called my name, i ran to get my paper..
he had his usual shrewd grinn on his face n told me "u got 78 on 100, but i gave u 48.. d u mind??"
I replied, in a tone as "not effected" as possible, "nuh-na" n came back to my seat..
(another story of the typical "khundak"- sum other time)

n then Divya's name was called..
n she scored 50..

wid a clean record for past 15 yrs of no red lines on the report card, expected was shock on both our faces of failing the exam.. (we had to get 50% to pass the exams in our school)


but insipte, imitating the astute smile of "Teji sir's", we looked at each other, n I asked "Dil Kya Chahta Hai?"

n Divya replied "another do (2) number"...

n we laughed out aloud......