Weekly notes related to explorations, workout and family
Explorations
I have decided to re-read a few classics starting with ‘The Almanack of Naval Ravikant’ and the 18 Maha Puranas. The former is a modern classic for the digial age while the latter is deep dive into the nature and symbolic stories of various gods in Hinduism. I happend to find a very readable version for the Mahapuranas. Ibhan has been taking a lot of interest in mythology and I look forward to answer his ‘why’ questions better.
Interestingly - we did a short hike to a beautiful temple on a mountain top in Masinagudi. This was our second time there. Last time, we admired the beauty of the surroundings, peacock carvins on the temple, a stone peacock facing the god’s idol, a spear at the entrance and stone carved god’s idol having a flag with a rooster on one side. This time, as soon as I saw the peacock facing the stone idol and the rooster on the flag - I knew this was the template of Karthikeya. Karthikeya, the son of Shiva and Parvati, brother of Ganesha had killed the deamon Taraksur who had taken the form of a mango tree using his divine spear and the tree split into a rooster and peacock. Peacock (parvani) became his vehicle (vahana). Thanks to the story book we picked for Ibhan from the Art of Living International Center last week.
Workout
Missed a few workout days because of the vacation but kept the steps (small hike) + swim workout going. Averaged around 13K steps and also pulled in 2-3 swim workouts. Measuring steps is an interesting game theory dopamine hit even during off days (vacations) - it just takes 1hr focussed effort once a day to hit your goals without impacting the quality time with family. I would simply get up and hour early and wrap my steps for the day upfront. Everything else - hike, afternoon walks, playtime in the pool were bonus.
Family
Ibhan’s Dussera vacation began this week. Last day of the term also had a PTM which went well. His teachers have been very happy with his writing and drawing skills. Second last day was a show-and-tell where we had to make him a character from the Ramayamna. We made him Jambavan, the king of bears. Most kids were either a Ram or Sita so teachers were expecting atleast some one would go off the beaten path and come dressed differently. Somehow the teacher felt that he was dressed as Jatayu and Ibhan just went with the flow not disappointing his teacher.
We also planned a 3-day trip to Masinagudi with parents for the dussera vacation. We visited Jungle Hut for the second time and it was an extremely delightful experience. In our short stay and nearby short trips we spotted herds of elephants, tuskers, peacocks, sloth bear and gauar (Indian Bison). The property we stayed in is by itself in the lap of nature and we had deer, sambar, wild boars, monkeys and malabar giant squirrel for company.