Where the Woods Bloom

To watch a so called 'parallel cinema' , it takes lots of patience and guts. Patience because some of the movies tend to go on a slow pace and guts because they are deprived of the ‘entertainment’ quotient which audience try to find in commercial cinema. At least in the above mentioned type of cinemas , the makers are not pretentious about their product. They know that the movie is for niche audience or for film festivals. If they are lucky , probably a distributor will market the movie or documentary with the details of the film festival circuits it has covered on its poster and other marketing paraphernalia. But still , these movies are made and there are backers for such products. This itself is a matter of appreciation for the makers as there are people who get involved in such ‘risky’ projects at the cost of their time and family life for the reason , “ They want to tell a story , a different story , a story of emotions , a story of our surroundings , a story of  right and wrong and so on…”

The debate still goes on why there are no distributors for such movies in spite of some of them winning the national awards. A movie with international awards easily grabs the eye ball and if the collaboration is with a foreign film production house , gets a release. But not all such movies have a glowing fate. Some of them go back into archives only to surface on DD. Thanks to DD for showing those movies which we as children have cherished on Sunday afternoons .With the advent of many channels , those movies got pushed in the extreme end of our thought process , getting completely eradicated from our memories with the entertainment cinema taking the front stage.

Times changed , People’s thought process changed , Cinema hall changed   and Scripts changed and visibility changed. But the age old problem of niche movies not getting cinema halls still instills fear in the mind of the makers. Even if they have brilliant ideas , the fear of not getting a producer and if the movie is made after a producer has green lighted it , the movie not getting a distributor haunts the makers. 

For writers with fresh ideas , it is a herculean task even to meet the makers as in some cases , the makers just make the decision based on a single page synopsis without even bothering to discuss with the writers. So many films flop in the entertainment segment in spite of having item numbers , vulgar scenes , double meaning jokes , stupid comedies and above all no chemistry between the lead actors but they get made for reasons that audience loves entertainment cinema and not meaningful cinema as they want to vent out their frustration and don't want to use their mind while watching cinema. Though in the recent few years , things are changing for better with some big names getting in meaningful commercial cinemas , but those are only handful lot and we as an audience have still long way to go.
                                                                                                                                 




 With movies like Kaasav (Marathi) , Handuk (Assamese) , Lathe Joshi ( Marathi) , When the Woods

Bloom (Malayalam), Mukti Bhawan ( Hindi) and the documentary “ Fireflies in the Abyss” , we look at cinema which has a heart in place , a pure soul and which delves into the minds of the characters , the scenes and gives out something to the audience. We want everything instantly , these movies teach us to have patience and involve ourselves in the on-goings on the screen.

There are film societies who bring such cinema to its audience , but its still a long way to go. Hopefully that time comes immediately and a market is created for film makers to work on such projects without fear.

                 

                                                                                                                     

Ashtavinayak Darshan - Shastrokta Sequence

I was planning the Ashtavinayak Darshan for a very long time. While discussing about the journey with my friend Sanjay , he  told me about the Shastrokta Sequence. 

Based on his inputs , I searched the net and came across the link mentioned below which helped with the sequence and  plan our itinerary.

https://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowUserReviews-g297654-d3431345-r315360862-Morgaon_Mayureshwar_Temple-Pune_Maharashtra.html

Day 1 :

We left our Home in Mulund East at 06:30 am in our car , The Odometer was showing 41012 KMs. It was a pleasant drive with less traffic on the road towards the Mumbai - Pune Expressway. We wanted to fill petrol, hence halted at the Food Mall at 07:25 am , filled the Petrol Tank, emptied our tank and filled our belly with some hot tea , coffee and sandwiches and left the Mall at 07:45 am. Our GPS lady friend started poking her nose when we both were discussing something important about our life. We understood that now we were going through Pune and need to pay attention to her.

According to the Shastrokta Sequence ( Not Sure but it is the sequence in which the Idols of Lord Ganesha have given their divine vision ) , We were first to visit the Mayureshwar Temple at Morgaon. We reached Morgaon at 10:23 am (Odometer reading -  41234 KMs).  We both were elated to have the darshan of  Lord Mayureshwar for the first time. 

We left Morgaon around 10:45 am for Shree Siddhivinayak Temple at Siddhatek. We reached Siddhatek at 12:20 pm (Odometer reading - 41301 KMs). We were surprised to see less people at these two temples. We had a very quick yet satisfying darshan and left for Pune at 01:03 pm (We had booked our hotel Centurion in Shivajinagar , Pune). By the time we reached our Hotel , It was 03:15 pm (Odometer reading - 41405 KMs).


Temples Visited on Day 1 :

Mayureshwar Temple , Morgaon and Shree Siddhivinayak Temple , Siddhatek.

Day 2 :

After getting ready early morning , we left the hotel at 06:27 am for Pali. The Trip meter was showing the previous day reading of 41405 KMs. While driving , Saumya saw that the Petrol tank was half filled , so we thought of taking a pit stop . We drove to a Petrol pump at 07:20 am and filled full tank , the odometer was showing 41445 KMs.

We were on our way back to Mumbai as Pali was our next temple destination. We reached the Ballaleshwar temple situated at Pali at 08:30 am (Odometer reading - 41527 KMs). After the clear and divine darshan of the lord , we left for Varadvinayak Temple , Mahad at 09:15 am.  I must mention here that the road to Ballaleshwar Temple, Pali is a good one and the drive is one of the best among all the roads we drove. 

We reached Varadvinayak Temple , Mahad at 10:08 am (Odometer reading - 41566 KMs).  There is a temple of Vithoba and Rukmani in the vicinity of the temple and if you are going to Mahad , you should visit that small temple. You will feel as if both the god and the goddess are looking at you and smiling. We felt as if they both were looking at us and acknowledging our presence in their temple.Our next temple destination for the day was the Chintamani Temple at Theur. We left Varadvinayak Temple , Mahad at 10:57 am and headed for Theur. 

We reached Chintamani Temple, Theur at 01:30 pm with the trip meter showing 01:30 pm. After darshan of the diety , we were roaming in the temple precinct , when we saw a board where prasad was given in the form of food for Rs. 15/- per person. The prasad consisted of Rice , Waran ( Dal ) , Pickle and Sheera.   They even asked for second helping.We were lucky to have the prasad as we were unaware about the same till we saw the timings , they closed at 02:00 pm and we were inside the prasad hall just in the nick of time. We left Theur at 02:38 pm and reached our hotel in Pune at 03:55 pm (Odometer reading -  41716 KMs).

Temples Visited on Day 2 :

Ballaleshwar Temple - Pali , Varadvinayak Temple - Mahad and Chintamani Temple - Theur.

Day 3 :

On the third morning , we left our hotel at 06:47 am for Girijatmaj Temple,Lenyadri. On the way , we filled our car's belly at 41730 KMs displaying on the Trip meter. We reached the foot of the Lenyadri temple , Buddhist caves at 08:45 am (Odometer reading -  41815 KMs). The climb to the Girijatmaj temple / Buddhist caves was a steep one and for people like us who not even climb to our third floor flat using the staircase , it was a herculean task. But thinking about the god and taking baby steps proved a wise decision and at last we got the divine darshan of the diety sitting inside one of the caves. We saw many school children along with the school staff in the temple ( we met children from another school at Varadvinayak Temple, Mahad too ) who have come for a darshan in huge numbers. It was fun to watch them coming walking in queue , making lots of noise with the priest and the school staff asking them to keep quiet and not make any mischief.  In Lenyadri, we clicked many snaps and spent a lot of time looking at the caves , the temple and marvelling at the architecture and the construction of it many centuries back.

We left Lenyadri at 10:08 am but halted at Hotel Girija and had Kanda Poha ( Maharashtrian Delicacy) and hot tea and coffee. After a good breakfast , we left at 10:36 am for Vignaharta Temple, Ojhar with the odometer showing 41816 KMs. We reached Ojhar at 11:00 am with the odometer showing 41831 KMs. After the darshan at Ojhar , we did some shopping and left for Ranjangaon at 12:02 pm. 

We reached Mahaganapati Temple , Ranjangaon at 01:38 pm with the odometer displaying 41897 KMs. At Ranjangaon , we had a good darshan and had the opportunity to have the prasad during the lunch time. When we asked for the amount to be paid for the prasad , the temple employ said it was for free , but we can put something in the temple hundi if we want to give dakshina. We were happy to learn this aspect of the temple and did our small bit. The prasad hall was managed by ladies and it was heartening to see them serving with a smile on their face. When they saw few people coming at the last moment ( timings was from 12:00 pm to 02:30 pm) , they brought hot steaming rice, dal , sheera and asked even for second helping. I must admit that the prasad at both the Chintamani Temple at Theur and Mahaganapati Temple at Ranjangaon was very divine and reminded me of the prasad we get in the temples in Karnataka.

To complete the Shastrokta Sequence , we again started driving to Mayureshwar Temple , Morgaon. We left Ranjangaon around 02:30 pm for Morgaon. We reached Morgaon at 03:57 pm , (Odometer reading - 41968 KMs). After completing our darshan in the sequence , we had delicious and spicy misal pav at the first restaurant ( Not Sure about the name , but it was like Kanhai ) towards going to the temple from the car parking. I went for a stroll towards the bridge on the other side of the temple and came across a small Ganapati temple and a shiv ling with steps leading to it.  We left Morgaon around 04:47 pm (Odometer reading - 41968 KMs. We reached our Hotel in Shivajinagar , Pune at 06:54 pm (Odometer reading -  42039 KMs).

Temples Visited on Day 3 :

Girijatmaj Temple - Lenyadri , Vignaharta Temple - Ojhar , Mahaganapati Temple - Ranjangaon and to complete the Shastrokta sequence - Mayureshwar Temple - Morgaon.

Thus , our Ashtavinayak Temple Darshan in the Shastrokta sequence got completed by the grace of god in 3 days. 

Day 4 :

We left The Centurion Hotel , Shivaji Nagar , Pune around 10:09 am and reached home at 01:10 pm with the odometer clocking 42201 KMs.

It was an exciting , exhilarating , mystical , religious journey we both underwent. The Eight Temples with different Swayambu Ganpati Idols have some mystical power. We felt that when we were in thetemple vicinity or inside the holy sanctum. We felt that peace within ourselves  and that peace has some how come with us in our heart , in our minds , in our soul.

Om Gam Ganapataye Namah.