The year that was 2025

2025 was the fastest year ever in my life from the Germany chapter. 

I have only two three topics to talk about in 2025. The first being the home sweet home. 

We shifted to our own home around mid January and suddenly it will be a year that we are staying in this wonderful place. It's warm, it's cosy, it's home, for the time being. 

It was not easy to be living in such a big house and maintaining it along with carrying out the daily chores. But my husband made it look easy and doable. We learnt to do so many things on our own, from managing the Gas therme unit to removing the overflowing water from the pump in the cellar. It made us self reliant, self sufficient and taught many things on the go. 

The second topic that kept me engaged was the Adhyatmavari group.

The spiritual movement that was started in March 2023 got bigger and made rounds on the social media where Maharashtrian people from many countries in Europe got to know about the Adhyatmavari group. Many new joined the movement, many old left, but it's part and parcel of life. A community was formed on WhatsApp and many new spiritual initiatives were launched. Many speakers including the revered Mr. Nilesh Oak spoke on the Adhyatmavari group forum. We should keep on enhancing the knowledge that we have to understand our spiritual history better. 

No matter how many people turn up or remain in the group, I think it's my duty to carry with it as long as I can. That's a यज्ञ (Yagya) that has been started due to the grace of Shri Ram and Shri Krishna and I will carry it out with my utmost capacity. 

The third topic that I have to talk about it is the Fitness routine which I could incorporate in my schedule, thanks to the grit and determination. The weight training has been a game changer and keeps me highly motivated thanks to the app called Hevy where I can log all my workouts. The progress that I have slowly made working out at home is a testament that working out need not always be in a fancy gym. If you have the will and the wish to transform yourself for a healthy and mobile aging, strength and resistance training will be the saviour. Motivating women post 40 to take up strength and resistance training has also been my focus this year.

Last but not the least, all my friends and family members who have been there with me during this wonderful time deserve a mention and an ovation. My parents were thrilled to see our beautiful house and stayed with us for some time to enjoy the nice weather and company. I could personally meet and connect more with friends who were only online and that was an absolute pleasure. I realised that I am a very boring person (have the same routine since months with no surprises or late night parties or binge watching) and there are many like me who enjoy my company, so that's not as bad as I had thought. And the two men in my life deserve a special thanks for letting me carry on with all the different activities that I do in my life and for also bearing my outburst sometimes. I am thankful for the beautiful people in my life. 

The year 2025 made a great impression on me.

It made me calmer. 

It helped me let things go easily.

It helped me realise that everything is temporary and that we are here to just play out our parts.

It made me come closer to myself, to my inner peace of mind and I love where I am today, this headspace and this tranquility. 

I am ready for 2026 and hope to make a little difference in this big world and continue with all the existing endeavours and also undertake new projects. 

Jai Shri Ram 

The family tree

Family...

What does this word invoke in your mind when you hear this word? Who comes to your mind first? Whom do you see standing there, smiling at you? 

For me, it's always my grandparents. They were my caretakers and whatever I am today, is largely due to their Sanskaras and teachings. And then are my parents, who brought me to this world and helped me become a good and responsible person. Next are my neighbours who were like family. As I had no siblings of my own, the neighbours were someone to whom I could always talk to and share things that couldn't be shared with grandparents and parents, mostly due to respect and fear. 

Staying far from India, we always miss the fun and company of our parents. T wanted to collect the photos of all his earlier generations as a remembrance and tribute to them. Then it struck me, to make a family tree with the photos of his great grandparents and grandparents so that they can be with us forever, at least in the photos and our memories. He loved the idea and decided to support me in executing it. T has had the good fortune to witness the love and blessings of 3 great grandmothers. He remembers them quite well and often asks me about the time I spent with my grandmothers. My childhood story is incomplete without my grandparents and I can't thank them enough for giving me all the love and attention. T's childhood has been also replete with his grandparents love and blessings. Though we don't see them often physically, WhatsApp has helped us to stay in touch with them in India. 

T started collecting the photos of his great grandparents because that was the connection that he has seen and experienced. My husband's paternal grandparents passed away when my husband was a teenager, so T and I have had no contact with them. With all other great grandmas, he has spent time as a baby.

Getting hold of the paternal great grandparents photos was a great task. In those days, it was not common to click family pictures. So T, along with my mother in law searched the whole house in Pune, and found the photos he was searching for. Also it was difficult to get hold of my maternal grandparents pictures. My mom's uncle had some old photos and we could somehow acquire the photo that we wanted. Photos of our parents (his grandparents) and his uncle was an easy task. 

T wanted to digitalise the photos so that they don't get lost like the photos in the olden days. He got all the photos printed from a nearby shop called dm after saving them on the Google Drive. The task of arranging all the photos in photo frames was fun, which we finally managed to do recently. T meticulously prepared the frames with the photos and then we arranged them in a logical order. 

From T's perspective:

The Dabke great grandparents are on the top left and on top right are Joshi (my mom in law's parents) great grandparents.

Then we have the picture of his Dabke grandparents (my in-laws) and his dad and uncle as kids in the middle.

Below that it's the Velankar great grandparents on the left and Karandikar great grandparents on the right. 

Then it's my picture as a kid with my parents. T thinks he has spawned himself in that photo. Resemblance between my photos as kids and his is very uncanny ;)

And then it's his parents and him in the last photo below. 

I had carefully clicked two pictures of four generations with T in it as the youngest, because somehow I knew that in future, a family tree would be in the making. We have them digitally, but are yet to get print outs of them. Those photos will soon adorn the wall, but till then the photos of our family members are sitting there on the wall, smiling back at us and blessing us. 

Though my grandparents are not with us anymore, they are often in my thoughts and I always feel blessed to be born as their granddaughter. I am sure they must be looking at us from somewhere and must be feeling proud of their great grandson who is very much rooted in the Indian culture, heritage and wants to keep them alive, in pictures and memories. 

I hope this family tree will be enriched with more photos and generations in years to come. 

Family...

Bonds of love, moments and memories that always stay on.

Ganesh Utsav in Karlsruhe

Usually the months of August and September are devoted to the festivities involving Lord Ganesha in most parts of India. Ganesha, Ganpati, Bappa, Vighnaharta, he has many names. He is the god of beginnings, wisdom and luck and worshipped as the remover of obstacles. Although he has many attributes, he is easily identified by his elephant head and four arms. And there is a lot of symbolism involved. His elephant head denotes wisdom and intellect, his large ears for listening more and small mouth to talk less, his large stomach for peacefully digesting all the good and bad in life, his trunk symbolising high efficiency and adaptability, the mouse is a symbol of desires, if not kept under control can create havoc in life. 

He is one of the most revered gods amongst the Hindus and his blessings are always sought for undertaking any new endeavour. Mumbai is considered to be the hub of Ganpati festivities and the celebration go on upto 10 days in a public place and at individual homes for 1.5, 5, 7 or 10 days. This year the festival being in August, many friends are in India to celebrate the same. And just when we were missing the Mumbai fun of the Ganesha festival, I was approached by a friend about a sarvajanik (public) Ganesh utsav (celebration) in Karlsruhe and my joy knew no bounds!

How did this all start?

Aakansha and her husband teach Yoga here and are very active in many cultural programs in Karlsruhe.

The idea of organising a Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav had been on their minds for a few years, but the real planning began in October 2024. It was then that the thought of conducting a Ganesh Utsav took shape in their mind.

She mentioned this to Ajeya, who is a practicing Hindu priest and a student at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology here and their family friend, Vijay who whole heartedly supported her idea and decided to take up this challenge.

At the beginning of 2025, Aakansha started approaching the different goverment offices to seek approval and permission to host such a festival. The immersion of the Ganesha idol also required certain protocols to be followed. It is a lengthy process in Germany to get things done and nothing can be really done without proper approvals and permissions. She didn't lose her patience and finally in July, she got all the necessary permissions and the preparations began. 

It was going to be a 5 days festival along with the Pratisthapana (installing the idol) till the Visarjan (immersion). A lot of brainstorming happened in the background. The website (www.utsavkarlsruhe.com) was launched and a detailing of all the 5 days was published there.

It involved:

1. Daily morning and evening havan/homa (Hindu fire ritual involving offerings into a sacred fire while reciting Vedic mantras to invoke deities)

2. Pooja & Aarti

3. Bhajan, Stotras and Cultural perfomances

4. Prasad distribution

5. Visarjan on final day

The event schedule was published for all the days. Google forms were published for registering for the Havan and Pooja. Volunteer groups were formed for decoration, preparing the prasad and seva (involving setting up and managing tents, logistics, etc.). A WhatsApp community was formed to educate people about the upcoming festival and finally the day arrived. 

On 26th the Pratisthapana was done and the event was inaugurated on a grand scale. The idol was handcrafted by Ajeya himself, it weighed around 80 kgs and was installed in a grand pandal. When Lord Ganesha took his seat in the pandal, the atmosphere was filled with a divine and ineffable feeling. After that a deluge of people, volunteers, sevis, sadhaka flocked the venue on all days, depending on the event, in which they had registered themselves. The venue was decorated with flowers, a tent was created for the God and the people taking his darshan, sitting arrangement was done for the people. 

In the evening, during the aarti, bhajan and Pooja, the atmosphere was divine, blissful and everyone who was a part of the celebrations was happy and content from within. They were happy to have the festival happening for the first time in the city of Karlsruhe. People were only dreaming about having something like this in Karlsruhe, but Aakansha and the team made the dream of many come into reality.

For those who couldn't attend the event in person, the live streaming was available. Every program was made available live on the YouTube channel for the wider audience.

Arrangements were perfect. The food lovingly prepared by many families of Karlsruhe was served in the form of Prasad and it truly felt like a blessing. I am sure it not only filled everyone's tummies but also their hearts. 

On the day of Visarjan, there were about 100 people who accompanied in the procession towards Baggersee. The Bhajan group needs a special appreciation here who sang all the way, lifting the mood and creating a divine atmosphere. Kids, youngsters, elders, people like you and me enthusiastically took part in the procession and bid farewell to the beloved Ganesha who has promised to return next year with much more fun and frolic. 

A great help in managing everything were Sekhar Babu, Shyla Sekhar, Nandini Vijay Kumar, Vijay Kumar and Rajesh Srivastava. Not to forget the volunteer groups for Prasad, Decoration and seva who tirelessly toiled behind the scenes. 

There were lot of learnings from this festival. Where there is a will, there is a way. Someone thought of doing the Ganesh Utsav and took proper steps to achieve the goal. The first time is always difficult and paves a way for a smoother tomorrow. Festivals bring people closer and people help each other to make it a great success. Everyone united as Indians for a collective good and the beginning has been fantastic. I am sure there will be many more Ganesh Utsavs to come and we will all be a part of it in some way or the other. 

Ganpati Bappa Moraya!

Pudchya Varshi Lavkar ya! (Come soon next year)

A token of appreciation

When was the last time someone appreciated you for something you did? And you had not expected it at all? Were you happy, pleasantly surprised or were just awkward and didn't know what to say?

How should one react when one gets appreciated from an unknown person and one can't thank him/her for that? 

Polo

He walked straight through the front door into our hearts. 

His innocent blue eyes and cool demeanour melted our hearts.

His silent ways of doing things won us over.

And he became a part of our lives and our daily routine. 

Bonds of love

For how many weeks will your parents stay with you? 2 weeks?

This is the question I often get asked from my German friends or colleagues and it's get hard for me to explain that Indian parents usually stay longer than two weeks. They come from far as they stay away in India and we don't meet them often like the German colleagues whose parents are close-by or in the same country, at least. 

A divine afternoon - Annual get-together of Adhyatmavari group

Adhyatmwari group came into existence in March 2023 and has been active since then, offering the spiritual seekers a variety of programs and sessions. 

After operating online for two years, we thought of having the first annual get-together of the group in Karlsruhe. The date was fixed to be the 5th of July and the venue was my home. First we had thought of renting out a hall, but then decided against it, thankfully. 

Annapurna - new beginnings

 Patwardhan Kaku messaged me yesterday, 

"Annapurna is going to be demolished tomorrow".

She is my neighbour from Dombivli and we stayed in the same apartment for many years. She and her daughter are more like a family. Kaku is visiting her daughter, whom I consider my sister. I spoke to my sister in the morning and all the years life spent there flashed before my eyes.

The cat story

My love for the felines was known to all my school friends and to the neighborhood where we stayed in Dombivli. My school friends came home to play with my cats and to eat the tasty food made by my aaji. 

We stayed on the first floor and the flat had two big balconies from where the cats could easily go out, take the stairs and come back home when they wished to.