Gods and Goddesses of Nainital

Samosas I t is quite a tradition in India to have a deep fried snack of Samoasa or Pakoras on a rainy day in India and round the year in Nainital. You would find many samosa stalls in the foothill town of Khatgodam/Haldwani and several roadside pakora shops on the journey to Nainital. Do not miss the treat whenever you visit Nainital. Once in Nainital you may wish to try roasted corn on the cob or mo-mos by the lakeside that are widely available in tourist season. The monsoon rains had been interrupted for a few days here in the plains but they came back with force today and as luck would have it a neighborhood shop was just frying some nice hot samosas that I procured. Samosas are found all over India. They usually contain a stuffing of spicy potatoes and peas in crisp deep fried pastry shell. Each shop keeper or snack stall has its own recipe and with experience one finds the seller that suits one’s taste. For those who like meat or chicken, the stuffing can be precook...

Jai Maa Saraswati T he Himalayan Mountains are regarded as sacred in South Asia. The Infinite reality cannot be visualised by a finite mind but aspects of him can be viewed symbolically in the sun, stars, majestic mountains, rivers or as personified in divine beings in the universe, and it is in this light that some mountain peaks and ranges are regarded as sacred throughout Asia from India to Japan. The earth itself and its components are regarded as akin to a divine mother since life is born in its bosom whereas heavenly objects such as the sun in a fatherly manner since it is his rays that give life. The male and female are two aspects of the one and only reality Who is neither. However, in recent centuries bold western explorers have scaled and surveyed lofty Himalayan peaks. Names have been given to some of the peaks by just numbering them or as mere geological features missing the point that these are majestic manifestations of the divine on earth. Saraswati Mo...