close to the roots

It is a shame that I yet do not know how to efficiently converse in my mother tongue , reading and writing it is a miles apart destination for me. I am not very good at languages except  English. so I find it very difficult to connect to my roots. nevertheless due to my keen interest in mythology , history and stories I try my best to understand the beauty of my native town - Sringeri .


In the Chikmaglur district of Karnataka , lies the hill town of Sringeri .It is situated on the banks of the holy river Tunga ,at  roughly  a distance of 100 km from Mangaluru and around 300 km from the capital city of Bengaluru
.    "  bank of river tunga at Sringeri "


The name Sringeri is derived from Rishyashringa-giri, a nearby hill that is believed to have contained the heritage of Rishi Vibhandaka and his son Rishyashringa. "shringa " means horn in Sanskrit .it is said that the holy rishi had two horns on his head . as he performed most of his penance here  , the place was named as "shringa giri" where giri means mountain in sanskrit. by word of mouth the name shortened with time to "Sringeri".

A magnificient 1200 year old temple called sringeri sharada peetham lies in the heart of the town.it is believed that shri adi shankaracharya  meditated here and as he found this place extremely pure and established this temple here. it is one of the best examples of Dravidian architecture . it is said that underneath the ground the temple has humongous wheels.it is a major centre for learning Sanskrit and people from all over the world come to learn the ancient language from here.

According to legend, Adi Shankaracharya is said to have selected the site as the place to stay and teach his disciples, because when he was walking by the Tunga river, he saw a cobra with a raised hood, providing shelter from the wrath of the rains, to a frog undergoing labour. Impressed with the place where natural enemies had gone beyond their instincts, he stayed here for twelve years. I have seen that place where the frog and the snake were  ,so believe me this is not fiction.

isn't the very thought that a snake , the animal who is believed to be one of the most not trustworthy animals , who could kill the very person who would care for him protected his natural prey , unbelievable?. such a place where such positive energy that even natural enemies help each other , has increased the sanctity of the place.

this temple was originally made of sandalwood and later replaced with gold and stone. 



We owned a beautiful bungalow and betel nut farm at a distance of roughly 1 km from the temple.there my grandparents and my paternal cousins  used to live and it would be a holiday home for the whole of my paternal family every summer. my father made it a point that we would visit Sringeri at least twice a year if not thrice .

I am not a person who loves travel so it used to be damn tedious for me to go to sringeri from Mumbai because it neither has an airport nor a train station.it was more tedious when we were living in Gurgaon ( Haryana ) for three years. I  recollect that time as one of my most tiring travel experiences. the flight from delhi airport to Bengaluru airport was at 8 am so we had to move from Gurgaon at around 6:30 am. we missed our flight by a couple of minutes and so we had to wait for another hour for the next possible flight nearest and that was to Mumbai 2 hours later. so it went - flight from delhi to Mumbai( 3 hours) then from Mumbai to Bengaluru   ( 2 hours) then from Bengaluru to mangaluru ( 45 minutes) and a road trip from mangaluru to sringeri that was about three hours. including the time for food etcetra we reached sringeri in 14 hours at about 12 am of the next day .Pheww!!!


this was my experience of my hometown and I think everyone should go closer to their roots at least once in their lives..............
with this I bid adieu to all of you for today.

a chocolaty treat....

Since childhood, there is only one name on all lips of the human world ........... Chocolate. The very name is so sweet that I can bet most of us must already be imagining the time when we shall next get to relish its taste.
I love chocolate in all its forms - pastry, cake , bar , éclair , ice cream , waffle , milkshake , cookies and whatever else possible way ! to this extent that I have even tried chocolate chilli cake and trust me it is marvellous...even if you don't trust me , it is worth a try guys.

So  , I decided today how about I discuss something about this heavenly  pleasure to the entire human existence.

Cocoa  , the mother fruit of our favourite grows on the cacao trees ( Theobroma cacao) in most of western coast of Africa ( ivory coast). it had originated in the America and we can trace it back to around 1900 BC. it had been originally used as a drink.
the whole pod of the cocoa is slit with a huge knife and the pulp ( it has an awesome sour sweet taste , if you ever get to taste it . I know because once the cocoa tree in my farm in Karnataka had laid its fruit . that was the first and the last  time I had tasted the pulp of the chocolate fruit .) and the bean are separated. the bean is roasted and supplied to factories to make chocolate out of it.

 lets know about  the different types of chocolate that exist : 

milk chocolate -   It is the most commonly eaten chocolate ,favourite among the little ones for its lovely sweet taste. it was first developed by in 1875 by a swiss confectioner ,Daniel Peter in association with Henri Nestle  who supplied him his own invention , condensed milk which was mixed with cocoa solids and chocolate liquor. Hershey's is the leading chocolate selling brand in the United States of America while Cadbury's dominates the chocolate market in the United Kingdom.                                                                 

• 
  white chocolate - it is not actually a chocolate but due to the presence of cocoa butter , we call it so . it consists of condensed milk and sugar besides cocoa butter.  nevertheless , with or without cocoa , it is as tasty as its name describes it to be. also it has a very attractive ivory white colour.                                                                                                                                              
•   dark chocolate-  ie plain chocolate  it is made from pure cocoa solids having all the fat content coming from cocoa butter instead of milk. it has a natural bitter sweet taste  , an attribute to mature personas. it has been noted to have several health benefits especially for heart patients .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
• compound chocolate- it is a solidified form of sweetened cocoa solids along with vegetable fats. it is used in confectionaries and bakeries to make chocolate products like pastries , chocolate icing , donuts, waffles etc....
• cocoa powder- it is the powdered form of cocoa beans used for drinking chocolate and for introducing chocolate flavour in cakes and cookies....
• ruby chocolate -  it is a new type of chocolate invented in 2004 by Barie Callebaut. it has an unusual sweet but sour flavour . it is made from red cocoa bean and has a red colour.( P.S. if you would like to try it out then KitKat has launched it in many countries , unfortunately not in India .)

MEDICAL BENEFITS OF CHOCOLATE.

1. 
   

   If you buy quality dark chocolate ( not milk or mix variety) with a high cocoa content, then it is actually quite nutritious.

   It contains a decent amount of soluble fiber and is loaded with minerals.

   A 100-gram bar of dark chocolate with 70–85% cocoa contains :

   • 11 grams of fiber
   • 67% of the RDI for iron
   • 58% of the RDI for magnesium
   • 89% of the RDI for copper
   • 98% of the RDI for manganese
   • It also has plenty of potassium, phosphorus, zinc and selenium

   ( RDI  - reference daily intake)

   Of course, 100 grams (3.5 ounces) is a fairly large amount and not something you should be consuming daily. All these nutrients also come with 600 calories and moderate amounts of sugar .
   For this reason, dark chocolate is best consumed in moderation.
   The fatty acid profile of cocoa and dark chocolate is also excellent. The fats are mostly saturated and monounsaturated, with small amounts of polyunsaturated fat.
   It also contains stimulants like caffeine and theobromine, but is unlikely to keep you awake at night as the amount of caffeine is very small compared  to coffee.
   

   Cocoa and dark chocolate have a wide variety of powerful antioxidants. In fact, they have way more than most other foods.
2. the bioactive compounds in cocoa may improve blood flow in the arteries and cause a small but statistically significant decrease in blood pressure.

   
   

    Dark chocolate improves several important risk factors for disease. It lowers the susceptibility of LDL( low density lipoprotein commonly known as good cholesterol) to oxidative damage while increasing HDL( high density lipoprotein) and improving insulin sensitivity.

   Observational studies show a drastic reduction in heart disease risk among those who consume the most chocolate.

   
   

    Studies show that the flavanols from cocoa can improve blood flow to the skin and protect it from sun damage.

   Cocoa or dark chocolate may improve brain function by increasing blood flow. It also contains stimulants like caffeine and theobromine.

   
   

CREDIT for information on health benefits of chocolate :Kris Gunnars  -https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/7-health-benefits-dark-chocolate

credit for all images : google devta..

I hope you all enjoyed reading this small bit of sweetness as much as I did while writing it.

Lets start with the name

What is in the name , many people say , think and believe.
It is a worldly policy , people say , once you are dead your name doesnt count. The name is for your body and not for your soul.but then all that work that is thought by your soul , is performed by the means of your body only. So yes , your name counts and holds importance because like  without a soul a body is worthless similarly without a body a soul ceases to hold any value.

I am very obsessed with my own name , therefore i keep a lot of philosophy about it . I like to see it on good places . I often doodle my name on my notebooks , on my wrists , on my ankle , on erasers and many more things . Not to forget walls.;)
I feel a sense of pride overcome me when i hear my name on any stage or read it on certificates like my board marksheet. That is one wierd fetish i hold , my own name , what is so special about it ?

This love for my own name always made me inqisitive about why is my name so interesting for me and what is its story? I found out so let me tell you guys that today....

About 17 years ago ie in the year 2000 when my mother was carrying a foetal me in her womb to office everyday , her colleagues decided to name me as millenium baby , the  born in the first year  of the 2nd millenium.

When i was born  ,there were thousands of suggestions for the first baby girl of that generation in my paternal family , after a tiring 3 boys. My atte ( my fathers elder sister) had three sons all elder to me. So now when her dearest brother had a daughter she was super excited , she suggested the name nishchita (definite one) randomnly. My ninni ( my mother's younger sister whom i call so , i will tell you later why) then suggested sunishchita which holds almost the same meaning as the previous name but as it started from s it would then be matching to my parents name.( both my parent's name start from the letter s) .
My mother had made a list of girl names from the letter s and had chosen the name stuthi meaning prayer for me.
But the last say was my father's , he named me samyukta  which means unity . The name was not very common yet it was okay with the whole family.
My name was unity and it was unique. You find quite a few girls with my name along with the same spelling.
India being a multilinguistic country holds my name with different spellings and pronunciations in each of its parts.
In north india my name is pronounced as sam-yuk-ta  but yet when i was in gurgaon(Haryana) for a few years , the locals there would often mistake my name to be sangeeta meaning music. And i would be like whatever you understand but tell me how does my name sound like sangeeta , that was non sensical! But that was not their fault , my name was very uncommon in that region.
In gujarat region my name becomes sanyukta whose root is the name of the princess sanyogita , lover and wife to the bravest of brave king prithviraj chauhan. The legend says that she had fall3n in love with his statue and on the day of her swayamvar , she went and garlanded his statue as he was not invited to the ceremony , insulting all the other princes present there. This was how straightforward she was. She had the courage to place her choice of love in front of the whole world , a quality which many girls of that time lacked and lack now too. It takes a lot of courage to do something like this .
My mother has a habit of putting comments on each childhood photo of mine. In one of them where i am a two year old baby in small shorts and sleeveless top but totally decked in my mother's ornaments( i do not know how i landed up in them :^) pestering my father. According to my mother's comment i am questioning him when my prithviraj will come for me, riding a white horse. Seriously ? Do i have no other work than to think about boys and marriage that too back then , for god's sake i was two!

Bengalis and odiyas very fondly convert my name into sanjukta given that their language  doesnt pay heed to " y " and curtly replace it with a "j". How sweet of them, right   ?

Last but not the least south indians pronounce my name correctly but when it comes to spelling it i do not understand why do they add an unecessary "h " in my name making me samyuktha .

So basically my name is a north indian spelling having a south indian pronunciation.and i , i am cosmopolitan!i represent the unity of my family!!!

In these 17 years  and 8 months of my life i have been given thousands of names :

1. Be it my pet name shinnu which finds its roots in the kannada word chinna meaning gold.

2. Or the short form of my name , sammy given to me by my friends , which highly irritated me to no extent  for two main reasons 
i. The m in my name is silent so how can it be so prominent in my pet name.
ii. Sammy sounds like a dog's name, doesn't it?
Nevertheless lets continue...

3.when i was a little baby of three months or so , my  cousin brothers who were quite small then too (although elder to me) would stand near the door as my mother would make me sleep and murmur to each other "gombe tarah" which in kannada means doll like.  Three month olds look like dolls only , dont they?

4." Akka " the most beautiful name assigned to me when i was 7 by my little sister and again as "shinnu akka " by my  baby cousin  recently when i was 13.i cant say how i love to hear that name. However much my sister would bash me she would never call me by my name. My name is akka ( elder sis) according to her.

5. Miss chirpy by my second standard class teacher as according to her i didnt know how to put a stop on my tweety rants.

6. Doubt queen in my twelfth standard because trust me there would have hardly been any lecture where i wouldnt have raised my hand up for asking a doubt to the teacher.

And many more....

But in between so many names i stand as a singular personality in front of the world ready to face any name you give me , positive or negative.

Thats it for today , bye !
PS : Ignore the typos pls

Introduction to an unimportant person...

Hello ! And Namaste !
I probably cant explain in words how happy i am to see you here.
I have lots and lots of things to talk about and i do so to my friends which are quite limited given that i am an ambivert - introvert by my preferences for example solitude but extrovert when it comes to talk.
I can tell you , i am one chatterbox😅.

But i think i can write it out better than i can say things .
So as a platform to express my views on every situation i find intriguing such that i can have something to say about it.
But i will write random things .

So here i am....

Oh by the way ,
The name is SAMYUKTA(pronounced as sa-yuk-ta)
SAMYUKTA SHIVSHANKAR.

You can wish me on 2nd December when i shall turn 18.

Lots of love ,
Samyukta.