Every morning I walk by a mini temple that sits in the corner of our kitchen. I may glance at its doors a few times during the day. When the sunlight hits the dull metallic silver frame, the bronze overlay design shines. The steeple looks regal. Inside there are a few deities that sit on a red velvet pillow in the inner chamber of the temple. There are long columns of bars that that unfold like French doors that offer the deities a symbolic privacy during the night. These remain shut even during the day, unless my mom comes to visit. When she is here, I watch the same rituals that I witnessed as a little girl.
Read the rest of my essay on First Day Press.
Image: “Temple” by James Butler via Flickr.
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
I read this yesterday and enjoyed it. I think we take our own versions of ancestral ritual with us because our understanding or importance of it is not the same as our parents or grandparents.
I love reading your article. i guess this question whether he/ she is a Hindu has crossed the mind of millions and its very difficult to even interpret. True meaning of Hinduism is not just a religion but a way of life or how you conduct yourself. Being a young Hindu even i sometimes fail to understand what certain rituals and traditions stand for and are they still relevant. But then there are so many things which can never be answered and you can not establish a proper cause and effect relationship. But personally i have felt whenever you bow your head in front of God or you chant a mantra with the help of rosary or meditate by pronouncing ‘OM’, it has a very calming effect on your mind. So a person need not to be born as a Hindu, To be a Hindu.