Ram

When we think of what is in a name? This is one name which has everything in it! Any start, hesitation, calamity can be faced with only this one name. It has been with me from my childhood & been a source of solace for the lifetime. My grandmother had the name in her conversation. She would get up & sit down with the name.

What is in the name? All that you can think of. The surprises that life deals can be tolerable with your mind fixed on a name. My grandfather was in Burma for 12 years. No one knew if he will make to his homeland ever or in one piece. What saved him? The stories of Ram. The prisoners requested to have him as he was good at story telling. Ramayan saved his life. Being a doctor he was skilled at dispensing medicines.

The city that my father chose was Nasik above Mumbai or Pune. The city that is sacred due to the footfall of the deity. We may or may not believe but things worked out well for them. He had left his native place with a suitcase only & a degree to see him through. The old temple of Ram in Panchavati is hailed to have a history & an aura that is un paralleled!

Children able to draw & paint are many. Yet Durga had the opportunity to display her paintings at the age of fifteen on Ramayan. If we do consider it a stroke of luck or luck by chance why should it come her way? Her fascination for Ram or Krishna for that matter is from a tender age. But again all children are talented at that age & not everyone has a go at it!

It needs generations to reap the fruits of the deeds done in the past. The fore fathers are very important here. When they teach us from childhood to worship, rever, respect & breath in a name it is like second nature. It forms a support system that is inherited, inculcated & passed to the next generation with refinement. When the curtain is raised & in Kalidas Natya Mandir the words.. Ram chandra chya pad sparshani pavan zhaleli bhoomi.. never ceases to bring tears or give goose bumps 1 To be living in the same space as the idol is so great. Notwithstanding the pollution, the skyscrapers, the congestion the land makes for the tall personality that rises above all to admire, cherish, guide & remains in every heart.

Nasik not being my birthplace I admire it wholeheartedly for being my sole workplace & feeling blessed. If the name of the city is derived from, Nasika.. that is nose. Surpanakha’s nose cut by Laxman, as she was trying to scare Seeta. I don’t believe that it was really the nose! Nose is the ambition, the garv , the personality of an individual. if we think of a family the ‘Bahu’ is the naak of the khandan. which shows that Laxman merely showed her her place. To disregard her as a Princess, a beautiful maiden, sister to the mighty Ravana was enough to be insulting. Laxman had only one aim in life to serve his brother. So anything & anyone troublesome to his brother had to be taken care of.

Not the event, but that they lived here is enough to make it a place unparalleled. The personality of the city is made. It remains the same till date. Ask any Nasikite & the love for their city will flow. I experienced it when coming back from traveling far from it. My home has always been Nasik but the serenity & comfort as you near the city is something to be experienced. It cannot be described in words.

If Ramayan is incomplete without Ram, his story is incomplete without Nasik. One can chant his name as’Ma..ra’ it automatically corrects itself to give the desired effect. Trying will ensure it happening.