JK Rowling's spills secrets on her characters

As one of the millions of Harry Potter fans worldwide, I have to do a blog on JKR's latest revealetions on some of her characters. Rowling was present at New York City's Carnegie Hall on Saturday night at an event that boasted of thousands of Harry Potter fans who had come across the country for the hot event. These lucky children won a sweepstakes created by Rowlings publisher and they then flew to New York from all over the place. The event was hosted by MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann who paved the way for Rowling to occupy the center stage.

Answering to a question posed by someone in the crowds, Rowling spilled the beans on the kindly old headmaster of Hogwarts, by saying that Dumbledore was gay. That statements explains a lot from her series, especially, it affirms the connection between Dumbledore and Grindelward, his younger days companion who took an interest in the Dark Arts. Albus Dumbledore's character is probably the most loved and discussed, next to Harry, in all of Harry Potter's fan groups. Though, initial books probably made readers question the loyalty and relationship between Professor McGonagal and Dumbledore, Rowling clarifies that in her latter books.

Hope the upcoming Harry Potter movies, would make sure that the authenticity of his character remains without messing up the storyline.

Further, Rowling went on to answer a few other questions such as Neville's love life, Molly Weasley's killing of Bellatrix and so no. The whole evening came to an end by 8.30 pm when Rowling stood up to sign the stacks of books piled up for the children who had come.

Wish I could go to one such event and get caught up in the magical moments................

Saraswathi Puja and Vijayadasami- end of Navarathri

Happy Friday!

Since I didn't get to do a post on the golu this year, thought that I would do a write up on the end of the navarathri festival, which is marked by the Sarawasthi puja on the ninth day (navami) followed by Vijayadasami on the tenth day. Because, these days fall on a weekend, it becomes a little easier, atleast for working folks like us in the US, to do some sort of a mini puja at home.

A trip down the memory lane- Back in India, Saraswathi puja was an important day to reckon with. It was on this only day that our parents never insisted us to study/read and we were made to keep all our books, musical instruments before the Goddess and puja would be performed. This was done as a form of respect to the Goddess of knowledge Saraswathi who would be the one to bless our educational pursuits. In commercial places, this day would be referred to as Ayudha puja and all the machinery, equipment used in any form of shop, industry etc. would be cleaned and decorated with flowers, sandalwood paste etc. After a brief puja, sweets, rice flakes (arisi pori) with jaggery would be distributed to all. Even vehicles and automobiles would be decorated and worshiphed since they brought livelihood for several folks.

On the tenth day of Vijayadasami, the day that the Goddess has attained victory by slaying the demon, is considered auspicious and siginifies good over evil. This is the day when new ventures, be it in business, education, music, dance etc. is begun, since it signifies prosperity throughout the coming year.

Well, thus comes the end to the navarathi season. Hope everybody has a good weekend.

Back to Blogging

Hello! Hola! Bonjour! Ciao! Aloha! Namaste! Vanakkam..........

Yes, I am back to blogging after a leave of absence of six months. Given that my last blog was in April when we moved into our new home, I didn't think that I would come back to blogging for several reasons, top one being that I simply had lost the enthu and motivation to blog somewhere along the line. Further, I didn't think that me not blogging would make a difference to the huge blogger community, honestly, it doesn't, but when a few friends kept asking me as to why I haven't blogged and that I should start blogging again, I thought, well, maybe its time to make a come back.

A lot has happened in the last six months, don't want to indulge into great details about each and every thing. The highlights would be K and I completed 3 years of matrimony in June, we visited London and nearby cities like Stratford, Oxford enroute to India in July. We celebrated my dad's 60th birthday function in India and attended my brother-in-law's engagement around the same time in August. Came back to US and spent the last week in keeping golu and inviting friends.

While, those have been the happenings in my personal life, other things that whizzed by were Thalaivar's Sivaji making history in tamil cinema, the Indian stock market's growth (given that it was down today), the Google and Apple stocks still holding strong, the I-Phone frenzy and more.

Well, with the comeback comes a new look to this blog......will be back soon.