Visit to Dayalbagh – a marriage with a difference

I first heard about Dayalbagh Radhasaomi Satsang sect around 25 years ago when my friend, Vasanta, who did M. Tech at HCU, and was briefly my roommate, handed me her wedding invitation. The groom was based at Agra and the wedding was to be performed there. At that time, her parents used to live in Kakinada, or maybe Hyderabad, and I was surprised that they were performing the wedding at Agra. That is when she explained that her wedding was fixed by their Guru and was to be performed in His august presence at Dayalbagh.

I slowly got introduced to more followers post my marriage. My father-in-law was a follower during some part of his life and his cousins were ardent followers. So when my husband’s cousin was performing his daughter’s wedding at Dayalbagh, and invited us, we took the opportunity to visit. Of course, it was our privilege as there is a cap on the number of invitees, well, I will get to that later. My father-in-law, and during the brief time that I got to interact with my brother-in-law, often used the phrase “Simple living, high thinking”, and I finally saw what they meant.  

So last weekend, we went to Dayalbagh. Since it was four hours drive from Delhi, it made sense for us to travel by train directly from Secunderabad to Agra. Entering the gated enclosure, I saw a self-sufficient village in itself. For convenience, I will refer to the gated enclosure as Dayalbagh, though I believe the name actually encompasses a larger area surrounding it too. Motorized vehicles from outside, including two-wheelers are banned inside. Honking is prohibited in Dayalbagh. There are cycle-rickshaws and e-rickshaws for the convenience of the inmates. Bicycles are a common mode of transport in addition to walking. People meet in the Satsang hall twice a day, around 3:00 am for morning prayers and 3:00 pm for evening prayers, followed by a visit and service in the fields. Young and old alike, throng to the prayer hall and maintain pin drop silence during the prayer time. Normally, it is difficult for people to stay quiet without making noise in most places, and with mobile phones switched off!! But in the prayer hall, I saw pin drop silence being maintained even though there were hundreds of people in a single hall. The prayers are broadcast live(audio) to various prayer halls across the world. After prayers, people go towards the fields, where they perform duties, which include farming activities based on the current crop that is being grown.

Let’s now see how the wedding was performed. Only residents of Dayalbagh get an opportunity to get married in the presence of the Guru. So the groom had to take a month off from work to stay at Dayalbagh and participate in service activities there in order to gain the eligibility. There are strict guidelines regarding the wedding expenditure. It cannot exceed Rs. 18000, which is hardly enough to even buy the bride’s saree, these days. This includes the cost for the wedding feast for 100 people inclusive of the bride and groom along with their families and food for the guests at the accommodation provided. There is even an audit done to verify whether additional celebrations are being done. The menu is very simple like any normal day, and the sumptuous feasts that are common in most weddings were conspicuously absent. This also ensures the guests eat healthy. Only about 65 people from the bride’s side and 35 people from the groom’s side partake of the wedding feast.

The marriage itself is a civil ceremony, that took place early morning around 5 am with the presence of the bride and groom along with their parents, a witness and a photographer. No other person, including the siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, or other relatives are allowed to witness the marriage in close quarters. The actual process took not more than 20 minutes for the marriages of 14 couples seated in a semi-circle in front of the Guru. An exchange of garlands, signing of the marriage register, followed by the singing of a couple of shabd (prayers) completed the wedding. For an hour prior to the wedding, the bride, groom, parents and guests were tasked with cutting grass on the fields. The wedding was an activity to be witnessed in the midst of this task. So everybody, including us were involved in the task and could barely witness the wedding from a distance. All Dayalbagh devotees wear a uniform(cotton kurta-pyjama) when they go for prayers. The couple, parents and the guests were wearing similar attire for the wedding. No pomp, blaring music, silk sarees, jewellery, baraat, band, videographer, drone, etc. The wedding gifts are supposed to be a standard amount of eleven rupees. Any residual festivities/celebrations on a small scale are performed in the temporary residence of the bride/groom.

It was a unique experience. Since 14 couples got married at the same time, having these kind of rules probably helps in removing the barriers of rich/poor, caste, state and other disparities. The bride and groom need not belong to the same caste or even state for that matter. The unifying factor is the devotion to the values of the Radhasaomi sect and the Guru.  

My Universal Studios (LA) experience

I had heard a lot about the Universal Studios so I was pretty much excited. I was supposed to be travelling alone but then it is not so much fun to be all by myself. I would need someone to encourage, discuss, take pictures and enjoy with me. So I literally dragged my friend who was a classmate at college to accompany me on the trip to Universal Studios. Though grudgingly at first (I was pulling him out of his family time and that too to a place he would have visited umpteen number of times), he very chivalrously offered to give me a conducted tour of the place.

We reached Universal Studios around 9:30 am (a good half hour later than we originally planned) and then upgraded our tickets to the Universal express. (This is similar to the Rs. 300 ticket that we Indians normally take when we are visiting Lord Venkateswara at Tirupati….) They handed us a map of the Studios, but there is an app that one can download, which will give good information about the attractions – rides and shows along with the timings and wait times, if any. One good thing about the US is that there is free WiFi in every public area, so one can stay connected and instantly share pictures and videos too.

The first attraction for every age group is definitely the Harry Porter theme. So we got to see the Hogwarts express, the castle, some magic and the Harry Porter ride on the Forbidden journey. It is better to watch a Harry Porter movie or read a book prior to visiting, so that one can enjoy the ride better, relating to the characters. I was a little apprehensive about the rides, imagining a 360 degree turn or a giant wheel kind of experience, but this one is a sort of tram ride that takes you through a certain route, going up and down, with virtual reality scenes all around you. So you essentially are following Harry Porter in his adventures.

The studio tour is a ride for an hour on a tram. They take you around the studios showing you different shooting spots, experiences of various kinds, earthquake, fire, floods, car crashes, rain, skylines, bungalows used in films and television shows, skylines, etc. The best part is that the tour guide explains these and also shows the same scenes in the movies, so you can actually understand how it looks on screen.

There are rides with Simpsons, Despicable me, Transformers, the Mummy Returns, Kung Fu Panda, et al. I have not watched any of these movies, so I could not relate to the characters, but the rides are fun. For most of these rides, you are sitting at a single location, with virtual reality shows. So you would move front, back, up and down, tilt in all directions, but at the same location surrounded by the characters from that movie. The Mummy ride is a little scary as it is very fast, but then it is also exhilarating and enjoyable. The Jurassic Park theme was closed down as it was being redesigned.

The Special Effects show gives you a good idea of how the stunts are done, different sounds are produced to accompany the actions, how people survive a fire accident. So it is very enlightening. Another interesting show was the Animal actors. How animals are trained to perform in the movies, do tricks, act with strangers, was also very entertaining.

The best one that I liked in the Studios was the Water World show. It is simply amazing. This was like a theatre show. An action show, depicting an island with chases and fights, motorboats, firing from all directions, accidents, fire on the lake, water jets, chaining and killing, rescue scene. It was simply amazing to see the actors with so much energy, climbing ladders, chasing on motorboats, jumping, hanging off cliffs. It is one thing to watch such scenes in a movie, but seeing them performed live is an entirely different experience.

You also see various cartoon characters at different spots where you can get photographed. The food stalls are all over the studios, at every step. As soon as you enter, you see food even before you enter any ride. I think Americans are very fond of food.

All good things come to an end, and so did our trip. The Express pass ensured we did not have waiting time at any of the rides. There were long queues with wait times upto 60 minutes or 75 minutes at some of the rides, so I was glad to skip the waiting. Without the express pass, it would not have been possible to cover all the attractions in a single day. All in all, the Universal Studios is a must-visit spot for anyone visiting the United States.

My first book presentation

My last blog post triggered an invitation from my friend to join a book club. The book club has been in existence for the past 10 years and very systematically, one of the members presents a book every month. Sounded interesting to me and I decided to attend a couple of presentations before deciding to join.

After attending 3 sessions, I was formally inducted into the Happy Book Club. I had been designated to present a book in June. I was asked to do it in April or May, but that was a peak period at work, so I preferred June. I had chosen the book “The Moonstone” by Wilkie Collins. I had first read this book when I was still in school and somehow the story stuck in my memory. Last year, I came across another book by the same author and that’s when I decided to read it again.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and so, I decided to share the same with the group.

The first step was to re-read the entire book so as to figure out a strategy for the presentation in less than 2 hours. I have a habit of reading books on Kindle, so I underestimated the size of the book. I ordered a printed book and got a shock when I saw the size of the book. There was no way I could read significant chunk of the book. To give you an idea of the challenge involved, here is an intro to the book.

The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century British epistolary novel, which means it is written as a series of letters. It is generally considered to be the first detective novel, and it established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel.

The Moonstone of the title is a diamond, not to be confused with the semi-precious moonstone gem. It gained its name from its association with the Hindu god of the moon, Chandra. It was said to be protected by hereditary guardians on the orders of Vishnu, and to wax and wane in brilliance along with the light of the moon.

Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who served in India. The diamond is of great religious significance and extremely valuable, and three Hindu priests have dedicated their lives to recovering it. The story incorporates elements of the legendary origins of the Hope Diamond (or perhaps the Orloff Diamond or the Koh-i-Noor diamond). Rachel's eighteenth birthday is celebrated with a large party, at which the guests include her cousin Franklin Blake. She wears the Moonstone on her dress that evening for all to see, including some Indian jugglers who have called at the house. Later that night, the diamond is stolen from Rachel's bedroom, and a period of turmoil, unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill-luck ensues. Told by a series of narratives from some of the main characters, the complex plot traces the subsequent efforts to explain the theft, identify the thief, trace the stone and recover it.

Now, how do I present such a long book, which is a detective novel in a summarized manner, and that too, including all the significant events without missing any links in the chain of detection? Whenever there is a problem, Google will show the way…. I found chapter-wise summarized notes on the internet, that formed the basis of my presentation. I had a starting point. Now, I had to tweak the notes in such a manner as to leave out unnecessary bits, condense it further so that I could hold the interest of the audience and complete the story in less than 2 hours.

Being a verbal faculty probably came to my rescue as I was comfortable with the concept of para-summary. The biggest challenge was to sustain the audience attention. I chose to read out the prologue, the epilogue and a description of events related to the disappearance of the moonstone. For the rest of the story, I used the summary notes. To my bewilderment, the entire group of 12 people managed to stay hooked on to the story, guessing, deliberating, debating and commenting through the presentation. I was warned that there could be interruptions, but being a teacher, I could manage that comfortably. All of them praised my efforts and said that it did not look like a maiden presentation at all. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I am looking forward to doing more presentations.