V. Gangadhar - Slice of Life Archive

Posted on December 27, 2006

One of the simple pleasures of a Sunday used to be reading V. Gangadhar’s column “Slice of Life” in The Hindu on Sundays.

I now get to to relive the experience, thanks to Rediff. The archive of Gangadhar’s Slice of Life provides for very interesting reader. He mostly writes about one-off topics related to his life in Ahmedabad, about the India of the past etc.

Here’s an excerpt from his article suggesting we celebrate Manmadan, the Hindu God of Love instead of Valentine’s Day:

Manmadhan was in the habit of shooting arrows made of fragrant flowers at his victims, making them fall in love. Somewhat like Cupid of Greek legend. Unfortunately, Manmadhan once fooled around with Shiva, the Angry Young God, who was not known to be particularly romantic. On being struck by the romantic arrow, Shiva reacted strongly. He opened his third eye, discharged the requisite fire reducing poor Manmadhan to ashes. I do not know when this exactly happened but it would be nice to celebrate the martyrdom of Manmadhan as our version of Valentine’s Day.

I guess that is enough linkage for you to waste a couple of hours. Have fun!

Comments

Leave a Comment

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Comments

1 Comment so far
  1. Rangarajan January 12, 2008 7:28 pm

    Hello,

    May I have the email id of Mr V Gangadhar please. I want to get in touch with him on his work.

    Thanks,

    Rangarajan