Weekend Bollywood Blast: For your Love

One of my fondest memories is the birth of our daughter. A couple of years ago, Swami and I had taken a holiday trip to South India. During our trip we visited the famous Palani temple. Several legends swirl around when the temple was originally constructed with dates going back all the way back to the 5th century but inscriptions found at the temple seem to suggest it was constructed in the 13th century.

Palani is quite famous and is very crowded, but as we were leaving the town, our driver mentioned another less well known temple around an hour drive from Palani. The temple located on top of a small hill called Vattamalai, had a weird practice that piqued my Swami's interest and so we made the detour, instead of heading directly to Coimbatore airport.

There is a belief in Vattamalai that if a bridegroom carries his bride up the steps to the top of the hill where the temple is located, they will be together for seven lifetimes!!

I giggled when I saw the hill

"Swami, we are not newly weds, you don't have to do this" I told him.

He looked at the temple on top of the hill, then looked at me, trying to gauge my weight :-)

"I'm going to do it" he said firmly.

My biggest worry was that he would set me down half way up the hill and being superstitious I could not imagine this life, let alone the next six without him!!

The next morning, we were at the foot of the hill and Swami scooped me up in his arms. I said a small prayer as he started up the steps.

What does this have to do with the Weekend Bollywood Blast Series?

Well imagine my surprise, when this sequence was enacted almost exactly in a movie by Shahrukh Khan and Deepika at the same temple !!

I cried when I saw the sequence. It brought back so many memories.

In the movie Chennai Express ( Now available to stream on Netflix) Sharukh Khan carries Deepika Padukone up 300 steps into the inner sanctum of a temple.

I don't recall how many steps there were, but, it was quite an effort and I can tell you I had the same look in my eyes that Deepika has towards SRK in this shot. Her look is just priceless. The total awe, admiration and pure transcendental love I felt towards my Swami is hard to describe and kudos to Deepika for capturing that look of total devotion!!

BTW, there are some technical issues with the shot, for example, the idol shown in the movie is the wrong idol, because the entire inner sanctum shots were filmed in Mumbai. The director somehow replaced the actual diety with the wrong diety :-( This is a Murugan temple not a Balaji temple as shown in the movie ( For those who care!)

Nevertheless, the entire shot is so memorable. I vividly remember when my Swami finally set me down after we entered the temple. He was exhausted, sweaty and his back and hands were killing him, but he just etched his name on my heart forever!! I also felt a deep sense of shame for having doubted his resolve.

We had just started, trying to have a baby and at that moment, something in my heart told me I was brought to this temple for a reason. As were were exiting the temple, a woman I had never met before came up to us and said
"Take this Prasad (offering) and rest in the town for a night. Your wish will be fulfilled."

My Swami usually doesn't heed such requests, but he was quite tired and his back was killing him, so we checked into a hotel in nearby Kangayam and stayed the night.

That night, as my Swami lay on his back exhausted, I made love to him :-) I felt an incredible urge to get his seed into me that night!

The next morning we visited the temple again. This time I walked up the hill!!. I ran into the woman again and she smiled and hugged me when she saw us.

Three weeks later, I missed my periods and discovered I was pregnant!!

I will never forget Vattamalai and how I got pregnant with our daughter! I have superimposed this scene with a more dramatic song from an older movie, because it captures the sentiment I felt much better. Watch it with subtitles on!

You can also follow a link to the video here

Hope you enjoy it!

Hugs