Today children do not make their own stars, they buy them; they do not make their own Christmas cards, they send them electronically; they do not walk miles singing carols in cold nights, they move in warm air-tight buses. Yet, Christmas remains the same – the celebration of love and universal brotherhood.
My teacher asked me to repeat Hari Sri Ganapataye Nama, as he held my forefinger to write on a measure of rice spread on the floor on the day of Vidyarambham. My Bible-thumbing grandma and parents watched as I was initiated into the world of knowledge by the teacher whom we all respectfully called "Asan".