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The campus of IIT KGP was full of umpteen varieties of colorful butterflies during my time there. And all of them flitted from flower to flower sipping whatever they sip. This was a most pleasant sight but for PGW they were a metaphor for Don Juans and Casanovas:
"I haven't seen Pongo since we were kids."
There is also the metaphor 'society butterflies' for ladies who flit from party to party and gossip.
Often happiness is likened to a butterfly...if you chase it, it flies away from you...if you keep quiet sitting unconcerned, it will land on your head or shoulder.
I don't know...I shall try.
Butterflies, I am told, had a mythological and mystic nuance in the Mayan civilization.
Soon after I joined IIT KGP in 1965, a Bengali colleague visited me with his wedding card printed in Bengali which I couldn't read. And he translated the contents for my benefit, except for the picture of a cute butterfly that adorned the card. I asked him what a butterfly was doing on his wedding card. He said he didn't know, it was a custom, and the butterfly called Prajapati is an inescapable accessory to weddings in Bengal. I attended his marriage function and found the Prajapati printed on the 'Welcome' hoarding that was installed at the Pandal.
I knew that Prajapati occurs in Vedas, e.g.:
This hymn is all about Creation...so I guess Prajapati as the Creator is the one that adorns wedding cards that are all about Creation...in due time.
It is a wonder that nowadays we take all sorts of pains and precautions to avoid creation, but many mantras in the wedding ceremonies are appeals to Indra to shower His mighty prowess in procreation on the newly weds.
The other butterflies are those in the stomachs of husbands while waiting outside the labor room for news of the newborn.
Also before interviews and grand vivas.
Butterfly clips...both for holding hair, and needle in veins are a sight to behold.
And then there is this Butterfly Company selling cookers, mixers, grinders and gas stoves...all with a cute emblem of the butterfly although I don't know what butterflies have to do with cooking, if any.
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The campus of IIT KGP was full of umpteen varieties of colorful butterflies during my time there. And all of them flitted from flower to flower sipping whatever they sip. This was a most pleasant sight but for PGW they were a metaphor for Don Juans and Casanovas:
"I haven't seen Pongo since we were kids."
"Even then he was flitting from flower to flower like a willowy butterfly. He was the Don Juan of his dancing class when he wore little Lord Fauntleroy suits, his heart an open door with a 'Welcome' on the mat."
There is also the metaphor 'society butterflies' for ladies who flit from party to party and gossip.
Often happiness is likened to a butterfly...if you chase it, it flies away from you...if you keep quiet sitting unconcerned, it will land on your head or shoulder.
I don't know...I shall try.
Butterflies, I am told, had a mythological and mystic nuance in the Mayan civilization.
Soon after I joined IIT KGP in 1965, a Bengali colleague visited me with his wedding card printed in Bengali which I couldn't read. And he translated the contents for my benefit, except for the picture of a cute butterfly that adorned the card. I asked him what a butterfly was doing on his wedding card. He said he didn't know, it was a custom, and the butterfly called Prajapati is an inescapable accessory to weddings in Bengal. I attended his marriage function and found the Prajapati printed on the 'Welcome' hoarding that was installed at the Pandal.
I knew that Prajapati occurs in Vedas, e.g.:
prajāpa’tiścarati garbhe’ antaḥ | ajāya’māno bahudhā vijā’yate |
tasya dhīrāḥ pari’jānanti yonim” | marī’cīnāṃ padamicchanti vedhasa’ḥ ||
tasya dhīrāḥ pari’jānanti yonim” | marī’cīnāṃ padamicchanti vedhasa’ḥ ||
...Purusha Suktam
This hymn is all about Creation...so I guess Prajapati as the Creator is the one that adorns wedding cards that are all about Creation...in due time.
It is a wonder that nowadays we take all sorts of pains and precautions to avoid creation, but many mantras in the wedding ceremonies are appeals to Indra to shower His mighty prowess in procreation on the newly weds.
The other butterflies are those in the stomachs of husbands while waiting outside the labor room for news of the newborn.
Also before interviews and grand vivas.
Butterfly clips...both for holding hair, and needle in veins are a sight to behold.
And then there is this Butterfly Company selling cookers, mixers, grinders and gas stoves...all with a cute emblem of the butterfly although I don't know what butterflies have to do with cooking, if any.
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