This would be a lot more effective if I had a photo, but alas, it was one of those moments where you don't realize what you've seen until you're way past it - and the road was much too narrow to turn around and drive back on.
In short, Steve and I spent our first week in India with my parents in Coorg, a district about five hours from Bangalore that's full of forest, wild animals and coffee/tea/pepper plantations. While we were driving from one town in Coorg to the tiny town near where my father's coffee estate is, we happened to pass a bus stop.
On the outer wall of the bus shelter was a large arrow pointing up a very narrow and dusty little road. Above the arrow were three words, ostensibly the name of the place the arrow was pointing to. These words were
PARVATHI'S BLISS DEW
Now for the life of us, we could not figure out or agree on what this place could possibly be. We spent about an hour of hilarity trying to work out how those three words could possibly even relate to one another - and failed, because, quite frankly, they don't really relate to one another at all, do they? 'Bliss' and 'dew' have never before been seen in the same sentence like that.
Yet there they were. Parvathi's Bliss Dew.
So once again, I must put it to you, blog readers, because I have run out of ideas. What is Parvathi's Bliss Dew? What mysterious place lay at the top of that road? What do those words even mean?
Cookies and scones and balloons for the funniest and/or most satisfying answer!
That sounds like a psychedelic album from a 1960's rock band, I love it. Maybe it's some kind of herbal juice drink with a natural high like caffeine in it. xxx
ReplyDeleteOooh I didn't consider the possibility that it might be a drink rather than a place! Excellent suggestion, Vix!
ReplyDeleteMaybe since Mountain Dew was taken, they had to come up with something new?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was thinking a drink as well, like a juice or even some kind of special tonic. :)
ReplyDeleteLong long ago, the shakti Parvathi, second consort to Shiva, suffered from a terrible headache (possibly stemming from an argument amongst her multiple personalities). The pain was so acute she found it impossible to find rest.
ReplyDeleteHer steed, a wise old mountain lioness whose name is lost in time, took her to a secret place older than the gods themselves and said: "Heed my counsel, mistress. Return to this place alone at dawn tomorrow and drink the dew from these green plants you see before you."
In her wisdom, she followed this counsel and drank the dew from the green leaves at dawn... And lo, the voices in her felt peace and quieted, and Parvathi blissfully slept.
Many days later Parvathi awoke rested and refreshed. She smiled and blessed the plant before harvesting some seeds, which she gave to her followers with whom she shared their secret...
That is how people first learned to use tea, and that is why tea is such a common offering to Parvathi.
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The story has trickled down through the centuries and is forgotten by most, but lives on in the name of a place called Parvathi's Bliss Dew.
Alex, your comment cracked me up! I totally think Parvathi's Bliss Dew could be the new Mountain Dew!
ReplyDeleteNina, I think the 'special properties' tonic/drink seems to be the general consensus - I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner!
Alesa, LOVE your story of its origin! Ha, I'm inclined to think yours is in fact what exactly happened and no one will convince me otherwise! :-)
Thanks for the fabulous suggestions so far, everyone, you've totally brightened my day with a few laughs!
I would have said drink, too--but only because I was thinking of Mountain Dew! Hmmm . . . LOL, that is a hard one.
ReplyDeleteWe could also go with the "Place where Parvathi blissed out eating honeydew melons" interpretation...
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we could even come up with an adult explanation for it.
Whee. So do we all get cookies and scones and ballons? Hmm? ;j
Definitely! Scones with clotted scream, and cookies straight out of the oven, and gold helium balloons. Oh, yes, I see it all so clearly. Coming right up!
ReplyDeleteBliss dew? What the?
ReplyDeleteYou don't even want to know what my first thought was - I've been reading too many romance novels lately, clearly. Ahem.
Maybe... a waterfall?
Oh I can't be funny, I would just fail.
ReplyDeleteIn my mind though, it's some sort of roadside beauty treatment - a drive through facial perhaps...?