How and Why of naming a blog....

When one person says, perhaps it is time to start another blog, I was thinking I was posting too much on Facebook. When four different people say the same thing in the same week, you know that it is more than that. People actually might be thinking one has something worthwhile to say. And so here goes, another blog in the blog universe! I do not have that much to say, strangely, for someone who has been talking all her working life for a living. So I thought I would explain a bit about how I picked this name.

I have been writing a book for a while now. It is about a girl of Indian origins who grows up in Australia.When I started it, about twenty years ago, I was very green and enthusiastic. I thought to myself, the book will be a piece of cake. And decided on the name first! It was supposed to be about someone who was both Indian and uniquely New Australian...a child of migrant parents and Red Dot Dreaming seemed to fit perfectly. 

The Australian Aboriginal people were the original migrants to this land, arriving as part of a very ancient wave of modern humanity out of Africa and eventually into Australia some 62,000 - 75,000 years ago. Genetic tests showed that modern humans migrated into Eastern Asia in more than one wave and that Aboriginal Australians could claim direct heritage with a very early wave, perhaps even the first wave. This meant that their population constituted one of the oldest continuous populations outside of Africa. The Dream Time is their mythology and is filled with oral history such as floods and creation myths. That accounted for the Dreaming part of the name. 

The Red Dot of course...came from a mark on the forehead, traditionally worn by Hindu women, although women of all religions and nationalities seem to wear them as decorations, Even Madonna! Although whether that raises the mark or degrades it is another question! In the Hindu religion, the bindi is an important symbolic mark, and it is considered to be highly auspicious. They are typically known as tilaks or tikas when men wear them. 

These marks may be used to indicate traditional affiliations, and they are worn on special occasions, special ceremonies, and sometimes daily as well, depending on the individual. Among women, the bindi is worn after marriage, and an additional auspicious mark may be made further up the forehead, close to the hairline, especially since all Hindi TV serials from the 2000s onwards seem to be using that as an accessory.

According to the Hindu religion, the bindi marks the sixth chakra, an important source of power and balance. A mark on the site facilitates the flow of energy, and also helps to keep the evil eye away. Commonly, a bindi takes the form of a red dot, reflecting the origin of the word, bindu in Sanskrit, meaning “drop.”

And so, ipso facto, Red Dot Dreaming is off and walking. Of course, this means that the book needs a new name, but I am sure I can do that sometime in the next twenty years!