The Diwali After!

 

The Days towards Diwali feel like a wedding. New clothes to be bought, Home to be cleaned and decorated, Old Lights to be hung on the entrances of homes, Savouries and sweets to be made. There are so many checklists to the countdown to Diwali that everything else takes a Backseat. I have always like celebrations. Be it dancing around the Fire in Lohri, Doing Garba-Dandiya in Navaratri, Exchanging gifts in Christmas, Doing Aarti in Diwali or receiving Sevayya from patients and friends in Eid. 

The traditions evolve at home with our evolvement.

Earlier in Adult Life, I used to feel anxiety of every festival. The fear to follow unknown traditions, inability to multitask or plan led me to feel severe Diwali Dull. As I grew internally, I began to understand the true meaning of traditions. From being Rituals they started becoming Traditions. So now I make it a point to do a lot of Diwali internal cleaning too. From forgiving myself and others, I make it a point to wish my well wishers, distribute sweets and involve ourselves as a family in spreading the vibes. This year of 2020, though was low on visits, we manage to meet in open spaces for limited period of time and video call too a lot of our friends and family!

And then, the festival is gone. All guests gone. The crackers lying splintered, charring the ground below. The flowers aging and drying. The lights go poof and the wintry silence of the night takes over. Most people have indigestion from the kilos of sweets and snacks consumed. Some boxes of unopened sweets still lie on the counter. Some boxes with Fried savouries, that were often visited for few days, now lie unattended. The wrappers of Diwali gifts are thrown, the burnt Diyas are discarded and the Decors are taken down and stored for next year. The Aftermath of a Festival is painful to see.

What stays are: The million memories made, the positive vibes from those 2 cm fire from the Diya and the smell of Agarbatti, the brilliant glow from the idol of Lakshmi Mata still is burning the embers in your soul. And the year starts all over again. According to Vikram Samvat Calender followed by Hindus, the year started 57 years before the Georgian Calender. So 2020 is 2020+57= 2077. New Year 2077  started after Diwali. So while we start the Georgian Calender with Resolutions, we start the Hindu New Year with Gratitude to the Nature, Animals and Human Life. This year of all has taught us Gratitude for lots. Gratitude for Front line workers, the sanitary staff, the House keeping staff, the Doctors and Nurses, the Milk Man, the vegetable vendors, the ambulance drivers, the Internet providers. Gratitude to Netflix and Amazon Prime that gave us content to keep going. Gratitude to Microsoft Teams and Zoom that kept the schools, colleges and IT industries going. 

 Gratitude as a  virtue will  bring more in life to feel Gratitude for. 

So here's wishing you a Very Grateful New year!

No More LockDown!!

 

I was running uphill on a green Mountain in Mauve Chiffon saree with high heels (God Knows how I was running!) and Perfect wavy curls in my hair. And there after being on top of the hill, without a drop of Perspiration (I sweat even if I walk 200 meters!) I am serenaded into the arms of my man! Well I felt a sharp jibe by something like a foot in my ribs, and got up to see one pair of feet below me and one pair on my face. Apparently, I was just woken up from My perfect Yash Raj Dream by my 2 kids who rotate all throughout the night on the bed and make sure I stay in Reality rather than these perfect dreams!

Well Up at 3 in the morning, I thought back to the last 8 months! The Lockdown, is the term of 2020. With March ending bring the first wave of Corona Panic in India, the horrific stories of this deadly disease were viral from our Adopted Country, USA (What with every second Gujarati or Telugu speaking person staying in US!)

                So we swayed with our attitudes changing with every Lunar Cycle!

First Fortnight, people stayed indoors, ate only Dal,Chawal, Felt like Apocalypse was here, Second Fortnight, Migrant workers started panicking and wanting to go home,

 3rd Fortnight, the aftermath of this remigration was the stories of hunger and apathy of the Death March Like Conditions of these Migrant workers(caused extreme Low moods in the public)

 4th Fortnight and Covid Death started increasing. What with Irfan Khan, Rishi Kapoor and Sushant Singh Rajput all succumbing to various illnesses, mental and physical, the households in India dwelved further down in the morale.

5th fortnight, required creativity to come out of the dread. So wasapp, facebook and News channels were blocked and Gas Stoves, Microwaves and Ovens were always on. There came Pizzas, Breads, Macaronis, Butter Naan, tandoors, Biryanis, Soups, Momos and multiple cups of Dalgona Coffee! We numbed the agony of human life with butter, cheese and garlic!

6th Fortnight and Lo and Behold Our Ministers started saying that We had won the War Against Corona. Due to heavy boredom, crippling obesity and  muddled brain due to every corner of the 3BHK houses being used, we started limping back to an act of normalcy. People designed masks to wear outside, fought with Society heads to have the House Help back, and shopped like never before for Washing Machines, Dish Washers and Vaccuum Cleaners.

Now that people were out and around the 7th and 8th Fortnight brought the real wave of Covid in the country. Sudden deaths, dearth of beds, Overworked and Underpaid medical staff crawled into the 9th and 10th Fortnight, completely shaken by the sheer craziness of the disease and the hunger of the corporate hospitals. 

And then the 11th Fortnight, Just like the end of Navaratri on the 10th day with Dussera, we brought an end to Corona Mania in the 11th Fortnight. We stopped discussing, dwelving, hoarding, herding or lamenting about the Corona Mania anymore. Discussion of the Bihar Elections, the Biden- Trump war and Kareena's 2nd time bump caught more attention of the Indian Public!

Now with these nearly 14 Fortnights from the Start of this Pandemic in India, we have a whole different Lockdown to face. This extremely crazy period has brought economic crisis, loss of jobs, loss of education (due to non affordability of many parents to put children to school online), Return Migration to villages (with Non affordability of house rents in the city), Extreme Anger Tantrums and Attention Deficits in children (due to continuous access to gadgets for a myriad of reasons), Domestic Violence (brought out by economic stress and constant in the face existence of couples), Child Abuse (due to unsafe environments as many children have been sent off to villages to let the parents work) and The Most Dreaded Work Depression.

Just the other day I had a 15 year old with suicidal ideations as the University he had applied for last year, didnt give Visas and this year he hasnt made it. A Lady who expected that the Lockdown will bring her family closer, but instead sunk into depression with inability to keep up with the household chores, 6 month baby and Husband locked in for 20 hours of the day in the room due to over burden from the IT companies. A child as young as 6, was cutting himself, due to severe mental illness rising from loneliness of being all day with himself with his both parents stuck in Work From Home Jobs! A man around 70 yrs age was looking lost and with just the eyes peeping out from the mask, it was difficult to read what was going on. I just felt he needed to talk and so when I asked He confessed that he doesn’t feel afresh anymore and doesn’t want to follow daily routine as there is nothing to look forward to. His kids all married stay away and this year there have been no visits and phone calls are also less as everyone is busy with a hectic schedule. His friends who used to walk together and play bridge together also avoid each other due to fear from this pandemic.

The mental and physical effects of this Pandemic will stay much after the Virus has left us. So Lets Unlock these emotions. Take precautions but pay visits. Do more frequent Video Calls. Sit apart and wear masks but ask your neighbors how they are? Let your Kid know that you know it is tough for them and arrange for some human company for the child. Let these years' targets fail or the bosses give you a negative report but don’t take  on yourself more than you or your family can handle.

For this I have decided to do this and urge you to do the same. 

1. Get up 30 minutes earlier. Meditate or deep breath or do chanting. You will feel you are doing nothing but the clarity that you will get will help you Pivot and take the right decision for you and your family. 

2. Exercise to feel good. It will open up the Road Blocks that cloud your brain. 

3. Ask your Neighbour, call, message or shout from the Window. Have atleast 5 human connections individually for each family member which is not your own. 

4.
While you Multitask with Home and Work and Kids and Spouses, Sing to yourself and Pat yourself daily saying "You have survived the Pandemic. This too shall pass!"

  Prioritise the Needs and decide to Pivot. Go Slow, Choose a comfortable path, Aim Appropriate. If we don’t have peace, With Or Without Covid we are anyways Doomed.

Spread a Little Love Around Peeps! Happy Holidays!