Bursting the misconception

Diwali is a festival of lights. In nothern India, it is celebrated to commemorate return of Lord Ram to Ayodhya by lighting rows of clay lamps. Hence the name - Deepavali. 

After I moved to Southern India, I learned that Diwali is celebrated as the day that Lord Krishna defeated the Asura Narakasura. I was surprised because my younger self never realized that festivals may bear different meanings for different parts of India. 

• In western India the festival marks the day that Lord Vishnu, the Preserver (one of the main gods of the Hindu trinity) sent the demon King Bali to rule the nether world.[Source: National Geographic ]

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Well, India is a land of rich and diverse culture. Even though we are unaware of the reasons of celebrations in our neighboring states, these festivals bond us together. Still a question in my mind remains unanswered - When did Diwali become a festival of crackers? 

“The use of fireworks in the celebration of Diwali, which is so common in India now, must have come into existence after about 1400 AD, when gunpowder came to be used in Indian warfare,” stated late historian P K Gode in his account, “History of Fireworks in India between 1400 and 1900,” published in 1950.[Source: Indian Express ]

The use of fireworks has been prominent in north and central India, with southern states slowly adopting this tradition. Wow, so a relatively new adopted tradition has become synonym with the festival in recent times. 

In past few years, Government has tried to ban excessive use of firecrackers on and around Diwali without much success. This year many states atleast imposed some form of ban to reduce pollution which could worsen health of COVID19 patients. Despite of ban, many enthusiast burst crackers to keep their tradition alive. Many messages have been flooding in social media which relates the ban to being "anti-Hindu". To further explain the hurt feelings of these "special" Hindus, they ask Christians to not burn candles on Christmas. I have even come across a message that compares pollution created by burning a candle to that by a firecracker. To such religious people I have to say one thing - before cursing another religion, atleast first do a basic research or atleast google about their festivals. It would have been more appropriate if these social "media" workers would have demanded ban on Christmas carols or Christmas tree or even Christmas cake for a more just argument. There have been attacks on people in churches during their Christmas service in many cities in past years. I'm sure that not many are aware of these injustice as our media fails to put light on such real ground reports. Still the "true" Christians have failed to demand justice on social media by asking their Hindu counterparts to not attend pujas in temples or their home on Diwali. 

I have witnessed 4th of July celebration a few years ago. At first, the thought which crossed my mind was that I have seen these many crackers bursting together in Dussera celebrations in my city. And more in Diwali as the whole city show off their spending capacity on various crackers. But what I learned is that we all can enjoy crackers together than bursting individually which can somewhat reduce the pollution created in a day. Even if we are unable to believe that crackers cause air pollution, noise pollution is real. Remember how our pets react to these celebrations. Cracker noise throughout night is a nuance to infants, some young children, some elderlies and patients. Please be considerate to all. Our celebration should not be a trouble to others. Celebrate this festival by following the other old traditions - cleaning the house thoroughly, lighting clay lamps or decorating house with lights, putting rangoli at house entrance, preparing special sweets and snacks, visiting our friends and family and performing special prayers. 

I celebrated this Diwali by preparing sweet and snacks at home, wishing friends and family over phone and making diyas from flour. 

Happy Diwali! 

For the love of food

I have loved food all my life. The foodie gene comes from my family who enjoy trying new dishes and get satisfaction from every tasty meal. My mother is a great cook. So we always had access to yummy and a wide variety of recipes. But as a child, I never relished the thought of cooking. I have seen my mother mostly busy in kitchen. Though I enjoyed birthdays as we got to eat our favorite food, I used to feel bad for my mother who couldn't take rest even on her own birthday. I could only prepare tea, boil rice and make dal tadka till I left my house for higher studies.

The cooking lessons were rekindled when I started living independently after getting a job. I wished to marry a cook to satisfy my taste buds. 😁 However, I was secretly afraid of the question "what if my spouse also doesn't know how to cook?" In an attempt to become self-reliant, I learned basic cooking skill. Thankfully I did. My husband had only learned basics of using kitchen utensils by the time of our marriage. 

After marriage, cooking was no fun. Along with all the other household chores, it seemed a big deal to cook food for two. Nevertheless I continued it. A breakthrough in this journey came when I moved internationally for a work assignment. Cooking became a means of survival. And cooking only for self brought a sigh of relief. American kitchens are very different from traditional Indian kitchen. I was intrigued by the new tools and began experimenting. I also experimented with different ingredients and tried to prepare colourful meals. These effort paid off. After a few months, I officially started loving cooking. Here are some pictures of my earliest meals. 

After returning home, I tried to maintain the vigour by gifting myself new kitchen gadgets. I also started learning more(essential) Indian recipes. I made few changes to make my meals healthier. I began perfecting my dishes in accordance with the traditional taste n cooking methods. Here is the picture of my first bake in my OTG - biscuits or nankhatai. 

Over the past few years, I have come a long way in my journey of cooking. I love delicious meals and cooking bring me one step closer to it. It gives me pleasure when my daughter relishes a meal. It is soul-satisfying to devour a bite of food that I have been craving for. It is a moment of pride when my family ask for a dish which they saw on TV, for this shows their confidence on my cooking skills. 

Cook for your soul!! 

A new hobby

It is time to learn new hobbies. This pandemic has confined us all indoors. And this gives me a perfect reason to try out new skill. Many people ask me how do I manage time with a toddler and an infant. Being a new mom is tough, I have to juggle my tasks all day long. But some hobby helps me to keep my calm. It gives a good mean to channelize my thoughts and a sense of accomplishment when I finish a piece of work. 

Recently I tried my hands on sewing. I know basic stitching by hand as well on sewing machine. This time I pushed myself to go beyond the basics. Here comes my latest masterpiece. 😜😁

As it looks, it is not perfect, the skirt is not even symmetric. But for a beginner,  this looks quite a decent work. I cannot write a tutorial for this flawed skirt, but I can definitely share the tutorial which inspired me:

https://youtu.be/4hNDA5O-0hU

This skirt is made out of clothes that were already available at home. The shiny cloth has been with me for very long, it came with a saaree for making underskirt. This material is little difficult to stitch and needs another cloth underneath to be stitched along with it. I used one of my old dress for the purpose. Matching ribbon was also available (don't remember from where). The top silver belt is stitched from an old shirt. In short, I can easily call it a "best out of waste" project. 

This is my step towards sewing and has taught me so much. I wish to stitch more dresses in future. The best part of this activity was the smile it brought to my daughter. She absolutely loved it. She had wanted long skirt for some time and was happy to get one. 

Mission accomplished. 😄

Towards a new start

9 years ago I started this blog to pen my thoughts and make it reach larger audience. I believed that my thoughts can be revolutionary, they may inspire many. Back then, earning money through blogs and youtube videos were newer concepts and they definitely inspired me to start my own blog. Little did I realize that a revolution cannot be started with just a few posts. With the poor viewership, I became skeptical about monetary aspects as well. Nevertheless I got busy with my own life and forgot about my writing skills.

After so many years, I took a short break in my life to catch breath. It has been exihilarating to build a life for myself. Marriage, kids, job, home - all took priority and I think it is all good. Now that I get some free time I introspect on what I achieved and what I had left behind. I'm happy with what I have achieved till now. But there's this feeling that still my purpose on this earth is not served yet. I'm still not sure what is my calling. So, I have decided to revive my blog and start writing again. I wish to post regularly, if possible daily. I hope that this writing exercise can bring clarity in my own thoughts. This time I leave behind amateur greed and want to write just for myself. 

In India, we believe to make a start with some sweet. So here is a picture of an Indian sweet, jalebi, which I prepared. This is my favorite sweet. Though I didn't get good shapes, I'm glad that they were crisp and aptly sweet in my second attempt. Yes, I have been learning quite a few recipes recently and jalebi is one of them. Cooking is another hobby where I find solace. I will save the details for another post. :)

Here's to a new start!