Diwali Gifts and What They Mean

Every Indian must relish that joy one feels when a guest (expected or unexpected) drops in during the Diwali holidays and brings with them that wondrous mystery of the gift they are carrying. Sometimes,you must have caught yourself prying the wrapped gift with laser-sharp eyes, trying to see through the paper.

I seriously don't know about others, but I certainly have felt it myself. 

That short-lived joy when you find out that it's either a bed sheet, or some kind of utensil and the eternal joy when there is some truly heavenly mithai and a box of Lotte Choco Pie, makes you want to know what's in that attractively dressed mystery object. Yum.

However, seeing as how much thought goes into giving the gift to someone, the mental labour ends up as nothing when your gift is usually passed on to someone else eventually. It's true that a few of the gifts are kept by us, but more than half end up in another party's hands. 

Not that I hate it. I think it's fascinating. 

I know someone who swore that they received the gift they had given to someone back through somebody else. Unexpected, eh? No doubt it's the constant circulation of gifts taking place during the season. 

It's not useless, nonetheless.

Isn't this what binds us all together? In today's times, when people rarely visit each other, Diwali provides a good reason for meeting up with someone with a gift in your hand. It is the festival of lights, still providing a way to tie us all together.

And because of all these family dramas, mysteries covering presents, and all other possible things you get to see that you never experience during ordinary times, I truly love Diwali.

And, by the way, Happy Diwali!

Eternal Thoughts

Here we are, yet again, stuck in this cycle of ups and downs and peaks and valleys and ebbs and flows, a cycle which is unavoidable and loss is inevitable. In other words, we are paddling the cycle called Life.

For me, Life is about bringing out and expressing the best in you and the worst in you, learning from it and transforming it into a reason to live for. That you, alone, are capable of so much and there's so much left to do - the end of our actions never comes. The Universe may end some day but a little of us will still be there, floating perhaps as a tiny particle in the abyss. For we are eternal.

A feeling of giving up after enduring a large amount of pain envelops you when you feel downtrodden, but that particular feeling is inside everyone, and isn't enough to make you feel bad or to make you think that Life is being unfair to you. A mountain may emerge in your path some day and the strongest are the ones who manage to scale it. Never give up, the wind will blow across your face and take away every sorrow in the end, passing you in the test.

We may change the world with our inventions and discoveries; we may earn money like never before, manage to gain popularity, but deep down, it's about the blood that's pumping across our veins and making us feel alive. Feel that blood flow in your temple and let it charge each and every part of your body, you'll feel alive, feel yourself, like never before.

Life is such a complex creation that it is beautiful in all sorts. How things in nature irrevocably follow the rules and break them too but the Universe just keeps moving on. Because in the end, everything has to move on. But, you don't go empty-handed, what you take with you is a vast set of ideas and ideologies that change you completely.

That's why you have to live every moment and appreciate it, accept that each one, each object has its own perfections and imperfections but those perfections and imperfections are so beautiful that you can't help but smile. 

Hope

And as she watched around her,
The water flooding the present,
She knew that wading out of it
Would mean approaching torment.

As for the waves, hard they clung
Onto her fearless feet
Which faced the brunt of the stones
Lashing beneath.

Long she tried, hard she fought
Against the raging sea.
One little hope holding on to her,
The waves will recede.
The waves will recede. 

A Night of Moonfaring

 That silver globe is the center-piece of the sequined veil that is the night-time sky. Emitting a glow composed of orange hues, it hangs over the dark green shadows, the trees, as if prophesying a divine intervention. The moon, stimulator of imagination. The moon, representative of hope. The moon, personification of beauty.

As I walk through the highly urbanized lanes of New Delhi, the moon suspended in the gigantic sky, I sense flashes and visions flowing through me, reminders of a place full of nature, full of stars and earth carved from natural processes. Although the moon highly contrasts with the buildings and streets and streetlights, it finds a place among them as a carrier of good. 

The full moon, visible from my place. Isn't it beautiful?

See that bright spot on the top? That's the Moon! 

It isn't visible that well due to the photo quality, so take a look yourself!

Today, the sky is donned by that beautiful full moon, the spirit which inspired me to lay down its praise. Looking at the moon, I envision the craters, the vast glow that is the sun, and the most beautiful of all, the breathtaking stars. A sight rarely seen on this Earth, the stars wink their eyes, twinkling, at the moon, at the whole universe. The stars provide an insight into the mysterious marvels of the universe, its uniqueness, and its infinity. 

As the moon slowly grows larger in my eyes, showcasing its royalty, a time comes when I'm lurched back into the present, and the dull sights of grey buildings strike my curious eyes.

Nature is, indeed, a beauty.