Happiness is: Togetherness

Religion was so beautiful when we were children.

I remember my father, as the head of the Receiving Camp; Transmission Division of Tata Power Company , guided by a Poojaari of course, inaugurating the company-hosted Ganeshotsav Poojas.
And Mummy joining the women of our housing colony in making the Diwali snacks.... chaklis, laddoos, chivda, karanjis... that everyone, specially  we children hogged on without discrimination ...

There used to be another vibrant all-women event called Haldi Kumkum....
For the collective celebration in the colony, Mummy used to go shopping and participating with full vigour in preparing for the event... Incidentally a few of Haldi Kumkum gifts of that time are still there in the things Mummy has left behind ....

At another posting my parents used to host an Eid Party for the residents of our housing colony ...
Again, everyone would come together helping in preparing the snacks and meals for the evening.
There were no sniffing human noses back then...
Hence everyone joined in and enjoyed the cheerfulness in the truest humane spirit, forgetting the religious or even the rank hierarchy.

These were socially uplifting events as they brought people of all religions in happy and enthusiastic togetherness.

Religion remained beautiful and personal till quite some time later in life too as Christmas added more sweetness with cakes and doughnuts, while Navroz ensured a little differently prepared sevai coming from the neighbours.
And New Year was a grand celebration with elaborate dinner in the colony club followed by coffee and cake at midnight :-)

Diwali ensured brightness in the delicate light of the coolest clay diyas and Holi brought unlimited colour and fun and an unforgettable flavour of sipping Kashmiri chaai in a sun-bathed lawn of my friend.

Then, as one grew up and faced the so called "real world", religion became a much needed comforting companion, and a source of strength in difficult times.

So now when religions across the globe have gradually,  yet very visibly degraded to monstrous proportions, one feels like a lost soul in the deep dark and scary wilderness

Everyone seems to broadly agree that there is One God and He has sent from the Heaven to Earth a message of love and peace....
Why then is there so much conflict ?
Why is love and peace so scarcely visible?

Every relationship requires breathing space, and so is the case with various communities.
 If they have to co-exist  and  live peacefully with considerable amount of compassion for one another, there is a need for people to inculcate the habit of accepting and adapting to their surroundings , creating an atmosphere of openness and understanding coupled with some measure of tolerance... And "tolerance " comes about when there is love and mutual respect.

This Diwali, as I wish everyone prosperity, light, love and hope, I also pray for a new beginning that will bring in a mature enlightenment of the minds, hearts and souls in the real sense ...
Happy Diwali folks :-)

Life Is A Give & Receive Thing

"What you sow, so you reap"
This is something everyone has been told in whatever language they speak and whichever place they live. It is the most unambiguous, explicit and immutable truth of all life at least on this Earth.

My late father's closest friend , who was also a colleague , living in the same residential colony just two bungalows away , has lived his life never forgetting this principle.

He is a bachelor , seemingly forever content , and friendly.
Quite uniquely , his journey thus far has been a collage of relations where one group had till now remained largely unknown to another group of people in his life.

Hence it was quite an enriching experience meeting his various "fans" and admirers in his neighbourhood hospital room yesterday.

The hospital staff too loved him and cared for him like their own

He had been friends with them , gifting them chocolates on festivals much before he needed their services 

Another visitor was one of his brother's friend's brother, who, with a combination of affection and nostalgia told us that he used to visit them often , that is as and when he happened to go to their side of the town.

Uncle's habit of never mixing one set of relations with another, had ensured that we were meeting most of his relatives for the first time in such a long association.
They were fondly "complaining" that he never listens to anyone.

His best friends are children and he keeps his relation with them extremely strong , pleasant and unreserved.

He has till recently preferred to walk short distances , even from home to his office he walks in the morning. 

His life style is as flawless as can humanly be possible...
A true saadhu ... A true saint, who has not shunned the world , but very successfully shunned its temptations ...

He has silently, and surely , with immense patience , created an enviably respectful position for himself among the people he has met over his eighty plus years.

Retirement is not a word in his dictionary.

His simplicity , intelligence and diligence are remarkable. Hence it is heartening to encounter professionals , specially engineers at his workplace , who feel indebted to him for the contribution he has made to their skill and progress.

His office staff had informed us of his hospitalization and when we reached the hospital , we found them doing much of the running around for the medical investigations , arranging for blood and sitting with the family telling them how he has given each one of them a part of his life , how he has been there for them and how much he is admired by not just his present co-workers , but even those who have worked with him decades ago

Although Uncle's health is a matter of concern for all of us , it was a heart warming and spiritually uplifting experience to notice those bonds of selfless love which he has created over the years , now unfolding with so much affection , coming full circle , hugging and loving him back.

People like Uncle are one in tens of thousands , the aura of their purity and blissfulness keeps blessing countless lives as everyone who meets him absorbs at least a bit of his goodness and may pass it on to another quite unknowingly ... 

Thank You Uncle ... You are a treasure we cherish with all our heart and it is our good fortune to have spent our childhood in your lap ... 💝💝💝