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Ugadi festival is here - it is considered the commencement of a new year in a few religions in India, where we get a new Hindu calendar.

I have grown up listening to the below song on radio -

Yuga Yugadi kaledaru,

Ugadi marali barutide

Hosa varushake

Hosa harushava

Hosatu hosatu tarutide

The above loosely translates to - as the years go by, Ugadi keeps coming back, every year, a new happiness, bringing in newness

Earlier festivals meant buying new clothes, taking oil head baths as soon as we woke up, wearing the new clothes, chanting few shlokas, bowing to God, eating home cooked mom made food. And of course, it used to be a holiday for everyone.

As far as possible, we still try to do the same. But so many things have changed and will keep changing. It reminds me how my little one ensures we sit down on the floor in a circle and eat together as she absolutely loves that.

Yesterday we were listening to old Hindi songs and the mind immediately went back to those times. We always say the 'good old times' right? Why do we think about the past so much? In fact my little one also uses phrases like 'olden days', 'when I was a kid'. Are we so stuck in the past? Whether the past was good or bad, we still think about it. There may be nothing wrong in thinking about old memories, but the danger is it may stop us from seeing the present moment, as our mind can only hold a limited number of thoughts/memories. And when our mind is already full with so many old memories, where is the scope for new ones to enter. And even when the new memories enter, the new memories get compared to the old ones automatically. It is like a new child joining class 8 - The rest of the children have been together for the past 7 years, and now a new person joining them changes the equation for everyone.

We often hear our parents' generation say how they did things differently. We can easily catch ourselves almost everyday telling someone or our children how we grew up, how different everything was, how we didn't have things we get now etc. I am wondering if there is any use of talking/thinking about the past as it reminds us how life has changed. And we all know our first reaction to change! Though in theory we know change is good, we usually don't like accepting the change.

It is just some food for thought on this new day, let us live in the moment, not hold on to the past so tightly and enjoy everything alike.

I am tempted to re write the lyrics of the above song to -

Dina dina kaledaru,

Hosa dina marali barutide

Hosa belakige

Hosa harushava

Hosatu hosatu tarutide

which loosely translates to - as everyday goes by, a new day comes back with new light and new happiness, bringing newness (everyday).

A reminder to me to live in the present and not in the past