New

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

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

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

The old leaves look sooooo beautiful...

but..

they have to fall..

so that new leaves can grow

and flower

and make them look even more beautiful than before

Old and New

In the middle of old and new 😂 

 

Old/New/Real/Illusion?

Shedding

 There are many trees I can see from my balcony. The branches of one tree almost touches my balcony grill. A few weeks ago the tree shed all the leaves - every single one of them - and they looked totally bare, with just the branches. And without me realizing, light green dots started forming, which has now turned into a beautiful freshhhhh green painting view from the door. 

I was standing in the balcony and drinking my coffee this evening, and the freshness of the leaves was almost contagious. The shedding of old leaves and the way new leaves sprung up really shook me up. I am not exaggerating when I say that I see a green wall everytime I pass my balcony door. The green is forcing me to think if we humans are the only species who struggle to shed! 

Shedding fears, shedding fights, shedding memories, shedding arguments, shedding guilts, the list goes on.

This morning, after I woke up, I thought for a second about my previous evening, which was a bit heavy and told myself that today was a new day, a new morning. And that one sentence helped me forget my last evening with ease. So, looks like there is hope for the humanity right? 😀 If I can, anyone can. So I was happy to continue my day with freshness.

A man's original nature is this resilience - the shedding of old and the birth of new. That is the reason children are super resilient. You scold a child, and the next minute the child will forget the scolding and hug you. But as we grow older, we get into this illusion that we have to store everything FOREVER, not forget anything, carry/collect/accumulate. Imagine the burden of carrying so many things! Life would be so light if we released all the things we  carry all the time. 

My kids and I keep reminding each other about snake skin - snakes shed skin frequently and new skin grows.  Let us aim for a feather light life 😊

After shedding, new leaves growing!

After all the leaves fell, orange flowers started blooming

New rangoli everyday

A new day

New view everyday

Being able to do suryanamaskara seeing the sun

Freshness is so contagious right?

Rain

Practise

Shedding the old... 

...and embracing the new

Colourful

 After a colourful busy week, I have a holiday today. Though I had planned to start my day with a walk, I slept through and woke up late. Well, ideally I should have just relaxed and enjoyed my free time, but as usual it didn't come naturally to me. Struggled to relax, but a quick outing with mom and eating chats boosted my mood 😁. 

We had a colourful week as we celebrated Holi throughout the week - everyday starting with everyone wearing the same colour and having singing and poetry assemblies. 

It has been a long year with a lot of activities and we are reaching our academic year end. With the heat combination, year ends can be exhausting. The first day being green, I had decided to start off the week by wearing a saree. And eventually I wore a saree every day of the week. Though exhausting, it was a joyful experience, and a record in itself for me, as I used to be the most comfortable in track pants and loose t-shirts. 

The reason for this post is to just make me realize that even though life can be grey many times, it is in my hands to colour it. It just depends if I want to colour it and if I choose to colour it. 

Colour is nature, colour is default, colour is natural. Everything is colourful, nature is full of colours! 

Everytime someone asks me about my favourite colour, I always end up saying that I love all the colours. A poem written by Ayyappa Paniker called "I can't help blossoming" has stayed with me ever since I heard it this week. I am not able to find the full poem, but it starts like this: 

I can't stop blossoming

Am I not the golden cassia?

Isn't it the Vishu season?

I can't stop blossoming

It was an apt reminder to myself that the true nature of anyone was to continue to blossom.There is no way each and everyone and everything in nature does not blossom! Blossoming is the true nature of life, the true essence of life. The only truth is that few of us realize the blossoming and few of us don't realize! 

Let us try and paint our lives and lead a colourful life

Making Chocolate at home with kids

Green, Purple, White, Pink, Red

A truly colourful week in all senses - seeing everyone dressed in the same colour, playing Holi with colours, dancing to colourful tunes, playing with water colours at home, having fun with children and finally running in a saree with children cheering for me 😝 (this was a bonus) - loved every moment! 

A quote I love:

At the end of the day

Your feet should be dirty

Your hair should be messy

And your eyes sparkling

Everyday

 

I stopped myself from writing 'Happy Women's Day' as I felt that it doesn't matter who it is we are celebrating, everyone deserves celebration - man, woman, child - and we can only celebrate others when we are already celebrating ourselves. This doesn't mean we become egoistic or feel that we are greater than everyone else. It only means we are great, and everyone else is also great. 

Celebration is important, but we need to be mindful about celebrating everything. Celebrating just one day, or just one moment doesn't help anyone in any way. Celebrating every moment (if possible) makes life feel like a gentle breeze. What does it even mean to celebrate every moment? One may think that it is insane to celebrate everything. The point I am trying to make is when we make an attempt to celebrate everything, we tend to become watchful of every thought and as a result live in the moment. So everyday becomes a pleasant day. 

Celebrating every mistake (if we want to call them mistakes), celebrating every failure (if we want to name them as failures), acknowledging every pain (yes!) - helps us in treating everything alike, in a neutral way. Which in turn helps in dealing with everything life gives us merrily 😊

Madly in love with the colours of nature!

Had to push myself to do something I love 🙆, but was able to, so cheers to me 😛