Birthday Surprises

     I have a really weird theory. Ever since I stopped giving the juvenile birthday parties   the cake-cutting ritual   I watch out for day-spoilers, and specifically, birthday spoilers. They come in all sizes, sometimes singly, sometimes in hordes of hundreds. They can be nasty, and they *ouch* hurt.
     So, birthday spoilers are things, or events that always are out on my birthdays to spoil them. And ever since I turned 9, I've had at least one spoiler on each birthday. Sometimes, it's a small tiff. Sometimes, it's a fall-out with some friend. Yes, on a birthday. And sometimes, it is boredom, and at other times, it's mood swings.
     This birthday brought me all of them   gifts all right, but also fights, fall-outs, boredom, disappointment, bad news, mood swings. But good things are born from bad things, if one can and may categorise things and events as good or bad. I realised that one must live, not like creepers, forcing all of our burdens on someone else; or even like trees, accepting all the burden people around you try to share with you. That one must learn to say no, and that life's ours, to do what we may, with it.
     But the most important thing I realised is that I must live without guilt. And that does not mean living with pride. It is living devoid of guilt, avoiding conceit. And for the first time in who-knows-how-many-years, I empathise with Siddhartha Gautama. Maybe renunciation is not too bad an idea. 

Vishu A Happy Vishu!

     Yesterday was le jour de l'an. I don't know what today is, except that it is called Vishu. For us, it has little religious significance. But each year, we wake up early in the morning (read-way earlier than what early is defined as) and look into a mirror.

Meow! I get to live with all the gold. Fou, Shreya!

     Well, a mirror juxtaposed in such a manner as to reflect what is placed in front of it, to you   different things from different angles (well, that is easy-peasy). And the things kept in front of the mirror include almost everything ancient people might have thought essential, also holding in mind the fact that some essentials change over time, while some evolve. Like, there are fruits, jaggery, salt, flowers, and gold. Yeah, I don't think they used gold then, way back when this began. And there is money, another non-existent thing of the far-away past.

Dazzling  10 coins

A life filled with essentials

      Then you look into the mirror, see all you can, offer your prayers to those 'essentials' and (when you are I) go back to bed. When it is morning (like real morning, duh), you go see all the elders at home, and get money. Munnay, yeah, munnay. And today, I got, I don't know how much munnay (I'm guessing  27 ). And then I got an awesome summer hair-cut! Short-to-the-scalp. And am going to create another blog. Well, it's going to be a group-blog this time.
     And so, signing off, I wish tout le monde a fantastic Vishu, another day to bring a better tomorrow.

Home, Sweet Home

புத்தாண்டு  நல்வழுத்துக்கள்!

     For many Tamils, today is when the spiritual calendar begins. We   my family   twelve years ago, had begun a different journey this very day, had moved into this house. We had, consciously (our parents) and unconsciously (we, then-tots) taken up the onus of converting the confines of this brickwork-cement construction into home. Home.
     How comforting is that word? For once, the adage that the true value of things and people is known to only those who don't have them, would prove false. That is because there is no one in the world without a home. House-less, perhaps, but not homeless. For home is where the heart is. For some Rajput Rana/Rani, home is in the infinity of their palace. For a couch-surfer, the couch is home. For a beggar, the street, perhaps. Home is that place where you can rest when fatigued, cry when you need to break down, laugh your heart out for no reason, and lie on your back, thinking if the ceiling is the same you see each time.

  
     And so, we set out on a mission to keep home home. And while I know we're going to be successful, I realise my cousin is beginning a new life today, too   flying to the West, making a new nest, starting from scratch. And as we survived pretty well, we are sure, that she will win too.