Tola Toli Tales - Of how she trades

These are real life incidents, somewhat funny but true to the core. The characters are known, the names are very close to real and the incidents in random order
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So Toli comes home with a pair of bangles she says she bought for Rs 150. The bangles are loose and she can't use them. So she decides to sell them. She says someone tried bargaining at Rs 100 and that was the reason she didn't sell.

Now why would she want to sell it at a profit when the bangles are already old?

We hear another angle - another aunty used the same pair of bangles for a few days and did not want to pay. Since she was reminded about the price again and again, she returned it. So when it was brought it was actually third hand.

Now Toli is 70 plus, with nothing to worry about, no liabilities and she goes door to door to bargain on a pair of used bangles. All the best!

The Lights and Sounds of Twilight

Growing up in a family where rituals have been a routine, the significance of these have however been understood much later. One such ritual is the performance of the Sandhya Aarti along with the  lighting of the lamps and the blowing of the conch at twilight.

In most traditional Hindu families a lamp is lit in the Puja space during twilight as this is the time of transition and negative energies have greater power during this time. The lighting of the lamp is considered auspicious as it removes the negative energies.

As a child I found such joy when all the neighboring families blew the conches and the bells at twilight and the sound came reverberating through the blue and orange lights of dusk.  It is believed that evil spirits are chased away when the conch is blown. The sound of 'Om' emanates from the conch and  this is the sound of the universe and creation. Conches find special mention in the Mahabharata where the beginning and end of the day was marked by blowing it.

The blowing of the conch is also beneficial to health in several ways - it improves the respiratory system and is said to have removed blockages in the heart.

Modern lifestyle and working patterns and hours don't allow us the luxury of performing these rituals with discipline however the more we try to inculcate these rituals in our daily lives the more good it will do to our physical and mental well being.


Twilight is a time to pause, to stop and the day's activities, to relax, to meditate and pray...to let the lights and the sounds play.