What Durga puja meant to us as children...

As I try to remember what Puja meant to me when I was a child, so many things come to my mind and I don't know where to start! Puja meant school holidays to start with, Puja meant shoping with parents, it meant what gifts u received and how many sets of dresses we got. Puja meant visiting friends and seeing theirs too and if they had few more than you, hoping that some aunt or some cousin might just gift you another one. Puja meant praying to the rain gods for bright sunny days. On Shoshti, it meant baba taking us to the pandal and buying some gift from the nearby shop. PUja also meant the first time you learnt to apply nail polish or trying to learn to wear heels.Puja meant some pocket money every puja day - 10 from ma and 10 from baba; spending 10 and saving 10. Puja meant the ghoognis and the tetul aachars...oh how it makes me smile now :-) Puja meant some khichuris too but I hated the queue and so bhai use to go and get some home! It meant khichuri in the mission on Saptami. Puja afternoons were spent with parents, pandal hopping and on Navami, it meant chow mein at Eee Cee or wherever! Puja evenings were meant for friends, reserving seats for them and taking turns in having our dinner and spending the rest of the time watching the cultural programmes. Navami nights use to be orchestra night and my personal fav was a band called 'Yuva'. We returned in the wee hours of the morning to steal sleep for a few hours and then again to the Pandal with our books and pens on Dashami. Puja also meant some Puja - whether it was rushing to be part of the first Anjali batch and laughing when the main Pandit called out 'Bolun....jayanti....' or watching the evening 'Aarti' competitions. And then the sad part to watch it all end and say ...'till another year', following the crowd as far we could go and sometimes with moist eyes. I think I have been to Polo just once for the immersion.And finally helping ma with  the coconut ladoos and waiting for the Aparajitas in the evening. Then say, well it's not the end - Diwali and bhai foota to follow!

Madness as they call it...Feelings as I call it

I stand by the window and watch the moving world
I stand by the window and watch the halted world
I see the sun that shines bright, but I can't feel the warmth
I am trapped within some closed walls
From the window I feel like the winter's here
The sun rays fall but it has no strength to drive my cold away
I feel the wintry winds and I want to step in there,
Oh not here but a little there, a little sunny space is all that I care
Step in where the sun rays might be a little strong
But no I am within some closed walls, and I am cold
The sun rays are there but I am still cold
I know if I just stepped out, I will feel the heat...
The summer heat at it's peak
But from within my closed walls, I feel that winter's near
And me chasing a bit of the sun, here and there

The flowers in our Shillong home

Most of these flowers have been clicked by my brother and planted by my father. I might have randomly clicked a couple but these always manage to remind me of our home and how hard we all tried to make the flowers bloom and more importantly save these from the morning people who came around to pick flowers for the daily Puja. I once remember running after someone after I had discovered that he/she had come to pick the flowers from our garden. He was just too fast and disappeared even before I started to chase.

Love this bunch? Don't you? Even I do. But somehow time and fate has brought us away from all these. And we can enjoy the greenery and the freshness just once a year during our annual visits. And here in Delhi, with so little space around us, we long for these colours.

Much as love these Dahlias, I used to be scared about the caterpillars :-) I remember how we traded tubers, so we could have that variety in our garden.

I don't know what we call these but I sure love its colours.

This one is a rare hibiscus colour. And I simply love the softness that surrounds it.

And this is a delight, ain't it?