This Navratri we are not doing anything, a year we will not be participating in any auspicious occasion. But long before we heard about Navratri, we celebrated Basanti Puja in our very home.
And this time of the year Baba misses it for the most, last few years it was an annual trip to Kamakhya temple. And long before that the annual festivities at home.
And the four days meant a lot to the entire family. Ma Basanti is the keeper of our home, giver of our lives and protector in all seasons.
My mind is filled with memories of our home where the preparations would start to deck the Puja room, to get arrangements done for the Pujas and the aunties pouring in for helping Ma.
Arranging flowers and fruits, deciding the menu for the Bhog and attending to everyone who came home. We even had times when people who we did not invite turned up for the Puja.
And add to that our cousins, our games, having lunch together or saving some special Prasad for ourselves are all what will never come back. It's so so fresh in the memory.
Ma's role was wonderful, she did everything that was needed to. The quiet person that she was, she demonstrated such patience that only she and only she could handle these proceedings almost single handed. I sometimes would be angry at her for may be paying me a little less attention those days but now when I think about it, here was this lady who held on to family, culture without questioning.
I don't know how much of what she did we could give her back, surely never enough....but wherever she is today, and as they say the soul knows it all, may she know that she is missed.
And this time of the year Baba misses it for the most, last few years it was an annual trip to Kamakhya temple. And long before that the annual festivities at home.
And the four days meant a lot to the entire family. Ma Basanti is the keeper of our home, giver of our lives and protector in all seasons.
My mind is filled with memories of our home where the preparations would start to deck the Puja room, to get arrangements done for the Pujas and the aunties pouring in for helping Ma.
Arranging flowers and fruits, deciding the menu for the Bhog and attending to everyone who came home. We even had times when people who we did not invite turned up for the Puja.
And add to that our cousins, our games, having lunch together or saving some special Prasad for ourselves are all what will never come back. It's so so fresh in the memory.
Ma's role was wonderful, she did everything that was needed to. The quiet person that she was, she demonstrated such patience that only she and only she could handle these proceedings almost single handed. I sometimes would be angry at her for may be paying me a little less attention those days but now when I think about it, here was this lady who held on to family, culture without questioning.
I don't know how much of what she did we could give her back, surely never enough....but wherever she is today, and as they say the soul knows it all, may she know that she is missed.
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