Thursday, April 7, 2016

F: Festivities and following traditions

My parents was neither very religious nor did we strictly follow traditions around festivals. But they made sure we knew why each festival was celebrated and we had some small things that we'd do after a small pooja at home. As kids, we'd look forward to Diwali, Ganesh Chathurthi, Sankranthi and some other hindu festivals, for different reasons. It was the lights and fire crackers and oil-baths at Diwali, new clothes at some of the festivals, the 'yellu-bella' at Sankranthi and so on. And of course, the food associated with each one of them. Although mom never had the time or inclination to cook all the 'necessary' goodies, she either bought them or we'd eat them at a relative's place. Each festival brings back some very fond memories. 

When I moved to Singapore, although I missed being part of the celebrations at home, I never really missed any of the practices. And hence, I never made an effort to either follow them or to do anything remotely festive. Most of the times, I wouldn't even know when a festival came by unless ma explicitly mentioned it to me. After R came into the picture, he shared a similar attitude and things continued in pretty much the same way. Although we would attend Diwali parties and have fun, we never really did anything special for any of the festivals.

A few years later, Pickles came into the picture and suddenly things changed. Suddenly, I was my mom! I wanted to do things just so he would know what these little festivities mean. I wanted him to have fond memories just like I do, of every single festival. Whether he chooses to follow those little traditions or not, is a choice I would leave to him. But I want to make sure he has that choice. 

Why I mention this today is because tomorrow is Ugadi and I am here, looking forward to celebrating it with family. And I hope Pickles has fun too!

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