Remember that essay that we used to write on the topic of favorite festival and the essay always started with the line “ India is a land of festivals”? Well, India indeed is a land of festivals. As a kid, festivals meant holidays, sweets and presents. Those were the days when we literally used to thank “India” for truly being a land of “festivals”.
And, of course, like every other kid, my favorite festival was also Diwali. I can still recount the ways in which we used to prepare for this festival of “light”. The preparation used to start 15-20 days before the festival. Just like anything else, the preparation was more fun than the actual celebration on the day of Diwali. Diwali meant painting the whole house, buying new clothes, buying sweets and crackers and many other things. Diwali really was the essence of all the festivals being celebrated in our country.
But that was Diwali of childhood. We changed and so changed the meaning of each and every festival for us. At least for people like me who had to move out of their hometowns early in life. Either because of studies or because of jobs. I have lost the count of how many festivals I had to celebrate away from my family. But that is the bitter truth of life that we had to swallow.
I feel lucky if I’m at my home for any festival. Now, festivals do not automatically mean all those beautiful things they used to mean during our childhood. Whether you are going to enjoy any “festival” as really a “festival” depends either on the phase your current project is in or on the schedule decided by your college administration. How dependent our life has become on others?
But I think that’s the way life is and it is up to us to find ways how to enjoy maximum of it. The important thing today is to be with your loved ones. So now, my definition of festivals has changed big time. A festival for me now is none from the list that I used to write in one of those essays. A festival for me is anytime of the year when I get to be in my hometown with my loved ones. A get together with family and friends is the best thing that I look forward to. And that is my way to say “Cheers” to the festival called “life". I wish that every one gets to celebrate this festival and then I’m sure that no one will ever miss any of those other festivals.
