Winter and spring

I love festivals. During my childhood I used to celebrate every festival in Kadidal. With Ajji :). It is not that I believe all superstitious things. I just love that occasion where every family member will be present. Decorating pooja room, doing pooja with everyone, nice dishes, happiness. To me festival means all these things. But last year I found a new definition of festivals.

During my first year here (In IIT,Bombay) as rooms in hostel were very less they arranged few flats for girls. I was living in one flat. We four girls were there. Me, Carol, Soumya and Saroj. Last years winter of Mumbai was horrible. It was very cold. Inside IIT it is like forest and temperature is even less compared to other parts of Mumbai. We were literally fed up with that cold.

Then during third week of January one morning we were going for breakfast. Soumya said "look at the wind and sunlight. Saraswathi pooja is coming near and in few days holy will come". In our Karnataka we do Saraswathi pooja during Navarathri(Dasara). But Bengali's do it during January. This is the time when winter will slow down and gives way for spring. I was completely dumbstruck by her definition of festival. To me festival means a day that has been marked in calendar. But she don't need calendar. For her festival is something which is very close to nature.