Between two Diwalis

One of the rituals that we have followed since my memory goes back to is doing Diwali Pujan. My mother used to (she still does in Delhi, where she stays) do havan followed by saying a prayer that generally covered the welfare of all the nears and dears. We have continued with the ritual though I will openly confess that recitation of mantras from Vedas is quite difficult as some of the words are tongue twisters and pronouncing these words correctly is quite a challenge. After that, I try to have a heart to heart chat with God, seeking welfare of our closed ones!

As I prepare to engage in these rituals again on Diwali like always, a thought came to my mind to do stock taking of the events concerning me personally as also in general at large between the last and this Diwali and these can be summed up as under:

(1) My daughter sprang a surprise by adding one more member to her family within two years of her first child;

(2) There was a change of guard at the company I work for and the work has now become several times more challenging;

(3) My nephew was blessed with a daughter and this meant that there was addition of two new members – a boy born to my daughter and a girl born to my nephew;

(4) Modi came back to power after a thumping victory and immediately took some harsh decisions like abrogation of articles 370 and 35, surcharge on personal income tax, expectation of massive dividend from RBI. Towards the end of the year, however, some of the developments indicated that he may not be eternally invincible;

(5) The whole of the year saw our relationship with Pakistan hitting a new nadir. Pakistan’s intent to use nuke makes this part of the world extremely volatile;

(6) India disappointed by not winning the World Cup cricket, but the team continued its dominance in all forms of cricket. Apart from cricket, Dutee Chand, Hima Das, Mary Kom, PV Sindhu also became new national icons.

(7) Bollywood continued its good run, though it seemed that era of Khans was nearing its end. Amitabh dominated small screen with ads and KBC.

(8) The country stared at the prospects of worst ever draught with drying reservoirs, but the God blessed with bountiful rains;

(8) My brother-in-law was detected with a terminal stage cancer and though he lives on, his reasonably long life will be a miracle.

Diwali 2019 has come. Like always, I shall again pray for my family, nears and dears, friends, city, organisation, country, environment, rains and world peace. But these are only proposals that will disposed as per God’s willingness!