Today is the first day of shardiya navratri and my mobile is bursting at its seams with messages that started yesterday itself on the day of Mahalaya.
The occasion took me down the memory lane in my childhood to remember the celebration in Delhi. My subsequent stays in Kolkata and now of course in Mumbai exposed me to an altogether different experience of Navratri – Durga Puja pandals and pandal hopping and garbha and dandiya along with colours of Navratri! All the experiences have been unique, but as I mentioned in one of my earlier writings, as we grow older, nostalgia of yore overwhelms all the other experiences, including the more recent and current. I turn to pen a few memories of my childhood Navratri celebrations in a verse in Hindi that reads:
दशहरे की वो छुट्टियाँ
रामलीला की वो रातें,
विशालकाय रावण का दहन
और लौटते समय गरमा-गरम जलेबी खाना!
मीठी ठंड की वो दस्तक
शॉल में मारी वो दुबकी,
गर्म मूंगफली का स्वाद
और मिट्टी के कुल्हड़ की चाय की चुस्की!
न ठंड में जाने से लगती थी सर्दी
न जलेबी खाने से बढ़ती थी शुगर,
दस दिन शारदीय नवरात्रि के बीत जाते थे
ऐसे ही ख़ुशियों के समुद्र में डूब कर!!
Happy Navratri! Let this pious period bring peace and prosperity to all, our country and this world.
