In the beginning

 In the beginning of the Diwali festival is the Wasubaras. A very interesting ritual in a way! Traditionally, it is celebrated as a prayer to the cow and the calf.

Actually, a cow is always preyed on, both by the beasts of prey while she is grazing, and by that two legged beast known as a human being, some animal! Human beings exploit the cow and the calf in multiple ways from their birth to old age. It is hence some poetic justice that the cow and the calf are felicitated at least for one day in the year.

In our colony, enthusiasts celebrate it in a big way. I attend the pooja in my own way (I offer food to the cow and some money to the cowherd) without fail every year because it gives me the truly rare chance to observe a cow from very close quarters. 

How luminous and yet softly  patient and gentle n kind are the eyes of a cow and her calf! There is a limpid liquidity to her gaze. She is hyper sensitive, too. I  talk to her, touch her and the calf without fail every year.The unfamiliar touch gives them both the shivers, just like human beings, but she seems to prick her ears at the soft sound.

Then I remember the Birbal story of how he located the real cow, even when the statue looked like her every inch. How through such folk tales and such people's festivals, our lovingly nurtured childhood thus prepares  a bond between man and his much neglected universe around! We thus learn to align ourselves to the flora and fauna around us. May be, that is why we can say that Hinduism is more a way of life. 

In the beginning of every Diwali is Wasubaras, and that makes the festival of lights, hopefully it would not be rain-drenched and water-logged this year, more humane and compassionate. Long live Diwali!

Pratima@ Says Tuka, the flora and the fauna are our friends and relations, our kith and kin!