Life literally is like the Persian bucket, a traditional tool to draw water from a well. This rural pump would have simultaneously both the filled and the empty buckets that keep on rotating, drawing water, emptying it, going down the well to get filled again.
Life is like that cycle. Unhappy days chase happy moments away, and happy times are there again despite the sad period. Misery and felicity follow each other. Why, in a big hospital, the paediatric ward welcomes a new arrival on this stage called life, while in the geriatric ward, a super senior citizen may be breathing her last! That is life for you.
Such a chase is apparent even in the natural cycle. Winter, when it enters its last throes, seems to welcome the sun soon to enter its summer glory. May be, hence we have a pre-Sankranti festival like 'Bhogi' which seems to celebrate both, the sun about to enter a new phase on the 'Rathsaptami' and the earth almost ripe with the rabbi crops.
Undoubtedly, all our festivals are agriculture-based as our civilization, even today, despite the massive and superfast urbanisation and the comeuppance of the service sector, is agrarian. The sun hence has to be central to the festivals as the sun, what with the photosynthesis process, is central to trees, plants, crops.
The 'Bhogi' rituals hence celebrate the sun-kissed new produce from the farms. The 'Bhogi' special dishes satiate our tongue in such a way that the body can store the warmth necessary while bidding a good-bye to the lingering winter.
Well, this year, the winter seems to have wilted before it bloomed! Up North, the snow seems noteworthy by its absence, while central India is expecting rains! The climate crisis is indeed at the doorstep, darkening the festive spirit, disturbing the very natural cycle!
Pratima@ In the beginning is the end. But, given the climate changes now, hope in the end would be the beginning!
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