Home & alone. What a bounty!

I bet there are many like me living in this perpetual dilemma - how to get a work & personal life balance. My moronic corporate existence hits every now & then. On rare occasions when I am alone at home during the day time (usually I am night owl, a working women with 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, six days a week job), I sit on my favorite sofa cum chair and ponder about life. It is during those blank, empty hours that thoughts for this blog pour out of my tired mind. Rest of the time, for about 10 hours a day life simply passes by. Me is caught in a time machine called "Office". Start of the day to end of the day, start of the week to end of the week, cut off from the outside world by sound proof glass panes, the weather changes!!! But everything right from the decor to the temperature, to the light remains unchanged in my sophisticated air-conditioned prison.

Sitting in the favorite corner of my house, the silence and solitude has a soothing effect on me. Is it all really worth it? Outside the shadows are changing shape, the Sun goes up ans then down, the Stars appear and disappear......My body has forgotten the warmth of the summer Sun. Alone at home, I sit silent and still for hours. Coming to terms with what I am loosing. Day after day. Reflecting. Nostalgia takes over. Childhood memories of seasons, associations surface. Sounds and smells of summer spent with cousins and friends. Winter chill waiting for Diwali sweets and the wet rains or monsoons in Mumbai - time for a fresh new semester at the School.

Coming back to where I started from, the merits of a simple, uncomplicated life, non corporate life. On rare days when I am alone at home, I listen to the crow outside my window, children laughing and playing, honking of autorickshaws, a loud thuk thuk(bang bang) of hammer (somewhere close there is a carpenter working) It is all music to my ears.

No cribs. It is not as bad. I like my work. And my office is a good place. People are kind to each other. May be being away from home makes me appreciate the otherwise mundane sounds of the crow and the carpenter!!!

Shubh Deepavali

Deepavali is an Indian festival, celebrated by the Hindu's. It is also extremely popular as the festival of lights all over the Asian sub-continent. According to the Hindu calendar, Deepavali falls on Kartik Amavasya usually in October or November. It symbolises the victory of good over bad. According to Hindu Mythology, Lord Ram and his wife Sita returned home after 14 years of exile.

Deepavali means loads of activities which start almost a month before. It is a good time for all the families to clean their homes, plan for the sweets, clothes and other shopping!!!

On Deepavali day, all are decked in new clothes and there is a lot of excitement in the air. Night time is for lighting the oil lamps, candles, bursting crackers and the traditional Lakshmi Puja followed by a round of gambling (it is considered auspicious). I particularly like decorating the main entrance of my house with colourful Rangloi made of flowers and dry colours.

People say that things change as we grow old. But for me the excitement, enthusiasm and fun during Deepavali has remained unchanged. I eagerly look forward to it every year and feel the blues when Deepavali is over. It suddenly feels like...ohhh ...one more long year to wait for the next Deepavali!!!! Wishing everyone a fun-filled, happy and prosperous Diwali.