Happiness is: Togetherness

Religion was so beautiful when we were children.

I remember my father, as the head of the Receiving Camp; Transmission Division of Tata Power Company , guided by a Poojaari of course, inaugurating the company-hosted Ganeshotsav Poojas.
And Mummy joining the women of our housing colony in making the Diwali snacks.... chaklis, laddoos, chivda, karanjis... that everyone, specially  we children hogged on without discrimination ...

There used to be another vibrant all-women event called Haldi Kumkum....
For the collective celebration in the colony, Mummy used to go shopping and participating with full vigour in preparing for the event... Incidentally a few of Haldi Kumkum gifts of that time are still there in the things Mummy has left behind ....

At another posting my parents used to host an Eid Party for the residents of our housing colony ...
Again, everyone would come together helping in preparing the snacks and meals for the evening.
There were no sniffing human noses back then...
Hence everyone joined in and enjoyed the cheerfulness in the truest humane spirit, forgetting the religious or even the rank hierarchy.

These were socially uplifting events as they brought people of all religions in happy and enthusiastic togetherness.

Religion remained beautiful and personal till quite some time later in life too as Christmas added more sweetness with cakes and doughnuts, while Navroz ensured a little differently prepared sevai coming from the neighbours.
And New Year was a grand celebration with elaborate dinner in the colony club followed by coffee and cake at midnight :-)

Diwali ensured brightness in the delicate light of the coolest clay diyas and Holi brought unlimited colour and fun and an unforgettable flavour of sipping Kashmiri chaai in a sun-bathed lawn of my friend.

Then, as one grew up and faced the so called "real world", religion became a much needed comforting companion, and a source of strength in difficult times.

So now when religions across the globe have gradually,  yet very visibly degraded to monstrous proportions, one feels like a lost soul in the deep dark and scary wilderness

Everyone seems to broadly agree that there is One God and He has sent from the Heaven to Earth a message of love and peace....
Why then is there so much conflict ?
Why is love and peace so scarcely visible?

Every relationship requires breathing space, and so is the case with various communities.
 If they have to co-exist  and  live peacefully with considerable amount of compassion for one another, there is a need for people to inculcate the habit of accepting and adapting to their surroundings , creating an atmosphere of openness and understanding coupled with some measure of tolerance... And "tolerance " comes about when there is love and mutual respect.

This Diwali, as I wish everyone prosperity, light, love and hope, I also pray for a new beginning that will bring in a mature enlightenment of the minds, hearts and souls in the real sense ...
Happy Diwali folks :-)