Passing the parcel!!

So, the holiday season that descended down upon us, has booked a return ticket….return ticket, as it has to come back in the coming September…. and  along with it will fade the joy, and in some cases, the dread of preparing, distributing and consuming sweets. 

Actually, here in India, it started with the advent of September and Ganesh Chaturthi and is now in the final stages, with “Holi” (festival of colours) marking the end of the festivities, at least for some months.

Nevertheless, coming back to the “culinary” pleasures related to the festivals…. When I was a kid, we used to prepare most items at home and then go to our neighbours’s and relatives’s place to offer them our wishes and the delicacies. So the number of items were less and had a personal touch to them, which somehow lent them a distinct flavour and taste…

Now-a-days, everything is readily available in the market and people don’t have the time or the patience required in cooking, nor do they wish to take the effort. So the best way is to wait for that sweet to make way into our houses from one neighbour’s place and then pass it on to the other one’s place…Sometimes with some added packaging, while at other times not even bothering to fix the tape on that open sweet box; which absolutely confirms that the box is the frontrunner for the “passing the parcel” game!! By the way, I have been the honorary member of this “opened-checked-not liked-passed on” recipient of hordes of items….from brownies to cakes;  from “jhumkas” to bangles, from bengali sweets to, but of course….The “Soan Papdi”!!!!

The most offended and molested sweet in this game is most certainly the “Soan Papdi”. One of the most available sweet in North India, God only knows the reason for it’s fate being sealed to that of a “free for all”. So much so, that it has become the focal point of memes and sort of an idiom in itself…

Some hilarious examples…
“Soan Papdi is like karma. You get, what you give”.

“Soan Papdi is the circular economy approach of Diwali”

“Haldiram sold only one box of Soan Papdi, still half of India received it as a Diwali gift”( Haldiram is a renowned sweets franchise)
And the memes and jokes go onnnnnn…..

The reason for this sweet; which by the way, I like for it’s flaky texture and sugary sweetness; being one of the most detested, yet talked about, is unknown… (when I say I like it, it absolutely doesn’t mean that my readers take it to heart and gift me boxes of it next Diwali!!) Maybe it is the case of easily and readily available…

Sometimes I think that the nature and fate of Soan Papdi is like a lot of people. Those, who are too nice, too easy to please, too ready to help and of a too sweet disposition for others to understand. They also are used like a football, kicked from one end of the ground to another; giving pleasure and mirth to others, but themselves getting bruised in that attempt.

Anyway, coming back to the “box of topic” in hand…
Why, how and when did we loose the personal touch?

Is it just due to laziness or have we lost that affection, that love for our close ones?

Has the area of close ones increased due to community living or have we become narrow minded, where only husband and kids come within the circle of our “own”, for whom we care to take the effort to please or take any effort at all?

Something to munch on, in place of that sugary delight, which will end up making my relations and feelings healthier, rather than sugar-bloated and coated!!!

Beatings of the Red Organ!

Valentine’s day is here again…and my feather brain flutters about, absolutely in sync with the squishy red ball, about which this day is all about…

Ernest Hemingway once asked, “For whom.the bells toll?”…My feather brain asks, “For whom the heart beats?”

The first flutter in the heart on seeing the tiny starfish hands and the silky bush on the head of the baby… The gushing of emotions, as if the heart would pop out of its confines with the first look into the tiny one’s eyes…

The wait to hug the mother, who has waited patiently over the years to see her baby turn into a responsible person and is now all set to take on the universe… to see the love glistening in her eyes and the words quivering on her mouth, while she is calmed down by her other half, who is as anxious to meet his offspring, yet can’t put it into words…

The long awaited meeting with a childhood friend, who went across the seven seas in an endeavour to conquer the material world, yet left behind millions of memories of trying to conquer the walls of the school, the branches of trees and the hearts of the opposite sex on campus. The eyes darting around the packed arrival lounge to get that glimpse for which the heart has yearned for years…

When the eyes fall on the beloved, the one for whom the heart beats most erratically and in a totally inexplicable and errant manner, for a moment it feels that the pulsing of the blood has stopped. The whole world freezes and the feeling of being elevated is electric.The heart thunders in the mouth and the brain goes in a sleep mode…

The squishy organ residing within the ribcage, which we all call heart, has a habit of beating wildly or slowing down infinitely in tandem with the thoughts flicking across the walnut having its home within the skull…

It can go berserk on beholding a full bloom, an intoxicating scent, a colourful bird, a majestic animal, lush green meadows, sparkling blue waters, snowy mountains or languid beaches…

It doesn’t wait for any type of signal or permission to beat languidly or to become giddy with joy. And strangely, the whole anatomy is totally attuned with this small organ…

The quiver of the lips, the sparkle of the eyes, the flaring of the nose, the curve of the lips, the colour of the cheeks, the fidget of the limbs…..all are fine tuned with this red beating ball…

The day to celebrate this beautiful emotion guided by the non-stop beating organ, should thus be celebrated for all those “heart-stopping”, “heart-warming”, “heart-rending”, “heart-wrenching” moments, perceived on seeing or feeling each of these beautiful emotions or persons….