As the curtain draws on Dasara 2008

The festive season of Dasara is about to set for the year 2008. It has brought a mixed bag of feelings for me this year, although the Universal Mother did manage to finally put things in proper perspective, for me.

I lost a paternal cousin to a car accident. A Low point. There's no replacing a wonderful sis' like her, in my life.

Death is such a mystery.

Sometimes life is snatched away due to a cruel twist of Fate. News has it that thousands of people are being killed on the grounds of being of a different Faith. Like Faith isn't Universal? Or like Love isn't Universally preached? Did anyone see the Face of God to validate that He is a Krishna, or a Jesus or Anyone Else? If God is an Abstract Quality, like many wise men have us know, then what's all the fuss about?

Sometimes people snatch their own lives as panic strikes. This is again news of an NRI who shot himself and the rest of his family, a couple of days ago. I wonder what really makes us people tick, deep inside? Most parents bring kids up with core values like being loving, compassionate, truthful. Along with these qualities, some also zealously drive the spirit of competition in an increasingly competitive world. But somewhere, deep down inside, the spiritual element is dormant. Perhaps that's what many parents tend to overlook. Success is lauded, but failure is frowned upon. However, in the wheel of Life, don't success and failure both have a place? We appreciate, and even cheer acrobatics in town circuses, but we never realize that Life has a goodish bit of acrobatics as well.

Life's a balancing act and we often fail to realize this. Perhaps that's what makes the sanest, brightest, smartest of people end their lives in a frenzy when the going gets hard. What's even worse is the fact that along with their own life, they take the lives of their children, who could have made it ultimately, given time and patience. A real Low point.

So I had mixed feelings this season. But that's not to say that I did not enjoy the rainbow of colors this season. The green mango leaves that lined the doorway, and the heavy bunches of flowers that came in kaleidoscopic hues. The rustle of silk saris and the clinking of gold bangles. Cardboard boxes lined with sweets that do the tango on the taste buds.

A sensual mela offered to celebrate the glory of Life, and of living.

Happy Dasara.