Durga Puja. Check
Laxmi Puja. Check
Diwali. Oh my God! It’s almost there!
Need to plan something. Let’s have a grand party at home with crackers, cards and sinful delicacies. But hold on! The whole day will be spent on preparations and the next day cleaning and dusting the hangover props. Bad idea!
What about a long drive?
-The next day after Diwali, can’t take leave.
What about you?
-Sorry, can’t make it this time. You guys have fun!
Have fun? Are you kidding me? With whom am I supposed to have fun? But guysss, it’s DIWALI!!! I can’t afford to waste it like that! No way!
What’s the next big festival after Diwali? Christmas right?
What did you say? Jagaddhatri Puja? Oh, you have plans for that too? Unless you are from Chandannagar, who counts Jagaddhatri Puja as a festival! There my friend, you need to upgrade yourself. Every festival deserves to be celebrated.
Puja days have become a nightmare. You stuck more than you move. People in a hurry. South to North, they need to cover all the big, small pandals. Four days are not enough. Now, people start pandal hopping from Tritiya and it continues to Ekadoshi! Period!
Few months back, I was returning from office and stuck in the middle of the road. The 30mins distance took one and a half hours. Why? There were at least 8 pandals in 2kms. I hardly had any idea that it was the birth anniversary of Loknath Baba! I have always seen my mother worshiping him with his favourite white flower and sweets at home. But with loud music, pandal and plenty of free khichuri & alurdom I have never seen people celebrating the birthday of Loknath Baba! I offered my prayers to the birthday boy to get me an auto or something. He has a good reputation of rescuing people from all the trouble!
Now, look at the newspapers! Pages after pages, it’s all about the best deals to make Diwali special! Dhanteras ads are all over the TV screens! Commercialization touches new heights during festivals. Now 2mins for silence for those Bengalis who celebrate ‘Dhanteras!’
I ask, Why? Why are we celebrating all the festivals these days? Why are we craving for it? Why are we keen to expand the festivals like a rubber-band?
Festivals give reasons to rejoice. An urge to break free from the routine life. We all are schedulitized and desperately want something different. End of festivals freak us out. ‘You mean to say, it’s over? I need to get back to my life from tomorrow!’ It’s the same trauma felt at the end of weekends. I see people partying three days a week, still longing for a break! From what do we need break from? Don’t we love our day to day life?
I think there lies the problem. We have a lot to complain about our life. We don’t have a particular ambition or focus. Our goals changes. One after another we keep chasing. That’s good until you lose yourself. Every festival has a deep rooted connection with mythology, our childhood, some memories. My Diwali was all about reuniting with my cousins, large bags of crackers and invitations at friends’ places. We all have such good memories attached to every festival, 
right?
We all want to go back and touch them again to turn away for sometimes from the inevitable chaos in our lives! Through every festival we revive memories, reopen chapters that are left far behind. And the smell of memories, oh it’s still fresh!
Come, let’s celebrate life! Cheers!