Hobbies: Food for soul

Let me start off by recalling what Picasso said "Every Child is an artist, The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

My love for blogs, or for that matter writing whatever I feel like started a long ago; I remember it confining to my journals. Later, a friend of mine started writing short stories; I enjoyed reading them, but I enjoyed writing even more. Then, I realised "Maybe this is what I was asked by The Almighty to do"; that did not mean I should give up whatever I do for a living and start writing. It can be a hobby, pursued right out of interest. I strongly believe it is only interest which gets the best out of us even today, otherwise Sylvester Stallone need not train, Saina Nehwal need not play shuttle anymore, Sachin should have given up years ago.. They did not.. Neither should you!

Getting back to hobbies, this can be weirdest, wackiest hobby; but I insist you pursue it even if the world tears you down with responsibilities. You have and you work for so many hours a day, end result: you get salary; and with salary you buy food, clothes, gifts and whatever you can afford. So, all this don`t go deep down -Your Soul. Soul is that entity which cannot understand rules, which believes in art and which makes you unique. Hobby can be a form of art which soothes you, which you enjoy doing and once you stop that you turn into a machine - turn on go.. turn off sleep!

So, your job gets you food for your body. Make sure you feed your soul, art, creativity is food for your soul. And without food soul will perish and all that remains is a corpse!

Continue being that artist you were.. And we both know you are one!

Festival Greetings!

It feels good to start off a blog on a festival.. because I have something nice to say and can start off on a positive note!

Onam ashamagal!

You all know the story of King Bali and Onam celebration started. So, I will skip that part. I got a little deep down when my friend said “Today`s Onam!”; it struck me somewhere, Why? Why do we celebrate festivals?

To answer that, I didn`t use Google; I rather started guessing.. Our Ancestors were clever and rather gifted with “Nostradamus” sight. They knew we would need a number to denote nothing they gave us 0. They knew we would have to travel, we were given the wheel. They knew we will need to look good, clothes, cosmetics (we still use the herbals soaps.. don`t we??).  They knew we need company to put up with us after a certain stage of life, marriage system knocked in (no debates on this please!).

To sum it up, in some way or the other a couple of things which help us who we are copyrighted to them. So, why festivals?. Yes, what do we usual do on a festival? We make sweets, feel happy, distribute joy along with sweets, meet long lost friends and relatives, and travel back to home town.  Maybe, this is exactly what they wanted us to do!

Our ancestors knew in future, this fellow being will be lost and just surviving not living. So, they wanted us to allot sometime for living our life. They knew that life wasn`t a checklist of acquaintances, to verify with and go on; even if is so, should be a counter of number of smiles you caused. They wanted us to spend some time living, with friends, laugh, eat sweets (despite your diet!).

I would rather be pragmatic about this, we can live every day; by that I don`t mean take off and eat sweets every day. It takes not only sweets and holidays to celebrate, rather a set of smile things which costs us nothing. A smile at your fellow co-workers, A thank you to your bus driver when you get down at your stop, A  pat on your friends` back when they are going through a bad day could mean a festival like feel-good factor to them and will work for you as well. For, life`s a celebration.. isn`t it?

The above were my views on the concept of Festival not just onam but every festival in existence, I would love to hear from you what festivals mean to you and how we can make everyday a festival and importantly live. For, we can make our ancestors feel that we are celebrating everyday of life!