random thoughts...

merry christmas!!

Merry Christmas
I know im a bit late here.. but who cares.. its still Christmas season!!

Not quite Christmas for those on the coastal regions of south India… really really sad… to think a morning walk could go so wrong….

On the western coast though Christmas was great. Had relatives coming over…. Was in pune… Spent time doing nothing really… watched the others eat rum fruit cake and marzipan and date rolls and kalkals and karanjis (or as the pau’s wud say.. newries!!) and…. Yummm….. please remind me why did I plan to abstain from Christmas sweets? ;o)
Went for midnight mass in biting cold, forgot to carry a shawl along as can be expected of me. And after freezing in our seats for 2 hrs, way past our (my) bedtime, at the end of mass they serve coffee and cake.. duh… if u want people to be attentive the coffee should be served before mass!

Didn’t really have a tree this time coz we reached only on the 24th.. no crib either…honestly its not like we didn’t have the time… just that ive become really lazy and now I feel stupid for not having made it …. In fact my earliest and best memories of Christmas are those of building the crib. I remember very clearly this crib we used to make when we were in our old house… carefully selected round pebbles were arranged in this quarter of a sphere shape…. It was quite a job coz it was rather intricate work… ofcourse I wasn’t allowed to touch it… at that time we had a lot of arbit people around the house with a talent for craft... my responsibility was putting the baby Jesus in the crib when we came back from mass… that was a time when plastic christmas trees weren’t really even there…. Atleast not that I knew of.. but plants were aplenty and so a random potted plant- one that had grown healthily through the year and was relatively taller was placed near the crib and adorned with tinsel and the star.. santa too was an integral part of Christmas (until we discovered a bit too early that he didn’t exist…) the fireplace was substituted by window grilles (easy access for santa) and stockings were substituted by large plastic bags (our santa lists were pretty long!) I even remember writing my letter to santa claus on stationery with a picture of mother mary printed on it... you know so that santa would be extra impressed! ;o)
Being in a convent school… Christmas also meant the nativity play. I started off as a shepherd in class 1. by class 10 I had graduated to santa claus myself!! (Stop laughing.. I wasn’t even all that fat then for that matter.. just that no one in class was willing to be santa … I mean…which 15 yr old girl will want to be santa claus? Especially when the alternative is to either be an angel or sing in the choir wearing a pretty plaid skirt)… though I should mention that (ahem!) my santa act was quite a hit and won us first prize! (bribed the judges and the audience with ‘real’ chocolates….. unlike the newspapers bundled into a red sack made to look like its full of presents…. For that matter even the 3 kings came to see the Christ child with empty boxes, though they were wrapped in colourful paper!!)
Things are not the same anymore…. Adult life has squeezed the enthusiasm out of me (cant believe I called myself an adult!) but christmas is still christmas and it will always hold that special magic!
I don’t really intend to get senti and all that but I honestly feel fortunate for having had a rather wonderful childhood filled with so many wonderful memories. In fact I think the very reason for having so much tradition surrounding such occasions is to create memories that will last a long long time. I used to find it strange that our family celebrates diwali and the rest with equal enthusiasm. Now I know its coz this is the stuff memories are made of. Makes no difference where you come from or wut faith you belong to.. ultimately its all about sharing joy and wishing others well.. its about brother hood and love and a celebration of our differences!!


p.s. on a very different note... CAT didnt turn out so bad (though maths was a disaster!!) even managed one call... ;o) indore
bye

posted by deepti @ 12:40 am