HALDI KUMKUM
Every religious ritual or social custom has a meaningful origin behind
it. After hundreds and hundreds of years, when we follow a ritual or a custom,
we, generally, forget the meaning behind the ritual… We just follow, often, for
fun and, often, for fear (what will people think if we don’t follow it?”).
Like, we Christians light candles before we
pray at home or church… whether it is in a pitch-dark night or in a broad daylight…
Like the priest who bends down on Holy
Thursday to wash the feet of the ‘twelve disciples’…
Why were the candles lit in the early days
of Christianity? Because, Apostles and Christ’s early followers were being
persecuted by Roman authorities. So, they had to hide in dark caves and light candles
while praying…
And, today?
Jesus, the Master, just bent down and washed
the feet of his disciples… to show them the way to become the greatest of all is
by becoming smallest of all… It was a spontaneous, spiritual gesture about
humility, reverence and gratitude… and to ‘recreate’ that, we need such a spontaneous
ambiance… the situation, which I believe, everyday life offers all of us… all the
times… We do not have to wait for a ‘Holy Thursday’ to ‘perform’ it… We do not
need a ceremony around it… We just need to take its essence in our everyday
life… We need to follow Christ, imitate Him on a day-to-day basis.
Do we do that?
We do rituals… and, we think, we follow
Jesus!
Some thirty-five years ago, a young student of mine, came all the way
from Pune to offer me a ‘dry leaf’ on the Dussehra day. I did not know the
significance of the gesture and sincerely asked him what it meant. He was a
young man, but did know what the significance was. He has remained one of my good friends
over all these years…
What else matters in my life… Gold, wealth,
fame and power… who cares?
It is a season of ‘Haldi Kumkum’, here in Maharashtra. My wife was
invited by a couple of her friends to their homes for observing this custom.
Mrs. Patil, my wife’s friend Nilima’s mother-in-law, explained to my wife its
significance… According to Mrs. Patil, it was in order to acquaint a newly-arrived
bride with other married women who lived in the vicinity… That gave the new
bride a chance to take a break from her otherwise hectic routine, make new
friends, and enhance the quality of life…
But, now?
“You ladies are already ‘thick’ friends,” I
teased my wife, yesterday after she returned from another friend Swati’s Haldi
Kumkum, “What did you all do there?”
“We enjoyed,” my wife said, showing me her
return gift and offering me the snacks.
I loved that… “We enjoyed!”
What else does matter in life? Why so serious?
Why so many questions like: Why only leaves of Sonpatta tree and not the leaves
of Cashew tree, or why Haldi and Kumkum and not Salt and Pepper?
“Search for the meaning,” another friend
put me in my place, yesterday, “You will find it.”
I think, if you have ‘enjoyed it’, you have
already ‘found’ it!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Sheetal Bandare (Via Internet)
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