Feel the rainbow hues this Christmas!

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas to everyone dropping by!

This Christmas has been made special on Indiblogeshwaris. As secret santa, we were asked to review a blog and surprise that person with an honest feedback.

So, my dear readers, this festive season I have got you lots of colors from a very vibrant blog. Presenting, Myriadrainbowhues by Kajal.

I give you some reasons why you may want to click onto the link above and spend some time there:

v  Kajal’s passion for writing is palpable on the whole space and it is infectious. She is relatively new to the arena, having started in March this year but has come a really long way in terms of her writing and writing style

v  Varied forms of writing explored, from 55Fiction to short stories to 100 words

v  Sheer frequency of her writing and updating her blog will always keep you engaged and your mailbox every alternate day will bring you some new post, new story or new anecdote from her

v  There is something for everyone – drama, romance, humor, movie reviews (though she now has a separate blog for that too),slice of life and mostly everyday you and I

v  Some of her posts that I really liked and I recommend: her 13 parts story ‘Eye of a storm’, Beauty in imperfection, Peace within and The Light that Shines

I am sure hopping onto this rainbow will be something you will enjoy and this will make a good reading for a lazy winter Sunday afternoon!

Now, this secret santa’s special message for Kajal J

I remember during the last leg of A-Z challenge there was this female with the name Kajal and blog name, myriad rainbow hues who would comment regularly on my posts. J April got over and this day, it is so so good knowing you Kajal and I really have enjoyed your progression in writing.

I am absolutely amazed at your zeal to write and many a times I wonder how does she get time, juggling between work, family and writing religiously! I hope I can learn a thing or two from you on this!

I am going to give you big thumbs up on the way you have expanded your repertoire of working on different forms of writing, fiction and non-fiction, the way you creatively interpret the prompts and participate in the challenges week after week.

I did tell you this that I loved ‘Eye of a storm’. Didn’t I? Also, you must be complimented for the short stories. I think you are good at that.

My wishlist from your blog is to read about the mountains you grew up in. It would be good to visit those places through your eyes.

You have managed to create a space that is inviting, positive and easy on the eyes. And after a hard day at work, a reader wants to come back to that kind of space only. Kudos to that!

I hope I could do justice to the hard work that you have put in that space! It’s great to have known you and your blog, Kajal.

Wishing you and everyone, myriad rainbow hues this Christmas!

My God. My Faith.

Early this year, the family planned the trip to Vaishno Devi. Since I was booking the tickets, I had kept my monthly cycle in mind. But when does life go the way you want it to? Life shows its colors and suddenly the otherwise small things become important and jostle for footage in the larger picture!

Turned out, the periods got delayed and the dates to the trip got closer. I hit the panic button. I was worried, confused and hysterical. I asked friends about what I could do. And most of them were surprised about why I needed to do anything in the first place.With much mixed feelings, went to see a doctor to ask her for some medicines that could further delay the periods. She did give me some medicines and I bought those in a conked off state of mind. And then, I thought about it. I remember sitting down, looking at those medicines and thinking hard. Why do I need to take those? What if it has some side-effects? And most importantly, why would God want me to go through all this?

For the uninitiated, a woman is not supposed to enter the temples or religious places when she is in periods. Atleast, this is the belief I was brought up with. And honestly, I followed it to T, without actually questioning. Until that day. I did not want to offend anyone. But I wasn't ok with popping a pill. It was a natural occurrence and when God has given something, She must accept me with everything. I did not bring it on me. I had booked the tickets way in advance factoring all I could have at that time. To my surprise, my mom was against the pills too. That was all the support I needed. I chucked the pills and got ok with the whole idea. The idea of what will be, will be.

Same way, like many of us, there were some days of the week when I abstained from eating non-vegetarian food. Like Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. I followed it too without questioning. I knew a Friday was also for Goddess Durga, a Saturday too was sacred to some, then why limit my love and devotion to just three days? And why not all days same? Meat eating or non-meating. To wade away from this one needed a lot of explanation to my mother, who is a staunch vegetarian and doesn't get my love for meat! Some months back, I started following some diet restrictions, and eating a normal omelette in office canteen seemed a wise choice than ordering a burger on any given day of the week. And slowly, I let go of this one too.  

This was one big breakthrough in my relationship with God and my faith in Her. I will call myself religious. A God-loving person and not a God-fearing person. I have always had the most comfortable relationship with religion. I have not read scriptures, but I visit the temple in the house every morning. I don't know the mantras but I love the sound of aartis sifting in my ears around festivals and auspicious occasions. I am very very faithful to my religion and admit to not understanding other religions, but I am just comfortable with the diversity that our country offers. 

Religion to me is being comfortable in your faith, knowing that there is someone watching over you, you can go and ask Her for help in difficult times, thank Her when there is a happy news, know that in the end you are answerable to no one but Her, being friends with Her, let Her into your deepest secrets and you won't be disappointed and just taking Her as one of those support pillars that help you lead a happy life. And definitely not let it blind you, make you believe that only your faith is the best, that if you don't do a X thing, the Gods will be infuriated with you. No. I don't know any other faith, and I haven't read my vedas too, but I am very sure no religion teaches bad, no religion asks its followers to treat others badly and no religion professes violence. Every religion is about tolerance and love. 

I have learnt that just by making people around you happy, not hurting anyone knowingly, doing the right thing and yes, just having a heart is what my religion has taught me. Trust me, eating meat or skipping a prayer fade in comparison to the hurt we cause to the people we love. And no religion prescribes that.