Are you going Green this Shrawan?

Today is Shrawane Sankranti. Sankranti, as far as I know, is the beginning of a month. So it's the first day of the month of Shrawan. When I was on my way to work this morning, I saw women with green bangles and lots of Mehendi already. So it's the beginning of this wave also. See, my family is as religious as it is ritualistic - which is not very much, on both accounts. My Mom used to observe fastings till she couldn't do it anymore because of Gastritis. And her fastings used to be limited to not eating meat, or practically anything except fruit, and then roti and curd, may be after sunset. This fasting used to be a weekly business - every Tuesday, to be precise (that means Lord Ganesh). And then there was Teej. Like I've said, my family has never really adhered to rituals very much. By rituals, I mean the kind of practices that are all too common among strict Brahmins, or even some Newars. So during Teej, despite of what was common during the festival period, my Mom would not go to her Maita (prolly cause her Maita was so far) Anyways, so even when we did start to be fascinated by these Teej fastings(rumor had it that if you did not eat or drink anything for the whole of that particular day, you would end up with a prince charming), our Teej fastings hardly ever made it out of just abstaining from food and drinks. What fools we were. As if letting your intestines twist with hunger and thirst for 24 hours was going to do any better job on changing(or shaping) one's fate. A strict Hindu might say we ought to have visited temples and did Pujas. At that, I'll just shrug my shoulder and tell them, leave the poor kids alone; they're keeping faith on the unkown. People have their way of showing belief. If the God up above (if that's she/he/it is) really cares, then they will provide for us anyhow. Teej is a festival of the color Red. Women clad in Red Saris can be seen all over Nepal. It's like a flood of rose has been unleashed. Dancing is one of the "things" too. But of course, I never even bothered with these formalities. No red saris, no dancing. Plain strict dieting (and obviously eating giant morsels at the stroke of midnight).

Coming back to the month of Shrawan (if you are wondering what my motive behind this blog is, lemme tell you straight that I intend to tell on my family's, and hence my unritualistic-ness *I dare you to believe me*), I see women adorned with green churas and mehendis. Shrawan is said to be a holy month. So every Monday, people observe fastings, especially women. They do not eat meat for the whole of this month (piece of cake for me, since I am a vegetarian) and do a lot of pujas. They worship Shiva mostly, since he is said to be able to fulfill your wish for good husbands (or so I think I heard somewhere) and married women get to give lengths to the lives of their husbands. I will not say I have not been part of this madness ever before. I have bought dozens of green churas and cones of mehendis. There's always a time in early life when you want to test it all and become a part of the grownups. And eventually you grow up and outlive your desire to be among the know-alls. At least that has been the case for me. No green churas and no mehendis anymore. But I don't say it's bad or anything. In fact, I have no say at all in this. I neither approve nor disapprove this phenomenon. I have already mentioned that people have their way of showing their belief and some may just have been showing their ability to blend with the crowd. Either way, we cannot judge the way people behave. Not when we do not really know their significance to them. If we have our reason for our not-so-religiousness then they might also have their reasons for being quite the opposite.