Chaithought: 'Tis the merry season

saba1393
Dec 25, 2023
3 min read

Christmas comes with a boatload of nostalgia. You cannot escape the merriment, no matter who you are.

If December never ends...

Christmas, for me, is a seamless medley of three things: cold weather, holidays, and God.

Though not a fan of the cold weather, I always find special joy in eating hot food that tastes extra yummy and satisfies that little bit more. There is also no mode of relaxation that matches Blanket and Chill. Tummy and heart full after a delicious meal, you curl up inside a blanket or lay down in the sun to savour a little nap. Does it get any better?

If Christmas were a feeling, it would undoubtedly be joy. As a school kid, winter vacations were my favourite. The half-yearly exams were over. There were Christmas celebrations at my convent school, and there was the much-awaited chocolate distribution. And it wasn't just candies. It was a big Nestle chocolate bar, earlier blue, later red — cocoa and sugar heaven for kids. My hometown, Udaipur, got pretty chilly in December. My almost grown-up-like dreams would consist entirely of finishing every other possible work, bathing, eating, and even playing quickly, so I could go to the terrace with my rug and a book and lay down in the sun reading. I would fall asleep at some point only to be woken up by the nippiness in the evening air. There would be amla candies left to dry on the roof. Sometimes I would eat those. Then I would be on my way down for the next exciting venture — my evening cup of chai. I would visit my school church and other nearby churches with friends once we passed out from school to keep the festivities alive. Even now, plum cakes make their way into my home in the last days of December, either through neighbours, or I just go get them myself.

Then, there is God. I make a mention here because just yesterday, on Christmas Eve, we were trying to book a ride home from outside a restaurant. We'd been back after taking in the Christmassy cheer of the commercial street in Bangalore (a capitalistic wet dream). A few drivers had already cancelled on us when a gentleman autowala came toward us. He stopped and handed out copies of the Bible to us. Then, he offered to take us to our destination. We agreed. During the three odd kilometres of our ride home, he told us how he did not put pictures of movie stars on his vehicle. Instead, the inside was covered with sayings from the Bible and pictures of Jesus. He had undying faith in God and how He would provide for all. The well-built, neatly dressed man regaled us with tales of his work for God. He considered himself a sort of conduit for God's will, distributing food to the poor and helping them in any way he could. He was very firm in saying that all his strength would be useless if God was not on his side. He believed that money is also useless unless it is used to do good. It led me to think about whether limited means are what stop people from doing charity. Would I do more if I was more religious? I doubt it. But in some ways, the incident led me to appreciate religion a little bit better. Whether through a compulsion built in through religious teachings or through the belief that God wants you to do it, people should help other people and be more compassionate. The ends justify the means in this case. We got off the rickshaw and handed him some extra money, hoping that helping the man along in his quest for kindness would go some way in settling our dues.

All in all, I felt that this small story made my Christmas magical this year. In this fast-paced city life, magic is alive as long as you are committed to creating it.