I used to hear this a lot - for Bengalis (Bengali Hindus), Saraswati Pujo is equivalent to the Valentine's Day . Girls would wear yellow sarees and braid their hair, while guys will be wearing yellow punjabees and white dhoti or pajama. This time on Feb 14, 2024, they fell on the same day. Woke up pretty early in the morning, showered, wore the dhuti and uttiyo and did Saraswati Puja. Most of the mantras I have got by heart now. After the pushpanjali , I was done and we (my mother and I) could then break our fast with the Mahaprasad . Took a day off for the day, but still joined for a quick catchup call. This is how she looks like. There is a bit of a history here. Usually, Hindus get the vigraha from the shop every year, worship and then do visarjan (immersion) in a river or pond. However, she is with us since I was in class IX. When I was in Standard X, my grandmother had died. As part of the souch (relatively inauspicious greiving period), we could not get a new vigraha .
I was off for a while. I mean, I was not. I painted an old shoecase that now looks a gorgeous white cupboard. I fixed my bicycle. But beyond this, I did not do much beyond what my work paid me to do. So here I am, about to touch a new year of my life - and I am itching to get back into the habit of writing again. Not just writing stuff here, but also making applications or music. In fact, after a very long time I feel like sketching again. I think I am going to sketch my wife. Or may be finish my ex wife's sketch. I dunno. But I am gonna get started with a pencil tomorrow. Thanks to chatgpt, I have restarted my application brainstorming and dusted my old Github repos. I think this is going to be a good run this time.