What's making me happy

Settling down in my new home has had me go through a gamut of emotions. Like a paradox, feelings of satisfaction and disappointment, moments of ecstasy and despair all strike at once. It will be a while before I embrace this all. For the moment, I'm lapping up all the positivity that the new setting has to offer.

And, nothing makes me more happy than this nook and the view beyond: 

 

Sipping on my cuppa

swinging a lyrical beat

watching the sun slowly rise

hearing the birds chirp by

soothes my mind

calms my soul

lets my heart soar

makes me smile more

None of our previous homes offered such a lovely view of the sunrise. We have some lovely coconut trees outlining the empty neighbouring patch of ground. Parrots, eagles, squirrels and even rare guests like the Kingfisher frolic in the precious backdrop of green amidst the concrete. I want to hug the scene and hold the gift of nature tightly to my chest even as the cynical mind tells my heart that this bountiful package of nature that gives my morning and day a new dimension will sooner or later give way for many other ambitious and concrete tall rises that will intrude into my space.

Sigh!

Yet, for now, let me rake in the beauty, smell the sweet air and sing a song. It might not last long.

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Celebrating Diwali

Diwali is here. Usually, I am at my parent's place around this time of the year. This is the first time in five years that I am celebrating the festival of lights in my house with just the three of us and a whole lot of friends to compensate for our family. And, this also meant, I had to indulge in the usual pre-Diwali preparations which included making of the Diwali sweets and savouries that I'd conveniently skipped so far at the parents' house.

However, I was pretty excited from the word go and was looking forward to buying diyas, decorative lights, sprucing up the home and even making the bakshanams (the sweets and savouries). Last week was a whirlwind activity of polishing off the dust and clutter from the house. There was a donation drive in our complex and I happily gave away some old clothes to under-privileged children. I planned ahead and shopped for the lovely lights, decorative diyas and ready-to-make rangoli design moulds. These moulds are a big boon for people like me who can only look wistfully at lovely rangolis in front of other creative folk's houses because we cannot draw even straight lines, leave alone make a flowery design!

So, here we are:  (excuse the poor photography, I blame the camera ;-)

 

R dancing away to glory

Fireworks

I successfully prepared some traditional sweets and savouries, after some sweat and effort. So, yay to that!
I was not too keen on buying and bursting crackers but had to give in to hubby and R's excitement levels. R thoroughly loved watching the colourful fireworks. We had a small get-together in our complex a day before Diwali, with yummy food stalls, art and handiwork for display and sale, exciting games and the famous housie. I never ever win at Housie, yet buy the tickets religiously each time. There is some weird fun and excitement in anticipating the number on your tickets to be called out. While, this time too I did not win at the Housie, I won a gift voucher at a musical quiz. So, that made my day :-)

So, how did you guys celebrate Diwali? Wishing you all a fun-filled, prosperous and safe Diwali!

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