It’s Vasant Panchami today, and as per the Indian Calendar we are formally announcing the arrival of spring as the winter draws to a close. As Shelly said, “When winter comes can Spring be far behind”, so here it is. Spring brings with it the fragrance of love and joie-de-vivre, mother nature adorns herself with mustard flowers in the fields and Flame of the Forest
(Palash or Tesu in Hindi) literally sets the jungles ablaze with their flowers. Legend has it that when Shiva was in deep meditation and Parvati was unable to get his attention Kama and Rati shot arrows of flowers to divert Shiva’s attention and succeeded, thereby despite being at the receiving end of Shiva’s ire themselves, Shiva and Parvati united.
After the gloomy autumn and dreary winter, Spring is a celebration of life as we know it. Vasant though is not just love, it also signifies valour and courage. I am sure most of us recall the famous, “Mera rang de basanti chola..” composed by Shaheed Ram Prasad Bismil, which Shaheed Bhagat Singh sang while going to the gallows in Lahore Central Jail. The gist of the song is that he wants his attire to be dyed in the saffron colour of fearlessness, bravery and patriotism. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s epic poem, “Veeron ka kaisa ho Vasant..”, where she exhorts the warriors to draw inspiration from Rana Pratap and Shivaji, listening to it gives me goose pimples even today.
Spring brings with it a new quest for knowledge and wisdom, the day is considered very auspicious for initiating our children into the lifelong pursuit of learning. We pay obeisance to Ma Saraswati who is the goddess of Vidya, where education is not merely academic but holistic which encompasses spiritual quest as well. While most of us associate learning with academic pursuits alone, the fact remains that books form just one small part of the whole gamut called education. Art and culture play an equally important role on this path, so dance, painting, singing all come alive during this season when Sun has moved onto the Uttarayan (Northwards) on Makar Sankranti. Traditionally we celebrate the festival with Saraswati Pooja and by going ‘yellow’, as is the theme of the nature itself, so not only do we dress in yellow but even eat yellow sweet rice which are a delicacy and worth dying for.
This year there are two momentous occasions for our family during this season, the first one being my daughter Ananya’s wedding coming up within the fortnight and the second one being a celebration of our very own kathak maestro in the making, Anvaya, my niece graduating at a very young and sweet 16 as a Kathak Visharad. She has been a prodigy and we could sense the natural rhythm in her tiny little feet when she had barely begun to take her first tentative steps. As a two year old she waltzed in to a family celebration dancing in perfect synch with the percussion instruments with traditional matki folk dance form. Her gentle swaying to the beats of the dholak was so fluent, her donning of the veil so natural that it left all and sundry simply mesmerised. Naturally as she was growing up, she picked up classical dance as her passion apart from the formal education, which in any case she is excelling at.
She has taken after her mother, her aunt (bua) and her cousin Ananya who are all excellent dancers themselves. Ma Saraswati has been extremely kind to our family and we are indeed blessed. In today’s day and age with cutthroat competition in almost every field, it is extremely heartening to see someone following her passion in the fine arts which are a celebration of human creativity itself. I dare say it required tremendous amount of courage to go against the beaten path and chart a fresh course as most of us quite naturally do.