Traditions

I have a slight OCD about traditions. And I’m not talking about the religious kind. Most of my traditions will seem silly to most people. On every new years’ eve, I watch the movie “It’s a wonderful life” and the How I met your mother episode — “Three days of snow”. Whenever I am on a plane taking off, I always listen to the song “Going away to college” by Blink-182. I also listen to the song “Anybody” by Jesse Mccartney when it first rains.

Another such tradition is this, I always make a rangoli on Diwali. But the catch is that it can’t be a conventional rangoli, it has to be something eccentric. I made Iron man in 2018, I made the ISRO Chandrayan in 2019. It’s Diwali tomorrow, so of course, I have to make something. But I have no idea what.

I wish I could simply not do it. I have a lot of work that I could do instead. I know that it will wreak havoc on my back. I will probably be too tired to work the next day as well. Moreover, it’s almost midnight already and I still haven’t decided what I’ll be making. Any sane person would just skip this year. But as I explained before, this is my silly tradition, and I have to follow it or the world would come to an end.

I usually try to make something that’s topical for that year. That’s an issue this time around because 2020 was kind of a shitty year. What are my choices? Corona? Lockdown? The NRC protests? Everything is just too negative. And to be honest, people want to be happy on holidays, I don’t want my rangoli to bring them down.

Maybe that’s the trick. What could I make that would bring a smile to people’s faces?