Today is Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan. The sun's north-bound journey (just an optical illusion as one looks at the sun's apparent movement in the space above us from Earth) has begun. Days will continue to be longer, as winter retreats, spring will be upon us, and summer is not too far away. I woke up a bit late, then went to the Bohra roza of the various past religious heads of our community whose graves are located about a kilometer away from Lalji hotel where I am staying. The most famous of those leaders is Syedna Qutbuddin, but there are over half a dozen older heads of our community whose graves are also located in Ahmedabad within the same grounds.
The long walk to the burial grounds gave me an opportunity to stretch myself after a long gap of over 12 days. In fact, I had stopped walking since a week before I left Saudi Arabia to travel to India, so make that over 2 weeks! Just opposite the graveyard are located many small restaurants, and I had my first non-vegetarian meal after 4 days at one of these. It was a heavy breakfast of minced lamb meat (kheema) with 2 half-fried eggs thrown over it and very well-made thin chapatis, followed by tea. Thereafter, it was the same long walk back to my hotel, where, as I write now, I am gearing to a day filled with studies. In the evening, I may go to the Sabarmati river front to watch the locals fly kites and then watch the public display of fireworks, something that I have heard the locals talk about with a lot of happy anticipation.
Will write more about the evening festivities in my next entry.
The long walk to the burial grounds gave me an opportunity to stretch myself after a long gap of over 12 days. In fact, I had stopped walking since a week before I left Saudi Arabia to travel to India, so make that over 2 weeks! Just opposite the graveyard are located many small restaurants, and I had my first non-vegetarian meal after 4 days at one of these. It was a heavy breakfast of minced lamb meat (kheema) with 2 half-fried eggs thrown over it and very well-made thin chapatis, followed by tea. Thereafter, it was the same long walk back to my hotel, where, as I write now, I am gearing to a day filled with studies. In the evening, I may go to the Sabarmati river front to watch the locals fly kites and then watch the public display of fireworks, something that I have heard the locals talk about with a lot of happy anticipation.
Will write more about the evening festivities in my next entry.
No comments:
Post a Comment