I am the only child of my parents. Had a few cousin sisters with whom the age and the geographical distance was such, that I don’t remember if ever they have tied a Rakhi on me.
When you are a child, your value system and perceptions are little soft and tender and has the chance of getting influenced with the slightest hint. There were few classmates of mine, who used to come to school with multiple rakhis on their wrists, which to an innocent mind was equivalent to number of sisters. As different festivals have different meaning, interpretation and hence the importance in different communities ( not religion ). So Amit Jain, Samar Singh, Rajesh Prasad, Vinod Rawat, amongst my other classmates used to wear huge, colourful and many rakhis.
Time passed by and slowly like everything else of the childhood, Rakhi also became insignificant till such time Sarada didi started working in our house. I had recently joined my first job and to reach office on time, I had to leave home at 7 AM in the morning. A day before Raksha bandhan – Ma informed me that Sarada didi wants to tie a Rakhi on my wrist. She has a brother in her village of same age as mine and hence wants to tie the Rakhi for me and requested me to maintain fast till such time she ties the Rakhi. Little did I know, that a small gesture will turn out to be such a respected and fond memory for me. From that day till such time I have stayed permanently at Chandannagore, without fail, defying all obstacles, she would come to our house at 6.30 in the morning, walking almost 3 Kms to tie me a Rakhi. I no longer stay in Chandannagore, Sarada didi has grown older, I have become a father and she now becomes super excited to see my son. Forgot to ask her last time when I met her, whom does she tie a Rakhi now?
It doesn’t need to a blood relation, it doesn’t need to be a forceful religious dictate, it doesn’t need a belief in any particular school of thought to grow love and affection and build relationships. Have you ever experienced something like this in your life?
The Rakhi by Sarada didi also reminds me of ‘Goja’ – my eternal favourite. I have never liked sandesh or roshogolla or for that matter, any other sweets as much as I have liked ‘Goja’ . While planning for this post we decided to look at Goja in a contemporary way. How do you think this has been?
Why dont you send some sweets and that too authentic Kolkata sweets this Raksha Bandhan instead of chocolates or cakes . Madhushree plans to send her sweets through Sweethandi .