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December - the harbinger of joy


Everyone awaits the arrival of a new year with awe. A year of hopes, dreams, bucket lists and resolutions but i was the odd one out. I fantasised the year end and eagerly awaited the arrival of December. The last quarter in-fact. It signified the celebration of Diwali, my birthday, Xmas & New year’s eve - all of which brought about a sense of joy & pomp in my life.

My romance with the month of December may also have something to do with the dip in temperatures as well. The sweaters, mufflers, monkey caps are out and no one bothers if you go for a second helping of chai. No one cares what’s under those layers of sweatshirts, if you are smooth like silk or hairy like a bear! If you watch closely, your breath too creates a halo of mist when you speak or cough - the latter being not a favourable thing to mention in these troubled times! 

So this year given that it is an usual one, we adopted a different route to entertain ourselves. I decided to give my nephew Neel the Christmas experience because if he was at school, his teachers would have definitely ensured that he has one. By mid-december i started building up the hype for 25th december. I ordered gifts for him which kept getting home-delivered for the entire month. Friends & relatives joined and started sending in some gifts too. We had our Xmas tree by 18th dec and oh what joy was it to set it up! A childhood fantasy if i may say so.I grew up with my catholic friend & neighbour Loraine for whom Christmas was a great affair. She shopped from top to bottom exclusively for the one night of mid night mass on Christmas eve. Her house always smelt of baked savouries at this time of the year. The holy at the entrance door, the crib in the living room or the tiny xmas tree in her bedroom - all of which i admired dearly and hoped one day i shall be able to recreate in my home.

We set up and decorated the xmas tree with much excitement. Neel even bit into the tiny candy decorations wondering they may be real and earnestly opened all the tiny gift boxes thinking they would have something to offer besides thermacol. The highlight of the activity was setting up the led lights though which even gave me a tiny shock but it was all a part & parcel of the game.

Cut straight to dec 25th - i picked up my cousin Poonam early morning from her place. The plan was to have Neel open the gifts when he gets up in the morning so that we can convince him Santa left them for him at midnight. I even made a chocolate house for him with chocolate wafers and stuffed it with his favourite toys & mints.

He opened the gifts with joy by repeating the names of the folks who gifted him the same. The show stealer was a set of monster trucks gifted by Poonam and a Lego set gifted by my cousin Mugdha which his Gaga(father) assembled with much effort only to have Neel break it in a second after acquiring it.

The days thereafter were spent driving around Goa. The evening lights, cribs, waves, sunsets, starts, moonlights, bebinca, dodol, panacottas, feni - the list is endless. We even stayed at a resort overnight at Mandrem. I do not remember the last time i felt so carefree. Perhaps this is the goan life that everyone talks about and envies and I, out of all the people get to say proudly - I am a Goan.



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