New Image, New Visions and New Hopes: Gott Nytt År!

This is an old pic, but my favourite. Taken sometime after Christmas in the neighbourhood during the day.  Lights work differently in the light and in the dark.  You know our light is quite dark in winters. And so these lights are a sign of hope 

Lamps from the temple in an aarti thali!! Hindu ritual that removes darkness!  

And believe it or not this is India!! Temple on highest of mountains in the snow! 

Wishing you all a very happy new year. 

Although-- I have started to question this new year now.  Mainly because it is a western creation.  New year used to coincide with planetary movement.  But with the spread of Christianity they started to alter days of celebration. I do not know all thee details but here is a lecture Tales of Two Calendars, that can highlight much.  Great lecture by a mathematician who talks about dating systems, calendars and of course mathematics.

This one day and the whole world gets excited.  If anything, it can be symbolic. Meaning a sense of hope that things will change.  As we get older, we get cynical sometimes.  And think nothing changes.  

But these symbols of change are required and needed. 

My issue comes with this imperialistic idea of thinking there is only one new year.  Or the way Gregorian calendar is, is the only way the world should work.

Living in Sweden, I see the point. Absolutely! Living in Pennsylvania, I saw the point!

I did not see it in Fiji or in Botswana where we moved from summer to winter in January.  

Even Delhi felt fine, since January was one of the coldest month.  But it won't be in the South of India.

Then, I tell myself, why can't you be just happy and not cynical.  

Well, in that happiness without thinking lies the core of the problems today.  The resurgence movements around the world are simply for identity rather than being all the same blob.  As I see more and more women in India dress western, even though the climate does not fit it, and the same in Fiji and several countries in Africa, there is a sadness about it.

Fitted clothes are mostly for cold countries to keep the heat in.  IN warm countries they are just 'imitations' which make no sense.

I wonder how many in the world know about Nowruz, which is Persian new year? or Baisakhi, which is punjabi new year, or MakarSankranti, which comes on January 14, and is celebrated as New Year in many communities in India.  Now all these festivals I mentioned are actually associated with planetary, seasonal changes.  

Nowruz, meaning new day comes 20th of March, when the spring solstice happens, day light saving is marked and the days start to officially get longer. Hence, New Day.  Baiskahi on April 13, is a harvest festival, hence a new year for farmers, since the crops are ready to be sold in the market.  The festival is celebrated with fairs and folk dances and family gatherings. Makar Sankranti, is actually sun's movement into Makar (Capicorn)--and is celebrated as  the beginning of end of Winter.  In Sweden it is celebrated as Tjugondag Knut (will post a previous post soon to mark this one)--meaning 20 days after Christmas, when all the trees are shaken, candies dropped and shared with kids and trees taken to the grinder. Or chopped for firewood.

What is this new year? A made up day to fit Gregorian calendar, which makes little sense in many countries.  I mean in the southern hemisphere they are moving into winter, it feels more like death rather than any new life. Their new year should be in June!!

So, this new year, hope and pray that you all look back into your own traditions.  Create some of your own, but ask yourselves, where do you come from? Who were your ancestors, even if they converted to two major religions that came from the desert. There is power in connecting with our ancestors.  We get a different marker to identity ourselves and we are not competing in a world that does not see us.

One of the things that helped me was that I was raised in India. I never had to be anything else.  I held India close to my heart and have continued to wear Indian outfits even in cold countries.  People asked me in the US, if being a 'woman and an Indian' made me feel like a second class citizen.

Well, I am not a citizen, I would answer.  And being a woman and Indian is not something I can change.  So I carry it proudly.  In my mind, I was the norm. But many ethnic children being raised in the US dealt with self-imposed racism.  I should look like this, this is the kind of outfits I should wear to fit in etc.  

In Sweden New year is wished as "Gott Nytt År!' which can also mean 'delicious, tasty or palatable'. 

Despite this heavy post, I wish you all a connection with the self, a connection with your ancestors and here is a video from one of my favourite Swedish Vloggers about her connection with new year.

Wishing you all the best.  And thanks so much for reading!! 

Pictures from The Season of Light in the time of Darkness and Cold

First published on December 9, 2017, this one is reposted again to share some pictures of the Christmas time glow!!  I have seen this so for so many years and yet, I do not tire of it.  Long white roads where snow has pressed into ever crevice such that it seems like there are only white roads, trees that are covered in blobs of snow and look like cotton trees, or the single yellow light from every tree--very mono-chrome compared to the multi coloured lights in the US--this simplicity speaks of the fact that 'Jul' which is a pre-chrisitan word, has always been part of Sweden. Sweden celebrated Jul before it celebrated the birth of Jesus.  It celebrated light, before its pagan ways were forced out by Christianly.  But it has retained many of its ways, in language and in traditions, and its been a delight to participate in those. 

Here is the old blog



Despite the fact that I question many things about Christmas,   I understand the reason for light during this time of the year in Scandinavia.

God Jul, usually translated as Merry Christmas, actually, as my Swedish teachers have told me, predates Christmas.  No one quite knows what Jul stands for, although today it is associated with Christmas.  It might have been associated with the height of cold season when everyone used candles and lights to bring happiness and joy.

 here are a few pictures.  Please note how lights on trees and from the buildings are brighter than the sky, while the pictures were taken around 3-4 pm in the day.

There is a magical beautiful quality of this time of the year.

This is how the streets are!

This  is how the campus becomes...

Efforts taken to put Christmas trees around the campus at various places. 

Pictures from Christmas Past: 2010

Last published on Dec 21, 2017, this is originally from 2010 (although published in 2011).  This was my first Christmas in Sweden.  What I cannot ignore in this post are the wo young  women, whose voice you hear...were my first students in Sweden.  Nearly a decade later, they remain in my life and have made me a better person just by their presence, they each deserve a separate post.

Always, always know that time, means much.  Spending time on people means they matter.  It means we are willing to invest in them.  

I clearly remember my first semester when these girls had never been to my house but knew where I lived, stood around the area and yelled my name.  I hurriedly opened the door.  They had a huge pizza in their hand. I made tea and we chatted for long.

The conversations continue to this day...

Here is to this magical time, which is more magical in darker countries, and a reminder that we become our best selves through the people we know!!

No woman is an island!!

Merry Holidays!!


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First published on 11-29-11--November 11, 2011, its time to repost this fun post from X-mas time.  The pictures and video is actually from 2010, a Christmas I spent in Sweden.  My first, with two of the people, who became and important part of my life.  It was a dark Christmas and I was so unsure of having moved here, just like I was four years before of having moved to Fiji.  But despite everything, I have stuck around, even though I still fancy leaving.  I have formed somewhat of a community.  I spoke with Bengt today, another person I met on my first visit to this country, even before I moved here.  

It is the season, it is the time.  But to see how many winters I have spent here, is a miracle in itself. Much has been accomplished, even though I am fond of putting myself down.  Much still needs to be accomplished.  My place looks like a home. I have four invitations for JulAfton, Christmas eve celebrations, which is the main day people celebrate here. 

My teaching is non-stop.  Still teaching new courses.  But publications are plenty.  And yet, a nagging sense of not-belonging.  Which may never leave me now.  

Yet, as the year turns....I want to share something I found else where on the net.

Felicitations on the Astronomical Uttarāyaṇa उत्तरायण that begins today, on the Winter Solstice. (The astrological U. begins on Makara Sankranti मकर सङ्क्रान्ति, a few weeks later.) Today is when the Sun begins its northern movement that will last until the Summer Solstice. This is how people in India celebrated new year, with an understanding of what it is, not just a new year, but an upward movement of the Sun. January 14, (will write about it more later.) is when we celebrate the beginning of the end of winter. And folks in Sweden have a holiday too (more on that later).

For now, enjoy the photographs, and songs and drunken tourists and the warmth (whether or temperature or the heart) of the season, whereever you all are.....


Following pictures and videos were taken last year around Christmas time

Christmas tree on campus, in its winter glory. 2010

Pictures in downtown Karlstad.  2010

Houses in the neighborhood in different light...with flash..

without flash

And there are some christmas lights

Only in Sweden can you see these while (plastic) trees....an attempt to replicate pine trees naturally covered with snow

Christmas Market in Town

Home Made Wreaths and other decorations

Pine Wreath, with a tomte (a troll-like santa claus)

Lichen Wreath

Me thinks this is a reindeer or some sort of a lapland animal...

Now these are popular. Handmade Reindeers. Come Christmas time they are everywhere

Red local buses...this could be State College (CATA buses) or London for that matter...

The following pictures and videos were taken in Stockholm, 2010

Tables set up to help the homeless, who are very few in number.  So anyone is welcome really.  The women are passing out Glogg, a swedish christmas drink and canned food. 

Stockholm, near the central train station. 

The boat hostel...

The two men were slightly drunk.  But continued singing their Christmas songs.  They told us they were from Poland. There is a video of them later on in this post.  Although you get to see nothing because of perpetual movement.  The sounds alone give an idea of how much we were having. 

Dinner with friends: When I first published it, I did not mention the two young women who brought me to spend Xmas with them.  Dragged me from boat house and made me feel a part of their lives.  J and L.  They have been a consistent part in my life. I am often mocked that my friends are all ages, especially very young. But I also have friends who are my parents age and older.  Age is never a matter when hearts meet.  But especially when we can have meaningful conversations.  And evolve as human beings.  These two girls have done that for me. They adopted me when I came here and they still brighten my life, even though we have not seen each other in over 8 years!!  This is to heart to heart friendship J and L.  We are not connected on Facebook and hardly use what's app.  But we have used Skype and real phone calls and letters and notes and of course the old fashioned email to remind each other---what it means to be a friend!! (added--2019). 

I spotted this group at the train station singing Christmas carols in Swedish.  It was a delight. I hope they bring you the same peace they brought me as I pointed my camera at them. 

The Polish guys in Christmas spirit.

The following two videos are nothing extraordinary. I have seen this set up in several countries.  Yet whenever I see it, it brings me to a dreamy mood...relaxes me and so...like sunsets and sunrises, no matter how many of them I have seen, I take my camera out...to honor the scene.  Same here.  I hope you enjoy it too.   Merry and Bright Christmas