Another Rakhi - Indians in Bologna

Two days ago, it was rakhi. Like every thing else, only emails and e-cards remind me of things like the Indian festivals that are no longer alive for me. Rakhi is just another memory with a vague sense of what it is supposed to mean.

 

This is inevitable for those of us who leave homes to live in another country, especially when there are few persons from your country living there. In Bologna, we get a lot of Indian students, but they are here for a few months or at the most for a couple of years, they are not suffering from nostalgia for the lost homeland. People living here with their families are few.

 

Anyway, the few of us who live here, we do try to organise something for Holi and Deewali.

Marco wants to send a rakhi to his girl friend. I explained to him that it wouldn't be right. No, he said, it won't be a normal rakhi that a boy gets from his sister, it will be something else, something very special.

Shweta telephoned and said that I will get my rakhi next time we meet. Perhaps, this is good, not just celebrating a festival but accepting the spirit behind it, and it does not really matter when we actually do it.

In our Indian association of Bologna, we are already used to this. Holi and Deewali are celebrated according to the availability of the hall, possibly around the actual dates that these festivals are being celebrated in India, but if that is not possible, we are not unduly bothered!

Manish, Sonia's husband, will be coming here on 24 September. Cynthia and Aniket (Mithoo) say that they might plan a holiday in Italy. Recently Riju had come to visit us and I had taken him to Venice.

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