Jugaad

The concept of Jugaad is not a new one. Jugaad is managing with what you've got, and creating solutions out of that. Jugaad is the Washing Machine that's retrofitted to make lassi, Jugaad is the hairclip keeping your electrical system together.

Jugaad is also what you do on Diwali, away from home. Because Diwali is meant to be spent at home, with family and close friends in an atmosphere conducive to nothing more than joy. Jugaad is the tips and tricks of getting Diwali into a foreign country, where there isn't what you would regularly qualify as a good ol' jing bang celebration.

Jugaad is going to the supermarket to hunt around for something, anything that can be converted into Diwali decorations. Jugaad is hanging college identity cards as counterbalances to the back of diwali decorations in an attempt to hang them to a wall, and actually succeeding.

Jugaad looks like what you see in the photo right there, everything just works out in the end, and wonderfully so. This was our diwali night, at hostel, when we had no plans, no decorations, no crackers, no diyas, no pleasant looking lights and none of that other fancy stuff. We had a whole bunch of semi-depressed hostellers missing home terribly, and generally losing hope of having a good time. Two hours later, the lot of us were buzzing, eating copious(well, as much as we had and could manage) quantities of Mithai (Kaju ki Barfi, mostly) and having a general good time.
It's diwali time, and I've had some great presents from one and all.

There were presents from Dhoni the day before the blessed event, there were presents from my family, especially my Bua on D-Day and it seems an organisation much hated in college, known as the CCTE has given a wonderful present to a good few people the day after the blessed events.

Happy Diwali, once again, and Eid Mubarak for tomorrow. It's a great new year, with a great new start.