New Beginnings !

In accordance with the lunar calendar, Mar 30 2006 was celebrated by quite a few Hindu communities as their New Year. Yug + Adi or Ugadi literally means a new era or a new year and is ushered in with the same fervour and joyous celebration as the traditional New Years...
People might celebrate New Years on different days ...Ugadi by the Kannadiga and the Andhra community, Gudi Padwa by the Maharashtrians, Vishu by the Malayalees, Baisakhi for the Punjabis, Bihu for the Assamese..
as you can see the list can go on forever...
but the main objective is to celebrate a fresh start..
to let go the past year and look forward to the new...
to expect better things from oneself and the people around you...
It is always heartening to see how a second chance brings out the
enthusiasm in everybody..
like the disappointments and failures of the past don't matter any more..
What matters is that you can start afresh..and have a second chance at everything that you wanted to do and couldn't !

Well..That's how CheerfulTulips came into being..I figured that it was high time that I let go of my complacency and did something more with my time and energy..
I don't think I am talented enough to devote my blog to just one
category..therefore this blog is going to be a hodge podge of ideas ...of my ideas and thoughts :)
And to say that I was inspired by the myriad blogs out there would be an understatement..There seems to be a lot of connecting and exchanging of ideas going on, for me to miss out on..
Plus , in this age, when everything seems to be "online", this seems a nicer way to
reach out to people and share experiences and friendships.

Well, coming back from my ramblings to the subject of Ugadi..I really wasn't able to celebrate the festival in a traditional way..didnt even get to eat the bevu bella (a special mixture of neem leaves and jaggery symbolizing the bitter sweet nature of life ...) that my mom used to prepare every year ..
but I didn't want the day to slide by unnoticed, so made a special dinner for hubby and myself and enjoyed the food along with the good old memories of sumptuous meals of the past :-)






This Ugadi started on a good note and I hope that continues for CheerfulTulips as well as all the others out there wanting to make a difference in their lives ..
Here's to friendships and creativity ! Here's to enthusiasm and good will !!
Here's to New Beginnings !!!