Navaratri Reflections: Hope in the Midst of Struggle
This Navaratri feels different for me as I am in Delhi, posted as Resident Commissioner of Maharashtra. For the first time, I am celebrating away from home, with a symbolic Bomma Golu. It is not that I couldn’t take leave or travel back. I consciously chose to stay back at Delhi. One reason was to experience the Navaratri festivities in North of India, specially Delhi, the country’s capital. The other is more personal, about the ongoing struggle around my dream home, which today stands as a reminder of how trust can also leave a lasting wound.
Life has it's way of testing at unexpected times. Reconciling with the fact that one’s dream home has been insensitively compromised is never easy. To admit it honestly it is extremely painful. A home is never just bricks and walls, it carries years of savings, prayers, and dreams woven into its very foundation. To see it marred by someone’s carelessness and selfishness is disheartening more so when that dream turns into a source of stress and conflict.
Yet, as I arranged the dolls on the steps of my cute little Golu, I was reminded that Navaratri itself is a festival that teaches us to rise again, to let hope triumph over despair.
At its core, Navaratri is not just about rituals or celebrations, but about rekindling hope. Hope that however difficult the situation maybe, renewal is always possible. Hope that light will end the darkness, hope that justice will prevail and broken dreams will be rebuilt. Hope that new beginnings are waiting because the spirit of this festival whispers to us that despair can easily be overcome.
It is also a festival of love. The love we place in traditions, in building families and relationships, in nurturing friendships, communities, and in holding on to faith when the ground beneath us feels shaky. Love softens the sharp edges of disappointment and gives us the courage to continue. Together hope , love and faith is what keeps us from being consumed by bitterness.
And above all, Navaratri reminds us of the importance of being trustworthy. Trust maybe fragile but it the most essential aspect in human relationships. In a world where broken promises and betrayals hurt the deepest, it is our integrity that defines who we are. Trustworthiness is what makes life liveable and makes celebrations meaningful. When it is betrayed, as I have felt in my own housing ordeal, the pain doubles leaving scars, but when nurtured, trust becomes the very foundation of relationships, communities, and even nations.
As I placed the dolls in my symbolic Golu here in Delhi, I could feel the pain of what has been lost but not without the hope of that it will be restored. My wish this Navaratri is simple that the money invested in our dream home is recovered and that the future holds celebrations free of trauma, in a home which we rebuild on love, respect, trust and care.
Because Navaratri is not just a mythological triumph of goddess over demon it is a reminder of the daily triumphs and trials each one of us must face and accept in our own lives. To choose hope over despair, love over bitterness, and trust over betrayal that, perhaps, is the real celebration. Shubh Navaratri….
R.Vimala, IAS,
Resident Commissioner, Maharashtra
Compassionate Civil Servant &
PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay
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