Hindu culture has god for almost everything, I think. God who created this world, god for wealth, security, power, prosperity and so on. One of the many gods is Goddess Saraswoti, god for knowledge.
There is special day to worship gods. For Saraswoti, it’s Saraswoti puja. This day is also known as basanta panchami or shree panchami. It is the first day of spring season (basanta).
I remember as a kid or rather school student, I used to worship books and my colorbox on this day. There used to be some special puja organised at school. Standing on queue like each day school assembly and offering flowers to the photo of Saraswoti and getting a packet of sweets and fruits.
There is also a culture that kids start learning alphabets from this day. They have to write something, at least a letter. So kids are taken to the Saraswoti temple and they write on the walls. Well, that is the myth.
Today, I went to Saraswoti temple at Swoyambhu. The walls were all written by chalk. And they certainly were not written by kids. I had to wait for some time to find a kid writing on the wall. Most of the people who were writing on the walls were teenagers. Writing own names. Or mostly girlfriend’s/boyfriend’s name with ‘plus’ sign between the names and making heart shapes. I could tell that by the way they were talking and writing.
Changes in everything are certain. But how much and in what way is what we should understand.
