Who says miracles can’t happen during Covid? It did for us this Christmas. My sister, who had booked her flight via Europe to India and had to cancel it because of the ban India put on flights from Europe due to Omicron, managed to reach home, on Christmas eve!

Remember my post What a bummer! She read the post and she made it happen. I want to thank all those who, on reading my earlier post sent me blessings and miracles. A shout out to Selma, Andrea, Jo and Robbie especially. Thank you for being such warm people.

In my earlier post I had said my sister would have to be crazy or on the Forbes to pay the ticket prices that had skyrocketed because of the festival season. Well, my sister’s not on the Forbes but maybe she’s a little crazy- crazy enough to believe in family, celebrations and the magic of coming together on Christmas. After she cancelled her flight through Europe ( against which she got a credit from the airline which she will have to use in the future), Mumbai changed the rules. No longer was Europe on the list of banned countries- a downer again! And no longer were international flights banned; except for the ‘at-risk’ countries, which did not include the United States or the Middle-East countries. So, my dear sister booked a ticket via Qatar to Mumbai, paid the price for business class tickets and came by economy class and embarked upon a 30-hour journey to get home- after two long years. I did not begin dreaming about her coming until she rang the doorbell. Considering she’s the only sibling I have and we haven’t met even when dad passed away, you can imagine how I felt. I, however kept myself from thinking too much about it by painting ( Art: Made to order ) and reading Half of a yellow sun by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie. Fortunately, we also had a week’s holiday planned which we went on. That kept my mind happily distracted.

As Paulo Coelho said, “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” It reminds me of a poem I had written sometime ago which is the foreword in the only book I have published – Roads- A journey with Verses

I’m sharing the poem I wrote in 2017 because it feels this way, today

Serendipity

I saw the stars in the sky
Shining brightly from afar
I saw them here, I saw them there
And then at times, I found them nowhere

Is there a reason, why they’re there-
I wondered, up above the world so high?
Millions looking down
Sparkling diamonds on a Prussian-blue, satin gown

Is there one for every man that walks the earth
I muse – some in clusters, some alone?
Scattered like dandelions in the wind
Keeping their vigil, while we lay pinned.

I gazed enraptured at the twinkling beauties
And as I watched, they aligned – hundreds, in many straight lines
As if in respect to the erstwhile moon
Is still a mystery to me how they managed so soon.

The secret of the Universe revealed to me
That night the stars aligned –
  For ME.

These are a few of the pictures of our celebration. I feel immensely grateful to God for granting me this joy, to my sister for deciding to make the journey despite all the risks involved, to the Universe for coming together to make it happen for us.

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