Thread by @ManeeManjunath

Uddah che runa

1. Amma says there’s a time for everything. Whether a task or going somewhere, the time for it has to come, only then will it be done. She’s says it’s especially true of auspicious events like visiting a sacred place or a momentous occasion like childbirth, etc.

2. She says that once the time comes, there’s no stopping said event from happening. ‘Uddah che Runa’ she calls it. It roughly translates to water’s debt. That your debt to the water there drags you there to make sure you make full payment of your debt.

3. Her favourite example is of my aunt who had wanted to go to Vaishnodevi for the longest time. It all started back in the 90s once my aunt moved back from Delhi to the south. Through the 90s she couldn’t because of work & her children being too young to undertake the travel.

4. Come 2000s her children were old enough but every year some thing or the other would happen to prevent her from traveling to Vaishnodevi. She would book her tickets and then something unforeseen would happen - children falling sick, family events, work/family commitments.

5. In 2011 she made plans with my mum. We booked tickets to Kashmir and planned to travel to Jammu after to go to Vaishnodevi. Only for a suitcase to fall on my aunt’s leg on her daily commute fracturing her leg and rendering her immobile just the day before she was to fly.

6. Mum and I did however manage to visit Vaishnodevi. Walking all the way up for the darshan. It wasn’t until 2015 that my aunt was finally able to visit Vaishnodevi and she’s gone again a couple of times after. All visits have happened suddenly and by pure chance.

7. I’ve always just nodded indulgently when Amma’s spoken about uddah che runa. Sometimes even gotten frustrated because she says the time hasn’t come when some plan of mine has been cancelled. The time for your debt to be repaid hasn’t come she says.

8. Always that is until now. Amma was visiting me in Stuttgart and was set to travel back end of October. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to be home for Deepavali but circumstances have never been favourable. Same seemed true this time as well. Travel back home looked impossible until mid Nov

9. Until the eve of Amma’s departure. By sheer luck, some document essential for travel arrived the morning before Amma’s departure. I immediately started looking for flights back home & found cheap business class tickets just after Deepavali. What luck I thought!!

10. But they were gone by the time I could book them. When I finally managed to book, there were no flights for up to 3 weeks except the one Amma was travelling on. Let’s risk it I thought. With less than 24h to travel, I managed to get tested, pack & get ready to leave.

11. Things just snowballed from there & 10years after I left, the time for me to repay my debt to home has finally come. I’m finally celebrating Deepavali at home.

If you’re waiting for something, don’t worry, take heart for the time for it is yet to come.

Shubh Deepavali!