Get the blues, or the woes? It's Dashain times for sure. This is one of the great times when all tears are bound to drench the earth. The ways of the divinity is quite puzzling. Those on whom we repose our faith, seem to offer the occasion as a test of devotion. It goes like the old stories where the greater the faithful you are the more sufferings you have to go through. Maybe the after-life stuff gets us moving in the world.

Don't believe in the next world, then you could go around doing the dirtiest jobs around without any regret. But, the conscience part will always be there to give a hell of a trouble particularly at bed time. Well, tossing around in bed is never meant to be a healthy way of living.

From real-life stories that filter out at times from the well-fortified domains of the rich and the powerful, sleep does not come easily all because of the worldly sins that somehow or the other take their origin from the pleasures.

So, a few more dollar more gets the mind thinking maliciously. If that had not been the case, many bridges in the Kathmandu valley wouldn't have caved in, courtesy the greed for lucre to be got through sand excavation at the base. But, that's how it goes, and there's no stopping the rush for the sound of the crisp currency notes to fill the coffers.

Dashain certainly comes in as a breaker for some to reflect on what has been bestowed on us. The cringing ones will always think of the ominous nature of everything, but those with the ill-gotten wealth would certainly thank the gods and goddesses for being so generous, at least for the past year or so. When the sun shines and you can get your treasure of the hay, that must be reason enough for the divine blessings.

However, the festival time does offer an evaluation of how you have fared in the "eyes" of god. If it's bad, a little more of prayers maybe opted for. If all's fine then the usual crooked ways can continue for some.

It's not how many goats you have to offer to a god or goddess or the stakes that you put as a gambler that counts in the sanctity of the occasion, it is how you go about enhancing the degree of camaraderie and the mortal life that we all are vested with.

Anyway, it's three cheers for Vijaya Dashami!