You will have seen the devastation of bombed flats, hospitals, kindergartens and factories in Ukraine. Millions of mothers, children and older grandparents have escaped to Poland and smaller countries on Ukraine's borders, leaving their husbands and over 16yr olds behind to help defend Ukraine with the Ukraine army and air-force.  The women may well become widows and their children orphans as thousands of their men are being killed in the Russian bombing raids on the Ukranian  towns. Today a scheme began in the UK to let ordinary citizens offer a room to Ukrainian and Afghani refugees for 6 months. In the first hour 20000 people have registered to have a refugee. My daughter has offered her spare room.  On Saturday there was a candlelit gathering in the town centre of people holding candles to show solidarity and compassion for the people of Ukraine, to pray for them and all those killed in the fighting, Russians as well as Ukrainians.  People are wearing blue and badges and puttin

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  You are probably looking forward to Holi, though as senior citizens you are probably not going to be throwing coloured powders at another. You may however, enjoy the bonfire of the Holika. I wonder if you have ever had one of the traditional foods, jacket potatoes, that are associated with Britain's Bonfire Day  on November 5th?   A jacket potato is a large one that is cooked in its own skin, though these days usually wrapped in aluminium foil (to prevent it getting black and ash covered), after making a few holes with a sharp knife in the skin, to stop the potato from exploding! It is then placed in the bonfire's red hot and glowing embers until cooked. I think that sweet potatoes could be cooked in a similar way.  Another British Bonfire Day tradition is eating to ffee apples - apples coated with a crunchy sugar-syrup toffee, on a stick. In the north of England ginger cake is traditional - rather like the cake we had at Christmas.   So my dear Awaas Parivar do enjoy celebra