Diwali - past & present

My parent are extremely enthusiastic about any sort of celebration. They have the incredible stamina and loads of energy to go the whole hog for every occasion. Right from preparing the numerous delicacies that is typical of each Indian festival to calling friends and family for elaborate and well thought out dinners for each occasion and just being able to celebrate every occasion with a lot of style and fervor. It was always very overwhelming and heart warming to see the detail and effort that went into each little thing while planning for such occasions. Diwali was the special”est” for us kids.

Each Diwali began at 4:30 am with a loving but really loud wake-up call from Dad. Coming from a typical Tamil Iyer family we had a typical Deepavali Ritual. Our day began with Mum massaging gingelly oil onto our heads, giving us our new clothes and finishing off the routine with a tasting of the sweets and savories prepared in advance with a lot of patience and care. That was then followed by the “ganga snanam”, more a ritualistic oil bath than a dip in the Ganges. After we were dressed in our new clothes and took the blessings of the elders at home we had to burst some crackers and all this had to be done before the sunrise.

Diwali came and went. We never expected that we would celebrate or use the holiday to spend some time together. In fact, we never thought we would be together for Diwali this year. I guess I got really lucky and the Doc dropped in for a flying visit. We actually ended up having a blast on the eve of my trip to Saurashtra. We woke up really early to have a long long day. We began the usual rounds of calls to wish close friends and relatives as is the routine for every "important" festival and something as simple as that had me spiral back in time as you just read above.

Well, we did manage to light some diyas and I made a nice rangoli, saw lots of folks bursting crackers. I must say that we're totally averse to the noise, smoke and smell they generate as a result. I am personally extremely sensitive to the noise and scared of all the "fire" works. As a result, we stayed indoors through the day except for a few short drives to our friends' homes. Our day culminated in a fantastic party at our favorite couple's home and we finally saw the end to a Diwali pretty well spent for the likes of us.