Diwali

Diwali is on tuesday - 4 days from today. In my company we had a celebration involving food, music, dance, cultural show, raffle etc. It was a fun affair. On monday, we have a smaller party at work to celebrate Diwali. As a kid, Diwali used to be a big thing for us. We would buy lots of crackers. In the morning, the whole house would be cleaned up. Mum and Dad would go to every close acquaintance's house to give a box of sweets while other people would come to our house to give sweets. As kids we would eagerly wait for sunset. As the sun would set, we would light the diys and the candles and dad would conduct the puja. After that we would be given sweets to eat - no restrictions, eat what you want and how much you want. And then the green signal.... go and play with the crackers. We would rush out and burst crackers. Anaar, chakri, saap, patake (aloo bamb, ladis etc), rockets... you name it. One time I had a candle in my hand and a small pataka in my hand, and just then a close family friend came... I was telling them that mom-dad were inside and at the same time trying to light the candle to ignite the cracker. I was so distracted that instead of the candle I burst the cracker in my hand. That memory is still imprinted in my mind even though it was some 30 years ago. :) I would be scared of the noise from the crackers and would cover my ears. Next day, we would look in the debris for any unexploded crackers .... what a cool time we used to have on Diwali.

Now it is different. We get some crackers and watch Nalin and Shruti have fun. Hopefully, they are forming memories of their own. As is traditional in Americal (all festivals are celebrated on the nearest weekend), this year too, we will have a party on Nov 1st. Instead of hosting it at our house, this time we will go to a neighbors house. Now Diwali is a few crackers and food.... the excitement is gone. The best part now is to watch the kids having fun with the crackers and playing with their friends. I am sure our parents felt the same way watching us have fun when we were kids.

Happy Diwali to everyone!!!!