This year's Diwali is around the corner. The city is as usual ready to embrace the festival of lights with a delightful fervor. I already see placards outside popular sweet stalls stating that they are ready to take bulk orders for sweets. When i was young(in school), buying sweets from a stall was not very common and there were not so many sweets shops around as they exist today. Unlike other festivals, sweets used to be made in large quantities at least 2 weeks before the festival. I came home everyday with my tongue trickling with droplets of saliva and taste buds ready to devour the variety of sweets that were made at home. Things changed a bit afterwards. Distributing sweets to employees in offices especially for Diwali became a practice Both my parents were employed and, we waited for the sweet boxes they would bring home. We sometimes snatched those boxes from our parents while on the way, even before they could reach home. We relished them more as they would have exotic varieties of sweets than what my mother knew to make at home. For crackers, my father's office had a cooperative society that sold crackers at a price slightly lesser than the market prices. I would keep inquiring my father about the date on which the stalls would open lest i miss anything on my list as the crackers used to get sold out in those cooperative stalls very quickly. Buying crackers used to be done with so much fanfare at that time. We discussed in our friends circle as to when each of us will be buying crackers. At times, i used to take friends for buying crackers. What an happiness that was. Even crores of rupees would not get us back those days or the feeling. The energy and the spirit have dwindled down over the years. We don't celebrate now. But the fervor seems to be less. Today, I see even kids refraining from lighting crackers now as they are told by their teachers that child labor is involved. But i am pretty sure that these kids miss the excitement and amusement that we expected and enjoyed every moment on that day. Most of the time, Ignorance is Bliss.
Showing posts with label Lights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lights. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Diwali Again
This year's Diwali is around the corner. The city is as usual ready to embrace the festival of lights with a delightful fervor. I already see placards outside popular sweet stalls stating that they are ready to take bulk orders for sweets. When i was young(in school), buying sweets from a stall was not very common and there were not so many sweets shops around as they exist today. Unlike other festivals, sweets used to be made in large quantities at least 2 weeks before the festival. I came home everyday with my tongue trickling with droplets of saliva and taste buds ready to devour the variety of sweets that were made at home. Things changed a bit afterwards. Distributing sweets to employees in offices especially for Diwali became a practice Both my parents were employed and, we waited for the sweet boxes they would bring home. We sometimes snatched those boxes from our parents while on the way, even before they could reach home. We relished them more as they would have exotic varieties of sweets than what my mother knew to make at home. For crackers, my father's office had a cooperative society that sold crackers at a price slightly lesser than the market prices. I would keep inquiring my father about the date on which the stalls would open lest i miss anything on my list as the crackers used to get sold out in those cooperative stalls very quickly. Buying crackers used to be done with so much fanfare at that time. We discussed in our friends circle as to when each of us will be buying crackers. At times, i used to take friends for buying crackers. What an happiness that was. Even crores of rupees would not get us back those days or the feeling. The energy and the spirit have dwindled down over the years. We don't celebrate now. But the fervor seems to be less. Today, I see even kids refraining from lighting crackers now as they are told by their teachers that child labor is involved. But i am pretty sure that these kids miss the excitement and amusement that we expected and enjoyed every moment on that day. Most of the time, Ignorance is Bliss.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Festival of Lights
Deepavali is just around the corner. Ads of the latest designs of sarees sported by models have started coming on TV. I paid a visit to T Nagar last Sunday and the whole locality was gasping for breath. It would become even more claustrophobic over the next few days before the city completely embraces the festival of lights. Deepavali is a festival that is expected with the same sheen by all the Hindu communities in India. Its a day of joy for the rich and the poor alike. When i talk about Deepavali, My pre adolescent years come to my mind during which i used to expect the day months in advance. We used to make many lists of what crackers to buy and how to fire them with friends. On the day of lights, we got up at 4 AM to take the oil bath (Ganga Snan) and get ready for the events to come. We even used to have a contest among friends as to who would be the first to come out early in the morning to light the first cracker. Neighbours would come to our house with sweets and we shared that was made at ours. It was a ritual for many years in our family to meet our relatives to share our joy and to get blessings of elders. Evenings would be especially spectacular with colourful pyrotechnics painting the whole sky. Doordarshan, the one and only television channel those days, would treat its viewers with interviews of the hottest cine star and end the day with a latest movie. For me, the day would end with a gloom for having to wait for Deepavali for one more year.
In the last few decades, the mood of festivals seems to have changed for the newer generations. People have acquired a liking for other materialistic things in life and the glitter of Deepavali seems to be fading away year after year. But, there is always a ray of hope, that the world would be as naive as what it was, once upon a time, to take pleasure in the simple sweet things of life, like the festival of lights.
In the last few decades, the mood of festivals seems to have changed for the newer generations. People have acquired a liking for other materialistic things in life and the glitter of Deepavali seems to be fading away year after year. But, there is always a ray of hope, that the world would be as naive as what it was, once upon a time, to take pleasure in the simple sweet things of life, like the festival of lights.
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