Deepavali 2008

Thursday, Nov 9 2007

Today is Deepavali. Funnily I never really celebrated this festival after I became a wife and parent. I chose to do so starting today. I went to extra lengths to buy new clothes for everyone at home, and to put the kids through a Ganga Snaanam (the older one went kicking and screaming to the bathroom as I woke her up at 5:30AM for the ritual☺). When I told her of how kids in India are probably up and about already bathed and on the streets lighting fireworks, all she said was a dreary ‘So?’). Anyway, I am working from home today for this reason and have decided to emulate my sister-in-law who is so meticulous about celebrating each of these rituals with her family. I am going to keep her as my role model from now onwards for such festivities. I even got the recipe of besan laddoo from her that I will experiment on the kids and R tonight after lighting the valakkus.

As I am penning this, I am thinking back to the last time I remember Deepavali being fun. It was Deepavali of 1978. In fact I think I might have shunned this whole festival thing as it brings back memories of my dad’s last Deepavali extravaganza before his accident. I still remember in my mind’s eye of how he rode home on his Alwyn Pushpak scooter, literally bending over with the weight of the fireworks. Daddy was not of a big frame and the scooter as it is looked so heavy in his hands, especially when he would try to start it and had to bend the fuel tank to one side in order for the petrol (gas) to flow to the engine. I would be so afraid that he might get squished under its weight someday and would watch with bated breath every time he started that vehicle. Anyway, on that night before Deepavali he had literally bought the store for us. He had ensured to pick a fire cracker of every variety, one for every age in the house. Akka and I, who were 10 and 14 at that time, were asked to divide the whole thing between the kids. P was only 2 years old and was only allowed to watch us. N was 5 years old and got the bulk of the sparklers, bhoochakram, wire, fountain/flower-pot and the likes. Hallo (my Chitappa, my guardian angel) was the official bearer of the vishnuchakrams as we all knew ahead of time that we were scared to hold it till its end. Akka and I got most of the Lakshmi Pataas, the Elephant Brand, the atom bombs, the rockets, the trains and the aeroplanes. In fact even she got tired after a while and let me dip into her share. I for those three days literally ruled the roost when it came to having the biggest stash of the crackers as my interest never waned. We did not even touch the sissy kudurai pataas and the stinky snake variety because we thought it was for the wimps. In all reality we had so many fireworks, we could not think of how to finish off all the stock. In fact we didn’t. I remember the following year when Daddy was no more, and we had the theetu of not celebrating Deepavali being the 1st anniversary of his death. Thatha suggested we take out the previous year’s stock. We had the leftover snake and the horse brand fireworks, and I hated the smell of the fireworks because it reminded me of the fun we had had with Daddy alive and amidst us the year before. That smell still remains in my memory along with it a lot of buried past that seem to be ‘snaking’ their way to the surface as I decide to blog about it! It is therapeutic I guess!