Happy Diwali

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One fine day in office I was just wondering when is the Diwali? I wrote a mail to my brother at Delhi and pat came the reply it's after four days.Ahah !! I didn't even got a whiff of it. This is one of the festive period (Dusherra -> Diwali -> Chath -> New Year -> Holi) which I am going to miss badly. I missed my Birthday in the list :-) and my beta birthday in March too.
My memory flashed back to my early childhood when I used to wait for Diwali for weeks. Infact there used to be Diwali in air right after the Durga Puja.
To start with, we used to buy small cracker gun on which we used to load cracker roll and then point at each other and fire it. Roll used to be cheap having number of small button bullets :-). As the days neared by, my father used to carry us to a shop and buy crackers for everyone but then when we grew up we used to get money and buy crackers of our choice.
Then buying a cracker was not a spontaneous decision, we used to discuss with friends which shopkeeper is selling at a very good discounted rate and then few expert advice, that shop walla has crackers of last yr and this shop keeper has crackers which doesn't sound well so after doing full market research we used to approach suggested shop and then negotiation was on the table. During this time there were number of small vendors setting up shops on the roadside selling crackers, candles, diya and other Diwali items.
We used to hardly get 15-20 Rs each to buy our loads of crackers so great judgement was required in terms of quantity and quality. After hopping from one shop to another finally zeroed down to one and negotiated to greatest extent and came down home happily. In evening, our friends used to meet and discuss who bought what, then brag how my shopping was the best bargain :-)
We had a concept of Badi and Choti Diwali (Dhanterash) so a day before Badi Diwali we used to celebrate choti Diwali. From the morning itself everyone was allocated some task and we used to dust all household furnitures, keep quilt, blanket and warm clothes in sun (sign of approaching winter). We had a series of master bulbs which we used to give some shape, replace fused ones with new bulbs and then testing in afternoon itself. My friend Ritesh Mohan was an expert in this field and I used to frequently take his help in setting up those bulbs. There is a custom of buying some utensils, jewellery but my mom never followed rigidly it was more of need basis.

On final day - Badi Diwali - we used to patiently wait for evening to wear new dresses. There were houses where entrance were well decorated with Rangoli but we didn't had any sister and we were troublesome kids so my mom was never left with time to do it. Anyhow it would not have been lasted longer :-) We used to light bulbs from evening, keep the doors open with a hope that may be Lakshmi will arrive :-) (seems doors are open to keep lakshmi out- burn crackers and waste money)
We used to help mother pouring oil in diya and keeping it in a tray to carry it to the rooftop. Placing a diya is also an art which I never learned. There were houses which used to have wonderful shape with burning diyas but my focus used to keep diya at strategic location. Closed pot diyas at rooftop, open diyas in house and candles on railings. Diwali used to bring relief in terms of decrease in nuisance of insects.It used to be really difficult to lights bulb and study. There were swarms of insect running here and there which really troubled during our study hours. Few days back there were growth in mosquitos (in playground) in Boston and it came in TV for number of days (I never saw these mosquitos). Large number of insects before Diwali used to be really troublesome. But lot of them gets killed in Diwali night and common observance was that it greatly reduced after Diwali.
After all diyas has been lighted, we used to go in open space or roof top along with our friends and burst all different crackers. As we grew up taste changed, In early childhood it was more of "Fuljhari", "anar", "charkhi", "train" and then as we got more daring we moved to crackers making loud sounds: Mirchi bomb, bullet bomb, Aloo bomb (names derived from their shapes) and yeah firing rocket was the best part and there are number of memorable moments attached with. At times we had someone else rocket entering our house and then sometimes there were errors in alignment and it went after someother guys. Ok Ok OK even Hi-Tech US guided missiles too make mistakes.
After making assessment that there are just few crackers left we used to pack and then visit our friends place to get elders blessings but secret is that we were more inclined towards delicious dishes which used to wait for us.Once friends house tour got completed we used to go back home and now it used to be our parents turn to meet their friends. Our colony have a rich tradition of meeting everyone during Holi and Diwali and infact till now I havent seen these festivals being celebrated with such a great zeal.
It used be midnight when we were back to bed but sleep used to be difficult as few people had more fun in bursting crackers of loud noise only after mid night. Do you think Diwali is over? Not Yet - Wait for sometime there are lot more stories left.
We used to get tired when we went for sleep but then there was competition to get early before our friends wakes up, nothing that I have a good habbit of going for morning jog but had someting else in mind.
In night while bursting crackers there were few crackers which didn't bursted and we failed to located those so we used to keep track of all those crackers which didn't worked and also kept an eye on crackers of our friends. No name on crackers. So after waking up we used to venture out and collect all crackers which didn't lighted and we used to burst it on that night and used to keep some for Chath festival where we used to again burst crackers on Ganga ghat but not on that mammoth scale.
I really missed my Diwali of India and it was first Diwali of my son so would have loved to see his reaction of crackers going boom but I am sure he would have cried as he gets scared when Pressure cooker whistles and some bikes going zoom zoom in US and anything which makes noise.