Diwali

Happy Diwali everyone. It's Diwali this saturday and I figured no matter how busy I am I had to write about Diwali. Diwali aka festival of lights is one of the most important festivals in India. It's my most favorite festival, it's kinda sad that I won't be home to celebrate Diwali so I guess the next best thing to do is celebrate it here and reminisce those good old days.

I went to a christian school, so we still had to go to school the day before diwali but then the school would close early :). For the most part, I remember celebrating diwali with my cousins :). I don't have any siblings and it was always great when my cousins showed up. After I get home, I normally start firing crackers with all my friends and my mom and granny would be making sweets. Now that I look back, I cannot believe that they managed to make that much sweets and savories at home. My mom's an excellent cook and its needless to say how much we kids devoured the food :). Badhushah was my favorite, I've never seen anyone else make such wonderful badhushahs. Later in the evening my cousin and aunt would show up, then we all would show each other the clothes we got for Diwali :). Then it was my job to take all our new clothes and keep them in the pooja room.

My cousin and I really loved firing crackers and he taught me how to hold the cracker in my hand and let it off in the air at the right moment so that it would burst in the air :). Once it gets dark, we usually start the rangoli. I guess everyone wants their rangoli to be bigger and better than all the others in the neighborhood. I kinda too a liking towards rangoli and my granny had left huge books in which she had meticulously drawn all these. I always picked one of her nice designs. I am poor with coloring so my mom usually helped pick the right combination.

I remember staying thru the night for some diwali's but even if we went to sleep, we all woke up around 4 am, got ready said our prayers and wore new clothes. My cousin and I would go for some more fire crackers before everyone else gets ready. Once the morning prayers are over, we were allowed to have all the sweets and savories...it was just amazing (food everywhere). Then we have a breakfast (pongal, idli, etc...). It was usually my job to distribute the sweets to all our neighbors. Each house had a kid like me who would bring sweets from their home to ours.

We kinda rest up a little bit after a really lavish lunch, there would be tons of TV programs to watch, the elders usually are watching TV or wishing other relatives on the phone. My cousin and I would normally play chess around this time. We thought we were so good at it and we played it so often :). Usually around this time my maternal cousins would also show up, and around evening we'll start firing the mathappu, flower pot and rocket. The rocket was the coolest. No one knew where it was going to go :). Normally there's one trip to the temple as well. We usually fire crackers till late night and then save some for kaarthigai :).

When all the kids in the neighborhood decide to stop, we usually put all the remaining crackers in a big pile and set 'em on fire. It's really dangerous and I don't know why we did that. The last time I saw these three cousins of mine was at my wedding and that was a year ago. I'm sure none of us can forget how much fun we had. Later on the diwali night or the next day morning my cousin's would leave and we all had to go back to school :(. To me Diwali means getting together with friends and family and having a great time. My cousins and I would usually share stories about our schools, kadi jokes :). I really love my cousins and my parents loved them too and thats what really made it special and memorable :). I guess all festivals are about sharing, loving, giving and there was plenty of that :).

It's always during Diwali that I get maximum number of clothes, I remember once I got 10 different dresses :). Mom was always generous when it came to me. Dad always got me nice crackers, I used to go through the list with him and pick out what I want :). No matter what age I was, Diwali was always fun one way or another :).

I wish everyone a very happy diwali :)