Being a child I always awaited Diwali, to wear a new dress and flaunt it in the presence of my friends, to witness crackers filling the sky, munching sweets, and watching Diwali special shows on TV. There were days we waited for a movie to be telecasted on our local cable channels on special occasions like Diwali, and New Year.

The Diwali week is welcomed by bursting crackers all over my place. Bursting crackers were pure fun as we didn’t know about pollution then, how it can affect our environment and us. It was only the sound of joy.

Bragging About Diwali as a Child

When the month of November kicks off it’s a happy feeling the Diwali month has begun. Approaching Diwali week, I will start envisioning wearing a new dress, how I look wearing the dress, and will this color suits me better or the other. The happiest thing as a child, it’s a holiday.

My mom gets underway with her sweets and savory delicacies. She has her good hands for making muruku which is our family favourite. I still remember, my mom used to sit down on the kitchen floor and twist the muruku, where I and my sister sat next to her and tried to copy her but everything went in vain. After years of practice, we learned to swirl the muruku.

There comes the Diwali shopping, we get all dressed up and leave off to purchase clothes for our family. We had a few famous textile shops in our town where we headed to and got a load of all the latest Diwali collections, we tried out the outfits we liked and choose the best.

Earlier we didn’t have online sites to shop for our clothes. We visit showrooms where people rush in and push hard the other people to move to the next corner, I could hear a mom telling her daughter, “This dress looks pretty on you”, and I could hear a husband telling his wife “This color suits you best”. Finally, I hear my dad’s voice echoing “Walk faster”. We can feel the Diwali vibes in all those people.

We touch the fabric, try different outfits, and purchase the one that we are completely satisfied with. We wait in a long queue to get our bills and get rushed out of the textile shop and head to the nearby chat or ice cream shop, eat tummy full and purchase matching accessories for the dress and finally, we enter the cracker (fireworks) shop.

The cracker shop filled with sparkles, shots, rockets, atom bombs, bigili, guns, etc. I have seen guys purchasing all atoms bombs, wallas, shots, etc, and girls purchasing fancy crackers like flower pots, snakes, color sparkles, music crackers, etc. Finally, when done purchasing crackers we head back home with a happy smile.

There comes the Diwali

The night before Diwali in the evening we wear a decent dress it’s my family’s custom or routine thing for Diwali to burst crackers the night before. There is always joy in bursting small crackers like a flower pot which blooms high and colorful spreading light all over. People crossing the road have to wait until it’s over. I used to stare at that person standing and whooing at my fireworks. Once we hit a rocket from my friend’s terrace. When I was young that was the biggest cracker, only guys can handle it. I was standing and staring at the rocket flying high which stuck into my neighbor’s bedroom window, we all became quick athletes there and that was the first and last day I hit a rocket. We have all our neighbors celebrating around us. The street will be filled with colorful lights of crackers, the buzzing noise of children, and scary adults closing their eyes and ears off the crackers sound.

On the day of Diwali, we wake up early in the morning when it’s still dark. My mom drags us out of bed telling “All your friends are awake and lighting crackers already”. Even though it’s a false statement to wake us out of bed “Oh shit, I am already late” is what ticks in my head. I fall for this trap every year. The sound of fireworks is an alarm that wakes you on Diwali.

We take an oil bath, take a pinch of turmeric and just dash it on the corner of the new dress before we wear it. We will be excited to get out of bed that early to dress up and burst crackers with our friends wondering who is gonna burst more. I will be looking forward to seeing whose house entrance is filled with lots of cracker papers so who has burst the most? It was always a day to cherish.

Once done with crackers, a sumptuous breakfast will be ready. Will have our plates filled with assorted sweets and savory in our plate from all our neighbors and cousins. We have rich kajus, melting maysoor paks, absolute round jilabes, soft jamuns, and utterly crispy murukku. We also have stone-hard maysoor paks, sugary jilabes, teeth breaking murukkus as well from our friends and family. The absolute mouth-melting mysoor park is my favorite.

I and my sister would carry sweet boxes and visit our neighbors distributing sweets and showing off our new dresses. On Diwali evening we used to visit our grandparents who would have purchased crackers and would be waiting for us. We again celebrate our Diwali with them and the day would be full of crackers and sweet rides and meeting our cousins, fighting with them to choose your cracker. There comes my grandpa who sits and makes all our cousins sit around him and he divides the crackers among us. I always hid the crackers from my cousin if suppose they steal it.

Bursting crackers, enjoying the fireworks with your head high and wide-open mouth, laughing and getting excited, and running away half-lighting the cracker, it’s one memory to cherish. It makes our day. One hell of a day.

Today’s Diwali

It’s been years since Diwali has been celebrated, as I rejoiced in my childhood. It has taken a big change, no more Diwali excitements arise. No more enjoying Diwali shopping, no more excitement to meet our cousins on special occasions, no more waiting to taste the mouth-watering sweets made by your mom.

It’s not what we asked for. It’s what we are introduced to “Change”. Diwali has become just another day, just a holiday. We would be excited to buy clothes on special occasions when we had our excitements but now we have e-shops at our fingertips so attire can be bought at one click from anywhere, anytime. We do await to meet our cousins on special occasions but we all are far away we see each other through Skype. So what is the necessity to see them in person??? We miss the joy of being with each other. We miss the heat of arguments in person. We miss the joy of hugging each other and sharing things. We no longer yearn to taste the savory made by our mom which was made only on special occasions. We now have Swiggy at our fingertips. We can have whatever we want, whenever we want.

It’s good to have things at our ease to make things easy but certain things should be untouched which makes us live the life that once existed. When we get stuff only on a special occasion, it has value, and we enjoy it more. When we get things frequently, we forget to value them. So get out, dress up, meet up with your people, and try making hard maysoor paks, teeth-breaking murukkus, and uncooked jamuns. Enjoy sharing with them, and laugh about it. That’s what people expect.

Diwali doesn’t bring happiness only when you burst crackers, or you wear new clothes it can be cherished and celebrated by just passing a wish. Wishing u and your family a very happy and safe Diwali.

Xoxo,

Mita