It's Diwali time -Films, sweets and crackers galore
Well it's that time of the year when the customary question ' Ganga snanam accha' is the first greeting in the wee hours of the Diwali morning and the day's schedule is a welcome change with the TV progs, crackers, new dresses, sweets, savories etc. This is one festival where the scale of celebrations still seems to be keeping pace with the change of times.
When I was in my native place the morning used to start as early as 3 am with bit of lee way for the smaller kids up to 4 am max followed by the small nalangu, compulsory hot oil bath while we were half asleep, namaskarams to the oldies with the individual dresses being distributed and worn instantly. I still remember my grand mother non-chalantly throwing out an electric Sara vedi as the perfect sampradaya starter to be f0llowed by the fist bout of cracker bursting. There was a little competition as to which house would start the big cracker sound with either a 1000 wala or a kuruvi vedi and all the kids had to be rationed with their own quota of crackers with a small 'oothuvathi' which became bigger in size in the later years as we graduated to bigger crackers from mathappu and busvanam stuff. The king of the crackers of course used to be the atom bomb which was a precious commodity and was given only to the veterans closely followed by Laksmi, Vishnu, Elephant, Kuruvi, bomb rockets and the train on a small twain rope was the attraction of the evening. The guys who had the maximum paper waste accumulated in front of the house were supposed to be the biggest spenders and the result used to be out only by next day and such guys would walk up and down the street with a raised shirt collar and a villainy smile at the others
There were also the interesting pieces like the 'marunthu' which had a great taste when taken with the coffee and the murukkus and sweets used to pile up as the day progressed with almost every body in town visiting my grandmother to get her blessings since she was the biggest of them all after we moved to Chennai. On one Diwali count in a small one bed room housing flat in Royapettah if I was right the visiting headcount reached triple figures by the end of the Diwali day but my mother used to ensure with a smile that all of them had coffee and sweets whether they wanted or not thanks to my grandmother's legendary hospitality . Only DD was around and they used to screen a movie on the Diwali evening or the nearest week end and there was a huge suspense waiting for that week's Ediroli programme from the anchors Kannan and Sampathkumar as to when they would announce the movie name
In Gulf most of the time the Diwali day is a working day but our guys manage to take a day off and after the customary phone calls back home before 7am when the full rate starts they settle down to the TV programmes of Sun and Jaya with a little bit of local sweets and savories. In the evenings with great difficulty the children try to find a secret place to burst the small crackers(actually they are apology of crackers compared to back home) procured with great difficulty from nearby supermarkets and they have to invariably disburse the moment the local police vans turn up. For the elite it's more of a social gathering with few drinks at the Indian club showing of the jewellery and textiles purchased for the occasion to one another.
Feel sad for the Gulf kids. They miss the real festival mood back home especially during times like Diwali
Happy Diwali to all of U and hope U have atleast 'Snanam' even if the Ganga is not to be found!
RK
2 Comments:
The Author, in his article 'Deepavali Time' has very clearly and interestingly illustrated the celebration of deepavali in his younger days at Chennai. Being a close relative of his grand mother, I can also recall my visit to his house on deepavali days with my father, to get her blessings. Though the visitors were huge in number, she used to treat each and every one with the same amount of affection and compassion. In extending hospitality, I can also mention that his mother's and father's roles were also some thing extraordinary. Those days have gone and as the days go by the festival has become only a ritual.
K.ANANTHANARAYANAN
You do forget the turmoil of the poor stomach eating the sweets & the noveau concept of OPEN HOUSES (where the glittering housewives serve the best menu and try to out do each other)adopted in last few years in Gulf.
Can you imagine getting into the refinery of so called (jewellery * heavy zari saris)and driving around like crazy from one place to another to attend the so called OPEN HOUSES amidst the horrendous traffic in Dubai.
What so ever the spirit still exists among us to CELEBRATE the festive season.
Happy Diwali!!!
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