The much-awaited Festival
time is here. It’s that time of the year when everything seems joyful around.
In India, there’s a festival every week and so you just get tired of the
non-stop thing, but personally, I find Diwali to be the most magical one!
There’s so much beauty and joy around, that the entire air has a festive vibe
to it! What enamours me most is that the whole world seems to be illuminated
and everyone has a smile on their face.
During my childhood,
Diwali break for us would just be 3 days- Chhoti Diwali, Badi Diwali and
Govardhan and right after that would be our final exams, usually within a week
if we were unfortunate to have Diwali in November. However, the exam stress
never dampened our festive spirits and we would wake up early to finish off
some studying, (of course pretend to) before we got involved in the
celebrations. Then, we would go up to Mom, ask her for large needles and thread
and fervidly pick up marigold flowers from the garden and make garlands with
it. God knows, how many flowers we butchered in the process and how many times
we pricked our fingers, but eventually, the garlands made us gloat!
This would be followed by
Rangoli making and I loved to make elaborate patterns. Of course, this rangoli
love set in during teenage only. Prior to that, I would make the Kumaoni Aipan
and ‘Laxmi ji ke paer.’ It was a belief that if you made tiny feet on the
walkway leading to the temple inside home, Laxmi ji would definitely visit the
house that night. Both these activities required me to be adroit as for the
feet of Laxmi, I would soak ‘red geru’ in water and make a solution for the
circular base on the floor and then I would soak rice and grind it to a paste
for making the feet. This was the absolute traditional and preferred way of
doing it, as one could just wipe it off after a few days and make fresh ones the
following year. Later, I switched to making rangolis, for which I would ask my
dad to bring sawdust, then dye it is various colours, spread it on newspapers
to dry and finally make rangoli patterns with it.
There was an additional
benefit of Diwali. Mom ensured that every Diwali and Holi, we wore absolutely
new clothes. Since it used to be terribly cold on Diwali, the usual new clothes
would be her famous hand-knitted sweaters. How we loved those and sported them
fashionably or we thought so, as I still lack any sense of fashion!
In Kumaon, people make
Laxmi ji with sugarcane every year. They make a frame of it, dress up the deity
and finish off with a clay painted face. As children, we would visit all the
neighbouring houses to have a look at their Laxmi and in the process, enjoy
some sweets. ‘Singhal’ a spiral shaped fried savory used to be made in every
household and so the target would be to hit that house first, which had the
most tasteful ‘singhal.’
Being born in a Brahmin
household, we had to bear with the enormously long, never ending pooja and were
not allowed to touch the crackers before the pooja got over. The initial
enthusiasm with which we sat at the pooja would gradually dissipate and we
would start getting grumpy as the clock ticked by and we heard the increasing
sounds of crackers outside. My favourite part of the pooja was a small
‘kullhad’ filled with kheel, a piece of mithai and the coins that were kept in
it, that was given to us post the pooja.
Then we would rush out
and watch the entire town, glittering with lights and the beauty of the town,
reflecting in the lake, which majestically stands right in the centre of the
town. We weren’t much of cracker kids so barring a few of our own, we would
stand outside and just gaze at the fireworks. That was the pleasure of Nainital
that apart from rockets and sky fireworks, you could enjoy even a ‘charkhi or
anaar’ at someone’s house on the opposite hill!
That is the memory that
is still life-like and vivid in my mind.
When it comes to
festivals, I have started experiencing anagapesis! What used to make me
delirious earlier, I no longer enjoy. I do not intend to disparage the festival,
but I get a feeling that everything has become so commercialized now, that the
festivals, have lost their innocent charm!
It has all become an
occasion of trying to out beat the other in terms of festival shopping, price
of gifts, expensive clothing, store bought sweets and a total lack of passion!
Everywhere, there is a
mad rush, people making a beeline in the malls, pathetic traffic snarls and of
course to top it all, NCR experiences the most horrible time of the year, when
pollution levels are at an all time peak due to stubble burning and then there
are these bans on fireworks because of it.
The only thing I look
forward to now, is meeting friends and family but that too is slowly
diminishing, owing to the erratic schedules of people. I long for the time when
the festival was simple and uncomplicated. There was just love and happiness
all around. You did things because you felt like doing them, not because there
was a pressing need to compete with your neighbour or do something to be able
to catch up with the things people did on social media.
As they say that people
move back to basics sooner or later, I hope the festivals too move back to
their old charm!
