1 January 2012 happened to be a Sunday.... Unfortunately, tuned to the regular routine, i woke up at 5:00 AM. As always being a holiday and annoyed that New Year is on a Sinned Sunday(!) i pulled my blanket to cover my face so that i can have the pleasure of waking up late and enjoy(!?!) the holiday... As the cruel sun penetrated into my room, i had no choice but to wake up at 11 (Yaaaawwwnnnn!!!)
Fine... I understand your question... Now what is the connection between New Year and Deepavali??? Well you see, we Indians celebrate anything and everything bursting crackers (Be it Deepavali or Indian Cricket team winning a test match!)... We just need a reason to make some noise... Our road side scientists launch their 'bottle' rockets with the same or even more sincerity and dedication like a scientist in ISRO or even NASA!!
Those 1,000 and 10,000 walas were trying to compete with my TV volume making the VJ look like he is mimicking those noisy crackers.... As i could barely hear the entertainment i turned off the idiot box and started dreaming about the just passed 'Deepavali'. (Here comes the connection!!!). Before i could explain about my experience this Deepavali, let me elaborate on what the festival used to be and mean to me when i was a kid....
As a kid, Deepavali is one festival i used to look forward to as it is a festival which is fun with those crackers and sweets (not the boring ones made for other occasions) and used to be a joyous day... What i knew back then is that it was the death day of some bad guy called 'Narakasuran' which is being celebrated by the whole world... Also, it is a belief that the holy Ganga river will be available in every water body until sunrise and hence if you take bath before sunrise it will give you the same benefit as you go and dip your head in the holy (polluted!) Ganga river...
The real spirits of Deepavali used to begin right from the day i get my new clothes... Dad would always surprise us by getting a new 'model' cracker that is released for that year... I would barely sleep on the day before the festival... Curious on how the new cracker would be and eager to wear my new clothes... Surprisingly on the day of Deepavali, i would be the first to wake up on the sound of alarm and await my turn for a shower just to run to the road to burst those crackers... As mom applies oil to my hair early morning for the shower, i used to ask intelligent questions to my mom for which till date i havent received any answer... Some of those include, 'Maaa... If Ganga is available in all waterbodies right now, why cant we just store the water in our tank and use later and still get the benefit of dipping the head into the real Ganga????' or 'Maaa, if you say there is Ganga river in all waterbodies, does it mean that even 'Koovam' (a special river from my city of 'Chennai' ;) ) also has Ganga in it right now?? So if we go and dip our head in 'Koovam' right now will it amount to taking a shower in Ganga???' and etc and etc... My mom has her own ways of ignoring my questions and would urge me to have my shower soon... As we are supposed to use Shikakai in the place of Shampoos to get rid of all those oil lavishly applied by mom, i would come out of the shower, after lot of yelling noises for almost an hour from mom and sister...
After which mom will make me taste every sweet and snacks made for the occasion and give me the Deepavali Legium (Made of Sukku, Milagu and thippili to protect from the cold(?) weather and improve immunity which i used to hate the most after having those delicious sweets) and then allow me to lay my hands on those crackers... I would run out to the road, burst crackers till afternoon, enjoy the lunch and wait till evening to burst those flower pots and other colourful, less noisy ones and sleep late with a sense of satisfaction... The highlight would be to go and meet the relatives, share the sweets and snacks and spread the joy and spirit of the occasion.
That being yesterday's memories, lets come to today's story.....
As mom keeps calling me with all those 'holy & polite' names, i would wake up from the bed at 7... Irritated to have to wake up so early (???), i would start yelling back at mom stating, 'Maaaa.... I hardly get a day off... Had to work real late yesterday to get today's off... I am feeling so tired now... You and your festival... You guys celebrate it among yourself!! I dont need such a festival... Blah and blah and blah....' As i have my shower and come out the time would have been 10:00AM... My mom would suggest, 'why dont you guys buy atleast a Kambi Mathapu ('Sparklers') for which our responses would be to stop child labour and chemical impacts and that these should not be encouraged!!! After surfing a couple of channels in TV and finding out that all the first time premiere movies are actually flops, i will log into the facebook profile and start wishing people a very Happy Diwali with loads of smilies... These days it just feels like every occasion stays alive only on Facebook... After sending a couple of wishes on the phone and cursing the mobile service provider for disabling a free messaging service on the occasion we say we had an awesome Deepavali... Well this is the current day "Diwali"...
Wow... What a change over machi!!!! Where did we lose our culture and custom.. Is telephone calls and e-mail wishes gonna replace the physical namaskaram for the elders and aasheervatham that we might get from our grandpa and grandma??? In the rat race for money, success and fame do we even realise what we are losing??? When i have pages to write about my Deepavali experiences as a kid, the current celebrations seem to not even cross a para... Is this the kind of culture and custom we are gonna teach our next generation???
Richness in life is not measured by the money, land and the car we own but by the content, satisfaction, the happiness and most importantly the culture with which we lead our lives... Lets give this a thought and try to preserve what needs to be preserved!
Wow... What a change over machi!!!! Where did we lose our culture and custom.. Is telephone calls and e-mail wishes gonna replace the physical namaskaram for the elders and aasheervatham that we might get from our grandpa and grandma??? In the rat race for money, success and fame do we even realise what we are losing??? When i have pages to write about my Deepavali experiences as a kid, the current celebrations seem to not even cross a para... Is this the kind of culture and custom we are gonna teach our next generation???
Richness in life is not measured by the money, land and the car we own but by the content, satisfaction, the happiness and most importantly the culture with which we lead our lives... Lets give this a thought and try to preserve what needs to be preserved!
