Diwali --A festival of lights

I started writing this note some days back..but somehow managed to be late...will not go into the list of excuses I have...that needs a separate blog..but adding these two lines on top was definitely a good idea...then the rest can stay as it is...and it is never too late to send best wishes .....right?

Happy Diwali to all..............

It is such a fantastic occassion to be in touch with all the people you know. You may not be physically close to your loved ones but the moment you light a candle and the flame grows from a tiny speck to a full flame with a tiny glow around it..you feel as is you have somehow communicated with your loved ones. I am not a big fan of the fireworks on Diwali but I strongly feel  that a festival which comes with lights can only help one think positive, look positive and behave positive...

  

                                                            A tiny light, however small

                                                            still fights the dark away..
                                                            just like the mighty sun, lovely and bright
                                                            brings in a fresh new day!

 I  was trying to explain Diwali to Arno today as he was preparing for school. Just recently he had seen Durga Puja here in Holland....so I thought its good to come to the subject from that angle. so I started off by saying ,

Me:  " You know Arno, like Durga Puja we also have something called Kali Puja/Diwali where we worship another goddess called Kali.....

Arno: Does this LADY also come WITH FAMILY like Durga thakur?

On showing him the picture of Goddess Kali he went into difficult questions like "Why is Ganeshas papa sleeping under the feet of this lady?"

Valid question. Need to come up with a valid answer. Honestly quite a difficult one to tackle early morning before leaving for work. Actually it does not get easier in the evening.

So much so for trying to explain the festivities....................

Having said that, I still feel it is our responsibility to give our children a "flavour" of how we did things back home...I also think that they can in a way "relate" to all this if the flavour is "presented " in a way that makes it interesting and fun.

As a child, Kali pujo/Diwali was a favourite occassion no doubt, but it also marked the end of puja vacation. It was the final day of fun and frolic and then back to the books. But ..what a wonderful final day it was! The weather during this time of the year was fantastic.The morning started with blaring music from the street puja pandals...we were not so decibel conscious at that time....my brother would be busy checking his fireworks and trying to expose them to the right amount of sunlight so that their performance would be the best at night.....I would be carefully counting and recounting the candles that needed to go on the roof and gate....mom would be busy in the kitchen cooking and trying to finish her daily chores as soon as possible as a preparation for the evening when the whole family would be going out to visit the different pandals in the neighbourhood. My father would be at work with promises to return  "early".

Here, in Holland the day passed off without any events...at times I did not even remember its DIWALI today. However, as I left for home in the evening, I decided to do  something "different"  to make us all  "feel" a bit different, a bit more "diwali-like" . I picked Arno from the creche and told him that he has a very important thing to do today evening.  Arno was thrilled. I did put extra stress on the word IMPORTANT...

We reached home, he quickly took his shower still curious about this important thing to do...

I gave him the gas lighter (first time for him to take the lighter on his own...he felt very IMPORTANT already..) ...asked him to light 14 candles very carefully..because its Diwali today..reminded him of the morning conversation about this LADY...I also explained to him how it is important to wish good for the family and friends while he is lighting the candles...oh..you should have seen the look of IMPORTANCE in his eyes..its like finally FINALLY mom has considered him better suited for important jobs like this rather than cleaning up toys, arranging the books  etc, etc.

(The number 14 stuck in my mind from early memories of Ma lighting 14 candles on the day before diwali..we called it "choddo prodeep" . On this day she also cooked "choddo shaak"- a mix of 14 different leafy vegetables) 

About 300 kms from our house, in another household in Germany my best friend Bee was trying to do similar things with her twin daughters Ruhia. The IMPORTANT job here was to make a rangoli with flowers. What a lovely way to be creative and also expose them to the beautiful rituals.

In both cases, the final result was wonderful. Our living rooms glittered with the Diwali lights and colourful rangolis giving us a good feeling about our Diwali celebrations away from India, took us back in time to spend some thoughts on our childhood and the rituals handed down to us by our parents, our kids were exposed to Diwali and very happy with the IMPORTANT jobs they did and best wishes were made for our family and friends. What more do we want ?

Yes , I also made some Kebabs....recipe coming up.....

;-)

How could I miss the lovely colours?

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