As dusk falls gently over the by lanes of Kharagpur (my home), the chaos of traffic mingles with the shouts of little children who have just bought their share of firecrackers for Diwali. Its that time of year which sets people to get, set and shop. After all, there are clothes to be bought, mithais and dry fruits to be stocked, decor items needed to spiff up the home, diyas, rangoli colors… Phew! The festival of lights opens up the floodgates to the Indian shopping season. The sparkling crystal and shining silverware will be polished to gleam on every dining table. Diwali, that was originally the celebration of King Ram’s return to his home after a long exile, today is a festival of fireworks and feasting. It’s a festival of food, calorie-laden meals served out with the sole aim of indulging friends and family. And with all those treats on offer, there can be a battle between indulging and abstaining from the array of sweetmeats.
This time I was at home for Diwali after almost a decade. “Has Diwali changed over the last quarter century of my existence?” I thought. The best approach would be to walk down the memory lane to find an answer to this perennial question. I remember when as kids we used to get a fixed budget of 100/- per head to get fireworks for all 3 brothers. If revolted and asked for more, My dad would get back saying - how can you be satisfied by burning up the money to ashes? Moreover I think 300 for you guys is a lot. There you go. We used to simply slip out of the room as sand slips from the fist, so that the allowance does not get deducted any further. Come diwali and we were loaded with all different kinds of firecrackers and rockets that would make the loudest possible sound.
This time when I was home for diwali the experience was totally different. I was at home, attended the complete puja like a Raja beta. I was not very enthusiastic on getting the crackers like my younger brothers. After the puja, I went out to find children enjoying the fireworks. However, the loud noise was intolerable. Even Tommy the friendly and playful three-year-old was not happy with the noise. The loud cracker noise two days ahead of Diwali is enough to drive the normally docile German Shepherd to become aggressive, stop eating and ceaselessly bark all over the house, looking for places to hide. Suddenly I remembered one article I read the other day, which was talking about the high decibel levels in Mumbai during Ganesh Puja. The article said that during Ganesh Puja somewhere in Mumbai on the main street some group of people had put up a banner, which pointedly asked in Marathi, “Dev Behra Aahe Ka?” (Is god deaf?). The banner, of course, created more noise. In the midst of this noise this thought put a smile on my face.
However, there is other facet of this D-day also. The most oppressive aspect of Diwali this year? Without a doubt, that slot has to be taken by the barrage of unsigned SMSes. While we all love to be greeted on a good occasion, after a while, the constant ping-ping of shubhkaamnaye from strangers who refuse to identify themselves is reduced to nothing more than nuisance value. One spends valuable time scrolling down an endless SMS, packed with highly Sanskritised words and complex images of diyas and devis. Decoding that is tough enough. What follows is worse. You go nuts trying to SMS a polite ‘thank you.’ And, of course, the message doesn’t go and ends up in the ‘Unsent’ box. ‘Network busy,’ your own screen keeps flashing as every Indian in the remotest corner of the world gets going with the Deepavali messages. I don’t know about you, but I received quite a few in a lingo I didn’t understand completely, besides, of course, greetings in English, Hindi and Telugu. I know at least two people who’ll be beaming at the all-time record usage of this modern-day scourge (SMS) – Mukesh Ambani and Ashim Ghosh. In terms of billing, it has been a great season for our leading cellphone services.
Despite of all the noise and cell phone barrage it was a great Diwali being with Family- the support of ones system. The happiness my mom and dad felt with every member at home after so long was invaluable. These are the moments, which make the D-day also a Diwali-Full of lights and bliss.
