DIWALI or DEEPAVALI
Life is like a giant wheel and roller-coaster . Sometimes you go up, and sometimes you go down. Certain moments lift you up and certain moments pull you down. We need to learn to live with both. As of today, I turn back to see those wonderful moments I have had in my life. Most of the good ones were during Diwali. As we talk about it each one start having their sweet memories. I have had wonderful years of Deepavali. (Let me call in our own style)

Just few days before the arrival of Deepavali boys used to talk about it in the school.
"Dey.... They are buying crackers for Rs200/- in Kumar's house...da."
"Dey... I am going to my uncle's house. My uncle is coming from Dubai. We will be having crackers for Rs1,000/-". Nobody had uncles in US in those days.(atleast among my friends). Being in a middle class family, I knew the budget and never used to utter about anything to my friends. After coming home, used to ask my mom, about our family budget. It used to be very meagre, when compared to my friends. I never talked about the budget to them. The amount spent on crackers were estimated with the related rubbish in front of the houses.
"Dey.... did you see the rubbish in front of Sankar's house? I think they have burst a lot da..."
" Come to our street...... Uppili has lots of cousins who have come from Bombay.They all have burst crackers so much it is going to take days to clean the rubbish.".
The best joke among boys was some of them used to collect those rubbish lying in front of somebody's house and after putting them in front of their house used to boast that they only burst all those crackers. Clever ones (like me) used to say that we took all our crackers and burst it in front of their house, because of the cattles in the neighbourhood.
Among girls, dress and ornaments were the talk. All the elderly women used to gossip about the latest design sarees available in Nalli, Rangachary, Kumaran and all the shops in Ranganathan Street. It is really nice to think about this festival which brought so much of happiness to everyone.
I do remember also, the few years when we happened to have no celebrations due to deaths among relatives. I really wonder whether those kind of mourning is followed by people today. In those years, we never used to celebrate even for the demise of Grandparent's cousins. Nowadays it is different. Unless there is a very close relative's death, the traditions are not followed.
I always liked the morning of Deepavali. My mother used to get up first in the street and burst the first cracker of the street and wake up everyone in the street. There was our traditional Nadhaswaram musician called 'Raghavan' who used to come along with his troup. Though Raghavan's main profession was hair styling, his part time job was playing Nadhaswaram. All his accompanice used to be half sleeping (especially the boy who used to put Jalra.It is an art to put Jalra rhythmically and as well as sleep). The length of the music was according to the wealth of the people's house they visited. One of my neighbour was a very stingy man, and they played only for few minutes always in their house. Every house owner used to give them money with Betel leaves, and nuts. I used to wonder what they will do with so many betel leaves.

Most of the children never stopped with the crackers they had. They used to collect the half burnt crackers and flower pots and collect those chemicals in a paper and later used to burst them and get injured very badly. One of my friend Sankar in childhood, got his fingers burnt very badly. I wonder whether his kids do the same now. I had some seniors in my street who used to have the rockets in their hand and light them. One of my friend's uncle called 'Thambi Mama' came from Coimbatore and I still remember the rocket he launched. It came back to him. I always wondered why the rockets fell after certain distance. I wish I was born before Newton. The most dangerous of all was 'The Train'. One of my neighbour was working in Standard Motors Factory. They had a staff society and used to get crackers for cheaper rate. He used to bring all new varieties of Crackers. During one of those years, when we did not have Deepavali (due to my father's demise), my sister and myself got up early morning and started looking through the windows at the entire street who were celebrating merrily. We felt sad for our Dad. I had a doubt whether my father will come back alive the next year and was pestering my mother whether we will never have Deepavali in the future. After the dawn, visiting friends houses was another thrill. Everyone in their Deepavali dress, and walking to show their friends was a common sight.
"Ganga snanam Aacha....sir...." was the usual question among elders.
" Yennanga indha pudavai thaan vanginneengala.........yennakku kooda indha colourla .... vanganumnu aasai........ Yenna jananga.....Gumbalana ...Gumbal...Seri po...nammakku kuduthu vaikalainu...vandhutenga..." was the woman folks grumble.
Some vivid readers will be with their Deepavali malar. The best was 'Kalki' and 'Ananda Vikatan' malars. I still remember one of Madan's ( My favourite) cartoon.
Two boys lighting a Rocket on the road was the first scene.
The second scene will be a gentleman reading newspaper on the open terrace, and the rocket landing.
The third scene will be the gentleman looking surprisingly at the rocket where two astronauts will be walking out of it in a cool manner.

Oh.....god.......those were wonderful days. Later we started questioning about Deepavali in our early 20's. The charm started dying. Again picked up the enthusiasm during our first Diwali after marriage. Normally for most of the new Maapillais it is yet another skill to show before their in-laws. Now after becoming parents, celebrate it for the children. My son on hearing about the childless labour did not want to burst crackers for few years, until he was definite that those companies were not using any child labour. I am proud to have a son like him. Nowdays after the evolution of private Channels, Solomon Pappaiyan and Dindigul Leoni is seen in everyone's house on the Diwali day.

Now that we are in UK, we are missing all these happenings (though not the TV's). But I never like to miss Deepavali. I keep visiting Chennai every year. Yes........... I am leaving to Chennai on 23rd October and hope to see some bloggers when I visit there.

Hi Bloggers of Chennai........... Hope to see as many as I can.

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY DIWALI!!!

I dedicate this posting to all those wonderful people who make Deepavali a memorable one by working behind the screen like Taylors, Crackers Factory Workers, Chefs in Sweet shops, Tradesmen and many more who work tirelessly to make others happy.

HAPPY DIWALI!!!