On festivals, traditions and their memories 

An adult’s yearning to travel back in time to his own childhood and enjoy the machinations, strategic times and the joys a child goes through in the time of festivals such as Diwali.

I never lit a firecracker after a fountain firecracker and a roman candle exploded when I was lighting them. However, Diwali never failed to amuse me as a child. Just so you know, I really enjoyed the snakes, the sparklers and the ground spinners — everything else was loud and scary.

I would, for days, gather all my resources — yes people — to get me firecrackers. I would ask my dad’s friends, his office colleagues, random people to give me firecrackers (although I never lit them) and will store them in a very organized fashion. To my parents or my sisters, I would appear as if I am just a chid fiddling with toys or stupid things. But for me, those times were very strategic and important:

1. I would count them everyday before I put them out in the sun to dry (In India it’s kind of dewey during winters) lest someone would steal them.
2. I will have a fixed ratio of sparklers, crackers, fountains etc. in mind lest we would run out of enough sparklers to lit the ground spinners
3. I will strategically place the tip of fountains up so that they dry from top to down
4. I will also untie a pack of those red firecrackers so that I can light them one at a time — I can’t lit them when they are all together — they are loud and scary
5. I will also start emotionally blackmailing my dad into getting us enough lights, candles, lamps and get someone to put them up for us way ahead of time

Funny things I remember today — I remember asking strangers for firecrackers :) — apparently I was cute as as kid and could have my ways (gracefully — no crying, demanding and throwing tantrums).
I also remember the Diwali when we kids would wait for dad to send us firecrackers from a remote place he lived in (for work) and yes, if my memory is still good, it’s the same Diwali when a neighbor’s bottle rocket flew into our house.

I do sometime wonder what would have been my sisters’ strategic time during Diwali? The elder two — most definitely — would be boys and thinking about them :D lol. But most definitely they should thank me for the efforts of collecting/gathering the firecrackers if not for everything else. I never liked the loud ones, but the tradition of collecting them and seeing others coming in and lighting them — specially my dad’s police troops — was a delight for me, my sisters and everyone at home.

I miss Diwali, the smoky skies and my dad drinking whiskey and playing cards with his friends — I never understood the fun they had staying indoors playing cards but I did enjoy the sweets and savories my mom made and I always hoped that my dad drank everyday with his friends. Also coz the fact that he appeared super happy when he was drunk :)

On this day today, I miss Diwali and miss India as I severed the umbilical cord that tied me to this tradition by moving to US. I don’t particularly like the way Indians/Desis celebrating Diwali here in US (mostly drinking and dancing to Bollywood) — not their fault coz it’s mostly the constraints of not being loud, not being able to light firecrackers — it’s illegal here :D and not being able to see the whole city light up with firecrackers that makes them celebrate and reminisce the tradition this way. It’s their way of remembering the tradition.

Someday I will go home and try and re-enact every step of that process. Wait, aren’t we adults supposed to live them through our kids?

Happy Diwali :)