I’m sure many people know about Diwali globally. If you are the ones who don’t, let me tell you Diwali is the grandest festival of India. It is the festival of lights signifying the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over bad and hope over despair. So, people light up their homes with lanterns, oil lamps, and all those LED bulbs. There are various religious and mythological stories associated with Diwali which you’ll find online. I will be focusing on Diwali now and then.
One of the main beneficiaries of the Diwali are the kids. They love Diwali more than anyone else on the planet because they get official holidays to celebrate it. Parents buy them firecrackers, clothes and they get plenty of good food, chocolates and sweet dishes. A perfect time-off to get rid of that academic stress and pressure, at least for time being. For decades, Diwali is being celebrated the same way, but I realized a lot has changed over the years even for the kids.
Back in the 80s when I was a kid and a part of this prestigious beneficiary group, I started celebrating Diwali almost ten days before the actual festival day. The school would shut down for around 21 days and we would be all in the streets. Today, the academic schedule hardly provides time to kids and they get a holiday only for a week or so.
For us, vacation time was all about getting up, eating breakfast and then heading down the lane with friends. The conversations were real and friendships were true and deep. Unlike today, where most kids instant message on Facebook and WhatsApp. These conversations are touch-screen and lack the feeling of a personal touch. Hence, Diwali now and then has changed a lot.
Then, each kid would have a bagful of crackers and we would indulge in a competition that would scare the shit out of street dogs, birds and even adults. The cracker competition between different neighbourhoods was the fun part because it was a matter of reputation.
The quality of crackers would signify our social and economic status. We as kids would take pride when we are on the winning side.
Also, the Diwali shopping experience was completely different. Shopping for Diwali now and then is different. Today, kids have the opportunity to head to a shopping mall, or grab a smartphone and browse products on Amazon. However, back in those sweet days, there were no malls and no Amazon. Street shopping was the most popular form of shopping in Mumbai. I am sure many different cities would follow the same trend.
Today, people are more focused on buying designer outfits, but earlier it was all about wearing a copy of dress that your favourite Bollywood actor or actress wore in a movie. Street stall owners made thousands selling those dresses and accessories and convincing us that we look as good as the actor in that attire.
Additionally, a days before Diwali, on Dhanteras, a trip to the local jewellery shop was a must to buy some gold which would bring us some good luck.
Diwali vacation was all about spending days with relatives, distant cousins and friends. So, every other day it was all about being a host or a guest. It was either you visit someone or someone visits your home. As kids, we were not really interested in who visited our home for festival greeting, but what they brought along as gifts.
In our hearts, we would desperately wait (beg the Gods) for the guests to leave (without eating) because we were more interested in finishing off the delicacies laid on the table for them. For us, this was the time when we were surrounded by gifts and the price tag of the gift would in some way was the yardstick to measure how much that person loved you. Today, people don’t really visit each other because we have social media to drop greetings electronically.
Lastly, kids love to gobble up food and sweet dishes and we were no different. There is a saying that beggars can’t be choosers and back in those days, we lived by that phrase. If there are no sweets at home, visit someone’s home and you’ll get one. Of course, you can’t decide which one you’ll get, but you’ll get one for sure. In the worst case scenario, you might have to visit multiple homes to achieve your objective. For diabetes patients, this was a really bad time. There were no sugar-free sweets so all they could do is watch others relish sweet delicacies, or try some and take a leap of faith.
Lighting up the oil lamps and creating colourful rangolis was also a fun part for us. The TV industry back in the 80s was more sensible than today, but we had just one TV channel. So, basically, the entire India would watch the same TV shows. During the evening hours, we would lit oil lamps which were far better than these electric Chinese LED lights that in some way dampen the spirit of Diwali and make me feel like it’s e-wali (electronic Diwali).
If you have any memories of festivities, please share and we would all love to hear it.
This post is a part of the Cherished Blogfest 2017 #CBF17.
22 comments
This brought back so many memories. Thankyou for sharing, Sharukh.
I’m glad you liked it, Damyanti. I thought this was the perfect way to blend Cherished Blogfest and Diwali.
I agree with you Sharukh. These days people have distance themselves from the root of Indian culture and so glued to the social media that some of them they don’t know who their neighbour is.
In 90’s when I was a kid, during diwali I used to be whole day out playing with roll caps and gun, specially chor police and during nite it was the phathaka nites, but these days I hardly find any kinds playing around during their vacation. The 5 yr kid is so gued to the mobile that he even dno’t know how to play basic outdoor games.
Gone are those golden days. I don’t know weather we are progressing or we are detoriating.
Hope, the golden 90’s era comeback, where the inside happiness was there not the materialistic one.
Thank you, Ashish, for the comment. I am glad that you were able to connect with the post.
I guess our memories belong to our generation. Who knows how “old fashioned” the things kids today are doing will seem in 30 years. I remember summer vacations, holiday breaks and just ordinary days off. One think I remember most was the very large parades for Memorial Day and Veterans Day, but WWII had only ended 10-15 years earlier and Korea had ended well less than 10 years before I was attending parades. Today, we still have parades, but they are very small by comparison.
Thanks for joining CBF17 🙂
Thank for sharing your views and memories of festivities, Dan.
I resonate with the old days… I find social media is good in balance but lacking in connection.
We celebrate Diwali (puja, offerings, lights) and I think I’d have loved the older celebration! Good post — sent it to Mitchell!
Happy Diwali to you and Mitchell. I hope he loves the post.
What a wonderful, enlightening post, Sharukh! It brought back a cherished memory of my best friend, Melodie, who died last year. We were writing a book together and one scene was of her preparing and attending a Diwali festival party. When I think of her it’s always in the context of her struggle to stay alive, her victory of light over darkness. I may back up your Cherished Blogfest post with one of my own. Thank you so much for helping me remember this cherished memory. 🍁🍂 Christine
So nice to hear from you, Christine. Sorry to hear about Melodie, but like we say in India, people die, memories live forever. I’m sure she will always live in your memories. Thank you for commenting.
Thank you for sharing about this grand festival of India. I embarrassingly knew very little about Diwali and was happy to learn more here.
#CBF17
Hi Donna, I am glad you liked the post. Well, India is so diverse that we as Indians don’t know everything about it. So, it’s okay if you don’t know much about Diwali. The purpose behind this blogfest is to discover new people, new things and new cultures. Thank you for commenting.
Diwali sounds like a wonderful holiday for kids of all ages. Anything that has some unexpected fun and good food associated with it needs to be cherished.
Yeah, it is. It’s a five-day country-wide extravaganza.
It was nice to read your post, bringing in some lovely memories of my childhood- I used to worry my parents to buy some crackers for us and would wait for our neighbors to share deepvali sweets.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. Hope you’re having a great time.
It’s so interesting to hear about your personal experiences with Diwali and learn more about this holiday. Love the description of how it’s become “e-wali” these days. In some ways how we celebrate holidays evolves over time which can leave me feeling a bit nostalgic for how things were celebrated back when I was a kid.
Well, change is constant and therefore I surely understand that the way festivals are celebrated changes. However, my last line is a kind of metaphor for commercialization of the festival that in some way ruins the essence of the festival.
Beautiful evocation of a personal memory and cultural important event. To be honest with you I knew little about Diwali, so thank you for your detailed description. I have also fond memories of French holidays or summer vacations with my numerous cousins where all we had to play with was each other. Your post is perfect for the Cherished Blogfest.
Thank you, Evelyne, for reading and commenting on my blog.
I would have loved seeing the lights from the oil lamps, those that you saw growing up. The one thing I love most about Christmas, other than the birth of Christ, is the lights. It gives the season a special glow and warmth. You had a very special time, Sharukh, with food, treats, fire crackers, family and friends, and oil lamps. Very cherished memories!
I believe that almost all religions in the world focus on the light which is a symbol of truth and goodness triumphing over the darkness and evil, both inside us and the world outside. Thank you for your comment, Mary.