Reminiscing Deepawali of our Childhood

While I settled down in front of TV sipping my tea post the Deepawali ritual of oil bath and prayers. I was reminiscing of the Deepawali during my childhood days vis a vis the current scene of our festivals.   No I don’t want to get in to a debate on whether our times were great and current times are not so, etc..  I believe in the notion that all times are relevant and for all ages of people and they have their own blissful moments, struggles and stories to tell later.

 

I was just reminiscing about our childhood Deepwali without any judgement on what was good or what is bad (am I in that mode already 😊).  Those days Deepawali festival marked three major aspects for us: 

1)  Visiting a tailor (Decent Tailors was the name of the shop where we used to get our clothes stitched. Yes, he did a decent job), back then it wasn’t about visiting malls/ brand outlets or going click /swipe happy on our computers to glory in online shopping.  Parents used to get us cut pieces of shirt and pant clothing. Our process started by planning our visit to tailoring shop, so that we get the stitched dress on or before the day of festival. Precise planning (included mental mapping of Gantt charts) ensured that we visit the tailor shop, gave our measurements, give out specific instruction on the frills to be considered in trousers and shirts. We were very particular about the buttons, collar design and side cut of the shirt. While trousers were of baggy design often.  Now when we look at those old photographs, we can’t believe ourselves that we opted that design, unable to comprehend why and why Baggy. May be Nation, Arnab and Shiv Sena and everyone wants to know !!!

 

2)   Oil bath was another biggest event of Deepawali.  On the day of Naraka Chaturdashi, we used to get up at 4 Am, undergo the process of castor oil (Haralenne) smearing and our mother washing it out with vengeance using seegepudi (Shikakai Powder). That enormous force and focus left us numb for few minutes. Normally the most caring and tender demeanour of Amma used to take a violent turn when we had oil bath. Right from slapping palmful of castor oil on our heads, smacking it with all the force, we were given some time to recover before we were pushed to bathroom for the overhauling process. The gush of piping hot water poured from a height and followed by the vigorous application of seegepudi on the oiled scalp and body, left us motionless, wondering whether we really achieved Nirvana . Well the process seemed to be full of action, but the underlying intention was good cleansing, health and hygiene (Yes, we have to say this now, being in parental status) .

 

3)  Crackers was the next most important aspect. Persuading parents to get crackers, ensuring at least some of the loud and blasting crackers are part of the list and carefully storing them at safest place in the home were activities which demanded huge focus and perseverance.  The waiting time between buying of crackers and the day of Naraka Chaturdashi on which we could burst them seemed to be never ending. With bated breath, we endured that wait and prayed the God fervently that the success rate of the crackers to be 100% and to rain gods to stay away for couple of days to allow us to have the blast. Immediately after the oil bath (shock treatment) we used to rush outside to burst the first cracker of the day (It was invariably a Red Fort branded “Sara Pataki” or say chain of crackers).  With three days of bursting various cracker bursting sessions, which used to be three in a day. The Finale ended in post Deepawali day burning up all the left over crackers, carefully picked from the heaps of burnt crackers.

 

Well that was our Deepawali, it was blissful, it was playful, it was full of care, love and celebration.  May be some other day, I can pen down, how is it now.