10 posts tagged “festival”

தீபாவளி நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்.  வாழ்வில் ஒளி பெருகட்டும்.
Wish you a happy and safe Deepavali.

You are invited.

This thanksgiving, here are a few things our family is grateful for:

A whole lot of totally unrelated strangers who toil in their field to get the food on our table.
A country whose weather is conducive to growing the food, that gets to our table.
The innumerable animals and plants that sustain our life through the food on our table.
Good health that makes it possible to eat a healthy meal with no restrictions.
A family that makes it possible to have a peaceful meal at the table with no worries that catch the throat.
Jobs that pay sufficiently to get wholesome daily meals.
Parents who helped us get the skills used in the job that pay for the food on our table.
Guests that drop by and partake of our meals, making it more wholesome by their company.
Friends that add just that little sparkle that adds to the peace of enjoying a meal.

It is so easy in the humdrum of daily existence to overlook little things that make life worth living.

Thank you.

I am personally not big-time into Deepavali.  Navarathri, yes.  Gokulashtami, double yes.  Sriramanavami, perhaps.  Karthigai, love it, except the making snacks bit, which I don't risk.  But Deepavali has never held much fascination for me because of a whole lot of reasons.

1. Deepavali has spelt materialism, even when I was a kid.  The earning member of the family (usually the dad) would be paranoid about the hole his pocket would shortly face.  The mom would go on a shopping spree (Deepavali was the only time of the year we bought clothes for ourselves), dragging me along, and I HATE SHOPPING. 
   
2. There would be way too much peer pressure , because my friends and cousins would have beautiful clothes that would fit them, while I will get clothes that looked beautiful in the shop, but when I wore them, they would be  uncomfortable and so unbecoming. 
3. I love taking an oil bath; even now. Provided it is a relaxed affair, and I am not groggy out of waking at an unGodly hour of four A.M, and I had enough time to remove the oil using lots of chiyakkai, without people from outside the bathroom screaming, "are you done yet?  Deepavali will be over by the time you finish your bath".  And oil bath not concluded by sambirani was NOT a complete oil bath.  The groggy, hurried oil bath would leave a sticky residue of oil on the hair and skin which would bother me for the rest of the day.
4. A whole lot of sweetmeats would be made, including Jangiri, laddu, manankombu, omapodi, gulab jamun, and mixture, either by the women folk of the family, or by hired cooks, a couple of days before Diwali.  While one snack at a time is a good idea, having all of those, for one single occasion would make me sick.  Especially since I would already be bilious having woken up early. 
5. Fireworks. OK, I was an unusual child. I HATED fireworks. Especially the noisy ones.  And people would start bursting crackers as early as 2 A.M.   I was scared of noise, and everytime a "Lakshmi Vedi" or an "Atom Bomb" would be fired, I would get a heart attack.  All I wanted to do on Deepavali was to hibernate in a sound proof, smoke free room until long after Deepavali has past.
6. Did I mention that I was a weird child?  I loved school. I hated holidays.  Deepavali meant four days off.
7. Gallivanting all over town.  After lunch, which was an elaborate five-course-meal, AFTER the gazillion snacks for breakfast, we would leave on our pilgrimage to all relatives.  Meeting grandaprents, uncles, aunts and first cousins was ok, I love them, they love me and I was comfortable in their houses. But being dragged to every grandaunt-twice-removed, aunt-by-marriage to uncle-thrice-removed and cousin's cousin's house was not fun.  Especially when your stomach is doing the somersault, your head foggy, your ears ringing and skin and hair, sticky.  And at each house, you would be offered more jangiri, laddu, manankombu, gulab jamun and mixture. Ugh.

In my teens, things changed in my family.  Partly because my mom who was the life and soul of the Deepavali party had passed on.  My dad was too melancholic to take part in festivities, my grandmother could not convince a troubled, rebellious teenager to do stuff that she did not want to.

I also realised that over the years the materialism has worsened. The high point of Deepavali became wearing absurdly expensive clothes, stuffing face with more and more cholesterol and watching television all day.  Thankfully in those years I stayed away from the country to feel its effect.  And when I returned, I was old enough to make my own rules.

Now I think I am at an equilibrium. I observe festivals, but not out of compulsion but because there are good things about them that are easily overlooked in the humdrum of materialism.  Also because, my daughter would feel left out when the rest of the world is celebrating.  So, this is what I have planned, provided the kid, dude and rain God agree.

1. Have a joint diwali fireworks sans noisy crackers with the usual gang of kids and moms on Deepavali eve.
2. Wake up usual time on Monday morning.  Have a relaaaaxed oil bath and give one to the kid.
3. Eat a normal, usual meal.
4. Visit both sets of grandparents.
5. Light lamps outside the house

As for snacks, I am making two - a chocolate cake (ok, I just needed an excuse) and beda.  Of couse the legiam, which I love.

Happy Deeopavali everyone.

 

 

Happy Vijayadasami to fellow-believers out there.  Hope all your endeavors meet with success and you find satisfaction out of them.

Last year was grander with a rangoli and what not, this year is pretty sober, thanks to a deadline until the day Navarathri began.  Add to it a pinch of lethargy and a spoon of general illness all around.
Anyways,

to our kolu.  And in case you live a few continents away from us, you are invited to our kolu here.

And if you promise to not hold it against me, the Ranganathar in front is a rangoli created by yours-truly with lots of assistance from the dude who made sure the little one did not "help" me with it.  A close up is given below.

For those uninitiated on who or what Ranganathar is,  it/He is the presiding deity of Srirangam, the dude's home town, and the supposed "heaven on earth" for our particular subsect.  See the "original" picture here.

So, if that blowing trumpet routine is over, we go on to the next item, the "park" built by the kid.

And sorry, no sundal today, it took me a gruelling four hours to make the rangoli, and so I am pooped !