My earliest memories of Diwali was being woken up at 4.30 AM by Amma.
My brother and I, unlike our usual grumpy morning selves, jumped out of bed eager for the day to begin.
We were asked not to open our eyes as she led our blindfolded selves to a pedestal where she had a bowl of coins and an idol of Laxmi, the Goddess of Prosperity, we blinked our eyes open to.
Appa then applied the 3 drops of sesame oil on onto each of our heads for the ritualistic oil bath.
Given that the person who gets done first would light the first cracker, it was a game of deceit, manipulation and speed.
Amma usually had a mix of herb and soap-nut powder to wash off the oil. To offset the time I’d take washing off my longer hair, I usually hid the brother’s new clothes.
Oft surprises me about how I never have looked forward to anything new as much as I did for the new clothes that Appa usually set out for me.
In the backyard, under the jackfruit tree, was our target – the huge black bag with crackers of every kind.
It was Appa’s job to resolve the fights that always broke out – for the brother insisted on giving me all the ‘girly ones’ – from the ‘sparklers, twinklers to the ground spinners’ while filling up his bag with the ‘atom bombs’, ‘rockets’ to the ‘100-wala’ crackers.
At the crack of dawn, the tree-lined street burst out in the din of crackers – resplendent in lights and colors of every kind.
As the first light flooded the horizon, Amma called us (and then pulled our reluctant selves) back home – to the piping hot idli she had set out for breakfast.
Our fights forgotten, in the united liaison against the neighbors, we returned – looking forth to the rest of the brilliant day with the yummy sweets that never ended.
While I try hard at times to recreate the gestalt of this childhood narrative for the kid to remember as a fond memory, I realize it cannot be the same.
In a world bombarded with a dozen things seeking our attention, instant gratification and hedonic adaption, the little I hope to try is to help her build a healthy relationship with wealth.
To use money to buy time and not the other way around.
And to go Slow to go Fast.
Do you have a favorite Diwali memory?
Happy Diwali! 🙂
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