Happy Deepavali (Diwali) to one and all..
Sunday, October 22, 2006 at 2:21PM What an eventful Deepavali ?
This is my 16th Deepavali outside Chennai (Madras) and my 14th Deepavali in the United States !!
Ever since my Junior year in college, I have missed celebrating Deepavali with my parents, brother, sister and extended family.. Now that I have a family of my own, I am at least fortunate that I happen to be with them on this day.
What was once the day to measure the year by, is now spent with a visit to the local temple and watching Sun TV.
But this year, we got an altogether new experience.
Nothing, not one thing went as planned even for an uneventful Deepavali. Granted, there are no firecrackers here (we got used to that!), new clothes involves buying a T-shirt from the local JC Penny or WalMart for me and my wife trying to find a Salwar that she purchased on her last India trip, but has not gotten a chance to inaugurate (we got used to this also !), sweets usually include the packet of Grand Sweets Mixture and Laddu flown in by the most recently arriving relative (which could be a few weeks or few months ago, and we got used to that as well !)..
Contrast this with the visits to buy the cloth, go to the tailor for measurements a month before deepavali, then go for the final alteration, and the suspense and wait to see if the tailor would actually deliver it before Deepavali! or the homemade "theratti-paal" and "deepavali marundhu" made by your grandma. One almost, always ends up in a nostalgic mood..
The only things that are still common are
a. the oil bath and the prayer after with your family
b. the visit to the local temple
c. Vadai, Paayasam, Appalam Poriyal and my favorite Aloo fry as part of the Deepavali menu
d. the possibility of watching a Deepavali release movie with friends at the local theater !!
and my favorite
e. the phone calls to get wishes from relatives and friends !
This year we started with Reliance India call failing us early in the morning. The calling feature wouldnt work. Then we tried to use Cingular from the cell phone or direct dial to India using SBC service.. No luck. We got the "All circuits are busy. Please try again later" or the phone simply went dead after dialing the number.
Thought I would at least post my wishes on the blog and blogger goes down as I write this post !!!
The kids are on nasty form and refuse to stay in the car seat. You know how they describe some animals act crazy before an earthquake ? My kids were acting that crazy.. The good news is there was no earthquake..They made the temple trip very memorable, in more ways they can imagine.
The only thing that went my way was the food. My wife waved her magic wand over the stove and made all the sadness go away ! But for that, it would have been a complete rout!
Things will get better in the years to come as the kids grow older, or so we hope.
We are very sorry we could not wish you all by phone or email..
Belated Happy Deepavali to all of you, from all four of us !
Reader Comments (7)
Belated happy Diwali to you and your family Sundar....
Swap
Hey Sundar & co !
Belated Deepawali wishes. Am in Madurai for the festive season. And could relate to all what you are saying as nostalgic.
My Deepawali didnt go as planned either.
The mobile phones crashed under the weight of messages
The firecrackers were muted
I wore a t-shirt from JC Pennys too brought by the latest flying in relative from there. ( Which happened to be my mother in law)
My wife wore a Salwar which she purchased on a visit to some store somewhere.The sweets were from Bangalore and the oil from Madurai ! Let me not talk about the food. I think its going to take the rest of mylifes working out to shake off some oil and fat !!!
Looks like our Deepawalis were similar !!!
Not to forget the great leveller of recent times. Sun TV !!
Give our wishes to Senior and junior(s) too
happy deepavali everyone - hehehe were they being hurricanes in pavadai chatai?
Happy Diwali.......
Sundar- I have tagged you...you can visit my blog for the questions..
yagoo fone out had free calls to india on deepavali.. fulllllllaa use panntomla!
belated wishes!!
thanks Swapna.
kavi, JC penny T-shirt ? LOL
visithra, thanks.. Deepavaliyin Sooravaligal !!
same to you prashant. welcome to this blog.
mitr, did the tag.
ttg, theriyaama poiduththe !!!