After the BIL's wedding was over, we had 4 days before we were going to be on a plane.
Just before we left for the airport, we celebrated a mini Deepavali on our terrace.
You see, my parents miss me terribly, every Deepavali, especially when they see how kids today have no enthusiasm for firecrackers. It simply devastates them to think that kids today don't obsess over crackers.
When it came to "pattasu" or firecrackers, Mandaveli Sundaram who currently goes by Sundar Narayanan or Dr. Narayanöhe, set the bar high. Very high!
Before the local "pattasu" stores would come into seasonal existence in and around the Mandaiveli, Mylapore area, more notably around St. Mary's road, RK Mutt Road and all around the temple tank, little platform vendors would start selling only cape! My parents did not save me any cape this time, but for those of you who do not know what we are talking about, they are little paper dots with a small amount of explosive chemical in the middle. You fire them with a cape gun or any other pressure spring (which would make the things look like mini spaceships)!
My brother and myself would even have cape revolvers where you would load a roll of paper tape with the "cape" dots and would fire them, mostly at the caterpillars eating the plants between our house and the neighbours and the process piss off the mami next door. The cape goes off with a sound and a little spark and we would play for almost 15 days with just the Cape, waiting for the stores to start unleashing the latest and greatest firecrackers from Sivakasi!
From Airplanes to rockets, Snakes to sparrows, sparklers to sizzlers, we would cover the spectrum over the last week. The only presents we would accept for Deepavali were things with the picture of Red Fort or goddess Lakshmi or a yellow sparrow on them.
We were probably the only kids in the street to burst crackers three days after Deepavali was over and most of that bursting would be done by me. When I was little, rumor has it that I would take all unburnt crackers and put them in a "Thulasi Madam" (a small shrine like thing in every Tambram household that grows holy Basil plant) that was empty and create a bonfire with the leftover chemicals!
When it came to firecracker bursting, let us just say that I was some legend, or at least my parents and relatives, still tell tales like that!
So, every India trip, my dad saves crackers for me to burst from the latest Deepavali. This time we kept postponing the event till the very last minute and an hour before the "call taxi" was to show up to take us to the airport, we went on the terrace and had a blast! (Well, there were none of the explosive crackers, so the blast was more figurative).
I was a kid again, and my dad had tears in his eyes watching me be a kid again. It is my sincere thought that given a choice, my parents would do some voodoo, convert me back into an eight year old and freeze me there. The grown up version of me probably has a lot less to offer them! Anyways, we are getting lost in thought, as usual.
We celebrated Deepavali, as a family for one hour and it made us soooooo happy, but we left India with a heavy heart!
Needless to say, there ARE pictures!
Belated Happy Deepavali to one and all!
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Sunday, July 4, 2010 at 11:06PM 
