Diwali Memories - Festival of Lights!!!!

Growing up in India our earliest memories of Diwali are of the schools being closed for this National holiday and the celebrations being loud and full of pomp.

Although historically Diwali was celebrated to mark the victory of Lord Ram over the Demon Narakasura and to welcome him home after his 14 years of exile, in most of our houses the festivities began months in advance with our parents discussing with relatives or friends about the best places for Diwali shopping. It usually started a week before with cleaning the house, making snacks like Kara Boondi and sweets like motichoor ladoo, barfi, rabri and

many more.On Diwali day, the festivities were evident everywhere with dozens of bright oil lamps that lined our house entrances and colourful and intricate rangoli patterns that adorned the front of our houses. It was that time of the year when friends and family visited each other, exchanged gifts and greetings. We even looked forward to the frenzy around in our locality to see the decorations of other houses and have competition with neighbours rangoli and for bursting crackers.

However in this fast paced world, the meaning of this festival has changed. It is spent with people sitting in front of TV or on mobile phones, forgetting that festival is a day to celebrate and spend time with family and friends. The worst case is even making sweets and snacks for festivals has been outsourced, whereas our mothers and aunties would sit together and make sweets for the whole family and we (children) couldn't wait to get our hands on it.These festivals were a chase and a reason for people to gather together and spend quality family time, even misunderstandings would be cleared and friendships were renewed. But nowadays it’s just another holiday for most of them.

For us the essence of Diwali changed dramatically since we moved out of our country a few years back. Since Diwali was so ubiquitously celebrated with great gusto across the homes of our friends and family, we miss being a part of it now. Suddenly the day that was so important to us became like any other day. Our elaborate celebrations were cut down to a day or just the weekends (as we don’t have holiday on Diwali). We understood that it is up to us  as to how much or how little of the tradition we upheld. But more surprisingly, we realized it really mattered to us and we would do anything so that our Diwali here would be as magical as it was back home to keep the tradition going.  However, preserving our tradition has been quite an adjustment, since either some of the ingredients aren’t easily available or diyas are not as authentic as we find in India. Finally, in our efforts to recreate our own vision of diwali this year we have been decorating our apartments/homes with what little things we have, making Goddess laxmi's feet at our door entrance, lighting up a diyas,  trying to make the sweets and snacks (which BTW never turned out to be perfect like our mothers :( ) and arranging the perfect family meal.

At the end of the day, the festival is about celebrating the triumph of overcoming challenges. We may not have overcome a mythical 14-year battle but have indulged in much creative maneuvering to celebrate it as authentically and enthusiastically as we did back home.

No matter where you are, celebrating light, love and joy, can be done from anywhere.

Happy Diwali!!!!!