JOIN USNot all college students are excited about Deepavali and the festivities associated with it
Every festival has a large number of people celebrating it — but there are always a few who resist. From what it looks like, college students in the City have started detaching themselves from the festivities involved with Deepavali and hardly go beyond bursting firecrackers. Metrolife speaks to a few college-goers to see if this trend does exist.
Abhay Sudheendran of CMS Jain College admits that he doesn’t care too much for the festival. “We are Keralites and Deepavali is really not a big deal in our community. I don’t get the point of bursting crackers. But when my friends do, I sometimes join them. It’s just like any other day for me, even though the people I stay with like to celebrate it,” he says.
He is not the only one who feels this way. “I lost interest in Deepavali when it went from being the festival of lights to one of noise, splurging and lung disease,” confesses Akhil S, a student of M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology. “Besides, my family tends to celebrate only Onam and Vishu. Deepavali has never been one of the highlights for us.”
It’s thankfully not the same story for all college-goers. There are some who go out of the
way to make a home away from home and feel the festivities around them. “I’m going to my attai’s house to celebrate Deepavali. I’ll be away from my family this time because the college holidays have been scheduled differently. I will miss them but I’m looking forward to celebrating it with the closest people I have after my family,” shares Soumya R, a student of Jyoti Nivas College.
Over time, Deepavali has also been associated with card parties, where games are played as a form of gambling. This, along with bursting firecrackers, seems to be the only remaining traces of the festival for many of the college students, who feel no need to perform puja.
“My parents take me to family friends’ homes after our puja is done at home. Both the adults and youngsters play cards in separate rooms.
The stakes aren’t so high when we’re playing but I do end up making a few extra bucks by the time the festival ends,” concludes Sharad Arora, a student of St Hopkins College.