<p>Scarcely would the festival of Navaratri (Dasara) have ended when the noise of sporadic bursting of crackers began charging the atmosphere, reminding people of Deepavali getting round the corner. With the days preceding Deepavali drawing closer, people would start buying crackers, gorgeous clothes and what not. As for me and my siblings, two sisters and one brother, all elder to me, our mom would make the new garments for Deepavali as well as for all the other occasions on her leg-operated Singer sewing machine. She made the attires for all of us in the 1940s, thus obviating the necessity of counting upon any tailor.</p>.<p>During the run-up to the festival, she would be running off her feet preparing a variety of sweets and savouries,<br>as there were no confectioneries or sweetshops in those days nor hotels selling delicacies for festivals. Since no strings were attached to the time of playing crackers, nor were there high risers, and houses in residential areas were well within vast compounds, space for bursting crackers easily met the case. </p>.<p>Amid a gamut of crackers those days, one specific type called ‘Aeroplanes’, each with a small cylindrical metal shell packed with the explosive powder and a wick attached to it, would rise high vertically and whirlingly, besides spraying colourful sparks around when lighted up – a jaw-dropping sight indeed. Its hot empty shell was almost never known to have dropped on anyone around. </p>.Diwali 2025: Here's how India celebrated the festival of lights.<p>On the day of Deepavali, getting up earlier than all others in the family, our mom would wake us up with a tumbler of steaming hot coffee for each and ask us to take a bath, smearing a palmful of gingelly oil on the crown, a time-honoured custom. After the bath, prostrating before the puja room and then our folks and seeking their blessings, we, dolled up in our new clothes, would move allegro to the spacious porch with the steel trunk containing the crackers. Lighting the multifarious kinds of crackers at the sprawling open grassy field fronting our house, we would have the time of our lives. A tad before the crack of dawn our stock of crackers would all but finish, and it was then alone that we would rush for our breakfast. No sooner had we finished having our breakfast than a small orchestra started playing devotional songs door to door on Mrudhanga, Nadhaswaram, tamboura, and castanets, and we left having received moola from our mom. We would start visiting our relatives and friends in our neck of the woods, a practice that doubled our joy as well as the spirit of the festival. </p>.<p>The bygone means of celebrating Deepavali now come to be known as the “Festival of Lights”, and the style of celebration is bound by numerous restrictions. </p><p><em>(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)</em></p>
<p>Scarcely would the festival of Navaratri (Dasara) have ended when the noise of sporadic bursting of crackers began charging the atmosphere, reminding people of Deepavali getting round the corner. With the days preceding Deepavali drawing closer, people would start buying crackers, gorgeous clothes and what not. As for me and my siblings, two sisters and one brother, all elder to me, our mom would make the new garments for Deepavali as well as for all the other occasions on her leg-operated Singer sewing machine. She made the attires for all of us in the 1940s, thus obviating the necessity of counting upon any tailor.</p>.<p>During the run-up to the festival, she would be running off her feet preparing a variety of sweets and savouries,<br>as there were no confectioneries or sweetshops in those days nor hotels selling delicacies for festivals. Since no strings were attached to the time of playing crackers, nor were there high risers, and houses in residential areas were well within vast compounds, space for bursting crackers easily met the case. </p>.<p>Amid a gamut of crackers those days, one specific type called ‘Aeroplanes’, each with a small cylindrical metal shell packed with the explosive powder and a wick attached to it, would rise high vertically and whirlingly, besides spraying colourful sparks around when lighted up – a jaw-dropping sight indeed. Its hot empty shell was almost never known to have dropped on anyone around. </p>.Diwali 2025: Here's how India celebrated the festival of lights.<p>On the day of Deepavali, getting up earlier than all others in the family, our mom would wake us up with a tumbler of steaming hot coffee for each and ask us to take a bath, smearing a palmful of gingelly oil on the crown, a time-honoured custom. After the bath, prostrating before the puja room and then our folks and seeking their blessings, we, dolled up in our new clothes, would move allegro to the spacious porch with the steel trunk containing the crackers. Lighting the multifarious kinds of crackers at the sprawling open grassy field fronting our house, we would have the time of our lives. A tad before the crack of dawn our stock of crackers would all but finish, and it was then alone that we would rush for our breakfast. No sooner had we finished having our breakfast than a small orchestra started playing devotional songs door to door on Mrudhanga, Nadhaswaram, tamboura, and castanets, and we left having received moola from our mom. We would start visiting our relatives and friends in our neck of the woods, a practice that doubled our joy as well as the spirit of the festival. </p>.<p>The bygone means of celebrating Deepavali now come to be known as the “Festival of Lights”, and the style of celebration is bound by numerous restrictions. </p><p><em>(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)</em></p>
