Missus and her friends suddenly turned religious?

Back in India, month of Margazhi is an auspicious time and is dedicated to Godliness. Especially in the yester years, girls wake up early in the morning and do rangoli etc.

This afternoon the missus, her friends and their friends were discussing on the phone about an early morning program. I heard them saying - we should get up early in the morning, quickly bathe, dress-up and be ready for queuing up. They also chatted about their pre-marriage times during Margazhi that it was habitual and used to wake up early during Margazhi, bathe in spite of the cold weather (!) and hence this should help for the next day activity. Hmm I thought what happened to these women? Has the Margazhi month finally made an impact on these women that they have suddenly become so pious...

One of them talked about the fact that crowd and queues can be challenging, that husbands take care of the kids. I got a bit queasy... OMG how am I going to manage a 2 and 6 year old the next day morning. I just nodded uneasily without clues.

Then they started talking that it is once in a year activity and benefits the whole family. So they indeed should go early in the morning.  Hmm the women must be keen to participate in the religious activity and seek blessings for the whole family; if so, then I should take care of the kids.

The next topic was that I should probably make the food, so they can come back around 11 have a brunch and head back. Wow I thought, these women are indeed trying their best, may be catching up the missed opportunities for the whole year and earnestly making efforts to touch-base to their religious side. If this is the case, then somehow I should manage the kids and cook as well. Now they are talking about waking about 4AM or 5AM... They even talked about the point that if they over-slept then may be can queue up after 11 as the crowds would have tamed.

I really felt glad that the missus, her friends have suddenly turned a new leaf and planning to participate in the religious events. I said to myself that the next day must be Vaikunta Ekadesi. So I rushed to check the calendars if it was vaikunta ekadesi - the annual 11th day festival when the heavenly portal opens up and people are blessed. But no it is not ekadesi? So where are they all planning to queue-up?

Apparently Boxing Day sale! Aaha withouth realising this, I promised to cook and take care of kids as well. Worse, the wallet is going to go for a toss! 

Happy Diwali To All

India is most often referred by western world as a package of surprises and puzzles. We have many things that are rich in value which we ourselves don't know. Before i continue further, let me wish all readers a happy and prosperous Diwali. Across India and world people celebrate Diwali day for quite a few reasons. Some call it New Year, some say it as Narak-Asura's demise day and a day for celebration of good winning the evil etc. North of India celebrates Diwali on the New-Moon Day and it's a start new year. For South it's tomorrow or the 14th day of the lunar cycle. Unity in diversity.

Some of Indian festivals have many reasons for celebration, but the common underlying theme is to celebrate and share with others. One such in South of India is observed during the full moon of summer - April and it's referred in our literature as a festival organised by the then Pandya king to revive the economy. What a simple but fantastic lesson for the economic sector today. The literature's notes that he ruled with Madurai as his Capital and the economy was in bad shape; so he came up with ingenious idea of organising a festival during the summer full moon - 'Chithra Purnima'. All newly wed couples were meet in the river bed of Vaigai and spend the evening with all fun & frolic. Obviously newly weds, so would spend a lot money in meeting the demands from their spouses... So a way to channel money out!

Diwali is a time when money rolls literally rolls in India out of all sections of Indian society. If your ignore all the religious reasons, this one reason is indeed a great reason to go out and have fun. I will pick up this thought to another blog one day.

Today it's more of Diwali. I spent this evening with a few friends and we talked about our Diwali celebrations when we were Kids. Traditionally on the day of Diwali, we used to wake up early hours around 2:30 to 3:30 and the whole family would place all the sweets, savouries, new clothes, fireworks and a spicy Diwali medicine called 'Legiyam'. This is a mixture prepared out of different spices and ghee. Since it's festival time, we would obviously eat a lot and will get into gastric related problems. The aforementioned 'legiyam' is a medicinal mixture which will cure the gastric problems. Given that all the sweets and savouries have a lot of sugar, ghee and other saturated fats, you are sure to get a bit of Indigestion at the very minimum.

Anyways once all the items are placed before God, then the parents would smear a bit of oil , turmeric, sandal and kumkum on the family members; When the mother smears the oil, she would say 'ashvthama, balih:, chirnjeevi' - its a way of wishing good health and prosperity to the person who gets smeared. Then the head of family lits the first firework to start the celebration.

Then everyone takes a good oil bath followed by a steamy hot water bath, and a powder from Shika-kai is used to wash the oil and cleanse. After such a steamy bath, we would all get dressed up in new clothes and dash off to burst fireworks and crackers. The whole thing would take an hour or two before starting of firework celebration. So we would get up at 2-3AM. These celebrations include sharing of sweets, playing fireworks together etc. We would see which house has burst the most number of fireworks, by checking the amount of cracked papers and rubbish from fireworks leftovers. We had fireworks such as the 'Train', Lakshmi, Bijili, Elephant, Country, rockets, 100 wallas, 200 wallas, 1000 wallas (these are for the upper middle class), sparklers, chakras, flowerpots and many many types of fireworks. This whole fireworks may bring a lot of noise and air pollution - but a sizable number of families lived coz' of this economic activity.

The celebrations went on for 2-3 days as a matter of fact, even starts a week early. Schools, colleges, parks, where ever people met, they talk about Diwali. Ladies would chat about the silk saris they would have bought, Men talked about the wallets that lost the rupees, still proudly mention the cost spent in fireworks or the special sweets their missus made. Children would talk in lenght about the new type of firework that would have introduced just that year etc etc. For more than a fortnight people talked just Diwali.

In a decade if i read/say this to my son, who is just about to be one year, he would say i am just lying! Coz' if you go in today to a Indian city, people wake up around 7, just crib about oil bath and smear a bit, would have bought sweets the day before, new dresses did not make a conversation - coz' people buy new dresses just for any occasion - a decade back, new dresses were just for a special occasion like Diwali or Pongal. So people take a quick shower with Pantene or 'Head and shoulders' shampoo, dress up, make a big fuss about diet and still have a plate full of sweets and savouries; Switch on TV and watch the shows whole day, do a firework just as a mark of formality. That's it... Call up people on phone and wish (or their ties would be less sought after and may be considered a liberal or a rebel)... Who cares about economics or the reason behind Diwali. So in 10 years down the line, if it becomes much more a Diwali in virtual world i won't be surprised.


Changes are always constant... But i still haven't lost the fun and frolic, even though I am home alone, i have taken enough pains to go out and carry out the celebrations - I wish my type of fun carries over and the next generation shares it as well. So Happy Diwali, Have a safe firework.