Deepavali to Diwali - the journey of a festival in bart eye's view...

Adhu oru kana kaalam… No, I am not referring to the Balu Mahendra’s movie that is in trouble.. I am referring to the childhood days during celebration of diwali, sorry, deepavali (used to call the festive Deepavali earlier which has now shrunk to the north indian way, Diwali).

In school days, it used to the be the crackers that was the most exciting part of the festive. The person who had the privilege to burst the heavy-weight crackers like hydrogen bomb, atom bomb, double-shot and anything above used to be looked at in awe and respect. Next would the person who had the fun of lighting the 500 wala or 1000 wala – the higher the number, the more the admiration. The lesser mortals had to be satisfied with their "red-and-white" efforts in lighting the “Lakshmi vedi”s and “Bijli”s in hand and bursting them in air. If you are a seasoned practitioner, then bursting of Bijlis sitting in a place, talking to someone would look similar to cracking the shell of peanuts, popping the nut in air and catching them without fail in your mouth. Coming to off-beat attempts, there would be dare-devil acts like holding a “thara chakkaram” (zameen chakram) in Kambi Mathappu’s kambi (rod). If you are lucky, it might rotate for a while else it might burst right at your hand making you have a “chakkar” and fall in zameen. There might be innovative ways of bursting “vedi”s.. Tying two or more together, keeping a vedi in a burnt-out flowerpot with medicine (phosphorous) at the bottom and so on.. All these innovations and many more would culminate finally in the final bussss…. In this act, the medicines (stuff inside the crackers) of all the invalids (those not in a position to be cracked directly) would be collected in a paper and spread across. Light a corner of the paper and see the fire zip-zapping across..zzzooom... The homely, family cracker bursting like kambi mathappu, saattai, flower-pots etc are not mentioned here in detail as they are meant for kiddos J .. Yes, wannabe Abdul Kalams and wannabe Nasa scientists do their experiments with rocket by shifting their initial position, guiding their trajactory towards the terrace of the girl’s houses in the street, whom they are eyeing at. If they manage to get the girl out of their house, they may try doing some dare-devil, “Pattasu veeran” stuff to woo their dream girl.. Early morning (at 4 am, which deviated and tended towards the sleeping time from the wake-up time in later years) Oil Baths, sweet distribution in the neighbourhood and at relatives’, showing off the new dress (managing to keep them new without damage during the festive was a great skill) were part of the ritual… Sweet distribution mentioned above meant that you would also be reciprocated with sweets from the receiving party. So, there was a mini home-made Adayar Ananda Bhavan-Sri Krishna Sweets combo in everyone’s place… If possible, a first-day-show of a deepavali major was part of the menu. Atleast an attempt at the ticket counters.. But then as I started, “adhu oru kana kaalam”….

Then came to the houses, the TV.. Special programmes came in.. Movie stars, wannabe movie stars, yester year stars, future stars, sons, daughters, parents and any “i-know-him” of the movie stars all came to your halls on the special occasion… They talked about the new releases, past releases, future releases (not just in terms of movies ;) ).. Ofcourse, they also talked about the must-know of the human society – that is, how they celebrate Diwali (the change began here).. First these were for a day on the festive. Then it got extended to the day before also.. Special movies on the occasion meant the lesser movies released opened to half-theatres.. If the festival could accommodate around 10+ releases earlier, it boiled down to lower-half of single digits later.. The crackers do not excite anymore (that could be owing to aging ;) ), the new clothes do not rejuvenate you, the sweet varieties made at home dropping, the distribution act trickling down.. The early morning wake-ups are tending towards 6 am or later.. The get-togethers and the joy of sharing (through sounds, sweets and otherwise) reducing, educing, ducing, ucing, cing, ing …

Hmm.. Let the idiot box ‘naragasuran’ be annihilated during this eve.... I wish it were deepavalis again and not diwalis….