Deepawali at home with parents

It was a sweet delight to be with my parents this deepawali  after  8 years.  Last time I celebrated deepawali was with my parents in Varanasi (which I still miss). My first one in Kerala, since we settled here.

Deepawali in Kerala was quite different from that in Varanasi. Beginning of the day was as usual, early morning wake up with loads of work on head. After breakfast I was assigned my task, to clean the area near ceiling and high end corners of the house (best reward for being the tallest member of the family). Mom was the commander in chief, who would assign task to people with stipulated time period.We had to complete our work on time to ensure evening pooja is done before its too late.

Once cleaning of house was over, I had a new task in hand, make battis to be put in the diyas. I actually ended up making lot more than what was expected. I was doing it by watching TV, because it was a boring task. You can give me any boring task with an access to watch TV and I can do it.

It was 5 by the time battis got over now I had to put diyas all around the house and helped mom in pooja arrangement. Dad and my wife poured oil to the diyas and got dressed for the pooja.  Mom did pooja in pure north Indian style, myself, dad and wife was sitting around here.

After pooja it was time for celebration first task was to lit the diyas, then firewoks, we didn’t buy much crackers, health issues and no interest in bursting crackers. It reminds me of my childhood days, when I used to request dad to get me more and more crackers for 2 days (in north deepawali is celebrated for 2 days). As I grew up, my interested got shifted from bursting crackers to watching people burst crackers.

My wife and dad were busy bursting crackers, me and mom were looking at them enjoy the fun of festival. Then it was time to enjoy sweets, 2 types of laddo and kaju barfi, dad just loves it. Suddenly power went off, it was a spectacular view to watch the house with bright light being

It was good to be at home with parents to celebrate deepawali. Being with your loved one, makes any festival special and brighten their life as well. Looking forward to celebrate more such festival with loved ones in the days to come.