Am I ready to blog about the theme for week 47: What's your favourite amongst the
festivals/ celebrations you regularly observe, and one that's not part of your
tradition that you'd perhaps like to adopt (and why).
Undoubtedly, Deepavali as a kid living on the main streets of the Parthasarathy
temple in Triplicane. What else can be more exciting? New clothes, lots of sweets and lots of
crackers to burst!
In our locality, it was the custom to
get up early in the morning, have a bath and start bursting crackers by 3.30 a.m.
or 4.00 a.m. I used to burst crackers till 6 in the morning along with all my
friends and neighbours. It was important for us kids to observe and boast about which house
had the maximum amount of litter from the burnt crackers. It was then time to go
to my Uncle’s house where I would spend the rest of the day again bursting crackers. In the
evenings, sometimes, we would both go back to Triplicane or to his cousin’s place
where we would spend the evening.
And now, to think that I have lost
interest in crackers since over 20 years. The reason for that could be the
fact that I moved away from Madras to Bangalore for doing my engineering. Those
days, Deepavali in Bangalore was nothing compared to what it was in Triplicane.
Later on, the prices of crackers went up
and the issue of child labour cropped up. These two issues brought down my
interest in bursting crackers.
I still love watching the fireworks. As
a kid, my Uncle used to take me to St. Thomas Mount near the airport from where
we could see the fireworks around the city.
Occassionally, we would see the fireworks at the Gymkhana Club. As an
adult now, I go to the beach along with my wife and look at the sky for those
beautiful colours.
If there are festivals which I would
like to adopt, it would be either Ramzan or Christmas. Ramzan for the fact that
it is a month-long ritual culminating in mouthwatering biriyani for me and
Christmas, the festive mood that comes with it and culminates in the New Year
celebration.
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