Happy Deepavali!

"Wow, Amma! The lamps look gorgeous! Can I help light them, I'll be careful..." made me jump with joy this year...

When we were little, we had a zillion little terracotta lamps (ahal vilakku) and it was my special duty to prepare the lamps with wick and gingelly oil...

...then arrange them all around the parapet wall outside, as well as on the Kolam inside...

...then go about lighting them: first light one from an existing lighted lamp at the prayer stand and take this pilot lamp around and light the other ones, one by one, taking care not to spill the oil...

...and to not mutter and swear under the breath when they won't light at first touch, and when they go out from the gentle breeze outdoors...

...and do the rounds to make sure there is enough oil in the lamps to stay lit for the prescribed duration, else refill appropriately...

And while I was doing this, my brother got to burst fireworks and eat sweets and goof around... while my mom attended to guests, distributing sweets and such to celebrate the festival of lights....

And, then, when it was my turn, I simply loved the sparklers and flower pot and chakram and chaattai such simple fireworks which were bright but not noisy...

Gosh! Those were the days...

Simple Deepavali Eve meal followed by a simple Deepavali Day breakfast is all we planned to do this year with D being so busy...

We had the traditional oil bath early morning and the kids got to wear new clothes that Paattee and Thaathaa had got for them for just this occasion.

The Kerala lamps my mom gave me for the wedding are my favorites, followed by the Tamil Nadu style lamps with the peacock tip. I love the 'panchamukham' (five faces) style of lighting even the simple Kerala lamps with five evenly-spaced wicks to give it a special glow...

Oh dear! am I supposed get this excited about lamps?!

Happy Deepavali!!

Happy Deepavali 2008!

I know, I am a bit late in writing this post considering Deepavali was a week ago, but, better late than never...

Like last year, it was low-key this year, what with Oggie being sick with ear infection and bronchiolitis, and Ana not feeling too great either, I decided to light some lamps (pictured above), and make a traditional meal, plus a traditional Indian sweet.

As always, I can't let any of the traditional Indian festivals go by these days without feeling terribly nostalgic, and remembering all the little details I never thought I registered in the first place...

Deepavali 2007

A feisty 10-year old girl dodges Mother's calls to the kitchen... her older brother casually pushes her buttons with effortless ease watching her mounting fury with dispassionate amusement... Mother's "Come here now or else..." is met with "Amma, look at him, he is irritating me, I am going to hit him!"

Cutting forward to the climax, the feisty girl wails exaggeratedly dusting off the shower of savory Mixture snack particles upended on her head by her brother from a fairly full stainless steel container, while Mother tries to figure out what exactly happens to her well-behaved kids around festival days...

Not a single Deepavali hence has passed without us reminiscing and laughing off this incident. Needless to say, my brother got into trouble for this and being a teenager, walked out of the house briefly threatening non-participation in the festivities, got pacified by the bounty of fireworks Dad bought for Deepavali celebrations, and, all is well in the end.

Not too long ago I had wondered about celebrating festivals now that Ana is here... but, a quote from Meera's review from Saffron Tree sums up my feelings now:

... the prelude to imparting the deeper meanings and concepts of festivals to young children is simply kindling their curiosity to learn about them.

So, after an exhausting week at work, I put on a wide smile, draped a Pochampalli saree†, donned a few elegant bangles and ear-rings my mom gave me, lit all the lamps I could easily find and decided to kindle Ana's curiosity about Deepavali: Festival of Lights.
† Pochampalli is a rural area in Deccan Plateau, about 50kms from Hyderabad, India, famous for many crafts including special weave of sarees.



"What's that, Amma?"
"Lamps, Ana. Nice, bright lamps. How many lamps do you see?"
"One lamp, Two lamp, Three lamp, Four lamp ... too many lamp, Amma!"

And hopefully next year, she will follow up with, "Why are there so many lamps, Amma?", when I hope to be ready with a simple and sweet explanation...

After a subdued celebration followed by a traditional yet simple meal of pearl onion arachu vitta sambar, potato curry, thayir pachadi and semiya payasam, plus some home-made Gulab Jamun from scratch, I sank back into the comfort of Deepavali memories from my childhood wistfully hoping to generate equally beautiful ones for Ana...