“Deepavali in villages will start one month in advance. Until that time, whatever money we as kids saved would be given to crackers and we would buy single crackers from petty shops. There even used to be an unspoken competition amongst us youngsters as to which house has the maximum cracker wrapper outside their house. And then comes the deal with dresses! Back then, there were no readymade dresses. The materials will be sourced and given to tailor for stitching so suffice it to say, the entire village will stitch clothes with a specific tailor who will work tirelessly during this festival time. Dress stitching for Diwali used to be a big deal because this was the only time when we got new clothes. So an entire year’s worth of waiting will find redemption only during this Deepavali festival so it was an unusually exciting time for all of us. And more than this, it is only during Deepavali that we will even get to taste food like Idly and Dosa etc. Once the dress is sorted, the next agenda becomes preparing snacks. Us youngsters would take the raw rice to mills to get it powdered which would then be air-dried in large newspapers and taken home. Which would then be used by our mother’s to make a variety of delicacies ranging from Athirasam to different types of Murukus. The snacks and everything would be prepared one week in advance and it will be shared only on the day of the festival. And on the previous day, we would set out to buy crackers. Owing to the fact that not many of us were well-to-do, our parents would set aside a minimum amount for crackers which would then be equally separated between the siblings. The entire night would be spent in utmost excitement waiting for the day and at the dawn of the day, we would wake up sharp at 4. Hearing even a mild cracker sound somewhere close by would propel us to collect our crackers and run to the place where all the kids would be gathered for the celebration. We would burst all our crackers and upon returning home, our parents would apply oil to our heads. We would then head out to a nearby lake or a pump set and take a nice long bath. Wearing our new clothes, we would set out to distribute sweets and snacks to our neighbours and friends. Back at a time when getting through the day with the barest minimum seemed impossible, our happiness and joy knew no bounds when we set fire to our crackers. After the vacation when everyone returned to school, we would all wear our Diwali dresses on our first day! A lot has changed now but we had the utmost fun during those days.”

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