Deepavali ....
Fifteen years back......
Only a week to go for Deepavali. My Dad,Mom,brother and me planed to go for deepavali Shopping. We discussed about our budget, i bargained a big junk. Then one fine day, we went for the shopping. We went to Pothys (Srivilliputur).I selected a pant worth Rs.280(which is bit higher than my allocated share Rs.250). My father said no to me, but my brother shared his share to me, that allowed me to fulfill my desire. My Mom was so happy as she got her demand of Kanchipuram pattu saree. We all happily leaved the shop at 2 pm. We went to a Saraswathi hotel for Lunch. In those days going to hotel is not a usual thing. I would spend at least 30 minutes with my frnds explaining about my lunch experience in the hotel.
Tomorrow is Deepavali, my brother and myself have already started to distribute the cracker among ourselves. As he is elder he got all the atom bombs and 1000 wala saram (Dad helped him a lot ..). I consoled myself with good amount of night fireworks. Already I have visited Venkates and Karthi houses to check the variety of crackers they have, I was very happy that they didnt have much night crackers. My mom was so busy with the sweet preparations (Muruku, Athirasam & laddu). Again this was my demand being answered, I like(& suggested) muruku and athirasam the most.
The Dawn, the Deepavali.... mom woke me up at 5am, I wanna sleep. I don't wanna take the oil bath, but luved to wear new dress. So went for a oil bath (kaka kuliyal..).. Then five minutes of prayer.... Now, what else is stopping me, I am very very happy to wear my costliest new dresses. As soon as i got dressed, having a athirasam in my mouth and few muruku in my packets started to fire my first cracker..The lakshmi vedi..I wonder why they named it so. I think there is some ISI (pakistan) sathi to it, because we all were happy by seeing our goddess Lakshmi thorned into pieces by exploding fire crackers. My brother has already got the attention of my street by cracking out 1000wala saram. Dad went out on TVS 50 to buy some Mutton. One has to go early in the morning to get the mutton on deepavali day. There will be a huge crowd at Mutton stall. My father got 1/2kg of mutton quickly, as he knew some frnds there. Mom called me for the tiffin... kesari, Vulundha vadai, idly, satney and sambar. My mom cooks well, she knows the mantra of making delicious dishes. I'm a die hard fan of her cooking (but often comment on her cooking).
These are the days when we didn't have deepavali sirappu nigalchikal on TV. All we have is one patti mandram. Mom asked me to give some sweets to my family frnds house. Basically I'm not interested in doing so, but then i dont want to miss the chance of showing off my dresses to frnds. I started with the sweet bags and visited all my frnds houses. They all asked me "Where you bought this shirt?".. This is the question that Im luved to hear..... Few of them didn't notice my shirt :-( ..... I was back in action with kuruvi vedi and Lakshmi vedi again. At the same time my Mom called me for lunch. I'm not at all interested in taking lunch(even though the chicken and mutton calls me in...) , its just 1hour since i started busting crackers. My Mom called me for fifth time, I went in for lunch. Because I know my mom's threshold if i don't respond to her in fifth call, Dad will take over the honors to call me. His way of dealing with the problem will be different, which I don't wanna happen.
Its evening.... Mom is busy with placing the candles in walls, window etc... My brother has already gone about site seeing along with his frnds. In many occasions I was used as a pickle (can be compared to scrapegoat) for my brother site seeing. It evening now and its my turn to start my evening crackers (remember the night fireworks). I had train vedi, rockets, flower pots, busvanan, sanghu sakkaram, mathapu, sattai, double short, .... I started with a Rocket, I have already collected one bottle from my frnds house to launch the rockets safely. I was so happy that all my rockets went in straight path and reached a maximum distance than my frnds... Actually, we ignite the rocket in a row and check whose rockets travelled the max distance. My Dad and Mom were seated near my house entrance in a chair to watch my parakramam. My brother tried some sara vedi and double short, he is very keen in getting the attention of gal nxt door. Yenna panna vayasu panura velai. My Mom tried some mathapu and Dad is happy to follow suit and tried some buswanam.. I wonder "why I dont feel bad when my father uses my share of cracker, I get wild at my brother even if he dreams of entering into my territory”. I felt as if i was the happiest person in the world and whistled with joy...
I felt very tired and went to bed skipping my dinner. Mom woke me in the half sleep to give a tumbler of milk. I had it half heartedly as my father is standing next to me. Mom asked to strip off my new cloths, i was very angry to hear such commands from my mom especially when my father was near by. My gr8 Dad told "leave him to sleep", these are the golden words I wanna hear.
Dawn again, I was so sad and started to think and dream about the next deepavali already. One more sad news is tomorrow i have to go to school, santhi teacher had given me some home work, which i didn't even note in my diary. Who will be interested in noting down the home work on friday evening 7th period, that too when the day after next is deepavali. There needs a rule to prevent students from doing home work, at least during some festival holidays.
to be contd...
guy nxt door,
Suppa .S
