Diwali Aali

Snapshot just outside Dadar Station

A Beautiful Rangoli (check out the finer details of Lord Ganesha)

Diyas : The true essence of Diwali


There's certainly an aura about Diwali (the festival of lights). Even before the festival begins (this year it is supposed to be on 8th, 9th & 10th Nov) the whole city gets dressed to mark the occasion.

As a kid, Diwali meant so many things :
A grand 20 day vacation including the irritating homework which would be taken care of on the night of the 19th day of course

A brand new outfit and in favourable conditions if it were to coincide with my birthday, would be eligible for a bonus outfit

Preparation (rather tasting) of sweets, not just in my house but neighbours' houses too. Calories were never heard of in those times. Guess too much of running around would take care of it.

Crackers/ Fireworks. Used to beg and plead to my brothers to buy them for me. Box bomb, Laxmi bomb, Taj Mahal, Rockets, Snakes (yeah..it used to emit a foul smell) and telephone were among my favourites. Used to wake up as early as 5 to burst the crackers.

Rangoli – a colourful display of art. Please check the image for reference. Mind you, it is only for reference purpose. I could never in my wildest of dreams ever create something even close to that. IT used to take me no less than 2 hrs to complete a simple design

Wishing almost every house in the neighbourhood. Passing on the Thaali (containing all the sweets made at home). Yeah literally the Thaali used to get passed around, at least the contents of the Thaali. It works like this. I take the Thaali to a house. The receiving party would empty the Thaali and pass on the sweets from their home into the Thaali as a return parcel. Now the content that I receive does not necessarily has to be from their house. It might have been delivered by a third party. It's a vicious cycle you see. Many a times it has so happened that in the circulation we have actually received the sweets made at our own home... Talk about loopholes in networking!

As a grown up Diwali now means:

2 ½ days of holiday...3 if there is no pooja in the office

Self-sponsorship of the new outfit

Thakkar Sweets – Ready to eat packets

Crackers : Noise Pollution & Air Pollution

Rangoli : Neighbour's house and my camera

Diwali wishes – E-mail! Fast, easy, multiple recievers and it's FREE!


Must say times sure have changed...