Yet another Diwali
That ended the celebrations of my Twenty-sixth Diwali. How I celebrated the first 10 of those I dont remember now. But the remaining ones were fun. Probably better than Diwali this year.
When I was in school at Renukoot, Diwalis used to be great. The festivities started almost a week earlier and we had nice time even at school. The climate used to be wonderful with the winter setting in and the early morning chillness and the mild afternoons. Though it would be tougher to go to school in the morning but Diwali time was something we never missed at school. The thrill of the sound of crackers in the corridors was a thing everybody cherished.
Every year there would be strict warnings from our principal against bursting of crackers in the school campus. But invariably every year there would be at least one going off - either in the bathroom or in some empty classroom, either under the stairs or on the rooftop. Our batch was the most infamous of all but we were never implicated. There would be inspection in our class for matchboxes and crackers. Nevertheless the guys succeeded in pulling off the stunt every year without fail.
I still remember two of the incidents. One was when I was in class VII. It was the last day of school before the Diwali vacations and everybody was wondering why no crackers have gone off till now. We rarely had to wait till the last day (You know it is always riskier). We had asked our geography teacher, Maimuna Khatoon (some called her Cartoon) for a free hour and she took us to the lawns for relaxing. Suddenly a blast was heard from one of the classrooms on the first floor and we cheered. The main building was cordoned off and an intensive search for the culprits was going on in each class. Little did our principal know that the real ones were outside and it was their ingenuity to trigger the blast in such a way that they had enough time to get out and join us on the lawns.
The second one was in class X. We were having our Maths class during the first hour after the morning assembly. A very strict teacher, Mr. Agarwal, was drawing some geometrical patterns on the board when a cracker went off in a bathroom near our class. He got such a shock that the chalk fell out of his hand and he was dumbstruck. 'Wah kya scene tha'. Immediately the principal and other teachers had gathered in our class trying to figure out how it happened. They made all attempts to get the truth out of us by threatening the notorious and bribing the weak. Luckily enough, nobody outside the gang knew of the trick and we were safe. The cracker was set off at the end of the morning assembly and a wait time of half an hr was set.
Diwali for me at home was celebrated in the morning in the south indian style with an oil bath, early in the morning, followed by a visit to the temple and a breakfast of idlis and sweets. On the day of Diwali, me and my friend Amritanshu, used to visit the Ramlila ground in our colony where temporary stalls were put up for Diwali Mela. We always got our crackers on the day itself. The decoration lights at our houses were always put up by us. We loved testing the series lights and would experiment with circuitry to make it twinkle in various ways. In the evening, I would light lamps and candles in the balcony of our quarters. Amritanshu would join me for a round of crackers in my courtyard. After that we went to his house for Lakshmi Pooja.
The day typically ended with a visit to some of our classmates and another round of crackers.
On the contrary, this year I spent most of the day relaxing on the bed. I had a special lunch at the hostel mess. Though many would say it as special, I would have preferred the normal menu. Only good thing on the menu was the sweets and fruits. In the evening, I went to the Ayyappa temple in RK Puram and went out for dinner as the hostel mess workers enjoy a diwali holiday.
Hope all of you had a better diwali full of sweets and crackers and enthusiasm.
Wishing you all A Very Happy and Prosperous Diwali and New Year
P.S: Today while searching for Hindu calendar in wiki, I found that the Hindi New Year is on the day after Diwali. Hence the New Year wishes....
When I was in school at Renukoot, Diwalis used to be great. The festivities started almost a week earlier and we had nice time even at school. The climate used to be wonderful with the winter setting in and the early morning chillness and the mild afternoons. Though it would be tougher to go to school in the morning but Diwali time was something we never missed at school. The thrill of the sound of crackers in the corridors was a thing everybody cherished.
Every year there would be strict warnings from our principal against bursting of crackers in the school campus. But invariably every year there would be at least one going off - either in the bathroom or in some empty classroom, either under the stairs or on the rooftop. Our batch was the most infamous of all but we were never implicated. There would be inspection in our class for matchboxes and crackers. Nevertheless the guys succeeded in pulling off the stunt every year without fail.
I still remember two of the incidents. One was when I was in class VII. It was the last day of school before the Diwali vacations and everybody was wondering why no crackers have gone off till now. We rarely had to wait till the last day (You know it is always riskier). We had asked our geography teacher, Maimuna Khatoon (some called her Cartoon) for a free hour and she took us to the lawns for relaxing. Suddenly a blast was heard from one of the classrooms on the first floor and we cheered. The main building was cordoned off and an intensive search for the culprits was going on in each class. Little did our principal know that the real ones were outside and it was their ingenuity to trigger the blast in such a way that they had enough time to get out and join us on the lawns.
The second one was in class X. We were having our Maths class during the first hour after the morning assembly. A very strict teacher, Mr. Agarwal, was drawing some geometrical patterns on the board when a cracker went off in a bathroom near our class. He got such a shock that the chalk fell out of his hand and he was dumbstruck. 'Wah kya scene tha'. Immediately the principal and other teachers had gathered in our class trying to figure out how it happened. They made all attempts to get the truth out of us by threatening the notorious and bribing the weak. Luckily enough, nobody outside the gang knew of the trick and we were safe. The cracker was set off at the end of the morning assembly and a wait time of half an hr was set.
Diwali for me at home was celebrated in the morning in the south indian style with an oil bath, early in the morning, followed by a visit to the temple and a breakfast of idlis and sweets. On the day of Diwali, me and my friend Amritanshu, used to visit the Ramlila ground in our colony where temporary stalls were put up for Diwali Mela. We always got our crackers on the day itself. The decoration lights at our houses were always put up by us. We loved testing the series lights and would experiment with circuitry to make it twinkle in various ways. In the evening, I would light lamps and candles in the balcony of our quarters. Amritanshu would join me for a round of crackers in my courtyard. After that we went to his house for Lakshmi Pooja.
The day typically ended with a visit to some of our classmates and another round of crackers.
On the contrary, this year I spent most of the day relaxing on the bed. I had a special lunch at the hostel mess. Though many would say it as special, I would have preferred the normal menu. Only good thing on the menu was the sweets and fruits. In the evening, I went to the Ayyappa temple in RK Puram and went out for dinner as the hostel mess workers enjoy a diwali holiday.
Hope all of you had a better diwali full of sweets and crackers and enthusiasm.
Wishing you all A Very Happy and Prosperous Diwali and New Year
P.S: Today while searching for Hindu calendar in wiki, I found that the Hindi New Year is on the day after Diwali. Hence the New Year wishes....
Comments
It was our war against establishment sort of ..
down with shankdhar :D