Yet again an awesome Diwali :)

I was never a great festivals guy. We did celebrate the X’mas, Diwali & the birthdays, though it was never quite a big deal. I mean I never quite looked forward to the celebrations that these events entailed.

Somewhere in my life I have started giving more importance to events and the routines behind them. Now that I think of it I don’t quite remember how this idea got into my mind. But surely it got solidified after my marriage. I guess we started with the small things and they evolved over time.

Diwali has been a big event with us. This is the third Diwali of my married life and each one has been a special memory. The first one was when Parag was here in Singapore. The Jains planned a Pooja at their place and we all decided to go traditional for the occasion. For Anjali, that was the first and the last time she attempted a Sari in Singapore. After about half an hour of effort, she called for help and promptly I googled up a Youtube video on how to wear a sari :D The video wasn’t very useful but we did managed to wrap Anjali into the six yards after about an hour’s effort :D

The other thing that I remember vividly was the Rangoli which over the years has become part of our Diwali rituals :) It so happened that we wanted to do something really small and thought that the easiest way would be to use powdered colour. Little did we realize that the coloured Rangoli required a backbreaking squatted effort of a few hours :( But despite the exhaustion the end result was worth every the effort :)

A Sari clad Anju ji and the first Rangoli of our married life :)

And as we rushed to Parag’s pooja our previous Landlord carried out a viewing of the place that we lived in. One of those who visited was an Indian family who were moving out to the Ireland. They loved the Rangoli so much that they bought the house straight away and even paid premium over the expected valuations to get hold of the house. The new owners completed the formalities and moved on to Ireland and we remained put at the same place.

Given the memories of our first Diwali we wanted to repeat our Rangoli adventures the second time around. My wife felt that making one with flowers would be a lot easier. It was indeed a lot easier, but only for her :( One day before the Diwali I travelled half way across Singapore to get fresh flowers. I wanted to make sure that we don’t fall short so I bought a little (Euphemism) extra ;) The next day I spend about 2 hours plucking the petals. By the time I was done my house was full of petals and my thumb nail had lifted off its nail bed :( But soon Anju took over and the result was quite a wow :)

The second rangoli of our married life :)

Given the effort involved in the last two events Anju was a wee bit hesitant this time around. And as usual I looked at things differently and wanted do something. So finally after much back & forth she suggested using coloured rice. Given our past results this seemed a little underwhelming. I was keen on getting some spectacular results but she was quite mindful of the effort involved. As we explored the options in Little India a week before the Diwali we came across a Stencil mechanism that used coloured rice grains. As we made our plans we got a invite to a Diwali lunch from a Senior at Coke. And for a moment it looked like a case of either lunch or the rangoli :(

A top view of this year's Rangoli :)

A closeup of the rice grains that made up the Rangoli

Now with the lamps at night :)

We somehow decided to give the rangoli a try before we went for the lunch. It seemed like a no win case but somehow after about two hours of effort we had a fabulous Rangoli. And Surprise!! Surprise!! we were ready before time for the lunch. The end result was an awesome day out with great company and an awesome Diwali Rangoli at home :) As I write these final words for this post the Diwali day is almost over, but the feeling is one of a Big High and the excitement of what will happen next year :D