I hope everyone is planning to celebrate deepavali wherever you are.Each one of us is a little bit lonely on these festive days, all of us being separate and far away but lets make the best of the day wherever we are and celebrate with whoever is around.
Darshini has been here for a month and a half; the longest period she has ever been home after leaving for college 8 years ago. We had a good time, reading, chatting, tv watching and doing lots of eating. Sindhu was home for a few days and left home a bit enviously.
Since Prashanth also came for a few days; I've been doing a lot of cooking.
And then experimenting with sweets. If you are housebound; then cooking is one activity that is enjoyable if there are people to eat.
So in order of success, badam halwa,gulab jamuns, coconut burphies, somaas, mottulad(only in our house do we call them so - otherwise I've heard maida biscuits, kalakal..)and ottu pakoda.
Sweet making should only be embarked upon when there are at least 3 willing pairs of hands at home. Its really labour intensive.
And it really brings back memories of Amma getting ready andas of sweets. The hustle and bustle in the house and ho she was always trying to keep our hands out of the andas but we could always get around the athais who would give us our due.
Nowadays ; people mostly buy the sweets outside. All terrifically planned and packaged. Aesthetic but the spirit of the occasion seems to be missing. Very few crackers and lots of tv watching.
The tow of us plan to go to coimbatore for deepavali and will be joined by Kalai, Mrg and poor Haru (poor because she is the only junior and will have to go all the houses to distribute the sweets)
Will post pics later
happy deepavali
1 comment:
dear kal as u say we really miss the spirit of the day. during our days one week to 10 days before diwali the preparations wld start at home. coming home frm school daily eve. before diwali wld find amma ,amachi, athai busy preparing one to 2 items. atahis busy with the 'veshti' spread on the floor in the dining hall making 'kai 'murukus.and amma wld make it a point to prepare one or two untried new dishes every year.the joy of wearing the new dresses n showing it to all the neighbours while taking the sweets to each house was the most waited part of the day.n later on the colony picnics each diwali day were memorabli.i always tht instead of christmas it shld be diwali , the educational institutions shld give a long leave for, so that the kids can participate n enjoy in the preparations days ahead. i always remember the day once when i returned in the eve. to see kar with a huge vadachatti in front of her making murukus. until then i had always felt it was the elders' domain i hope in the years to come we can still plan n have great get togethers.only yesterday chinna baby chitti was telling me that as one grows older one wants to be among more people.i hope we can develop a central place where any one can home in whenever they want without thinking twice , in times of lonliness, depression,when they want to get away somewhere, a place of comfort n solace n also a place for getting together whenever possible.that is my long time dream.
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