High Spirits

There are these specific days of the year..when no matter what....but ones spirits remain high..nothing can take the smile off from ones face..the enthusiasm n joy around is so contagious..that everyone has no choice but to be Happy.Diwali is one such day for me. I remain in high spirits weeks before n after the festival. The enthusiasm drops a little only to get perked up again a few weeks before Christmas! Fun n delightful times…this time of the year!

When we were kids Mom, Dad, Sis n me would go shopping about a month in advance. Commercial Street would be more crowded than usual n 2 days or so before Diwali the street would be lit up with lights looking more beautiful than ever. The lights would stay up until New Year..making us want to visit the street n therefore shop for some li’l thing every weekend!

As kids, Sis n I with a few other friends would prepare a dance for the adults. So the rehearsals for that would begin too. My mom would make so many delicacies .It would indeed become busy times with so much to look forward to. Before D-day, we would take out our new clothes, the matching jewellery etc and lay them out ready. We would start decorating the house and when we grew a li’l bigger Sis n I would spend hours drawing the huge Rangoli in front of our home. On D-day we would wake up early morning, have our mom put haldi on our legs n hands, have the special headbath, n try to be the 1st one to burst the cracker. Prats has explained the tradition very well.

As we grew up the dance routines and bursting crackers stopped..but not the enthusiasm for dressing up nor eatin the yummy stuff mom made.

Last year was my first Diwali in the US. Before Diwali I was kind-of worried about not celebratin it the way we did in India. I made sure we got new clothes and I thought why not have some people over for dinner and planned a game-night. That was the first time V n I had more than 3 people come over to our home! We had 8 guests n that nite was a hit! We enjoyed cooking, decorating the house and getting dressed ourselves. We were satisfied! N so I decided to make it a tradition..that every year we’ll host a Diwali party!

In August we moved to Vermont and in a short span of time we have made several friends. As Diwali approached I didn’t want to give up the tradition and so we started making the list for number of invitees. The list had over 30 adults. It made us nervous but we decided that we’ll have a pot-luck n then should be able to work things out. It took us over a week to get our li’l home ready for the party. A tiring but fun week.!n finally last Saturday we did have our Diwali party. We played Bingo n sang some songs. n all turned out well. All our guests seem to have enjoyed n as a host I moved from wearin a salwar to drapin a saree. It was a fun evening…n I feel so confident that I can’t wait until next Diwali to host our next big party

Now u tell me..which time of the year can you not help being in high spirits and u feel like ur in La-La-Land?