Day #26: Traditions (100 Days Gratitude Challenge)

Day #26: Traditions
(100 Days Gratitude Challenge)

Today we celebrated Deepavali in Chennai. I got up late after 6 am. It’s a holiday so no hurry. I walked Alfie my dog for around half an hour.  There was some scattered bursting of crackers in the opposite cluster of flats. My cluster of around 550 flats was silent and sleepy. It was like any other holiday here. I returned home to find everyone still asleep. My mother in law who is visiting had just got up.

Contrast this to around 40 years back when my dad used to wake me up at 4:30 am, apply warm oil on my head and all over my body. Hot water will be in the boiler and all of us would take turns to have a bath, wear new clothes and go out to burst crackers. Some of us who wanted to burst the first cracker would jump out of bed earlier and shuck out to burst a few before the bath so we can claim that we are the first to burst on this street.

The previous week my mom would have made laddus, murukkus, and other assorted sweets and savouries. The house would have the aroma of yummy things and the air of festivity would last for a long time. Deepavali to me was all about eating, friends, family, new clothes, crackers, fireworks, lamps, oil bath and more. I used to look forward to this festival though we are Catholics who need not celebrate this feast.  But my parents were carrying on a tradition passed down over centuries and it came very naturally to us.

There were no debates on crackers, noise pollution, wasteful expenditures, child labour or ozone layer. It was innocent, magical, fun and celebratory. It brought the family, friends, and neighbours together in a common celebration.

This year my wife had made gulab jamoons and murukkus for Deepavali. She also visited Grand Sweets, Krishna Sweets and KC Das to pick up delicacies from each. New clothes had been ordered online and arrived. So Diwali is being celebrated though not in the same vein as in my childhood.

My wife is a Hindu. My kids are Crindu. And we do not have oil baths at 4:30 am in the morning. My two sons woke up late, one at 7:30 am and the other at 10 am. Get out of bed an hour later and potter around till someone calls or pings them. New clothes are there. The cursory touch of oil on the head is there. The bath is there. Crackers are a no no. Social visits and exchange of sweets, stories, and gossip are a no no. TV is in. Digital interruptions are in. The celebrations are confined to the digital space. The real world can take a hike. Who needs it?

I’m grateful that I was born in a generation that appreciated and enjoyed traditions. I’m guilty of being the pallbearer of the traditions that lived over several thousand years.

I fell like Don Quixote swinging my blade at something that will not come back ever.  

Wish you all a very Happy Deepavali. May the victory of Good over Evil prevail every single day in our life.