DIWALI .. one festival i was crazy about ... there wre three festivals i alwayz looked forward to each yr ... Diwali, Holi and New Yr (wel .. u don’t exactly cal it a festival but back then, anything that cals for a celebration was a festival in my dictionary .. that belief still has some foothold in my heart .. ;) .. nywayz .. ) today, that festive mood has lost much of itz enthu/. ... i tel myself that itz caz i ve grown up ... but i think the real reason is that today the way of celebrating the festival has changed soo much that i ve lost the charm i had for it when i was a kid ..

those days, when diwali was jus a month away, we ( dad, mom , vivi and me) used to sit down for a round table conference ( er ... off the record, t'was either a rectangular dining table conference or the partially rect and partially oval - okie okie , i dunno the exact shape of it- table conference in the hall ) ... and this was the day v decided wat crackers v wre goin to buy for that diwali - after much fighting between me and vivi(my bro) and convincing by my ma and dad ("kanna ivlo vedi vendaam .. konjam flower-pot and chakra .. apram kambi-mathaapu vaangiko" .. ouff :- ) .. t'was alwayz this way, my dad gave us a list of crackers and the amount he was ready to spend on 'em for each of us and v wre free to choose wat v wanted (oh yeah??!!!!) ... how much ever my parents organized and bought crackers for us both, finally on the D-Day v managed to end up quarelling rite in the morning .. v wre both fond of all those noisy bombs and both of us hated flower-pots and chakras ... but then, v buy those caz v wre forced to by my ma esp. .... so i'll try to push all those to him and take all vedi's ... and he'll try to do the same to me .. finally v'll glare at each other and leave in the opposite directions to burst crackers with our respective frenz .. those wre fun filled days and v didnt ve much channels and crap programs ( na .. not all .. but most) named diwali-special-programs that today's kids seem to njoy more ......

when i think of Diwlai-on-those-days i never fail to remember that one Diwali when i was in sixth or seventh .... me and vivi started off the day like any other Diwali day and wre back home for lunch at sharp one thirty ... me and my gang had decided to stop bursting crackers for the afternoon and continue in the evening and all of us headed home for a few hours of rest .. (v wake up at three thirty .. so v need the afternoon nap) .. but i was not so sleepy and so after lunch, me and vivi along with a fren of his went down (v live in the second floor) ... v wre soo bored and suddenly one of us came up with a brainstorm (???!!!) .. v collected all the un-burst (oops!! sorry if such a word doesn't exist ... ) crackers and opened 'em and took the chemical in a sheet of paper .. finally after two hours of hard work, v had enough chemical for an atom bomb .. v wrapped up the sheet and decided to lite it and ve a grand bursting ... my bro lighted the self-made cracker with me and the other guy lookin and b4 v knew wat happened , all of us wre bruised and burnt ..

these guys had not washed their hands and when vivi lighted the cracker, the chemical in their hands also caught fire ... luckily(!!!?) i was a li'l farther and nothing much happened to me but those two wre badly hurt ... esp vivi .. his hands wre scarred and itz taken more than ten years for it to fade ..

v wre both royally thrashed left and rite by my ma but my dad was sorta lenient .. lectured us for a li'l more than an hour and made it a point to buy us extra crackers from the next year .. he he he .. but that diwali alwayz made us remember never to touch crackers that did not burst the first time .. and v cut a gud example for the neighbours to advice their kids .. "look at vivek and anu .. look at vivek's hands ... be very careful .. okie " ... oh yeah , sure .. :- quite an example v wre for a few yrs after this incident ..

wel !! gud or bad .. these r all fond memories in a way and i miss those days of diwlai and holi and all other festivals .. now , living far away from home (wel .. 'm not near enough to stay home and go to work .. and travelling more than 8 and half hours to reach home is pretty far for me) , i think of those days and the fun v had .. man !! how i wish i had a time machine .. i wud rewind back to all those wonderful days and more than that, for the days i had wasted which if given a chance now, i wud luv to compensate for ... hmmm ... any idea wre i can get one??? a Time Machine??!!!