Children are the ones who can literally bring alive the joyful spirit of a festival in reality with their excited smiles, wild hope and craze for merriment. Diwali is also one of those many festivals where children play the central role in ushering happiness in a house with their lively energy to participate in bursting firecrackers and superb eagerness to gorge on the many delicacies that come laden in huge numbers inside the residences during this time of the year. The Festival of Lights, as Diwali is popularly known, truly can brighten up the complex mood of an adult with the addicting positive or bubbly energy of a little kid. Although their appearance might be small, children really has the ability to transform Diwali into a magical festivity by requesting for things that might seem wastage of money or time at first but the result of procuring it for them can become a worthwhile feature which can turn a sweet memory in the later years on which we can linger fondly at times. When the children get the commodities they wish for at the time of Diwali, they would make full use of it and turn the Festival of Lights into a dazzling one with their little shouts of joy and intense energetic motions of jumping here and there or running around.
Let us take a drive down memory lane and recall the beautiful incidents that are a regular affair of every Diwali-
Get into a fierce argument for firecrackers
As children, Diwali always seem to remain incomplete without firecrackers. Our tiny minds were like ‘Is Diwali even celebrated without taking the risk of playing with phuljaris and fatkas?’ While some of us might not like to endanger our lives by frolicking around with firecrackers and rather tend to be very good in behaviour in order to get some extra mithais to gobble happily later, most would go out with numerous packets of phuljaris in hand along with the variety of fatkas to dance happily and shout in delight along with the sounds of rhythmic phaat and the one ubiquitious boom. To soak in this pleasurable addictive sound, the biggest trouble was convincing our parents with sweet words. It was no easy task and had taken up loads of childish creativity so that we could come up with some effective strategies to make our parents buy the most desirable products of Diwali. While some would often use the word please for tons of times, there are others who would blackmail about not getting proper love to their parents so that they could somehow get the firecrackers at the last moment. There are also the dramatic children who would shrill and cry their hearts’ out for the firecrackers so that the heartbroken parents would ultimately give in to their dearest one’s request.
Meeting and planning the cracker bursting session
As children, Diwali was absolutely fun when we would get to burst firecrackers together with our siblings or cousins. The plan of which cracker to burst first to actually executing them in reality was the one activity that was of the utmost importance in Diwali. As the tip of the phuljari slowly lights up in a bright dazzling array of dancing flames from the tiny light of the diya, our childlish faces also lighted up with a million dollar smile and pacified our hopeful hearts with a sense of joy and relief. The next exciting step is slowly going to light the chakris, kolgos and various other firecrackers with intense excitement. Once the job of lighting the tip of the firecracker is done, the next step of running away quickly to a safe spot and watch the cracker burst with brilliant colourful lights along with the merry sounds was what we had all enjoyed.
Gorge sinfully on sweets of various hues and tastes
The second most delightful aspect of Diwali during childhood was the large number of fancy sweets that would come in variety of shapes, sizes and colours in boxes of different designs in the house. The level of merriment would rise up when the boxes would rise on the shelves of the kitchen with every passing day leading up to Diwali. From taking bites on a sweet per hour to getting fully overstuffed by the time of dinner, the Festival of Lights made us sleepy on notes of sweetness and joy. Be it the little kaju katli, the delightful round boondiya laddoo, shards of soan papdi, Diwali was the only time when we would be happily allowed to overeat with loads of sweets. Besides sweets, the deep fried and crunchy kachoris and samosas also heighten up the guilty pleasure of childhood.
Helping and arguing with the decorations
House cleaning was the only highly boring activity that we had to reluctantly help our moms with during Diwali. While we did some lame excuses to escape from this dreary session that is a tradition of the days ahead of the Festival of Lights, it was the one where we had to participate wholeheartedly like an obedient kid so that we get our childish demands fulfilled afterwards. Meanwhile, the joyful part of Diwali decorations was getting to pour colours over the beautiful Rangoli designs that were drawn artistically in the entrance of the house by our moms and grandmoms. Again, the beautiful strands of light that were enchantingly put up across the fences of the house seems to bewitch our senses as it displayed its colourful sparkle in blinking forms. Meanwhile, arranging the diyas with oil and wick, lighting them up one by one and finally helping our mothers put them all over the house was the one we enjoyed as a child
Soak totally in the revelry of the celebrations
Childhood, being the best time of life, was the time when we used to get totally bewitched with the magical ambience of Diwali. With no worries lingering in the back of the mind, the flickering light of the tiny diyas along with the dazzling aura of the colourful lights that seem to lighten up the dark surroundings enchantingly had the capacity to truly enthrall the childlish senses and sights in poetic moods back then. Meanwhile, the weird sounds of the firecrackers literally cause the childhish heart to jump in joy as if it was the most delightful noise that happened only in Diwali. With lights captivating the sights, firecrackers delighting the ears, the taste was totally taken controlled of by the huge loads of sweets that we gobbled in twos and fours.
As adults, we hope that the festival of lights brighten up our life with joy. Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous Diwali. May the light of the tiny lamps glow up your life with rays of success.
