Deepavali celebration

It's two days past Deepavali, but still we can hear the sounds of fireworks, string of lights flashing in the balconies and commercials on TV channels. It'll take another three to four days to come out of Diwali Dhamaka :-).

For us, Deepavali celebration started with Harshita bringing the lantern she made at school and then buying Diyas.


Kids hand picked their own Diyas and had great fun coloring them.


They got colored Diyas as Diwali gift from their art teacher.



String of light bulbs hanging in neighbour's house made kids bug their mommy to buy one for them. So we got lights and Lotus lantern to show off.






Also kids had fun choosing firecrackers and rangoli colors.


Finally on the day of Deepavali, kids woke up at 6.30am triggered by their mind clock. They came to their mommy who was still debating to come out of bed after short night sleep. But their enthusiasm to draw Rangoli woke me up. They directed me in filling the colors of the rangoli.... and here is the output.


As usual, our maid took off on Diwali. At least I was happy that our cook agreed to prepare sweet in the early morning at 7am. Thinking that all the puja preparations will be done soon, I took oath to do fasting. Believe me, I'm very bad at fasting... empty stomach makes me go cranky and results in bad headache... with my body taking control over my soul. So I usually don't take the pain of fasting. But somehow, thought I'll fast this time on Diwali. Unlike people who fast by drinking juice, tea and eating fruits and Saabu daana kichdi, my fasting is only with water... so bit hard on me ;-). Anyways, I tried my best.

With fasting in place, I had to do all the household chores. It was indeed a very good exercise. btw, I see some people taking exercise classes and going to gym to shed extra body weight. Dunno why they are wasting money in paying the instructor and also to maids. Doing household chores is the hardest exercise anyone can do.. it involves all sorts of bending, moving, lifting and what not ;-). Anyways, it is my personal opinion... no offense to anyone.

OK...it was around 10am...still my cook didn't turn up. Thought I'll be disturbed by rats in my tummy... but I had no time to think about it. As per my kid's request, prepared their favorite lemon rice. Harshita gave good company in taking pictures of the preparation and now she wants me to blog it....so I need to start another blog... will be coming soon...stay tuned :-). btw, here is one of the 34 pictures she took on lemon rice preparation...


At last, cook turned up at around 11am and started preparing Karanji(Kajjikayalu). Usually I prepare with Poornam (chana dal and jaggery paste). Now I learned Karanji preparation and hope I'll get it right when I prepare next time.



Then we started our puja preparations. There is nothing more than the joy of offering home grown flowers to God.



After Puja, it started drizzling outside and the smell of fresh rain was awesome.... felt as if God was happy with my fasting and was giving me blessings. btw, I didn't realize that I was fasting the whole time. Felt good at last..... now I can proudly say that I can also do fasting ;-).

Had our meals after Puja and then I had to fulfill my kid's wish of doing Mehndi on their hands. This was one of the tough job for me. Never used Mehndi cone in my life... all I used to do was to put a big round circle in the middle of my palm and small dots around it. So it was indeed a big challenge. Anyways, internet was there to rescue in finding some Mehndi patterns. So sat down and tried my best. Kids were boosting me by saying "mamma.. you are a professional..... see, how nicely you are doing the pattern with cone.... and that too.... for the first time...". I know they learned the art of praising me and getting their work done ;-). Here is the result of my hard work and there is one invisible result too...my back pain for sitting so long...



Kids started the fun with small roll caps....


And small tablets that grow into long snakes when lighted....


In the evening, we lit Diyas at the front door and kids were happy to place their Diyas in the Rangoli.

Then we armed with firecrackers and marched to the area dedicated for fireworks in our society. Kids had GREAT time playing with crackers and also watching so many people enjoying Diwali at one place. We tried our best to be sound free... but couldn't make it smoke free. Will help the "Go Green" theme by doing some planting this weekend. Finally kids got bit scared with the sounds and we had to return home when big soldiers marched into the field.

btw, today is Bhai Phota and kids had fun saying "Bhai-er Kopale Dilam Phota, Jom Dvare Porlo Kata" to their brothers three times on phone. It is one of the biggest festival in West Bengal and similar to Bhai Dooj in North India. On this day, sisters apply sandlewood tilak as Phota on their brother's forehead for long life. Planning to celebrate next Bhai Phota in West bengal. Let's see... For now, kids went to sleep and gave me sometime to blog :-).

See you next week....