HAPPY DIWALI GREETINGS TO ALL MGRPERAN BLOG READERS
Nostalgic memories... Deepavali was always an occasion we looked forward too in our grandfathers house in “Thai Veedu’. It was a huge family mansion where i spent my childhood in a joint family with all my cousins.All the family members first takes their blessing from my grandfather Periyavar M.G.Chakrapani. My grandmother would wake us all up at 4 in the morning and we would rush and crowd at the store room where the crackers would be kept.Each of us would be given our share and we would run to the main gate.My father would keep a 1000 wala and wake up the whole household and the neighbourhood.We would then finish the crackers we have and ask my uncles for money to buy again. This would go on till we would all be dragged for an oil bath by our respective moms.
The real flavour of Deepavali heightens with the special breakfast.My grandmother and Leelamma ( though a cook,who was always treated like a member of our household)would make pepping hot idlis and dosas with mutton curry, mutton fry and egg curry. We would all have at least two rounds of breakfast and run around the house as if we were all very busy. Running up and down the house to each of my cousins rooms made us hungry all over again and Leelamma would be eternally cooking on that day.There would be a stream of friends and relatives throughout the day and no one would leave without eating.
The evening would be filled with lamps lit by all the women folk, while we children would start with another round of bursting crackers. It would go on till midnight as we used to drop dead on our beds.
Those days of joint family celebrations are gone and they remain only as memories...i mean nostalgic memories.Now we have all split into small nuclear families and celebrate Deepavali only as a ritual !
I can never forget Deepavali in my good old “Thai Veedu”home.
- M.G.C.B.Pradeep (mgrperan blog author)
