Monday, October 19, 2009

The difference in spark

This was my first diwali away from home.. or rather a bachelor's thala deepavali..(thala deepavali is the first diwali celebrated by a married male/female)..as most of u might know that my native place is chennai(in south india) and i am currently in raipur(central india).. In chennai i have my family.. and in raipur, me and my friends live in a separate house.. In this post, am mainly gonna talk abt the differences i noticed in the way the festival is celebrated in the 2 parts or rather gonna say what i have done during diwali..

Read the corresponding points back to back..

In Chennai..
1. 10PM-3AM:- I would have definitely slept..

2. 3.15AM:- I go to the streets and burst a 200 wala to show everyone that i've woken up and to wake all the sleeping beauties.. 15 mins are for just lingering in my sleep.. or atleast until dad comes and says "go and wake everyone up.."

3. 3.30AM:- This is what exactly happens.. and i dunno the name of this proceeding.. my mom spreads a mat on the floor.. me, my sis and my dad sit on it.. my mom goes inside the pooja room and brings the necessary "godly" stuff.. she applies turmeric and kumkum on all our foreheads.. and pours a little oil on our heads.. my dad gives us 1 rupee coins and we have to put it on the plate which contains all the godly stuff.. my mom takes it eventually.. then comes the best part.. i get an oil head massage from my dad.. i wish i can sleep again.. eventually i take a bath.. all this would have been done by at the max 4'o clock..

4. 4AM:- I put on my new clothes and tease my little sister for a while.. then go out with a few crackers and wish everybody out there a happy diwali.. everybody.. from beggars to pple travelling in cars.. the TV would be on and instrumentals on a full flow.. my mom would have put her usual ettu pulli kolam.. nothin fancy.. a simple rangoli..

5. 5AM:- The street is probably flooded now.. the little kids are highly notorious since they go in bunches and plan wickedly and choose their target carefully.. unfortunately.. urs truly was once a target of these kids.. (reason: urs truly has once lit 5 atom bombs in succession and then threw the 6th atom bomb in the air.. they were jealous) So.. wen i was close to the gate,they had me distracted by some other kid who made me to watch him.. while i was watching him 2 more kids lighted 2 kuruvi vedis(a fairly good explosive) right near my ears and stuck them onto the gate.. n the two explosives blasted at the same time making urs truly deaf for almost 5 mins.. the kids executed the plan perfectly.. no physical damage done but completely deaf for 5 mins.. all i could see was them laughing around.. i still havent taken the revenge on those naughty lil pests yet..

6. 6AM:- My dad is now ready and would do some risky stuff to enthrall the kids.. he would hold the 200 wala in his hands until it comes to the hand.. funny that i've never tried that even once..

7. 6.30AM:- The munching starts.. when i was small they threatened me to wash my hands every time before i lay upon my hand on the food.. so i would wash my hands and then eat.. now tht i hav bcum lazy and more brainy.. wen i go into the kitchen.. my mom stuffs the food in my mouth and i continue with the fireworks.. ;)

8. 7AM:- Me and dad would start watching TV and all the crap morning interviews with celebrities they put on.. the munching is still on pple.. and then it is TV(solomon papaiya) and TV(matinee movie) and more TV(evening movie) till evening.. at times fireworks.. and the great feast.. i may even go outside to meet my friends..

9. 7PM:- after 7AM its directly to 7PM.. we light the lamps all around the house.. and am off to fire rockets and a lil bit of fancy stuff to light up the night sky.. we sleep off finally..

In Raipur..
1. 12AM- 3AM:- Sleeping.. whats that??.. first of all this time was a lil bit different.. it was soin's bday.. so the usual party happened at 12AM.. we gave him gpl and ate his awesome bday cake as if we were scavengers.. u can check out that awesome bday cake here.. After that we start playing cards till about 3 AM.. every1 else slept..

2. 3AM:- We are totally stuffed with the 4 pound cake.. lazily me, soin and ela plan to get up, go to the street in an effort to wake all our neighbours.. we ignite the 100 wala.. the sound wasnt much but it shd have been enuf to wake em all.. our efforts go in vain.. not a single soul comes out for the next 1 hr..

3. 4AM:- No special religious proceeding.. we dont have a pooja room coz all are not of the same religion.. none of the hindus here are so religious where as the christians here are so religious.. neways.. no oil bath.. forget oil bath.. i didnt take bath the whole day.. soin took bath in the evening.. hari and rajesh perhaps took bath in the morning at maybe 10..

4.5AM:- By now Soin would have got around 4 calls from his home whereas i got 1 call through which i sufficed the need.. Since no-one woke up on our street.. we went to the tea shop in an effort to see pple awake on the auspicious day.. the chai wala was there.. we wished him and while happily drinking chai.. the rangoli-wala caught my eye.. took a few random colours and went home..

5. 6.30AM:- There are absolutely no kids still..

6. 7AM:- I really missed my dad.. but friends are the best substitute one can get.. me and ela clean the area in front of the gate in order to create more space for the rangoli..

7. 8AM:- Interestingly.. we just had 2 packets of sweets and 2 mixtures for the entire day.. not the kinda munching u had expected..

8. 8.30AM- 11.30 AM:- We saw the nayanthara interview on suntv.. one hell of a comedy.. the tattoo controversy was totally uncalled for.. then we saw the soloman papaya patti manram.. it was disappointing.. still not even a single cracker sound.. pissed off me and soin went off to bed..

9. 4.30PM:- Straight to work on the rangoli.. we didnt want some fancy design.. we needed a clear cut concept(alliteration aah..) it was rajesh's idea finally that came into play.. we finished with rangoli and then started the lamps(vilakku).. decorated the whole house with lamps.. u can check every stage of the rangoli and the decoration here..




10. 6.30PM:- Night is when the party began.. man u shd have seen this.. we were totally in love with the night sky.. All the rich pple show off with their money.. they burst only 10000 walas and fancy things that go and burst in the sky.. it totally rocked.. we bursted our small pile of crackers and went roaming around the city.. we took fotos of all the beautifully decorated houses and the rangoli.. our eyes took the pictures of all the good looking girls neatly dressed up..(wat can i say.. we're still bachelors..) in short.. it was a treat to our eyes..

P.S: I dedicate this post to my house mates.. rather close friends and fellow bloggers soin and hari.. if u wish to then plz take the award..
P.P.S: soin's real name is vishvak saen.. betcha lot of pple wouldnt know this..

19 comments:

KD. K Bodhi said...

Welcome to life outside home:)

Priya Vinay said...

You guys have done a great job with the rangoli :)
Seems like you had helluva fun doing it.

PS: I'm going to be spending next Diwali alone :( I hope to god its not with girls who dream in pink (:P)

Vishnu said...

@ k bodhi.. i hav been outside home for the past 3 years.. this is my final year of engineering.. thanks for ur comments..

@priya.. rangoli is good?? thanks a lot.. lol.. choose ur frnds then.. lucky for me, i got a pretty good bunch.. similar in a lot of ways..

Anonymous said...

sema rangoli! saw it in soin's blog!
chinna vayasula naan 3 maniku ezhunthirichu enga streetla first vedipen! appo poatti irukum yaaru first vedikraanganu!
apram intha atom bomb varaikkum kaila paththa vechu thooki podradhu!
ipo 2 years ah vedikrathu illa..boring ayduchu!atha thavira veera theera saagasam kamikra alavuku enga areala figuresum illa!:(

Vishnu said...

ya.. tht was the main reason for this post.. it explains the basic difference in the types of celebration n i also touched hw we celebrated it..
areava mathunga.. lol..

Anonymous said...

Atleast you saw and burst crackers.. here nothing to eat, nothing to burst :( worst diwali of my life.. missed my parents like hell!!!! Happy deepavali :) Rangoli was nice!

Soin said...

bah u anchoring me so much.this is copyright infringement.. am gona sue u for soor..burst crackers after five years man.. good diwali and bday..wonder where we will spend our next diwali..free

Insignia said...

The rangoli is good.
Life outside home is pretty boring huh!!

Anuraag said...

waking up and making 'halla' at 3! my god i hav nvr seen this activity here in panchkula chandigarh...here it starts with setting of day and at its peak at night... :)
n diya lighting the globe...nice buddy

HaRy!! said...

Hey Vishnu...nice double event write up...think i can relate myself to yur story very much... yeah i miss my Dad very much.. he always is the first one to start with a 500 wala..and then we start! oh i miss those traditions!and ya at least glad to know yu had frnds now there in Raipur for company...else imagine bro!!

Vishnu said...

@ avada.. wat abt ur so called "indian" friends there?? n y didnt u come home?? cheer up.. n thanks for the rangoli..

@soin.. let us the see..

@ insignia.. thanks.. no way.. life away from home is fun like hell.. but there exist times wen even a non sentimental person like me longs home..

@vishal.. maybe.. next year u'll be the first to do tht.. and the rangoli was a combined effort..

@hary.. cant imagine myself in such a pitiful condition.. glad we both share sumthin common..

Priyamara said...

As everyone said, ur kolam was really good.. but this time deepavali at chennai was not very interesting either... not a much of sound crackers were burst (like 1000walla), only fancy crackers were burst... many associations r formed to stop bursting crackers... Deepavali at chennai is also loosing its essence... :-(

SG said...

Your narration is excellent. Clearly explains how the diwali is celebrated in South and North. Same festival but different traditions. That is called "unity in diversity".

Shalini said...

Nice post!! The cake was really awesome dude!! Nice idea...im gonna copy that for my friend's bday. :P.
And for once, it is a good change to celebrate with friends instead of family. We miss family of course, but its a different kinda masti with friends!
oh btw, happy BELATED thala deepavali!

Neha said...

very nicely narrated post Vishnu...very informative post...I read a similar post on other blog...both are about north and south indian diwali celebration, but so different in case of narrative skills...keep it up

Vishnu said...

@priyadarshini.. oh.. sad to hear.. dunno wats gonna happen..

@sg.. yup.. something i observed with my own eyes..

@shalini.. thanks.. jus give it to good baker.. hey..even we copied.. hope arsenal doesnt sue us.. lol..

@neha.. not as good as urs.. thanks anyway..

Anuraag said...

better i dont..or Mr. Jain of 4th floor and Mr. Chopra 5th floor wd present me to panchkula police as diwali gift.. :)

Smita said...

Festivals can make one homesick and in such times having good friends around helps :-)

Belated Happy Diwali & loved the comparison that u have put thru :)

Vishnu said...

@ vishal.. lol..

@smita.. thanks a lot for ur comments..