The Day after Diwali
When I was a kid, I used to get very upset when my parents tucked me to bed on the night of Diwali. I didn’t want the night to end, I wanted to light more firecrackers. A grew up a little bit and I stopped exploding crackers altogether because I had read about the environment now. Yet again, I hated going to bed on Diwali night. At the time of writing this, it is the next day of Diwali for me. More than 25 years of celebrating Diwali and hating the next day, here I am today hating and, for the first time, pondering what it is about today, that I hate so much.
Let me back up and tell you what Diwali meant for me. Back in non-covid times, I would fly back to my hometown, to the house me and my brother and, as a matter of fact, my father too grew up in. My brother, my cousins and my school friends would do the same. I would have various sorts of reunions, friend meeting friend, groups of friends visiting another friend, friends collecting to check out a fancy restaurant that opened up while we were away, my family visiting my grandmom, meeting the distant relatives, shopping on the streets with lights that will blind you, the streets where the bigger stores are competing for the best-decorated shop of the city.
Diwali brought out the best of everyone and every place. People looked forward to it in excitement and happiness. In the days folding towards the big day, everyone slowly and gradually shifted towards a happier self. For my whole life I was thinking that we are celebrating Diwali but today I realized we were celebrating life. We took away the days preceding Diwali from our routine life and mixed in light, colors, gifts, sweets, happiness and good-hearted conversations. And finally, the day of Diwali is a very different day from the other 364 days. It marks the peak of all of the above stuff. The best sweets, the best wishes, the best dresses and the best energies in making the day a remarkable memory for the ones you love. When I look back at all the Diwalis I spent at home, I remember all these little things. This year when I am trying to recreate a Diwali for myself in my studio apartment, thousands of kilometers from the home I grew up in, I am trying to be the best version of me, trying to bring out my most creative skills to decorate the place, the most efficient self to accommodate all preparations, decorations and the most congenial self to wish everyone who has ever been a significant part in my past or present.
The next day I would wake up and all the festivities would be gone, everyone would start taking down the fairy lights, shops would no more have the assorted Diwali collections, people no longer are dolled up and there is no reason for everyone to visit everyone else with a box full of sweets and hearts full of happiness and good wishes.
Now I know, the only fact which made me sad the next day was to lose the happiness in people and places around me and to lose the energy everyone gave in to be at their best.
I was so sad before Diwali that I will not have any of the above this year but now I am just thankful and happy that my loved ones are safe and healthy. This is the greatest gift I could have asked for. I think it was Diwali that brought out a happy version of me. On the day of Diwali, I attempted to recreate Diwali at home, as I remembered it to be. I am glad that I understand the importance of celebrating better now and hope to keep celebrating every little thing and the big ones and do it with the best version of me. I hope we all do.
