Light up the lamps..

Yup, Deepawali time :).

Our Deepawali started off pretty great with the making of the khaara and sihi ereyappas. Once that was done and the hanathes + candles were ready to be lit up, we found out that none of Snugli's zari langas were fitting her anymore :(. Tried loosening some old ones, but nope, last year's dresses are done forever :(. Finally, took out her birthday one and had to loosen the blouse and lengthen the langa for it to fit properly. By that time my back was aching like crazy (my back is still aching as I type this :-p).

Anyways ultimately Snugli was able to wear the langa and pose in it :-D. Then we did pooje to our water heater (neeru tumbso hubba), kept the hanathes outside (sadly its pretty windy and drizzling today, so we had to struggle to keep them lit up, before giving up :-p) and (this is best part) guLumed the ereyappas :-D.




Tomorrow morning is eNNe snaana. I am already tired thinking about oiling and bathing Snugli and putting up with Sri's tantrums before pestering and convincing him to take an oil bath too ;-). But how much ever I crib, I love Deepawali (I know I know I've said it many times already :-D).

I was talking to my parents this morning, when I heard the sound of crackers as background music. I miss the noise, I miss the smell, I miss celebrating with my parents :((. Some day...

BTW will most probably head to the Indian temple tomorrow since they have some cracker-bursting organized (but rains are predicted and the weather already is wintry, so have to see) and hopefully Snugli will get a taste of how it is in India :). Thats about it from me. Happy Deepawali :).

May the festival of lights light up your homes, your hearts and your lives.

Happy Deepawali from all of us :).

ದೀಪಾವಳಿ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು

Bande Banthu Deepawali :).

This time's special. Actually every time is, but this is Snugli's first Deepawali. As is the case these days, she enjoyed looking at all the deepa-s we lit and even tasted both the sweet and khara ereyappa. We already completed our enne-snaana. Only thing is that she'll not get to feel the actual spirit of Deepawali, the fireworks, but well..

So you can see that our Deepawali has already started (click to enlarge)..







Has yours? :)

ದೀಪಾವಳಿ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು

Diye jalthe he..

Deepawali, as I have mentioned several times (:-D) is my favourite festival of the lot. Its been 3 years since I last saw Deepawali at its original and its best. Its been 3 years and I still miss the festive atmosphere, the cracker sounds and smells. This time though I didn't miss mom's cooking ;-). I got to eat her hand-made ereyappas after 3 long years. But I still missed celebrating it in India. The feeling was multiplied by the fact that mom was also missing the Deepawali atmosphere of Bangalore. Last weekend, we did get to see some cracker-bursting what with us attending the get-together at the local temple. But well, nothing is enough for a Bangalore gal ;-).

Anyways, we did the usual neeru-tumbsodu and water heater pooje. On thursday i.e Naraka Chaturdashi, mom did the traditional enneshaastra to Sri and me, after which we did enne-snaana. Since it was a thursday, Sri had to go to office. Well, so we practically did nothing till the evening.

Evening, we dressed up, lit lamps, while mom made the sweet and khara ereyappas. They came out wayyyyyy better than mine (as you can expect :-D).




Sri and I also hung up the decorative lights we had bought earlier outside and placed the lamps on the ground..




Just in case you are not able to make out, the small lights on the ground are the diyas :-p. Since we had dressed up, we obviously took photos (the "we" here refers to me and mom, Sri was in his regular clothes :-D).




Yesterday was Lakshmi pooja. Evening we lit lamps, sung Lakshmi shobhaane and did the pooja. Today evening we lit lamps again, sang some bhajans and conducted the Balindra pooja for Bali Padyami (mom made avalakki panchakajjaya for the occasion). And so our Deepawali is done for the year. Hope you had a wonderful Deepawali too :).

Tamasoma Jyothirgamaya..

Asatoma Sadgamaya
Tamasoma Jyothirgamaya
Mruthyorma Amruthangamaya
Om Shanthi Shanthi Shanthi hi

Translated, it simply means "Lead us from ignorance to truth; From darkness to light; From Death to Eternity; Let peace prevail;".

Why the chant suddenly? The second line "Tamasoma Jyothirgamaya" (From darkness to light), I believe, is the essence of Deepawali. Yes, the festival of lights is back, though may not be with a bang :-p. Atleast not in US :-p.

Before I start off with my rants, first - Wish you all a very happy and prosperous Deepawali :).

This year there's still a tinge of pain that I'm not with my parents during the festival, but its not as much as it was last year. Two days ago I thought I was ok. But yesterday morning as soon as I got up, the first thought was "today is Naraka Chaturdashi and there is no sound of crackers anywhere :(". Later we did the enne shaasthra and again I was reminded of mom doing the shaasthra. Since Darsh wouldn't wake up early, she would wake me up so that I could sit with dad for the shaasthra. I miss it all :(. Shubha has written a post which is as if its coming from my heart as I can relate to it so much and absolutely suits my feelings right now..

Anyways, coming back to Deepawali (as if I was ever away :-p), it all started on Friday with the neerutumbso hubba :). One of the first things I did was to nenesu akki and uddinabele for the traditional Deepawali ereyappa sweet and khaara. Later I made both and they both came out very well (better than the last time and this time the mixer didn't break down ;-) :-D).




The dark brown ones are the sweet and the light ones are the khaara. Next I picked flowers (chrysanthemums of various colours) from our very own garden (a post on it is due next :-D) and made garlands :).




The flowers have been a delight as they have grown extensively and I have been able to use them for Vijayadashami, mainly for ayudha pooja. The car, cycle and even the lawnmower got decorated with flowers :-D. Anyways I'm digressing from the topic :-p.

Meanwhile Sri put oil into the hanathe (mud lamps) that we had got long time back, put baththis and lit them up. We lit lamps and performed pooja for the Gods in our devara mane first :).





The water heater was already full (neeru tumbso kelsa illa :-D), so I decorated it with arshina kumkuma (wanted to get chalks but I forgot :-p) and Sri did pooja to it.






We enjoyed the eateries and that was it for friday. Saturday morning, i.e yesterday, we got up, did enne shaasthra for both of us and had an enne snaana (oil bath) as per tradition. We did take some photos in the evening after the lamp and lights were lit.




If you squint, you'll be able to see the hanathe-s near my feet :-D. And the flowers you see in the garden is a preview of the post to come ;-) :-).




Atleast you can see the hanging lights in this snap :).

Later we went to Louisville temple and had a nice time there. There were hundreds of people there celebrating together and it was really nice :). There were some crackers being lit (both light and noisy ones), so it satisfied a bit of my craving for them, but not completely :(. I so so want to be in India during Deepawali time. Yeah there's lots and lots of noise as well as air pollution, and it might certainly be cruel of me to wish for things like that, but its the atmosphere I've grown up in. The festival air that lurks is so tangible there, the celebration so joyful. I can't help but miss it. Thats one of the reasons, we try to celebrate it as authentic as in India..

But Deepawali will be special to me no matter where I am, as it brought to me Sri. I met him on the third day of Deepawali (its tomorrow) and well, so its a festival close to my heart. So I better be cheerful atleast for that! Ok ok I'm ending my post now with a wish now in Kannada :).

ದೀಪಾವಳಿ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು

Dee Deep Deepawali :)

The beautiful day of lights is here :).

Deepawali has always fascinated me. Its one of my favourite festivals, not only because of the fireworks, but because of the lights and the rituals as well. There is a cheerfulness in case of Deepawali more than any other festival or that is what I have noticed in my household. I even used to love taking walks around the colony in the day just to watch kids light up patakhas (or pataki in Kannada). There's a kind of vibrant energy all around. And I used to go upto terrace during the nights and enjoy the rockets lighting up the skies. I love it :).

This year's Deepawali is in a way, a mixture of happiness and sadness for me. Its the same old story. The happiness is obviously in the fact that I have Sri now and am getting to spend it with him. The sadness comes from the fact that had we been in India, this being our first Deepawali after marriage, we'd have spent it with my parents. Its supposed to be very special. Instead, we are spending it here in a country which doesn't even know what the festival is. No one to share the joys with and obviously no walk around the colony to see children playing. No sitting up on the terrace either, the houses don't even have the terrace concept here :-p.

Its been continuously gnashing at my heart. Sri consoles me saying any Deepawali we are in India, we'll celebrate in a big way. The mind understands the logic, we can't fly to India anytime we want and all that, but the heart doesn't. It wants to throw tantrums, make a fuss and somehow be in India. The story is never-ending...

But I haven't actually let my heart bog me down. Yet. Last week we went and bought candles, plain and scented ones. The diyas are available in Indian stores, but rates are atrocious + didn't want to risk diyas, what with wooden houses here. The candles atleast have a glass/metal cover. We obviously can't have fireworks (Neighbours are sure to call 911 immediately, if they hear weird noises :-p), but atleast we saw some in the recent Atlanta trip. I actually said to myself then, this is my Deepawali. Sounds pathetic, I know, but what else can I do?

So, we did do neeru tumbso hubba (water filling festival) yesterday. I drew some decorations in turmetic-kumkum on the water heater and performed the pooja. Later we lighted up all the candles and arranged them in front of the door :). I also had taken recipes from mom for a special Deepawali dish called Ereyappa. There is sweet ereyappa and khaara ereyappa. I made both and they came out pretty well for first attempt ;-). But, while making ereyappa, the poor American mixie couldn't handle my Indian jaggery and the blade's rubber got burnt. Sri's applaudable comment to that was "We did atleast burn something, even though there wasn't any noise" and my retort was "yeah, thank God the mixie didn't explode or something, then really there'd have been a huggggge noise" :-D. We also called up our homes and some of our relatives to wish them all a prosperous Deepawali :).

Today morning woke up early. Deepawali's Naraka Chaturdashi special is enne snaana i.e Oil bath. So did enne shaastra and later had a head bath. Did an aarthi and seeked blessings. That's it. Sri headed to his office and I started my work. Yup, we will be lighting candles for 3 days, but its somehow not the same without the constant noise in the background, without the hustle bustle and without the crackers.

But its still not that bad. Last year, on the third day of Deepawali i.e Bali Padyami, I met Sri. And this Deepawali, we are together. That day I didn't even know whether to say Yes or No. Today, I can't imagine not being with him. This chain of thoughts is enough to bring a smile on my face whenever I feel even a bit down :). So thats how the cheerfulness and the spirit of the festival are maintained.

Mom and Dad, the Deepawali from your side is still baaki to us. Lets carry it over to whichever year we are back in India and then we'll celebrate it really grand :). I know you miss us and I miss you all too, but we'll make it all up when we are together again :).

As for you other people, have a wonderful Deepawali and play safe with firecrackers :).