Diwali - then and now

Zamaana badal gaya, as they say. Aur uske saath Diwali bhi.

Ab Diwali greetings ko hi le lo. Greeting cards have gone the Siberian Crane way - they're a rare sighting. Instead it's the Diwali SMS or now, MMS. Aur ismein bhi alag alag type ke log-baag hain.
a) Wholesale variety: These are the folks who message their entire phonebooks, coz after all they're on a 50 p per sms plan - may as well make use of it. Never mind if some of the recipients are clueless about who the hell the sender is...

b) Designer variety: Ordinary 'happy diwali' and 'best wishes for the new year' messages won't pass muster with this lot. They take extra time and effort to come up with something creative. Or, wait for someone else to - and then promptly forward it!

c) Reply-only variety: Yeh log khud message nahin bhejte but if they receive one, will take the trouble to reply.

d) Bhayaanak variety: "Happy Diwali. Have you filed your Income Tax Return for AY 05-06? If not pls file it by 31st Oct 05..." Yup, the I-T dept just discovered the joys of spamming!

Diwali - Then & Now

Other ways in which Diwali has changed for People Like Us...

* Then: Rui ki battiyan, mitti ke diye.
* Now: Wax waale bane banaye khareed liye.
* Then: Ghee waale laddoo-barfi-halwe khaane ke din.
* Now: Chocolate hampers, sugar-free mithai are in.

* Then: Atom bombs, 10,000 ki ladis were cool.
* Now: Anaars, chakris and phuljhadis rule.

* Then: Problem - is saal client ko kya gift bhejna hai
* Now: Solution - Hamari company mein ab gift lena manaa hai!

* Then: Saal mein ek baar bacchon ke kapde aate they
* Now: Ab to har hafte mall visit mein Diwali manaate hain.

Diwali hampers are now made of chocolate sauce, hazelnute coffe powder, oreo cookies and hershey chocolates. So much for Indian DIWALI!

And let's not forget the lights now come from China.
Not only Diwali, all other festivals of India have undergone a drastic change in last 10-15 yrs.

They have become a means to show off. What I feel is that the original message of the festival has been lost somewhere in these years. I still remember, when we used to go to our cousins place and then we would be joined by their neighbours and vice versa. We would eagerly tell them that this year we have purchsed so much of crackers. All of us from the neighbourhood  used to go on cracker bursting spree. So much so that this had become a ritual. Immediately after the "phataka pradarshan", we would jump into having sweets and namkeen and that too besan ka halwa and lehsun ke namkeen.
Now: they're all as far from home as i am , maybe more. Crackers even on Diwali day are few and not too loud.

Then: looking forward to colony aunties who'd come over to give mithais and then getting upset at folks when they repackaged those boxes to forward on to other friends.
Now: on low sweet diet. Both my folks as well as the aunties are fast growing old and missing us kids with the sweets waiting for someone to eat them.

Then: the whole family attended... 10 of us kids fighting over the huge set of crackers.. which never seemed enough.
Now: the crackers are there but few ppl to light them. the elders are there but no noise anymore :(

The only thing that has remained is the paper cards. I insisted to send me cards on all occasions and refused to accept any e- or m-greetings. Unfortunately, my friends prefer not to wish than wishing thru a paper card :(

I'm not nostalgic about the old days - except for the home made mithais and gulabjamuns which sadly, are missing from the Diwali. Mithai ki plates that neighbours exchanged then.

In every other way, now is an improvement on then. And yes, the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' remains. But there is more awareness - more efforts to contribute to charity. More than one yuppie couple I know has taken the trouble to make a donation of toys and sweets to an orphanage.

So things are different - but it's still Diwali
Until next year, wish you peace and khushhaali!