My Deepaavalis

Deepaavali was always the favorite festival of us kids. 
We used to look forward to it right from the start of dasaraa navaraatris.
After all, which kid would not savor the thought of lighting up his
own fireworks! The wait was about a month long. Every passing day brought
with it new tales of fire crackers purchased by our friends' papas. 
The vendors pitched up tents in the biggest public grounds of the town and 
everyone at school seemed to know the previous day's sales report!
There were a select few though, whose families used to manufacture 
their own crackers. Once the crackers were purchased or made, either way,
we used to dry them in the sun to make sure that they were no damp squibs.

The real festivity always started one day in advance! Deepaavali falls
on a new moon day and traditional belief system looked down upon new moon
days as inauspicious! Hence, the elaborate head baths that were usually the
norm on other festival days, were performed on the day before, referred to
as naraka caturdhi. It was on this day, the legend said, narakaasura - a 
demon who terrorized the world - was put to death by krishna (and his wife,
satyabhaama). The shampoo for the ritual head baths came from the juice of 
"kumkudu" seeds. We kids were always scared of this natural shampoo though, 
for, it burnt the eyes badly if it spilled into them. Our mother always had
to coax us into taking this head bath. Of course, she also had a 
magic cure ready if we complained of burning sensation in our eyes. A salt
crystal was the medication! It worked perfectly well for me until the day I 
suspected its curative powers! Could it be that my mother 
was merely soothing me by making my mouth salty, I thought and that was
the last it seemed to work :)

Deepam stands for a light device and Deepaavali stands for 
"an array of lights". As darkness fell on the day of deepaavali, our mother 
decorated the outer perimeter of our house with an array of deepams.
Each deepam was lit in a small clay pot filled with oil using a strand
of thread that she wove by hand from cotton. These deepams also functioned
as our source of fire for lighting up our crackers. We then finally could
embark upon what we had looked forward to for so long - starting our own
fireworks! We worked with a good variety of crackers. Some were sticks that
produced flowery sparks (kaakara puvvottulu) or just brilliant 
light (mataabaalu), some were circular coils that became rotating wheels of 
fire - either on the ground (bhoo chakraalu) or in a held-up 
position (vishnu chakraalu), some were pots that burnt
with sparkles that rose like a fountain (cicchu buddlu), 
some were rockets that went up into the sky (avvaayi juvvaayilu)
and some were plain and simple bombs that exploded loudly.
There were also some for the faint of the heart; notable among them were the
tablets that coiled like a black serpent when burnt. When we finished our 
fireworks in a couple of hours, it was time to wash up and fill up our
bellies with delicious sweets. And after that, alas, it was time to bed 
dreaming of the next deepaavali, even as we heard a late burst of two of
crackers in the distance.

I grew up, left home for college and deepaavali ceased to be the same. 
I did recall the past celebrations on the day of deepaavali during my 
first few years at college, but as years passed by, it just become one 
more day in the year. 

The last few years have seen the emergence of strong public opinion 
against the fireworks industry as it is using child laborers working in 
extremely unsafe conditions. Even in the olden days, a few elders used to 
point out that people were burning up their money in deepaavali. Safety, 
of course, has been a very important concern from the beginning.

After about a gap of ten years, I finally could get 
home for another deepaavali. It still was the same fun.
In fact, it was a little more, as I could also see and share the
joy of kids in my neighborhood firing up their crackers. 

I've not been home yet for another deepaavali since.