Happy Diwali (belch! groan!)

Well, I suppose I should have made this post a few days ago while it was still Diwali but it's been wicked hectic chez moi this festival season..First of; Happy Diwali all...(insert chessy greeting here). Hope you had a fun festival of lights...I suppose I'm still in time to wish y'all Eid Mubarak though. Woohoo! So I got one festival right!

What does one really do on Diwali besides eat? And visit people? And burst fire crackers and wake up the dead? Pray? OK, not pray...Diwali is the hedonists festival after all...all night gambling binges, eating till you're fit to burst, setting off small fires. And the best part is, ask 10 people why we celebrate Diwali and get 10 different answers....So here's how I celebrate Diwali.

Woke up before dawn on Naraka Chaturdashi (the first day of Diwali). Amma massaged my head with some warm coconut oil...when we were younger, we'd get the full body oil treatment! The lady of the house (in this case Amma) massages everyone's head with oil and heats up the water for a pre-dawn bath. The water is supposed to have been collected the night before. The origins of this ritual are to describe how Lord Krishna's wives treated him after he came back at dawn bloody and bruised from battling Narakasura all night. After you bathe in steaming hot water with sandalwood soap (which feels so good early in the morning), as you step out of the bathroom, you crush a bitter fruit with your right foot (This symbolizes Krishna's crushing of Naraka). And then, it's time for the fireworks! Well, since I'm kind and don't wanna annoy my neighbours before dawn, I only light sparklers while Amma goes about lighting all the lamps in the house. The night before, all the lamps are lit and you leave a window open so that Lakshmi - the Goddess of Wealth feels welcome into your house. How very deliciously pagan!

And then one eats. Like there's no tommorrow. The closest thing I find to the Diwali bacchanalia (NOT "The love for Amitabh and Abhishek" but "A riotous, boisterous, or drunken festivity; a revel"), is the American Thanksgiving where you sit around stuffing your face all day and then passing out from eating too much food later in the evening. Chaklis, karanjis, laddoos, tukdi, banana chips, pedhas, kaju katri, chivda, kheer...the list is endless. Amma, like many other moms, spent all week cooking these up...of course, half of them disappeared in the days before Diwali (Midnight snacks...).

Visiting neighbours and family all day and eating everything they set in front of you seems like fun when you think about it; but in reality? Groan! I was so full of food I couldn't even fit into a pair of jeans (which seems to be the story of my life..the winter fattening has begun!). And surprise surprise! I find out that the Diwali we celebrate involves eating fish for lunch! And here I thought like other Hindus we don't eat non-vegetarian food on festivals..but no! Woohoo! I pigged out on pomfret curry and fried surmai. My two favourite fishy eats..I love fish so much. Must be the Konkani genes in me!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a happy festival season. Now it's onto Christmas and more pigging out (Thank you Bandra neighbour aunties!). Full speed ahoy!

Current Music:
Kidda - Natacha Atlas

I love the orgasmic sounds Natacha makes in this song. Most entertaining..