Blue film or film Blue? Diwali then and now?

My mother used to wake me up in the shivering winter of Delhi during my school days @2.30 am early in the morning saying" ezhundiru, pakkathu veetula ellam pattasu vedikkaranga"! the translation is wake up my son all the neighbours have started bursting crackers!! The sounds of Red Fort laris and the smell of burnt phosporous was so intoxicating that we used to jump out of our beds even during those cold winters and get ourselves dressed up after a nice oil bath and go out in the street to burst those crackers! My Punjabi neighbours used to grumble and fume about having woken up early in the morning and they would never pardon me for spoiling their sleep at those wee hours. It was the case in all the localities and sreets and it was a known factor that the south Indians celebrate their Diwali early in the morning and the north Indians in the evening establishing a divide in belief even in those days!

These days the government has come down firmly and made it mandatory for people not to burst crackers before 6 am and not after 10 pm ! Added to this is the education in schools which motivates them not to buy and burst crackers since there is an involvement of child labour which is anti-law and secondly, all these contribute to the pollution, which is quite true! The enthusiasm amongst children to fire crackers has come down drastically and no one is interested to indulge in them! Further, the Television channels compete with each other to give their best capsuled programs involving films and other cultural aspects that the children are least interested to get out of their houses and fire crackers.

One of our family friends said that they are going to watch "Blue Film" with their children and I was wonder struck and dumb for a moment only to realise later that there is a Hindi movie titled "Blue" which was being released on Diwali Day!!

The colorful function of our days has changed colors and what we say as colorful does not necessarily mean colorful to our children and what they see as colorful and entertaining may not be to our taste and liking.

I remember my mother sending a plate full of home made south Indian sweets and other savouries to all our surrounding neigbours in Delhi which was reciprocated equally and with warmth with sweets made at their homes and this was a kind of pot-luck party with sweets and eatables of different kinds and tastes! The modern times see more of a blessed kitchen which is always neat and clean with no signs of any preparations as everything is available in shops! Even the exchange of sweets carry the same taste and is not different from what you have in the house.

Having said that, I have to mention about Vada-Malai for the Hindu god Anjaneyar at Hanuman temple on Irwin road, Connaught Place. The parents specially the mother, take a vow of making 108 Vadai and offer it to the god in the form of a garland for some reason or the other for which I have seen my mother toiling the whole day and sweating it out in the kitchen, take bath and get ready for the temple visit with the offerring! We used to take a bus ride from Karol bagh and reach the temple and once the hands of the priests feel the freshness of the Vada-malai or the offerring that is brought, they are full of smiles and apply a big tilak on your fore-head and recite some mantras. you feel very happy, contended and satisfied but unhappy when you see the priest emptying atleast half the vada-malai into their kitty leaving only half the quantity of the offerring for your consumption! I could not miss the priest giving away our offerring as Prasad to many others who offerred some cash to the priests and walked away satisfied to taste the Vadai that they got without any effort! I used to advice my friends to follow this practice of tipping the priests and walk away with the precious Vadai from the malai which someone else would have offerred thus saving them of precious energy and time! The modern days are witnessing a sea of change in the entire system be it religious, cultural or social. I am still longing for the good old days and will we ever see a Deepavali of the 1960s in our life time again?

Koi Lauta de mere Beete huye din... beete huye din woh haye pyare pal chin!!!