As kids Diwali was a whole lot of fun. First of all it meant the house was thoroughly spring cleaned - we'd take soap and water and literally wash the house from end to end as if we had to wash away the evil from it or something - but for us kids it was more of playing in the soapy water and slipping on the floors and laughing our heads off when anyone fell.
The house had this festive atmosphere. There'd be stuff made specially for diwali - like chaklis and chivdas and mithai. New clothes was something we looked forward to with great anticipation - we already knew what we were going to buy each diwali. We'd try out so many new things to make the house look festive - we'd light real diyas and they'd keep going off so it was one persons duty to keep them burning. Then we'd take these small glasses and float the diyas in water in them so that they burnt for longer and we had this thing called floating diyas. As kids our eyes were always on the flame.
We used to have rangoli outside the front door, we'd buy the geru colour and do a little artistic design in rangoli; today people use these blocks and just pour the colour to make the design but we always did it with our hands - we'd put up the diwali lantern - and choose it with great care - we went through, the whole works in fact . And each thing gave us great pleasure. Diwali meant this saal mubarak thing which was a tradition.
All the kids used to go to everyones house to wish them saal mubarak and we'd be fed with great diwali mithais. What we'd do was we used to plan which house made the best stuff and then go to that house first and the houses where we didn't get good stuff we'd keep for the last. It was one big hogging trip for us kids. Every house in the colony was sure to receive a visit from our gang. Crackers were another high. Today though it's no-no to noisy crackers - mumbai is already so noisy but one does light a phuljhari or two.
Diwali was so special during childhood because it was associated with the 'diwali vacation too -it meant feast time in every way. For some reason diwali suggests joy - it's about everything new and bright. New clothes, even new shoes, new jewellery -starting from the feet till the head we got everything new-it was so exciting.
After my family migrated and my brothers and sisters got married - and I was alone with my parents - diwali didnt hold the same significance - I was mostly shooting on diwali so we'd have some celebration on the sets. I have celebrated diwali in the USA with my husband Ram - but it was nowhere as intense as in India - we did a bit of puja in the house but that was about it.
Diwali holds absolutely happy memories because we were all together - the whole family, the people in my building the kids all trying out daring things with crackers and getting scolded for it and falling into giggles - it's always been great fun. A time for optimism every year.