The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : The festival lights twinkle in different colours

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

The festival lights twinkle in different colours

Swathi Shivanand

Whether motivated by shopping or piety, generations and communities celebrate Deepavali at their comfort level

Some view the festival as a time to get together with family members
For others it is time to head back home
for festivities

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Lit up: Shopkeepers in Bangalore have put up various sales for Deepavali to attract customers. A scene on Brigade Road in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: Brigade Road is all lit up in festive red and yellow. People bustle past, staggering under armloads of branded bags even as they look out for items that beckon them.

“Standard” stalls have sprung up at odd points in the city promising cracking discounts.

Policemen are at their wits’ end yelling at the increasing number of car drivers who stop in the middle of Commercial Street waiting for their “memsahibs,” sweet shop owners such as Sri Krishna Sweets are turning away demanding customers and street dogs are probably looking out for sound proof places to hide from the impending horror.

Welcome to Deepavali, the festival of lights and sounds, when every shop has a sale, when gold comes in interesting variations, when it is a national holiday and most offices simply log out.

Celebrations

On this national festival, even as the city comes alive promising its world-weary residents varied ways to enjoy their day off, primarily by booking tickets for the much hyped Saawariya or Om Shanti Om, there are many others celebrating Deepavali the traditional way. For Kannadigas, it is time to get up early at 4 a.m. for that abyanjana snana (hot oil bath) and lighting that first cracker in the neighbourhood.

“I think I will light the atom bomb first,” says six-year-old Sharan S., who until last year was petrified of fireworks but has ambitious plans of lighting hundreds of crackers with his younger brother Varun. There are others who view the festival as a time to get together with family members they rarely meet in the daily routine of lives. “We cousins are meeting up at my grandmother’s place for the puja and lighting crackers. Then after lunch and some hanging out together, we will head back to our respective homes,” says Swati Sriram, who is pursuing a course in Masters of Business Administration.

Array of styles

As people from all over the country make the city their own, bringing with them their traditions, the festival of lights in Bangalore has gradually transformed into a case of Deepavali meets Diwali, and for the keen observer the city offers a wide array of styles in which the festival is observed.

For the strong Jain community in Bangalore, this is the big fat festival.

“This is the day we celebrate the enlightenment of Lord Mahavira. We light diyas at midnight and welcome the New Year,” says Sunil Shankla Jain, chairman of the Jains Association International.

“Earlier, we met at a designated place to celebrate the festival. Now because our community is scattered all over the city, people meet up in their neighbourhood. So now Diwali melas are held at different places, a mantap in Rajajinagar, some community hall in Cantonment and he like,” Mr. Shankla says.

Home sweet home

But for the large North Indian student population in Bangalore, this is the time to head back home for festivities. “I have been studying in Bangalore for the past five years. But I always go back home for Diwali. It is a four-day festival beginning with Dhanteras, Chotti Diwali, Badi Diwali, Lakshmi Puja, Govardhan Puja and finally Bhai Dhooj. I cannot miss it; for Diwali here is where my friends simply burst crackers and go out for alcohol,” says Ashutosh Paliwall, an MBA student. Traditions might have fallen by the wayside as the years march on. Cleaning handes (large copper/brass vessels) has been replaced by washing bright plastic buckets, deepas have become diyas and “neer tumbho habba” (observed on the eve of Naraka Chaturdashi) is passé.

Like other festivals, Deepavali affords one moments to reminisce on the times gone by. Harini S., a mother of two, recalls how she was the first among her five siblings to wake up early around 3 a.m., take a quick oil bath and light the first cracker. “My children, however, are not as enthusiastic. They crib about having to wake up early on a holiday,” she laughs.

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