From: rvt@pandora.cs.wayne.edu (Rahul V. Tikekar)
Subject: Bangalore: A Nostalgic Perspective (Part 3)
Keywords: Bangalore, Bangalore, Bangalore,...
Reply-To: rvt@pandora.cs.wayne.edu (Rahul V. Tikekar)
Organization: Wayne State University, Detroit
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 16:36:26 GMT

Well, well, well. The first two articles evoked some kind of
a mixed response. But most people liked the tone and so I am
going to continue to reminisce about the things I did in
Bangalore.

Somebody suggested that the Diwali day celebration might be a good
idea. So I have decided to write about the way we (my friends
and I) used to celebrate Diwali. The passion and ferver kind
of decreased as I grew older but the memories of Diwali are
still very very fresh.

The key factor before the actual "cracker burning" day was
determining the worth of the crackers that you've pruchased. The
more you've spent, the better you are. I somehow was never able
to match the amount spent by some of my friends. But that's
something I had learned to live with. The next, crucial factor was,
naturally, the new clothes. My friend's mom always asked me 
"Rahula, vhasa batte tandidara?" Well, certainly! Of course, I
was never allowed to wear new clothes and burn (or burst) the
crackers (now I understand why).

The next prestige issue was: who bursts the first cracker in the
block? I always wanted to be the one. But somehow the neighbor
always managed to get up before I did. Anyway, even though
I did get up early, my father never let me go out till the time
was right. I used to patiently wait, with my crackers ready in
the box, the "agarbatti" all lighted up. The moment my father
gave me the nod, I was out of the house.

Even the kind of crackers determined your "braveness." No
"kudre pataki" for me, no sir. I always wanted the "aane pataki",
"laxmi pataki", "atom bomb", "double bomb", etc. The "kudre
pataki" was for my sister.

Remember how you actually burst the crackers? You had to light the
cracker in your hand and when the time was right you threw it up
in the air where it actually burst. Well, you were not lucky always,
were you? Sometimes (actually very often) the cracker used to fire
before you could throw it! Then you could hear a strange noise (like
a high pitched hum) in your ear! Your friends saw that, so you used
to say "yenu agallila, yenu agallila."

Some other time, when you threw the cracker, instead of firing, it just
fell to the ground. A so called "tus pataki." When you approached to
check it out, it suddenly went off !! The other fun thing was when
you put a bournvita box on top of an "atom bomb" and saw the box fly.
Sometimes the box did not fly. Nothing happened. Now is that cracker
under the box a "tus pataki" or will it burst? So you had to carefully
kick that box to see what was happening inside.

After all that excitement of the morning, you went home to enjoy the
sweets and other goodies. The next excitement was to happen in the
night with the rockets, flower pots, "vishnu chakra". Oh boy do I
miss all that. Remember when you lighted the rocket, it always managed
to go parallel to the ground into somebody's house ?!! Before that
somebody could come out, you had to dissappear. Remember the train?
It always got stuck at one end of the wire.

Diwali, there can never be so much excitement in one day. Now, after
moving into the IISc campus, with all the houses being so far apart,
I just could not revive that sprit of Diwali. Diwali is a festival
that is meant to be celebrated with friends; lots of them. It is the
festival of lamps; the houses look so beautiful when decorated with
those oil lamps. Even today when I think of the Diwali, I get goose
bumps all over my body........


-- Rahul


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