Our Diwali story in the days of windy Autumn

As a kid i grew up carrying over loads of diwali homework and one of it but of course would be an essay or compostion on Diwali - not just in English but Hindi & Marathi too and all i remember writing 'The festival of lights' ...and how i'd spend my diwali in Chennai with my grandparents..the sweets ....savories... new clothes ... the chennai tam brahm

tradition of waking up at 5am having a oil bath and wearing your new clothes and go overboard on the 'Pataas' at dawn. Pataas in tamil means the crackers. The Ladies would be busy in the kitchen preparing murukku, mixture, ribbon pakoda, oma puddi ec -cetara ec -cetera these are the tamil savories. Again my roots are from Chennai but im a total Bombay wali i grew up in Bombay so we have always been following the bombay way of celebrating Diwali shopping before diwali i really miss shopping for those new clothes, Lakshmi Pooja, phatakada, diyas,bed sheets, curtains, cushion covers colorful lightings, rickshaw rides back home with heavy shopping bags omg a total shopping spree i say!! And Mumbai wht do i say  i simply love the spirits of Mumbai Im what Im today bcos of Mumbai i love the energy levels whatever it be especially when it comes to festivals and celebrations there is no leaf thats unturned its so so festive and full of spirits.And the shokeepers of Mumbai as they call Dukanwala they are simply awesome they will remind you of your diwali list :) 

My city -  Mumbai the city of lights, city of spirits

So ...as i grew up celebrating diwali in full spirits now that im in the west diwali falls in autumn with the cold breeze and rain on diwali day and happily falling on a weekday i was wondering how do i keep my spirits up i definitely needed to feel my Desi - ness. The day was long i picked sunshine from school and we went into our local indian store  and Oh Boy - it was filled to the brim with diwali decoration, diyas, sweets, savories you name it and you have it there that  definitely lit up my diwali spirits and having spent 8 hours at work listening to back to back web cast and other training stuff this definitely was like a wooo- hoo moment. We went back home heavy with shopping bags and luckily Daddy had put up the lights over the weekend well luckily also holiday lights as they call it here are easily available bcos we are only a month away from christmas you see, so my spirited 3 year old - kept calling those holiday lights 'Diwali' 'Diwali' as i read out to him a wonderful book on Diwali - The festival of lights, the festival of lights over darkness, the festival of victory of Lord Rama - the victory of the good over the evil!!

truimph diwali lighting  over darkness - i captured the moon on my camera

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We did our lakshmi pooja, enjoyed decorating the patio with diyas and sunshine savored over the besan laddoos. It was a happy Diwali  at the end of the day and also prosperous i ended up  impressing goddess Lakshmi by performing pooja the next day too bcos of some confusion of the exact day for lakshmi pooja back in India :) To top it all my cute neighbour Shilpa & her daughter Aditi brought over some 'phool Jadi s ' and that definitely added to the spark of our diwali!! 

Happy Diwali to my family & friends back in India and all over the world. Feel Festive feel Desi always!!

The Celebration aftermath!!

My Patio balcony all lit up - felt festive!!!!

He looks like a Pro ;)