Festival of Lights
Its Diwali…………but all I can see is the city lights in front of me. The Ferris wheel at Navy Pier is already at a standstill and the lights have just been turned off. Some high rises in downtown have “GO SOX” spelt out on them with lights. It’s a great city, this Chicago……..the skyline always takes my breath away but today for some reason all I want to see are earthen lamps on open balconies and the cheap paper lanterns blowing in the breeze, to see children run in front of me to light their anars and their Krishna chakras. I just want to breathe in the highly polluted air full of the smell of crackers and gunpowder and to shop in Mumbai with the multitude of other shoppers and get jostled around. I crave to gorge myself on the sweets made by my mom that I would so high and mightily decline when I was younger after having a bite or two. I come home with all these great plans of doing Pooja, making pooris, meeting up with some friends, the way we always do. But today am still sitting on the couch with frozen parathas and readymade subji, and staring out at the city lights.
posted by second_wind @ 11:11 AM
8 Comments:
gurl - I think you missed out on the hoards of gujjus bringing Diwali to this side of the world, if you would have overcome your lure for city lights and driven to the temples - by now dime a dozen- in the suburbs, you would be overwhelmed at the zeal with which mithais are made and distributed, $3 diyas lit at every window pane and people walking about in the best bandhanis and chiridaars. Ofcourse, I missed all of the above since I was also mesmerized with my laptop.
That apart - there is no substitute for that 'festive' air, that smell of excitement everywhere, those endless treats to me made and to be had, that oppressive cleaning few days ahead, those silly notes on who had what kind of crakers and whom to trade what with......gosh, and I thought I had forgotten what I was missing.....But hang in there, the Indians are taking over!
awww... you poor thing... you should have come and spent diwali in michigan... then you wouldn't have felt so homesick...
i would have lit plenty of diyas (all my scented candles) and we could have eaten lots of sweets (the slabs of Milka, Nestle and Toblerone in my fridge) :):):)
and instead of eating frozen parathas and readymade sabzi, you could have eaten some of my shahi moorgh makhhani/moorgh da hyderabadi/achar ghost/etc... :):):)
@ams:this year for some reason, i was swept over by nostalgia. But as we all know, tomorrow's another day!
@fosix:u might be sorry about your offer, when you see 1/2 of the desis of Chi town in Michigan for Christmas.Be prepared !! :)
Hey, you should come spend next Diwali with us here in Maryland. Truthfairy makes awesome south indian food - am sure you will enjoy it . . . and we will try to light smelly fireworks so that you don't miss home that much :)
Yup, I understand how you feel! That was pretty much the case with me last year. But this year I went on a strike against rotis and MTR ready-to-eat and decided to take things in my hands. And we travelled 100 miles one-way to get fireworks. :) I have pictures of our Diwali on my blog.
@ Chérie
Thanks! You are too kind. But we did have fun, didn't we? :)
Hey Cherie and TF:
Looks like you guys really enjoyed. Next time will make sureto kick my lazy ass off the comfy couch :)
Sometimes, we just need a little piece of home.
@ a - so true
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