Diwali Celebrations

Diwali was a great affair in campus. This was my first Diwali away from home, but frankly, it's been one of my better ones in years.

The day began at 11:00 am for me. We, Dorm 18, went for lunch to a Gujarati restaurant at about 2 pm. The meal was, despite the sweetness of everything from the potatoes to the daal, quite delicious. In fact I rather enjoyed the sweet food (though it would be best if this lunch is repeated only at 6-monthly intervals or so).

After coming back, some of us had to attend another company talk. The person who came talked really well, but for some reason I was rather sleepy.

Then I was off to join D Company people for a visit to our economics professor Errol D'Souza. He is widely acknowleged as the best professor we have this term. He sure does know macroeconomics like the back of his hand. And he's very congenial too. He invited us to his house for Diwali. We enjoyed meeting him and his wife. They are extraordinarily kind hosts. Not only did they arrange for some snacks, but also kept crackers for us to enjoy. I too joined in and held a fuljhari (sparkler) in my hand after years.


Chhedi and I decorated our dorm with 18 diyas (he had obtained 30 for his work for Insight). We also kept some diyas in and around our rooms. I just love the little lamps. What's Diwali without them! What's life without little lights!

I next went to LKP where volunteers were busy placing hundreds of diyas around the lawn. I helped a very little bit and stayed around to watch them being lit. It was a really beautiful sight.

After dinner in the mess, a bunch of us went to see the decorations in the other dorms. In contrast to the 18 diyas in dorm 18, there were many hundreds in dorms 19, 20 and 21! Plus there were exquisite rangoolis adorning the courtyards and entrances to the dorms. Dorm Unness (19) won the dorm decoration contest, as they have in each of their three years of existence. Good show guys! I hope that we put in even a fraction of their effort next year. We also saw the decorations in other dorms like D-1, D-2 and D-11 (these are the three girls' dorms) and D-14.


It's been at least 6 years since I celebrated Diwali in such a communal fashion. Generally all I do is put up lights on my window grills and light diyas every evening. I miss my family of course, but this was a rather special Diwali. I wonder why I never celebrated Diwali with college friends in Bombay.


The lovely evening was capped off by a fireworks show in LKP at 10:30 pm. It lasted for atleast two hours, I think. Some of the rockets were really awesome. And so were some of the flowerpots. All these, plus the sight of a bright Mars in the background, uneclipsed by even the brightest of the fireworks, and the company of friends like Moti, Chhedi, Thoku, Prostee, Khakee, Paldy and Khajoor, made this an evening to remember. I look forward to Holi next spring and the next Diwali too.