Diwali celebrations: For a change, smiles greet these bangs and explosions

Festival marks the return of Lord Ram from his 14-year-old exile from Ayodhya.

KARACHI:

Anaar was deafening. Chocolate was silent. Titli flew in the air. Fawara sprung up like a fountain. Kalashnpati was resonating. Paayti was the loudest.

Tuesday’s Diwali, festival of lights at the Swami Narayan Mandir, was earsplitting and colorful.  The festival is celebrated by the Hindus to mark the return of Lord Ram from his 14-year-old exile from Ayodhya along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman.

Here, the elders clapped and sang bhajans of ‘Hare rama, Hare Krishna’ in front of the Hindu deity Krishna. In the presence of just a handful of police officers, ladoos, coconut and anaar was being distributed as prasaad among the people. Excited children and jubilant teens on the courtyard blasted their stock of firecrackers. From all over the place, the crackers came in flying, blasting some on their feet, others on their arms.

“This is like a dasti bomb,” joked a young Arjun who had lighted the loudest firecracker. The whole temple rocked and reverberated following the explosions of the toy bombs.

It appeared that people spent the most money on firecrackers. Shiva Deewan, 13, carried in his arms a packet of firecrackers, all of different sizes and names. Lightening up the chocolate bomb, whose sparks moved around the place, he beamed that he had taken Rs4,000 from his father just to buy bombs.

Gurdeep seemed delighted with his disco bomb, saying that it was one of the new varieties of toy bombs introduced this year. However, the commonly used ones were the small China bomb, a packet ranging from Rs30 going up to Rs40. However, it was definitely the anaar and the fountain which held the attention of the people there.

Residing at the back of the temple, Ramesh Kumar said that the children are happiest at Diwali as they spend the entire night bursting crackers.

“We never stop our kids from buying crackers. Some families even spent Rs20,000 on them. But I gave only Rs10,000 to my four children, he said. The doorstep of his house was decorated with beautiful rangoli while the women prayed in front of the deity of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.

With the temple adorned with colourful lights, the Hindu community laughed and lit phul jharis, the noiseless but sparkling firecrackers.

Dressed in a white dress, Karishma said that the entire family indulges after which they would go home and dance.”Happy diwali,” she remarked before running away to light more phul hjaris.

Watch a slideshow of diwali pictures here.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2012.