These days prepration for deepavali is not upto the mark. Once upon a time, deepavali means lots of "OC" dresses and crackers from known "sources". In my memory, I used to collect crackers price lists from various shops and I just presented to my parents. Like any other "responsible" parents they just fulfilled my desires in buying crackers. I swear????? that I had never influenced their decision .
After getting my quota from my parents my next destination used to be my granny 's house. My grandpa was always averse to the idea of bursting crackers so he used to discourage my granny and me from purchasing crackers. We stealthy go out and purchase crackers and store it in the "terrace-loft". At home, my granny and I behaved almost like a hardcore elements and remained tightlipped till the date of Deepavali. We never discussed about crackers with other family members.To my grandpa, crackers were classified as WMD (WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION) . On hearing the word crackers he would move a resolution to reprimand me and my granny. That's why we always played clandestinely.All of a sudden, as I lit "thousand-wala" outside the house, around sametime,My grandpa from verandah fired his ballistic missiles(verbal) at me and my granny.
Around mid-day I used to receive a small cache of sparklers from my uncle. By evening, I would have finished purchasing third round of crackers. After watching all spl programmes on DOORDARSHAN I would ask my granny to find out the date of next diwali from our family almanac. That was the craze. Now, all those euphoria have died down. These days, I have taken up the role of my grandpa and chiding my family members "what a waste of celebrating this festival".
