Ok, you must be like, why is she posting about Diwali after 2 months! I am sorry, for a post that clearly belongs to a different time slot. However, I wanted to share my Diwali clicks anyway. 😀

For the uninitiated, Diwali is one of the biggest festivals in India. It was primarily a festival celebrated by Hindus to celebrate the return of Lord Ram with his wife and brother from exile of 14 years and to celebrate his victory over evil, as per our Holy book, Ramayana. It is also believed among us that on this auspicious day, our Goddess Laxmi, the Goddess of Wealth enters our houses if they are clean and well-maintained. So, we clean and prep-up our houses for her welcome. 🙂 These days, Diwali has become such a huge festival in India that it is celebrated by people of almost all religions. People clean their houses, beautify them, light them up, gobble up amazing food and burn crackers (not a huge fan of them, they cause so much pollution)! Anyway, I wanted to share my clicks from this year’s Diwali on the blog, better late than never. 😀 Have a look!

Look how the city is decked up in Lights! 🙂

Earthen Lamps

And we are ready for the Pooja (prayers)

  Rangoli – an art that we do on floors using colors, colored rice or flowers etc 

Rangoli Colors

   This candle was the bomb! It kept on burning for more than 24 hours. Phew!

  Candles!

This Diwali was quite different for me and my brother. I am 22 and for the first 20 years of my life, I have celebrated Diwali in only one way, being at my grandparents’ house in our hometown. The whole family used to gather there and we cousins used to have a blast. Diwali used to be my one of my favorite days of the year. With my grand dad passing away, things started to change a bit. Now our elders feel that it is ok to celebrate Diwali in our respective homes. However, last year, all my cousins visited us on Diwali as per my mum’s request. She told them that year that they should come to our new house to initiate the tradition of Diwali at this new house too. So, although, last year’s Diwali in a different house after all these years was a big change, it did not feel all that bad because the people who made that day awesome for me were still with me. However, this year, we all celebrated Diwali at our respective homes. Wow! What a change! It doesn’t mean the same to me. Probably, that is why I clicked a lot to divert my attention from this fact. Well, Diwali isn’t going to be the same anymore.