Festival of lights..

The much awaited festival of lights, Diwali, is here. Lights, sweets, crackers, greetings….that’s what the festival is all about. What was different this time was this was my first Diwali away from home.

So, the only respite was calling up home, talking about the celebration there…calling up the relatives and all. And during these calls I’m told of how beautifully my city has been illuminated....Jaipur to dulhan ki tarah saja hai…..It’s for the first time I’ve seen such decoration in last so many years, it’s just lovely.. And then I’ve to plead….no piece of such news please, I’m already missing home!

But yeah, Diwali in Jaipur is big…five days’ festival, the markets, buildings all illuminated, lots of crackers, huge hungama. Little wonders, the preparations had begun when I was at home two weeks back.

But here, in Bhubaneswar, Diwali is just like any other festival. Y’day when I went to Ram Mandir to wish Bhagwan ji and seek his blessings, there was hardly any indication of a festival looking at the markets. The temple, though, was illuminated. As against it, the festive season can be felt here during the Durga Puja.

Neways, we had a Puja in the campus in the evening. The diyas were lit and then it was time for a lot of fire-crackers. It was good sound and light…and yeah, there were some innovative ways of bursting fire-crackers, like a couple of rockets were turned towards the grass instead of following the mundane way of sending up in the sky. Budding managers, u see…something special has to be done!

All in all, it was good celebration.