Happy Diwali! Happy Diwali! Children are squeaking. What’s up?
I peeped out from the window and found a rickshaw full of school kids, tattered uniform, disheveled hair, an indication that school is over for the day and no more constraints can be levied upon them.
Parents being concerned about safety, time etc. Those who rely on the rickshaw-wala’s and the school authority have allowed their kids to be ferried. Those who don’t or have that sufficiency of time personally do it. But the kids who get ferried by the rickshaw are surely collecting enough moments which will be dwelled upon by them at some later stage of their life. It is something which we, their parents can know, understand, but they themselves can’t.
The otherwise so silent environment near our hostel becomes quite ruckus during this time. In the morning it is relatively less, may be because going to school is not that fun than returning.
When it was peak summer time, the rickshaws used to halt under the trees near our hostel and the kids ran at their top speed to fetch water from the water coolers in our hostel. To gulp down chilled water in the midst of a scorching summer afternoon is really a prized possession to fight for. May be not for you, not for me, but definitely for them! We think that we can fall ill but do they think so, even after being daily reminded by their parents. But isn’t it an irony that those parents too, did the same thing when they were a kid and their parents too said the same thing to them.
So what is it today? I saw the calendar and found out that its Diwali after two days. May be, today the school has closed for holidays. So, that makes it an even bigger occasion to celebrate for. And they must have heard from many in the school saying happy Diwali to each other. Learning, specifically the social nuances, most of the times are learnt naturally by children in the company of other children. Teachers too, many a times, do teach this as well, apart from the regular teaching. While the rickshaw-wala concentrated on the road, they kept yelling happy diwali to whosoever they found on their way.
As the rickshaw gained distance and their voices faded away, I suddenly remembered one of my similar days, when I was in school. My school had closed for Diwali holidays. I was very happy that day. Diwali, surely is the most happening thing for kids, as it meant crackers, decorating the house with lights and off-course one of those few times when you are allowed to freak out even after the sunset which is generally considered as the study time. Unlike other days, today nobody asks you to study and everywhere there is an air of celebration.
The happiness was more as my father had promised us that today he will return home with crackers. What all he is going to bring, how many ful-jhadis, anar, allu-bomb etc, planning about how to blow them on the Diwali night, thinking of all this, the whole day, I just waited for the final bell to ring. And when it rang, I ran. My school was hardly few minutes from my home. On my way back I kept on wishing everybody I met on the road, happy Diwali. Some wished back, some saw me with strange eyes, some smiled. I was so much into it that I even wished the trees, the light posts, the stray dogs, everything I saw, today which I think, was something so insane and weird.
Well, on reaching home, I found an even greater surprise. My mother was back from work. Generally she used to return by 4'o clock and we never expected her when we returned from our school. Every day we waited till 4'o clock to see her. All the afternoon, I along with my sister used to wait for the clock to tick 4, hanging our necks outside the balcony till she appeared near the bent. But today she is home.
Well now I know, that was the happiest of all my Happy Diwali’s.
