Sonia Roy

Diwali has always been my most favorite festival. Pursuing prayers, offering Prasad and lighting earthen pots involve the essence of the festival. Jubilance, merry making and happiness are the terms related with celebrating this festival. I do not want to sound biased, but for Hindus, it is one of the most important festival. Since I have been born and brought up in a joint family, we have always celebrated the festival with fervor and festivities. My mother, my grandmother and my aunts would make the delicious sweets. Till date I savor the sweetness of those delicacies. We performed pooja, aarti and then lighted the crackers. Needless to say the latter pursued for hours.

I cherished those days. I got married to a wonderful person, and became the daughter in law of a nice family. Everything first has a lot of memories associated with it. Hence, my first Diwali as a wife, daughter in law, as a sister in law was wonderful. My family of in laws made me feel special. Together we made sweets, prepared delicious dinner and had a gala of a time. It was a blessing indeed that I delivered a sweet baby girl, next year on Diwali. We named her Shreya. My mother in law said- “Goddess Laxmi has come to our house”. She went from one house to another in the society distributing sweets. One year passed with my little girl. She continued to be the apple of our eyes. She dazzled everyone with her activities.

And before I could know, she was one year old. Her birthday and Diwali were in close vicinity. I wanted to make sure to celebrate her first Diwali with us in the most wonderful way. These are the preparation we pursued for our darling daughter:-

1. 1. Celebration- since, Diwali is a five day festival; I made sure that we celebrated all the five days with equal exuberance. So on Dhanteras we bought silver anklets for her. When she ran from one room to another, what lovely sound it made. On Narakchaudas, she helped me in lighting the earthen pots. On Diwali, beside my Rangoli lay her rangoli equally beautiful. On Bhai Dooj she performed teeka of her brothers. It was just wonderful.
   
   
2. 2. Prayers- We is a pious family. Hence, every morning and every evening there is performed pooja at our home. My Shreya loves to participate in all the rituals, as guided by her grandmother. Hence, on the auspicious day of Diwali, she surprised us with perseverance during the entire pooja. God bless my darling daughter.
   
   
3. 3. Food- My daughter has a sweet tooth. I made ladoo, Gujhiya, namkeen pare, nariyaal Ki Barfi for her. She loves each of these. And no guesses for the diner. It too comprised of her favorite menu.
   
   
4. 4. Pictures- her wearing a traditional apparel, she making rangoli, her father feeding her sweets, her grandmother blessing her, her grandfather helping her fire the crackers. All these made the cutest pictures. I cherish them and am a part of our best memories.
   
   
5. 5. My way of remembering- Every year some amount of money goes into the orphanage from our family. This year we chose the auspicious day of Diwali to pursue the same. We took our daughter to the place. She spent quite a time there.

It was the best festival of my life. I sincerely pray to the Almighty that in the years to come we celebrate the festival with equal joy, happiness and fervor. Very soon I will be giving birth to my second child. I hope to provide the new member of our family, with cherishing experience!