This was Diwali day (2nd year for him) and the day after our parents returned to India from Kuwait. Vidya wore her white skirt which some floral pattern which we had bought from lulu hypermarket. She wore a white tee, since we could not get a matching top by that time. Oh yes, my lady love, was absolutely stunning and beautiful in this outfit. She fits so gracefully in both Indian and Western dresses. Anirud wore his new Kurta Pyjama and was in his traditional best on this day. It’s illegal to sell crackers in Kuwait and hence it becomes prohibitively expensive to buy this stuff locally. As it is, every year, the price of crackers goes up in India with various issues relating to use of child labors, environmental pollution on account of the sound and smoke, cost etc. I was surprised to note that Chinese started to make even crackers…is there anything that these guys would not do…?
On this day, we went out to Anu Ramakumar’s place to join the celebrations in their building. Kids out there were bursting crackers, flower pots, sparklers, rockets, Shangu Chakram, sparklers etc.
Anirud on hearing the sound of the crackers was a little bit perturbed annoyed and started crying. So I took him out inside the house for a while and brought him back. Vidya also burst some crackers along with Mithu and Ruthwik. After some time, since Ani became restless, we returned back home. This was his first Diwali which he could really see and hear the sound of crackers being burst. He may not remember it vividly when he is grown up, but he can recollect some of it, when he reads the memoirs written by his dad.
I was so scared of crackers for a very long time. I remember I used to go and hide under the bed in the room when my brother used to burst these atom bombs and lakshmi vedis. I would yell, cry and complain to my parents and grandparents to intervene and stop my brother from bursting these crackers. It’s another story that after I grew up, I started bursting these in the company of my brother and cousins merrily and gleefully.
Kuwait like all other gulf countries is a Muslim country. It was good to note that people in Kuwait do have the opportunity to celebrate their functions in a limited way without much restriction. There was no issue, as long as you don’t do it publicly and offensively against the local laws and customs. They normally prescribe certain timings and places where you can burst your crackers. Police comes around to monitor the situation and if it gets out of hand or you end up doing something that’s not allowed, then you most likely will get arrested.
Beautiful Life 