Diwali brings in fond memories from childhood. Those days we
would follow a set drill and must do activities for Diwali. Accompanying Baba (Dad)
to purchase crackers was a special privilege given to Dada ( Bro) as he was not allergic to dust. Sindri market
used to be quite dusty with trucks ( with ‘Horn OK Please’ at the rear)
unloading goods, gigantic Ox’s hunting for free food and an occasional mongrel sniffing
at your ankle.
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| Paper Lanterns for this Diwali |
Two days to Diwali we would have counted arms and ammo,
arranged in chronological order. There were other things to take care of, Baba
would take out the old set of Tuni bulb ( light bulbs) they were little glass green cylinders with yellow
lights in them. The whole light would be laid inside the house to test and
repair each bulb, we had to skip and jump over rows of light. Sometimes Baba
would jump up as he would have stepped on live wire, which I found funny and
would laugh loud and end up in a whimper in a few seconds with Baba’s stare.
Traditionally, the day before Diwali we lit fourteen lights
around the house to shoo away evil. Right at sunset Ma would step out of the
house in the dark barefoot carrying fourteen candles, her sari trailing over
the grass. She would look like a Goddess, with that white saree with red
border. I would immediately follow her in the dark. Ma
would hum to herself, usually a devotional song. Wide eyed I would watch Ma,
her face lit up every time she would light a candle in a dark corner, I would
imagine evil running away from the pure light and vanish in the darkness. My awe would be interrupted as my palm would
have touched the wet nose of our pet mongrel, Hero, wagging vigorously, hoping
for some treat. Later in the night Dada
would scare me of ghost’s residing under my bed ready to drag my leg the moment
I stepped out. Eventually I would end up hopping furniture’s, to be on the
safer side.
Diwali morning would be cold I would wake up others by placing
my cold palm against warm sleeping faces…. I know thats wicked. We would wait
for the sun to come up and dry up the morning dew. My sister would be busy
making paper lanterns all day, and the more she would concentrate, the further
would her tongue stick out …concentrating! I would do rounds helping every one. By noon light bulbs would be up on the
rosebush, twisting and turning around the windows. Dad would create a
contraption for us to light sparklers away from our body. Basically it would be
a metal clip tied at the end of a 3 feet long stick. Every time we had to burn
sparklers we would clip it on the stick and light them. Our ignorance made is make
faces at that contraption. Much later we understood its importance once we
started hearing about cracker accidents. Story…………………..to be continued.
Lets make some halwa now. Preparation time for Gajar-ka-halwa
can range from 1 hour to 5 hours. This version is within 1 hour, lighter on
calorie, something which I made this Diwali.
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| Gajar Ka Halwa |
You will need the following:
5 medium Carrots peeled and grated
Milk 1 liter
Cardamom 2 nos
Sugar to taste 3/4th cup
Condensed milk 1tbsp
Cashew nut halved 2 tbsp
Clarified butter 1½ tbsp
How to cook
In a heavy bottomed pan, warm up 1tbsp of clarified butter. Add
carrots and sauté in low heat for five minutes. Add milk & cardamom till it starts
boiling and stir frequently, continue to boil the carrot till the milk dries
up. Half way through add sugar, and
cashew nuts. In the end add condensed milk
and mix well, transfer the entire content into a serving bowl and drizzle with ½
tbsp of clarified butter. It is up to you on how greasy you want it to be.
Quite simple eh? Kudos to my mother-in-law.
Bon appétit.
Tricks:
You can add nuts raisins to make this richer. To enhance the color add a few strands of saffron along with cardamom.
