“Jay, go and wake Tauji, it’s time for the aarti.”
“Coming Ma!”
Jay went to his uncle’s room. His uncle always slept on the folding cot, even though there was a perfectly good bed in the room. He never quite got his uncle’s logic.
“It helps with my back pains,” he said.
“Then let me remove the mattress from the bed, it will be the same.”
“But the cot is closer to the window!”
“I can move the bed wherever you want”
“Oh bacche, let’s go do the Aarti first. We can decide on the bed later.”
“Tauji is coming Maa!”, Jay shouted, then went upstairs to turn on the lights. The entire house lit in red as the Chinese lights flickered to life. He came back to the mandir. His mother was arranging all the diyas, putting the money between them, and making the swastika.
“That is the wrong swastika. You made a straight Z. It’s the opposite.”
“You correct the swastika then, I’ll go see where your Tauji and father are,” his mother said.
“They are coming! You just correct the swastika, I’ll go get Guddu.”
After around half an hour of hustling by Jay and shouting by Guddu, she finally came to the mandir. It is not easy getting kids away from crackers, especially when they have a bucket full of them left.
“Can I eat that?”
Guddu’s first words when coming to the mandir was to ask if she could eat the Milk and Jalebi prasada. Mom didn’t allow it, so she threw another of her tantrums.
“Jay! Jay!! Turn off your phone now and take Guddu from here!! And find your father and Tauji!” Mom clearly had too much to handle.
“Hey Guddu, I’ll make you a deal. You go and find Tauji, then when Mom isn’t around, I’ll let you have a piece of the prasada before the Pooja,” He offered her. It wasn’t his first time controlling his sister, and he knew how he could tempt her. Eyes sparkling with a prospect of sweets earlier than others, Guddu ran to find her father and uncle. Jay went back to his phone.
“Meena, take this photo too. Add it to the mandir,” Ramesh gave his wife a photo of the three gods, Ganesh, Lakshmi and Saraswati, taken from a newspaper daily. He had carefully cut the sponsor’s ads in the bottom.
“But I can’t tape it to the wall, there’s no tape in the house. Besides, we already have a picture of all these three in the mandir.”
“Yes, but I spent half an hour trying to cut the ads from the bottom! Jay, come here. Keep holding it so it won’t fall on the diya,” Ramesh gave Jay the picture, carefully setting the picture between the Pooja Thaal containing the diyas, and the wall.
“But dad…”
“Shhh…. Here, See? Now the photo won’t fall if you keep this corner tucked in your shirt’s cuffs. Come on now, start the pooja Meena! Where’s that pamphlet with the different aartis?”
“Athshubhb Samvat Shri NripatiVeer Vikramaditya Rajya Samvat 2068…”
“Dad, you are reading today’s calendar date from the pamphlet! This isn’t an aarti!”
“No that’s okay. I saw punditji read the date before he starts the Pooja. Now don’t disturb me.”
“Okay, sorry.”
“…Shaka Shali Vaha Nasya 1933 Maso Tame Masya Kaartika Maasya Krishna Pakshe Amavasya Budhwar 46-50 chitra nakshatra 27-35 pal vishka yog 29-28, pal choh karan 21-48, tula arka Kaartik parvishthe 19 tadanusar Budhwar 26-10-2011”
“That is the date of last year’s diwali dad!”
“ Yeah I know… now Budhwar, no Mangalwar, what is the date today?”
“13 November 2012”
“Right… Kaartik parvishthe 19 tadanusar Mangalwar 13 november 2012. Shubh Dipawali.”
As the Aartis kept going, with his father stammering on the long Sanskrit words, his Tauji filling the diya with oil at every chance he got, Guddu sitting quietly in her mother’s lap, and his mother keeping his father motivated by reading alongside him, neither Jay nor the rest of his family understood much of the Aartis. Soon his mother grabbed a diya, put it on her palm, and started praying to each god with it. His father followed, and then did Tauji and Guddu.
“Jay, take this Diya, and there is a photo of your grandparents in the living room. Go and pray to them.”
Jay stood up and put out his hand. Guddu placed the diya on it. Suddenly, his Tauji started shouting. Then his mother quickly moved forward, his father stopped her and took her place, trying to grab something near Jay’s feet. He looked down, and saw that the photo of the Gods taken from the newspaper had fallen on one of the diyas, catching fire.
There was no water in Mandir. Guddu quickly grabbed what seemed like a water bottle to her. Tauji quickly took it and jerked her away.
“That’s Gangajal bacche. It is pure, not to be wasted here.”
Meanwhile, his father was trying hard to put out the fire with his hands. By the time the flames stopped, Goddess Lakshmi had vanished, and God Ganesh’s belly was reduced to half. Tauji calmed down, and his mother stopped looking for water.
Jay stood stunned, not quite understanding what had happened. Tauji put a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s okay, let’s start the Pooja again.”
“But Bhaisahab, he is always so careless, never…”
“It’s okay Ramesh. Bacche hain. Give me the photo, I’ll bury it with the Tulsi plant. Let’s start the Pooja again.”
Tauji took the photo from Ramesh, carefully folded it, and put it in his shirt pocket. Guddu, who was silent till then, whispered in her mother’s ears, “Will I get double prasada for double Pooja?”
“Okay sweetie, you take double,” her mom replied.
“Then can I take half of my double now?” she asked innocently.
Tauji was overhearing this. He lifted Guddu in his arms, took the bowl of prasada, and fed her a spoonful.
“Don’t you worry bacche. You don’t have to sit for the second Pooja. You and your brother can play outside, while we elders do the Pooja again.”
Ramesh kept looking dumbstruck at his elder brother. Meena started arranging the diyas again. Jay went back to his phone, and Guddu to her crackers.
And the Diwali celebrations continued....
