As Deepavali is just a few days away, my memory takes me back to my younger days.
In those days, my father used to buy crackers two months earlier and my mother used to distribute them to us. Thereafter, I, Jyothi (my sister) and Ramesh (my brother) used to exchane them according to our likes and dislikes (for example as I was afraid of handling large crackers, I used to exchange them for light crackers with my brother who was fond of large ones. He was far more daring than my father. Mr. Padmanabha Rao, a professional cook and a nice gentleman used to make sweet items such as Jangri etc. a few days before the festival. My mother used to make items like kai murukku (for which she used to have bronze or brass implements, taken away by Jyothi later). All the eatables were offered to Shree Hari and Shree Mahaa Lakshmi before our consumption and distribution to our neighbours, friends, well-wishers and the needy people.
Apart from these, Ramesh used to do additional shoppings for crackers (for all the three of us). During the Fest, my father used to be active in firecrackers like us children whereas my mother used to be busy in the kitchen cooking special items.
These were all not unique in our house; these were part of all good households.
As Mary Hopkin sang in her famous song, "Those were the days...".
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