Desi Dialogues

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Millions of Hindus over the world will celebrate their new year this Friday. Called Diwali or the festival of lights, it's truly a time when every Indian Hindu business and household are lit with thousands of lights.

And each house welcomes visitors by placing tiny intricate earthen clay pots that have traditional tea lights in them burning all night long.

In Toronto, those celebrating Diwali have those small lights outside apartments or houses a month before Christmas.

Diwali, a five-day celebration, ends with the New Year's Day, and celebrates the triumph of good over evil. Importantly, it's also the time when the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, gets special preference, as Hindus seek her blessings, asking her to grace their house and grant them prosperity.

During Diwali, houses are scrubbed clean, people renovate, even get new furniture, and generally spend a whole lot of money! One of the five days during Diwali is Dhanteras, when people buy Dhun, or wealth, which traditionally takes the form of women buying gold.

When I was in India, my Hindu neighbours would come to our home and perform a small prayer while adorning the silver statue of goddess Laxmi. Then they'd goad my mother into accompanying them to a jeweller and, in the process, my mother would end up buying something for us as well.

In the GTA this week, jewellers make good money as they sell gold. Also, Indian grocery stores have imported earthen lamps and set up special counters to sell traditional sweets. Diwali isn't really Diwali if you've not eaten tons and tons of sweets.

In many ways it's like Christmas, because it's also a time when people put on extra pounds consuming mouth-watering, calorie-laden sweets. And there's no way to tell how many calories you are consuming as there aren't any nutritional charts accompanying these goodies. Made in the kitchens of Indian restaurants here, they are primarily made with sweet milk topped with tons of ghee or clarified butter. Gerrard Street or little India in Toronto has some very delicious treats.

Like at Christmas, children get great gifts during Diwali; wives are pampered with gifts and jewelry; and for businesses it's time to wish associates and clients well with boxes of exotic, expensive dried fruits and gifts.

But the best part of Diwali, apart from the sweets, is the firecrackers. Young and old really go berserk bursting loads of fire crackers that are so noisy, sometimes you have to seal your ears with cotton. In India during that time, there's no question of disturbing the neighbours - chances are the neighbour's kid is bursting many more.

But the firecrackers start weeks before Diwali. As a child, I'd see my Hindu friends get big cartons filled to the brim with crackers. As a non-Hindu, we got our token "just one bag" so my parents didn't have to see us sulk while my friends enjoyed themselves. My mother, a doctor, was also busy treating many fire burns during Diwali, so I could see why she was also hesitant to get me many of these.

But throwing caution to the wind, at least a month before Diwali, we'd race up the terrace and burn crackers. In Toronto, ask a South Asian kid who was brought up in India and he will tell you that the lights and the crackers are sorely missed here. That's because all we get here are some nice quiet sparklers. I don't know if it's a law or a fire prevention hazard that we don't get these Indian crackers here, but somehow burning the silent ones just doesn't make one feel as if it's truly Diwali.

On Diwali day, businessmen have poojas or prayers in their houses or shops to start the New Year with prosperity.

And on New Year's Day, people wake up really early to the sound of firecrackers, then have a big bath and go to temples to seek the blessing of god for the year ahead.