Four people who have their finger on Chennai’s pulse on what the festival means to the city
M. Murali, Sri Krishna Sweets
The Deepavali I knew as a boy is very different from how it is celebrated these days. For us, it was a dream festival, when everything right from clothes to firecrackers to sweets was kept in suspense. Unlike today, children then hardly had any choice but nevertheless were excited to see what their parents had bought for Deepavali. Being able to get anything and everything easily these days has taken the charm out of the festival — that's the way I see it.
Those days, people hardly bought sweets for Deepavali from shops. Women always made them at home and exchanged them among friends and families. For them, sadly, Deepavali meant being in the kitchen throughout and keeping the children happy.
In those days, before our shop opened sweets were available at a corner stall in restaurants — the culture of having a dedicated shop for sweets did not exist. When we opened shop, our customers during Deepavali back then were daily wage labourers who didn't have the money or space to make sweets. They would have got their his Deepavali bonus just two days before the festival and with that money they would buy some new clothes and sweets for their family.
Today, making sweets at home is passe. There is neither the time nor the expertise. Joint families hardly exist and it has become easier to choose from the wide variety offered by shops these days. It costs much less too.
R Vasudevan, Ramlok Tailors
The festive season that begins with Navaratri goes on till Pongal — with Deepavali, Karthigai Deepam and the wedding season falling in between. Deepavali, however, is a very special festival at Ramlok and we celebrate it by giving bonus, clothes, sweets and crackers to our 300 employees and workers who work additional hours to complete all the Deepavali orders in time. Once, When gold was affordable, my father would give everybody gold rings for Deepavali. We have kept the tradition (started by my father Mr. Raghavachari, who set up the shop in 1947) of giving gifts to our employees alive. which was started by my father Mr. Raghavachari, who set up the shop in 1947.
People may think making clothes to order may be a declining trend what with readymades gaining popularity, but stitching blouses for women is a never-ending business. We also specialise in tailoring for children, but most of our orders come during Navaratri, when parents get pattu pavadais stitched for their girls. Our business is as brisk as it was, say, 25 years ago. Stitching for Deepavali starts from the day of Ayudha Puja, and our tailors work even on Sundays until Deepavali. In its early days, Ramlok did only printing and dyeing of garments for export houses and eventually expanded to restoring and giving a facelift to old silk saris. It has happened many times when families, after buying clothes for the children, would not have any money left to buy a silk sari for the woman. So when they brought their old sari to us, we would polish the zari, dye it in a fresh colour and make it look like a brand new sari, which would stay intact for at least another 15 years. Interestingly, our tailoring orders this season exceeded the orders for dry cleaning, darning and colouring, which we are famous for.
T.S. Srinivasan, Giri Trading Agency
In South India, Deepavali is celebrated to mark the triumph of good over evil, the slaying of the demon Narakasura. We symbolically light diyas to dispel the darkness from our lives. Each family has its own way of celebrating the festival. In Mylapore, once upon a time, the residents would be woken up by the sound of the nadaswaram and tavil as early as 5 a.m.
After Ganga snanam they would head to the Kapaleeswar Temple. If you were to go near the temple even at that time, there would be a rush. While the instruments were played as part of the temple festivities during Deepavali, it became an integral part of the lives of the residents of the area, as years went by. Nowadays, though the music still acts as an alarm clock, the devotees arrive only by 10 a.m.
The Kubera Lakshmi Pooja, the ‘Sixteen' Lakhmi Pooja and nombu are usually performed in a big way on Deepavali day. The ‘Sixteen' Lakshmi Pooja brings the 16 most necessary things in life to the one who performs it — education, health, money, marriage, children and so on. The Kubera Lakshmi Pooja is performed using coins instead of flowers since Lord Kubera, the god of wealth, is said to be deaf and devotees believe that he can hear the jingle of the coins. This is also why we drop coins in the hundi, hoping god can hear us.
I've been in the business for 30 years now, and I've realised that the festivities have only become bigger. People come from all over town to buy the pooja items such as incense sticks, camphor and pooja CDs (we sold cassettes ten years ago). And to our delight, they share the prasadam with us. I guess Deepavali is all about bringing people together and celebrating the festival as a family. Also, another thing that Deepavali brings to Chennai is rain.
There is invariably a small shower on the festival day. I can only hope that the tradition continues.
Nalli Kuppusamy Chetty, Nalli Silks
Those days, the head of the family would visit the shop and select clothes for the entire family. Sometimes the mother too would come along and select clothes for all the children, irrespective of their ages. The concept of readymades did not exist then and only today do we see entire families going out shopping for clothes. Earlier, when clothes were bought for the whole family, there would be no stinting on the children's clothes. And if the budget had been overshot, a cheaper sari would be bought. In the past, only Pongal was a major festival for people in Tamil Nadu; slowly Deepavali grew in importance and buying new clothes for the festival became a popular trend. People would often postpone purchases during the year until Deepavali, which is when they would buy for all other upcoming occasions. Soon our sales during the month of Deepavali doubled our sales in any other month. Today, it is still one-and-a-half times more than usual.
Keywords: Deepavali, Deepavali celebrations, Deepavali then and now
still Deepavali is celebrated like how it was done in olden days, down south. People give lavishly to the servants and , sweets and savouries to their friends who may not be in a position to celebrate the day due to some reasons. like the passing away of a close relative. LADIES STILL make dishes at home for economical reasons. The old scene can be seen even now in villages and towns.
m of 25,and a tradition was still live just a year back when i use to get up early,applying coconut oil before taking headbath and then new attires follwed by traditionla dishes and sweets and then greetings and then sharing sweets and crackers..this diwali i woke up at 7pm in the evening and dint even had a bath as it was a off...not only me many like me do's the same as the tradition is taking a backseat and western culture is pouuring inn as most of the people working to western countries which is affecting the time ,health, apetite and many more..but still happy diwali
In the fifties as a college student I remember the frequent trips to the tailor on Usman Road to ensure that the stitiched garments are handed over in time.Invariably the clothes used to be handed over around 8 pm and it was a sight to see the tailoring shops crowded with youngsters eagerly awaiting to collect the clothes. Crackers were cheap and atom bomb was introuduced around this time and bursting of this cracker was detested by the elders.Streams of relatives used to visit their elders to pay their respects.The temples were not crowded Home made sweets were exchanged and middle class families rarely purchased from the sweet shops. The seventies saw a remarkable change and I still recall the long ques in front of a recently opened sweet shop and a ready made shoop which sold shirts for Rs.50/- .It is sad to note that visits to relatives /friends houses to pay respects to the elders have almost vanished.
In the columns I find discussions about celebrating deepavali in big cities. I still remember celebrating deepavali in our village. It was a very grand festival. then we saw deepavli in chennai during 1970,whcih was still feeling good. Last year i was in India on business and to my surprise, the original charm was missing. In Chicago where i live there is no symptoms of deepavali. Gone are those days.
When life is simple, even ordinary things bring pleasure. With life now becoming stressful, pleasures are only in "good old days". I pity today's kids for they do not have the 'natural' fun we had. Their fun is imported from the West
Absolutely, those days won't come and we all remembered the custom of the yester year celebrations . My mom used to start preparing the sweets and savouries a month before Deepavali and used to share with the neighbours & relatives, but now a week before we went a bought the sweets.
All those who spoke to Hindu Make money on Deepavali. You should have talked to person like me to compare the those days with today.
Deepavalli in the 1960s and 70s were very different from now.
Sweets were made at home, now with the advent of Grand Sweets at Adayar. All our ladies dropped the idea of preparing sweets at home
Nowa days they dont remember or ignorant of how to prepare the dishes
Thats nowadays Deepavalli.
In the 60s and 70s when one went around Triplicane and Mylapore areas
the aroma of sweets would fill the streets houses. Now its all lost.
Those were Golden days . Once for all gone nowwith the advent of 1991 and Liberalisation era.
Diwali was always a day eagerly awaited during our childhood days yearning for the opportunity to eat as much sweets as you want in contrast to a single piece of sweet on any other day. In contrast affluence has consumed not only those yearnings in children nowadays, but also the value of the tradition , except for the fact that money is spent freely on everything and all gifts inlcuding expensive Jewllery are taken for granted by the present generation , more pronouncedly seen in overseas Indian communities.
As rightly said,now Deepavali has been commercialized and we are losing the real charm of the festival. Now everything has become modernized.
No wonder the day will come soon where we all will get the deepavali pandigai package offer from the shops. We will have to just walk in to the shops and celebrate the Deepavali(Cash and carry concept).
Diwali meant a tender dream in our innocent years.Between the waiting antecipation waiting and the moment of actual function, our excitement started accelerating infinitely. Today, living in far off country we wonder where all those simple happiness gone. The sentiments are quite different from the residents.
WE MISS THOSE EARLIER DAYS WHEN THE FESTIVAL WAS WITHOUT POLLUTION
&NOISE . THINGS ARE NOW COMMERCIAL
Please Email the Editor