Guns, Bombs and Rockets…

They crawled crossing the enemy lines belching fire from the guns, from the opposite direction the tanks thundered and cannons boomed, the tracer rockets lit up the dark sky…

I don’t know how I managed to escape from their eyes but somehow I had survived till now, I was hiding in the safe place well protected from the bombarding sound, fierce flames and flashing lights.. I had decided not to move an inch till this dies by itself but then I realized this was not happening as one of them came hunting for me, He found me hiding below the cot he dragged me out and forcefully pulled me to the battle field all I could do was shout and call out for help.

Luckily, Appa heard me shouting and he came down running to see what was happening with me. As soon as my cousin saw him, he let me there and escaped from thrashings he would get by my appa for dragging me to play with the crackers on that deepavali day!

Oh I was 7 when this happened but then this was the story over all those years of Deepavali. On this beautiful festival of lights, we all cousins gathered together to celebrate it, morning puja, Delicious feast in the afternoon, New dresses and gifts and the best part was in the evening when all the kids had an awesome time in the evening bursting crackers. Usually Boys used to enjoy Guns, Bombs, Rockets and Girls used to be happy with sparkling crackers.

Appa had a very important task of bifurcating crackers among all the kids, each one of us used to get a share of different crackers and with a strict instruction of burning crackers only when some elders are around. Hardly any kid obeyed this order. I was shit scared of crackers and so all the cousins were fond of me, as they would get my share if they were good to me. But then cousins who wanted to bully over me would use this opportunity well and always scared me and entertained themselves.

These festivals bring back lot of beautiful memories associated with them over the years. As we all gathered again, I giggled seeing my cousins who are today Engineers, PHD holders and in very prestigious jobs thinking how once they you used to boast over the Biggest bomb they burst and how they were not scared a bit, How their Rockets flew and hit the moon, How one of them burst a bomb holding in hand and 3 days was hospitalized! How they used to imagine a battle field inside our home and run around holding guns shouting loud.

And BTW did I tell you I was scared of crackers? oh I am sorry, actually :D I am still scared of crackers. But now for not bursting crackers I polish it by the reason of being environmental friendly. Cousins who know me from those days laugh out loud at this!!!

And now yet again the festival is back with lot more josh, fun and festivity. And hoping to gather again and celebrate it with all our love and happiness. And so wishing you all a very happy and prosperous Deepavali, May this festival of lights bring lot of happiness and prosperity to all of you… Happy Deepavali…