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December 2008 
DEEPAWALI - HAPPY DIWALI AND OTHER THINGS
Posted on Dec 27th, 2006
by 
Sharma
Sharma
Now it's the turn of kids to go with me. Four year old nephew is sleeping at evening which is quite surprising. The two and half year old little devil is better at home, there's too much crowd in the market. The six year old niece who is ringleader of all kids is ready to go with me. "Chachu (Uncle), you won't take me to market, I know this!" she rued earlier. "Come on child." I tell her, "Chachu always do what he says. If I tell you to take with me then it means that you are going." It's a good thing to give a feeling to kids that their elders will do what they say. I came home early as kids were calling me, even the youngest devil can dial my mobile number easily. We are distributing gifts to workers at factory and I tell my friend that I need to go. The kids need their chachu. He has got 3 elder brothers and tells me that he also played a caring chachu for kids of his brothers and as he was youngest so now his kids miss a chachu.
Let's first take some candles. Candles in many colors, shapes, style come on Diwali in packs of 15 to 25. I take a few packs and a big candle also, which I will have to change as it has a narrow base and can't stand properly. I take a candle thrice the size of big candle size and hopefully it's the biggest one available in market. Now we should buy some fireworks. They are not good for environment but make kids enthusiastic and give them festival feeling. Anyhow I plant a tree every now and then, saves water, electricity, paper, other resources and try to give back more to the ecology than I could ever take. In any case they are less provoking than North Korean fireworks!! The shops are already full so stalls of candles, fire crackers and other things are in open. I make a few selections at a stall and ask the price. I can have big discounts at a nearby city if I want to purchase in bulk, little discounts are expected on little purchases also. But the guy is too much firm on price, it's a take it or leave it attitude. Now how can I tell him that I really don't want to be discounted and if I ask for discount on one thing then let me have that and charge me more on some other thing. Hmm.. deal fails. As I am going in market another guy at a stall offers me his things. 3 guys are managing a fireworks stall with pleasant manners and seem good at marketing. They offer lesser price for same things and have wider variety. I make double purchase than the intended one. After paying the bill I forgetfully hand one extra Rupees 100 currency note to guy assuming that I have given one less. But the guy is honest also, he tells me that I have already paid full and picks up my paid amount from his pocket and shows me. I was delighted and made more purchases from that stall on Diwali day also.
Till now it's always me who was returning money to people today I am the beneficiary. In the last few months people are returning me more money. Once during travel I stop at a highway halt and purchase two milk drinks. The ex-army man on duty returns me Rupees 460 assuming that I paid Rupees 500, while I paid just Rupees 100. "How you are going to cover the loss", I ask him. "Means." "You are returning me more." I could see the gratitude on his face and in my 10 minutes stay he thanked me many times. Another guy at gas station filled my bike and ran quickly for some work without getting paid and I was running behind him. "Hey man, get your money and let me go." He was also so thankful. The warm feelings I get are worth more than the money returned. I have also a bad experience regarding this. While making a payment a girl pays me Rupees 600 extra. I counted the cash and decided to return after a couple of hours. Now this was a mistake. It was weekend and she was off duty sooner and I knew none of her contact details. While closing cash Rupees 600 less were debited to her salary account. She was virtually crying over the weekend. On Monday I was traveling and when on Tuesday I sent office boy to return money and talked with her on phone she was almost blaming me. That was really bad. I don't know if she had agreed if I was paid less by mistake and I had no compulsion to admit that I was paid more as it was a mistake in her counting. I was taken wrong with right intentions. Lesson I learnt from this incident ‘Do the right whenever you can, don't wait for a couple of hours :)'
Niece had started burning sparkles yesterday. Today she wants to save all fireworks and use them tomorrow. She is the only one who can fire most things in supervision; the two naughty angels are allowed only to handle sparkles. I tell her to start today and if she can use all the fireworks today we shall buy more tomorrow. I thought the fireworks are enough for 3 days and they are really enough only for today and tomorrow we shall buy more!! Kids are too fast these days, the things we were taught, they know already. There must be an invisible knowledge base from which every generation draws and contributes.
Its Diwali today. Decorating home, office; friends, gifts, customs, rituals, a lot of sweets keeps us all busy. Oil lamps, candles, electric lighting, beautiful fireworks are essential to Diwali. It's a moonless no-clouds night but still stars are not visible. The sky is studded with fireworks of different colors, hues, shapes. Happy Diwali, it's really a Happy Diwali. Let's see what next Diwali brings for us.
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