‘Diwali rituals never get old,’ Essay by 14 year old Diya Barmecha from Mumbai

Hey everyone, your best friend Sara here!

Yippeee, Diwali or Deepavali, the festival of lights, is here!

Lets hope it brightens up our lives and minds. Festive greetings to you!

Here is 14 year old Diya Barmecha from Mumbai, sharing an account of how the celebrations in her family pan out. She loves reading and subjects like math and science because they are logical. She enjoys watching movies and learning more about the world. She is a student of Ascend International School, Mumbai.

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The flares of fire sparkled as bright as ever, as I turned the regulator to reduce  the speed of the fan.

I took each step carefully, trying to get across the house without touching any of the earthen lamps placed on the floor. After managing to get across, my  nose guided me to the kitchen where I always like to be. I asked my mother what she was making. After hearing her response, my mouth started to water. Each Diwali we had a party at our house and we cooked delicious food.

This  year was different of them all, we had invited a singer as well. As people  started to pour in, the melodies of the songs grew louder. My head swayed to the music as I ate my food around the small table with all my cousins. I looked around at the dining table filled with food, all the adults around eating, taking food and talking. Like all parties there was a table for the children to sit and  eat.

One of my cousins having turned nineteen, went to join the adults. As she  stood and ate, I thought how each year the number of children would  decrease. One day, that would be me, I thought, as I stared at my mother. She was greeting people and smiling with an occasional worry on her face, maybe thinking if the food was fine and the kitchen was running smoothly.

As the night progressed, many people sang along with the singer and talked  about the bygone years. Soon, everyone said their goodbyes. These goodbyes weren’t as sad as we would see them the next day for a puja at our office.  These rituals never get old in our house.