Festivals....fiesta...friends...frolic..fun - Karvachauth and Diwali 2009

After we moved out of Milwaukee, I'd been celebrating Karvachauth alone. Thankfully this year broke the lone continuation of that and my friends and I got together to observe the fast followed by feast in the evening. The night before Karvachauth my friend adorned my hands with 'Mehendi' despite her super busy schedule. She is a professional and the season of festivals is pretty busy for her. It could not be any more convenient for me since we live in the same building and I went @ 10 PM after returning from getting a facial at Club One Spa in Santana Row (Yep, this visit was part of the gift card my sweet husband presented me on Mother's day this year. Andrea,my aesthetician turned out to be quite an interesting person, an Engineer in day time, a writer in leisure time but her passion is learning about peels and facials. I could feel it in her voice as she started telling me about the 10% lactic acid application she put on my face. 'No need to be worried , she said, its going to brighten your face'). Back to Mehendi - Swati still had 2 clients waiting for her at that hour. Thanks Swati - it meant so much to me that you squeezed me in just because I had mentioned to you that I would love to put Mehendi on Karvachauth. The last time I put Mehendi was more than 5 years back. I had forgotten how much I love the smell of it. I left it overnight only to wake up several times in between to apply lemon juice and sugar on it. I woke up to sweet smelling hands and a rich beautiful color of red - my favorite ! I remember growing up, we celebrated 'Teej' and I loved getting my hands done with Mehendi. Those were the days when mom fed me by her hands because I did not want the Mehendi to get messed up. Those were the days when she would scratch an itch on my back or knee because I was particular about not doing anything to get that Mehendi mushed. Those were the days when she would tuck wisps of my hair behind the ears because my attempt to blow them off my face would fail and I did not want to take a chance with my Mehendi by touching them. On a light note, those were the days when she helped me to the bathroom because......obviously how could I ?  :) And then there was wedding Mehendi ! My mom, sister, friends and I applied it together the day before my wedding. This was the most special Mehendi of course. Half of my arms and legs were decorated with intricate, thin patterns of auspicious 'kalash' and 'soorya'. Cousins fed us chai and snacks and danced in front of us on 'मेंहदी है रचने वाली, होठों पे गहरी लाली, कुछ सखियाँ, कुछ खुशियाँ ये तुझको मिलने वाली हैं, तेरे मन को जीवन को नयी खुशियाँ मिलने वाली हैं' और 'मेंहदी लगायुंगी मैं सजना के नाम की'। Such vivid memories of Mehendi ! The first day after wearing Mehendi was all about not putting any water on it or lets just say, minimum exposure to it so the color , oh that vibrant red -maroonish color could stay bright for the longest time possible. And it was manageable then since all I had to do was - well nothing at all ! Many years and two kids later Swati's advice of no exposure of water to Mehendi next day was met by my questioning/statement making tone "you know that I do have to change diapers". She laughed and said 'just use gloves' :)
Our preparations of Karvachauth party had been going on for 3 weeks in advance and it had become quite a talk of the town, er........North Park. Lots of friends wanted to join in and we all were very excited. 50 or so threads of emails later we were all set with menu, music. dress code and a plan to have fun.
I hosted 'puja' at my place in the evening , decorated it with sarees, dupattas and candles with Gayatri Mantra playing in the background. All of us dressed ourselves just a bit shy of looking like a bride. And man oh man, did we look resplendent ? Well, the husbands thought so :) Everyone's puja thali was beautiful. Decorated with colorful rice, velvet paper and shiny threads, complete with sindoor, diya, sweets and water and covered with golden handkerchiefs. Yes, its those careful details in our routine life which make festive occasions not only special and exclusive but also essential to break away from quotidian life.
After a round of clicking pictures, we sat down to do 'puja'. I read "Karvachauth Vrat Katha' and we did 'Aarti' together. We did not let Aparna stop just at 'Aarti' and she sang a melodious 'ghazal' afterwards. She has a beautiful voice. Later we all headed to courtyard , lit the fire place and waited for 'Chandradev' to come up. He finally did and we all performed rituals of 'Chandradarshan' thru' the strainer , offered water and did 'Aarti' of our beloved husbands and prayed for their long life and well being. It was time to dig in now with all the mouthwatering food on the table - matar paneer, chole, aalu sabzi, dahi-vada, salad, pulao, puris, gulab-jamun, halwa and chai. It was a little crisp in the late evening but fire-place and chai did its work. I had a great time with my friends.
A week and a half later we celebrated Diwali at home , did 'Lakshmi Puja' and lit candles and 'diyas' around the house. The next day our apartment community organized a Diwali Party and a lot of Indian residents of North Park joined in. Kids had fun running up and down in the clubhouse and later lighting fire crackers.
Festivals are lot of fun and frolic and they double the joy when you celebrate them with family and friends. There is a reason these F's go together.