Deepavali 2016!

Deepavali 2016!

As always, Deepavali is the festival that brings me most cheers as it gives everybody an opportunity to smile which is what I expect from a festival. This year was no different.

29 Oct, 2016, Saturday: Narakachaturdashi

Souji started the day with the mini 'Enne Shaashtra' at Chiguru, a standard precursor to the 'Oilbath'. After getting ourselves ready, we all wore our new dresses and then left for the main-course for the day @ Vinayadeep.

The 'Arathi' and 'Enne Shaastra' events were performed as usual, and this time Ruchir was excited to offer his services to the occasion!

Souji, Anna, Ruchir and I went to the Cracker Shops @ Donkahalla fields where bought a whole lot of night crackers including the usual Flowerpots, Zameen Chakras, Sursurbathis and others!

Ruchir, Pooja and Souji enjoyed burning a crackers from the last year's backlog. Super lunch in the afternoon followed by a nice nap gave us a good break for the evening activity.

As the sun went down, Pooja and Ruchir burst the night crackers while all of us had a super time watching the show!

Overall, the day went awesome! [Last year, the whole of Deepavali was a washout, due to continuous cyclonic rain.]

On the way back, we dropped Ruchir and Pooja at our In Laws place, so that we could plan on our little bike trip ;-)

30 Oct, 2016, Sunday: Lakshmi Pooja - Bike ride to Nandi Hills!

With our new bike, Souji and I had been planning to go out for a drive to see how our Vehicle performs. We planned to visit the Nandi Hills, about 60+ Kms from Bangalore would be the right place to visit, considering that the drive would neither be too taxing nor too long.

Ruchir and Pooja stayed overnight at our In Laws place, so we had the luxury to leave Bangalore early and return back by mid day.

We left home by 3:25 AM in the morning, fully decked up in warm jackets. There was hardly anybody on the roads till we reached Hebbal by 4 AM. The roads got flatter from Hebbal onwards. That was when we saw hordes of Bikers on the road, all driving in groups towards their destinations. It was such a welcome feeling to see the young and energetic youth of Bangalore, Boys and Girls, getting up early and exploring new things. It also made us feel young as well ;-). Our Thunderbird glided smoothly and it was a wonderful feeling to realize the power of this maniac machine esp. when you rev up the accelerator. Very impressed with our new possession. :-)

We reached the Nandi Hills Checkpost by 5 AM, only to know there that we have to wait till 6 AM till we are allowed inside. The whole reason of being early was to see the famed Sunrise, where the clouds blanket the whole horizon, exposing just the apex of a nearby hill. And Magic happens when the first rays hit the hill top covered completely blanketed by clouds.

We stopped at a wayside hotel at the checkpost and had piping hot Coffee. Finally, we gates opened at 5:45 AM, and we reached the hilltop by 6 AM. There were about 300 Cars and 500 Bikes ahead of us!!! To top it all, there was no clouds at all! :-).

The Sunrise was not as dramatic, but it was nice to see new perspectives from the hilltop. The last time I had visited Nandi Hills was about 20 years back. However, this was the first time for Souji. So in a way, it was the first time for both of us.

We wandered around the places, taking a lot of photos wherever possible. Saw Tippu’s Summer Lodge, The Kalyani, built by Dewan Mirza Ismail, but spent most time watching the view from the top, which was quite breathtaking.

We left Nandi Hills by 9:25 AM, and returned home in about an hour and a half.

Overall, the ride to Nandi Hills was fun and Souji and I enjoyed this little outing very much on our new Bike. Hope to have many more such trips. Here are some photos from our ride.

Drive to Nandi hills!

In the evening, we visited our In Laws house where Pooja, Sanju and Ruchir burst some crackers.

31 Oct, 2016, Monday: Balidpadyami:

We were back at Vinayadeep for lunch. Sanju joined us for the day's celebrations as well and was our Chief Guest for the day!.

Found out that we had less crackers than what we thought we had, so went around getting some more for the evening. Another photo session with all the girls followed with their new set of clothes!.

We had a good sumptuous lunch and also watched a movie. For the evening, we had invited our In Laws who joined us by 6 PM. Ruchir and Pooja burst the left over crackers from the last year’s backlog till the sun came down.

Souji lit the lamps around the house and the kids started with the evening crackers. Flower Pots Zameen Chakras, Sparklers of various colours filled the night light and made it as festive as ever.

Ruchir was overjoyed with this new skill of lighting the crackers as he went on a spree of lighting the crackers with assistance from Pooja, Sanju and Souji. He had a ball of a time!

We wound the day with a good dinner. All of us had great fun during the last 3 days and hope it continues the same for years to come!. Happy Deepavali to one and all.

Here are some photos and videos, taken during the festival.

Deepavali 2016