What Went Around Eventually did Come Around: Diwali @ Vidya

Vidya Society, Shikhare Wadi, Nashik Road (my home), is not just a building. Infact in 1985 when 10 families moved into the 10 flats of this society, it was for all of them a fulfillment of a dream- a dream of finally having their own names written against the OWNER column of the legal documents of a flat. The 10 families had finally settled down in the real sense of the term. It was a common dream which was fulfilled at the same time and so they were not 10 families, but infact 1 big family.

You can imagine the enthusiasm and the fervor which would have been generated at Vidya especially during Diwali. The terrace of the building used to fill up with kids bursting crackers, lighting rockets etc. You had to be doubly alert not only with the cracker which you have just lit, but also about you surroundings. There were ample cases, where a kid running from a cracker he jus lit got caught in the cracker lit by another guy on his way back to the safety zone. The safety zone, was where one parent from a house was present dispensing crackers to the kid, with a bucket of water kept handing incase of an emergency.

Diwali is not only about lights and crackers. It is about “फराल” too. The typical items making up the “फराल” are:

1) चिवडा

2) चकली

3) लादू

4) शंखर पाली

5) सेव

6) करंजी

7) अनारसा

And it is a custom to invite your neighbors and close friends for “फराल”. The kids at Vidya needed no invitation. I was especially at the fore front on the tasting brigade, and used to go from house to house, demanding “फराल” :) And then some “फराल” used to be placed on a plate to be taken home for the parents to be tasted.

At the end of day 2 of Diwali, each family used to end up with multiple plates of “फराल” from different houses. The items were all the same with different tastes, making it difficult to which plate belonged to which household!!!

It is also basic courtesy not to return an empty plate, so “फराल” from your home had to be laden on the plate and returned to the neighbors. With all these thoughts running paralleled in every household, each one committed the same folly

This is roughly what each family did.

Flat 1 had plates from flat 2, flat 3, flat 5, flat 4, flat 10, flat 6. But they could not distinguish between any. So they simply decided to rotate the same plates. Little did they know that this same thing will be done in 9 other flats!!! The end result of this confusion: Flat 5 got a plate of “फराल” from Flat 6 which they immediately recognised to be the one they had given to Flat 1 some 2 hours back. Flat 8 got a plate of “फराल” from Flat 4 which they immediately recognised to be the one they had given to Flat 7 some 2 hours back.

What went around eventually had come around!!!!

Everybody realized in a humorous way that they were indeed undone by the other 9. It was the last time “फराल” was ever circulated in Vidya on a plate. The Diwali after that, either people were invited for “फराल” or “फराल” was given out in plastic boxes, which did not need returning :)