Diwali is a time for revamp. People usually do the annual facelift of their house just before Diwali. In India we follow the Gregorian calendars for weekly holidays, where as for festival holidays we follow numerous Indian calendars. Similarly businessmen in India follow the official financial year (Apr to Mar) for tax and audit purpose, yet traditionally they start with a new set of books of accounts on Diwali. So Diwali is a time for revamp, renewal and taking stock of the year gone by in our Indian way.

This year I am doing a similar thing with my blog. Of course I do not do this traditionally every year. I am doing it for the first time since the blog was started in 2016. My revamp will be mostly about deleting some of the blogposts that have lost their relevance or resharing a few with my own evaluation of such old posts. As I go through the old posts I see that I had written some blog posts as part of a series and it will be worthwhile perhaps to continue such series like ‘Watchings of Idle Hours’, where in I expressed my views about certain movies or TV shows.

It is also heartening to note that I continue to have active interaction with some of the blogger friends who commented on my posts way back in 2016, even though I have not been regular in my blogging activities in last three years.

Being born in Odisha and now semi settled in Bengaluru, it is also a kind of expatriate life for us. Sometimes we do not even notice what we have missed. It is only when I came across a Durga Puja pandal accidentally a few days back that I was reminded of the overwhelming festive atmosphere of our small town in Odisha during these months. Actually the festivities start with Ganesh utsav and goes on till the full moon of Kartik. It is festival time one after another.

There is a saying that in this country we are in festive mood all year round (bara masare tera parava). But these two months of Ashwin and Kartik are special. There are so many festivals one after another, each festival lasting days. Ganesha Utsav, Janmastami, Viswakarma Puja, Durga Puja, Kumar Ustav, Deepavali, and Kartik Purnima to name a few. In Odisha the whole month of Kartik is considered the most auspicious one – even though in the Bibhuti Yoga of Bhagavad Gita Bhagavan Krishna says – I am Margashirsha among month. (By the way Margashirsha month comes after Kartik).

Living here in Bengaluru you miss noticing not only the coming and going of seasons but also various festivals typical of your native place. There are certain festivals and celebrations which are typical of my native place. On the full moon day of Ashwin, which is celebrated as Kumar Purnima, every one including those who are no more kumar and kumari, would wear new clothes. Gambling was not considered a crime during these times. But majority of people never went for serious kind of gambling like the Pandavas. It was light and fun and played among close friends and family members. So it did not matter who won or lost. Those who won considered themselves highly skillful in the art of gambling. It was a big boost to their ego till next year when fortunes reversed. And those who lost, just felt that they are unlucky in this particular area of life and moved on.

In Odisha the Indian month system followed is known as purnima-anta, which means the months end on full moon. It is worth mentioning here because in certain states the amanta system is followed which means the month ends on the new moon day. So the Kartik month in Odisha is one lunar fortnight ahead of the Karthik month in Tamilnadu.

On the first day of Kartik, at the centre of every village or street of Odisha, a long wooden pole like that of a flagpole would be raised. However, in stead of a flag, what would be hoisted is an akashdeep – a multi holed clay pot bearing a lamp. Every evening, after hoisting the akashdeep, a mobile bhajan party would start from the place, make a round of the village or the street and end their devotional chorus under the akashdeep.

Deepavali falls at the middle point of this month. Deepavali is a day when Odias bid farewell to the spirits of their ancestors who were invited during the first half of the previous month which was Ashwin. The significance of the lightings done on this day is that ancestral spirits are guided back to their celestial abodes. Of course there are fire crackers and sweets. But remembering the ancestors and bidding farewell to the their spirits is at the core of the Deepavali celebrations in Odisha. The beauty is that even in India the same festival, the same way of celebrating a particular festival, may have different underlying connotation in different regions.

The last five days of the auspicious month of Kartik are super-auspicious. Relatives say that now a days they feel the heat even in the month of Kartik. But I remember that we would start wearing light winter clothe from the beginning of Kartik. Towards the end of Kartik it would be shivering cold. But during these most auspicious five days of the year, it was compulsory for every one – be young or old, be healthy or ill, whether you love to take bath or allergic to it even in summer – to take bath before the sunrise. In villages we had to go to the nearby pond or river and took bath without the luxury of a cozy bath room or any heating arrangement. Surprisingly, some one rarely fell ill as a result of taking such cold water bath during a shivering wintry dawn.

Lots of fairs and cultural activities are organised during this period. The Bali Jatra in Cuttack draws huge crowds. All such religious festivities end on the full moon day of Kartik. On this day Odias do the ritual of Boita Bandana. They gather early morning near running water bodies and set sail to boats made of banana barks. This is done to commemorate their ancestors’ journey to far east countries like Java, Sumatra, Bali etc.

Our ancestors were like the Vikings of Northern Europe.