The psychedelic colours are intact in namma pyaati this year round too. In fact the hues are all the more blinding...!! One wouldn't mind braving the Dasara mele in our pyaati, for it was a pleasure with the sparkling colours of chandhoovu, shavantigihoovu, maavin yali, patri, kumbalkai... But, a walk down Subhash road during Deepavali calls for a bravado of a different kind...! The Dasara pyaati is quite reminiscent of the good old days, but very little about the Deepavali pyaati stirs nostalgia... In fact the hugely synthetic, "made in China" ambience leaves one aching for those times when shopping for a Deepavali Aakashbutti and related paraphernalia was a simple yet joyfully exciting experience...
I do admit, times are a changing, and innovation is the keyword!
But does that mean the very essence, the very spirit of an aakashbutti is taken beyond recognition?
Sadly, though there were lamps galore literally brushing against your face in the market, it was difficult for me to find one that I could reach out to spontaneously! I did buy a simple yet, subtly beautiful one... But then, nah! That, by no means is an "Aakashbutti" !! It's a lovely handmade paper lamp, inevitable- made in China...!! If I had to go for one of the locally made aakashbuttis, it would have to be a plastic/cellophane one...! I literally scavenged the entire pyaati but could not find one of those simple yet utterly beautiful aakashbuttis with frames of thin bamboo slivers, covered in brightly coloured tissue paper...
Well, if I took my litany of aakashbutti woes to one of the sundry Deepavali shoppers on Subhash road, they'd probably say, "Yaakri pyaati tumba colour colour aakashbutti iddvu allri! Swalp camera bitta myale kelaga, hinda munda nodidra kaantiddvu yeno!!"
My woes about the changing synthetic ambiance apart, The joyous spirit of Deepavali remains at the heart of our pyaati and, scratch the made in China surface and you still find a few traces of our good old Dharwadi brilliance and colourful magic... It's still a pleasure to stroll down Subhash road watching entire families happily shopping for Deepavali goodies, watching the utter look of dilemna on shoppers faces, confused with the mind boggling array of lamps to choose from, watching the look of excitement/achievement on the faces of children when something of their choice has been bought, watching determined shoppers bargaining for a few rupees, watching a shop attendant hang up another aakashbutti in the already splitting-at-the-seams shop front, watching...
Viva Deepavali and viva Namma Dharwad...!!
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