Festival of lights....

Diwali, The Indian festivals of lights...the name itself brings so many things to our minds - beautiful earthen lamps and candles, sweets, rangoli, new dresses, fire crackers usually top the list :)

Just like Christmas, people like to celebrate Diwali eve at their homes while exchanging gifts throughout the week and sharing the fun with friends and relatives. Being away from India, I do miss the family bit of this festival a lot! But I try to make up for the fun part as much as a I can :)
I celebrated this Diwali with all the things that topped my list :P - sequence of phone calls to India (talking to my family and close knit friends), preparation of some savories like Besan ladoo (agreed that I had to look up the internet for a recipe, the end result was mouth watering :P), Livermore temple visit (agreed that we spent more time in the queue for the yummy prasad than inside the temple), lunch get together at a friend's place (agreed that the friend cooked most of it :D ), watching Golmaal :D, lighting candles and diyas, making Rangoli (agreed that it looked like a art n craft project of a 5 yr old :P, there were pros to give it a finishing touch :) ), dancing, playing games, taking pictures, getting back home and lighting candles at my own place (agreed that everybody was already asleep and it was 1:00 am in the night :P) and oh I almost forgot getting dressed up in traditional clothes.....

Well that was my way of celebrating Diwali and I did have a lot of fun :)
Happy Diwali....