CHENNAI: It was October of 2020 and Chennai much like the rest of the world had lowered its shutters in view of the pandemic. It was a sad sight, especially if you were miles away from your home country at a hotel in a strange city. But Katharina Görgen, director of Goethe Institut Chennai, found that not even the pandemic could stop the sky from being painted in the colours of Deepavali. “I turned my chair to the window and enjoyed the fireworks for one night,” she says. Next year, she teamed up with her landlord to decorate their house. “They were responsible for their level and I, for mine. We set up lots of diyas and it looked lovely… Deepavali transforms the entire city,” she adds.
The first memory of fireworks may be of comfort to some expats, but for many others, the same is an overwhelming concoction of alarming sounds. For Sukhee Lee, head of King Sejong Institute Chennai2 HITS-KCCI & advisor of International Affairs, Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science (HITS), who witnessed the spectacle as early as 2000 (when regulations were rather lean), the first experience was “too noisy.” But that didn’t stop her from adapting to the culture the second time she came to the country. “I wanted to try and buy a cracker. So, I went with my driver and househelp and we got some, burst them and took a few photos. I wore a traditional dress then,” she reminisces. Another expat Dimitrina Bozhanova, a Montessori primary teacher, too had a love-hate relationship with the loud firecrakers but over the years, she has come to adopt them on a small scale, preferring ones that produce more light than sound.
A ray of light
Where firecrackers are a hit or miss like many Indians, expats too worry about the excessive bursting of crackers diyas were cherished and welcomed into expat homes. “What I love about Deepavali is that people use a lot of diyas, they light up the darkness. It’s beautiful,” explains Evgeniya Gautam, social media project manager at Russian Center of Science and Culture in Chennai, elaborating on her affinity to the principle on which the festival stands,
“When I learnt of the story behind Deepavali, I found it special and interesting. I sometimes feel a bit sad that people tend to forget about it amid the celebration and preparation. I love the idea, at the core of the festival, of the ultimate victory of good over evil or light over darkness. I feel there is a deep meaning to it.” While her first Deepavali in India was only a few years ago (when she came to meet her in-laws), it was no new territory, having been exposed to a mini version back home in Russia. “When I was a student, we had classmates from India and they wanted to show us how they celebrate the festival at home. They decorated our classroom and arranged for diyas,” she recalls.
Dimitrina joins Evgeniya in her love for diyas. The Bulgarian-native once lived in Dubai with her Chennai-raised husband and even lit up that house with diyas. Now that she is in India (since 2020), her fervour for it is not lost. “Deepavali is a great excuse for me to eat sweets and I love it. I also take charge of the Deepavali boxes of sweets (to send to people). I’m a bit more involved now and am excited about the celebrations,” she adds.
Something like home
Perhaps the aspect of Deepavali that resonates most with immigrants is that of community and family, this feeling of togetherness that transports some of them back home. “I think that the uniqueness of the festival is getting together with families. It develops strong and warm connections between families and strengthens family traditions, which is important for the young generation. Deepavali celebrations remind me of the Christmas and New Year celebrations in my homeland (Armenia). Everything is almost similar, from shopping to families getting together, from cleaning and decorating the house to cooking and baking. During Christmas and New Year, all the members of the family try their best to come to Armenia, if they live abroad, and celebrate the holidays with their parents, relatives and friends,” says Ashkhen Khachatryan, personal branding expert and founder of AshkhenPro, who has lived in the city since 2014.
While she came to experience Deepavali first as a student of Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation in 2012, it’s after her marriage that she wanted to know more about Indian culture, cuisine and festivals. “My first year of Deepavali experience (after 2012) was unforgettable, thanks to my husband’s close friend’s family. They invited us to celebrate with their family and friends. They welcomed us warmly and cooked tasty food and desserts. I enjoyed every moment of that day. Everybody was happy, I saw laughter and happy faces, they were joking, laughing and spreading love. Deepavali is a holiday of love and happiness,” she shares.
Evgeniya remembers a similar experience of Christmas and New Year like Ashkhen’s but in Russia. The two festivals hold importance in Dimitrina’s home country Bulgaria too, when they burst crackers. “It’s hard to compare Deepavali to festivals back home. We also have lots of celebrations during the year that are traditional and religious. We don’t have any celebrations where we light up lights. That’s a different experience for me,” she says.
For businessman Relja Uvalic, who has been living in India for 23 years now, Deepavali is all about the enjoyment he can see on others’ faces during this festival. “I first saw this festival when I went to live in Delhi; I lived there between the ages of 4 and 8 because my father was the ambassador of Yugoslavia at the time. I don’t remember much of the celebrations at the time, but now, I would normally to go a friend’s place or invite their over to my house, with food, sweets and a couple of drinks,” he says, adding that the importance and memory of the festival is akin to Christmas celebrations back home but what India celebrates with lights and crackers, his home country does more with music and song. Some cultures celebrate the similarities, others like Sukhee Lee from Korea share the differences, talking about how there are a lot more festivals in India, compared to the two major ones in Korea. Despite the differences, it takes only a sparkler, a diya or a ghee-soaked sweet to bring together different cultures and welcome once strangers into our city and culture.