Weekends - yes they are meant for excitement in any engagement taken as its a holiday.
As it was weekend and as my son was having his holiday we decided to make a visit to my parents home. Fortunately, my niece was on a ten days vacation from her place. As her parent's are residing abroad, she came to stay with her grandparents. She was infact waiting eagerly for my son to teach her driving in two wheeler.
The children are set for the ride. That was a real learning experience.
Though at first they took to driving within the garden, due to space constraint, they opted to take a ride at the road. Anyway, as our home was away from highway, with few bypass roads, my father after lot of convincing, gave heed to their request, but with certain conditions related to speed, brakes, keeping to the left etc Fortunately, the ride was a great success. Because next time she promised a solo ride.
Now here comes Diwali, festival of lights. It was on Sunday. The whole nation would have celebrated it with great pomp. It is one of the most popular festival, particularly in the northern Part of India. On this occasion people exchange lot of sweets, burst crackers, visiting all relatives, wearing new dress etc. At night everyone at their respective home, light a Diya (a small earthern lamp placed with a wick dipped in oil.) Not one but a lot of them. The house and the garden will glow with light. These are part of the rituals.
Here , in our place, special prayers are conducted in the night. And do you know who the host is ??? Its none other than the elephants. They are three of them and are decorated colorfully. They are taken to a nearby pond and given a good bath. A huge crowd is waiting to watch this ceremony. After which a grand feast is provided. First to the elephants and then to the public. And finally, the elephants are taken to the temples followed by women carrying Diyas drapped in white saree. This is the end of the story. Now we had to wait for another one year to watch this festival.
All these was a wonderful experience to watch. Both the young and old had great fun.
Last but not the least. I got enough number of red spinach from my garden which was distributed to my neighbours.
The photos are my private properties taken from mine and my son's smartphones.