Diwalis of Girlfriend Past

Until last year, my fondest memory of Diwali was bursting a 'sparrow' cracker on an electric post's hole. Sparrow crackers are the smallest, after Bijli or Chilli crackers, but they are the loudest, second only to bombs maybe. I was the crackerhead of the family and by the time I was in 7th or something, my Mama and Amma had given up trying to stop me from lighting crackers while holding them in my hands and then throwing it when it was just about to burst. Luckily, I never got injured while bursting crackers; though, thanks to my brother, I did get some painful burns from fuljadis. I was considered cool for bursting crackers as good as boys, and at 14 I was proud of that (*puke emoji). But then, for a couple of years we couldn't celebrate Diwali due to various reasons and I became wiser and considered going Green; my brother was never a big fan of crackers, or any sort of celebration for that matter, and my parents were glad to save some money that would otherwise have been burnt off. I sometimes miss flower-pots and Bijlis, especially when I see the kids next door playing. But last year I celebrated the best Diwali yet. I did have to visit my relatives, but that was fine, it helped me miss home less. Amma was kind enough to send me pictures of sweets and I, equally kindly, ignored it. I went to see Bigil with my Hyderabad film partner and Devu and I promised to never talk about it again, just like we did after watching Love Action Drama; we have our fair share of regrets when it comes to movies. But then, we came back to campus and Devu changed to saree- so quickly, massive respect- and we made Udipto click pictures of us. We lit random diyas at someone's house and went to a fucking loud and lit (it was blinding) party inside the campus. One can only take so much of that music and lights, so Shitten and I went back to a very quiet Sagar Square and talked about all the Diwalis we had celebrated before. And it turned out, talking about the crackers we burst and fuljadis we burnt were cooler and calmer than actually doing it. We ate dinner sitting on the tank in front of Basheer, away from loud music and blinding lights, we hugged goodnight and went off to bed earlier than ever, Udipto scratched my palm, as usual, one last time before going into the hostel and I had my best Diwali ever.