Igniting Young Minds

Familial love, traditional garb and delectable desi sweets may all signify Diwali to you. This ebullient time of year, Citadel explores the best way to INTRODUCE YOUR LITTLE ONES to the festival of lights...

- Aditi Balsaver

The excitement and gaiety of Diwali would be rendered imperfect in the absence of your son’s cheeky grin or the twinkling eyes of your little girl. After all, what is family without your tiny tots! So this season, we speak to Puneites and discover some exciting ways to induct your little one to all that is Dipawali.

Voicing her thoughts about the same, Srividya Anantkumar Malikaveetil, mum to an adorable little girl, Diya, believes that life certainly comes full circle. The IT professional, working as a Senior Instructional Designer at Eaton, recalls some bitter sweet childhood memories, “‘Amma, please… no oil, no shampoo. No one bursts crackers at 5am in the morning. What will my friends say?’ I remember having this conversation with my mother almost every year,” she reminisces. “It was painful getting up at 5am in Delhi winters for our ritual of an oiled head bath. Moreover, it was embarrassing to celebrate Diwali at dawn when all my North Indian friends would celebrate it at dusk. My mother would obviously not listen to anything and scrub my head with oil and drag me and my sister to take our baths,” she continues with a cheeky grin.

Srividya explains, “Partly to assuage the situation, mother would often narrate the story of Rama who returned home after 14 years of exile. She would also tell us that if we followed the rituals, Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, would indubitably pay us a visit in the evening. These stories not only made the unearthly bath hour bearable, but also had me looking forward to the time when we would light diyas to welcome the Goddess to our home.”