Happy Diwali! Shubha Diwali!
Shantie Carroll & Joanna Dukkipati exchange memories of celebrating Diwali in their home-place, the Netherlands & Bombay respectively.
Shanti & Jo live in Cork, Ireland for over 10 yrs. This conversation is to help spread positive discussions of the evolving nature of culture and traditions.
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Background music by Yellow Tunes.
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Shantie Carroll is a yoga teacher - get in touch via Instagram @shantiyogacork
Joanna Dukkipati is steward of Good Day, Cork.
--
Please visit www.gooddaycork.com for more uplifting #MediaDiet
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#CorkLike #Ireland #Diwali
Good Day Cork is a magazine and event space dedicated to building a kind world.
If you haven't yet, please follow Good Day Cork on socials.
If you live in Republic of Ireland, want to feel soft and uplifted then don't miss our print subscription plan. We'll send you quarterly issues ( once every three months) €40/annual.
All the links you need are here: https://linktr.ee/gooddaycork
Happy Diwali! Shubha Diwali!
Shantie Carroll & Joanna Dukkipati exchange memories of celebrating Diwali in their home-place, the Netherlands & Bombay respectively.
Shanti & Jo live in Cork, Ireland for over 10 yrs. This conversation is to help spread positive discussions of the evolving nature of culture and traditions.
--
Background music by Yellow Tunes.
--
Shantie Carroll is a yoga teacher - get in touch via Instagram @shantiyogacork
Joanna Dukkipati is steward of Good Day, Cork.
--
Please visit www.gooddaycork.com for more uplifting #MediaDiet
-
#CorkLike #Ireland #Diwali
Good Day Cork is a magazine and event space dedicated to building a kind world.
If you haven't yet, please follow Good Day Cork on socials.
If you live in Republic of Ireland, want to feel soft and uplifted then don't miss our print subscription plan. We'll send you quarterly issues ( once every three months) €40/annual.
All the links you need are here: https://linktr.ee/gooddaycork
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Happy Diwali to you,
and you. Thank you.
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Yes, so it's let's just get
into it. What is your connection
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-to Diwali?
-So I am a Hindu, I should say, and
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people say to me, oh, are you Indian?
Are you from India?
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Because, you know, when you say
you are French, you might assume
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somebody is from France or you could
be Indian, but not be
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-from India.
-So I am not from India. My family
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is not from India. We have
been out of India for generations.
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You know, that's got to do
with colonialism. And that's
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a completely different topic,
which we can talk about some other
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-time.
-But so I was born in South America
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-in a country called Surinam.
-And so when they went for
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independence, my father moved
to the Netherlands and we followed
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-several months later.
-So I grew up in the Netherlands. I
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was very young when we moved
there. So I have no memories
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of Surinam and growing
up in Holland...
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You know, it was in that time,
it was very much about assimilation.
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You know, like we still did
all of our rituals at home. And,
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you know, everything that my parents
grew up with, we still did
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most of that at home. But when we went
outside of the house,
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we were very much part of the society,
you know, so we did not
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walk in saris or, you know,
have the dots on your face, on your
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forehead or, you know,
anything like that, because we wanted
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to blend in. We wanted to be
part of Dutch society. And so for most
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of the people that I know
in Holland, in the Netherlands,
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when we were growing up in the 70s
and 80s, 90s, this is how we want
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to be. You know, we wanted
to be seen as Western or some.
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And we would behave as well
as outside of the house, but then
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you go in the house and you'd
be Indian or Surinamese-Indian,
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which was fine, like
we never hated who we were.
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And we we embrace everything
that our parents throw at us except,
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-you know, one or two things.
-But we would always celebrate
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-Christmas.
-You know, we always celebrated
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Easter, but maybe not going
to the church because, you know,
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we're not Catholics or Protestant,
but at the same time that we would
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celebrate Diwali and also,
Holi, you know. And I keep saying this
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to people all the time. India
is so big you couldn't possibly have
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two families that do
things exactly the same way,
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especially when you have
dozens and dozens and dozens of dieties
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to worship, you know, so there
are no two families, in my family
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on my mom's side and my dad's
side to do something exactly the same.
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So if I saw one, it would be
Diwali. You know, the preparation
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starts very early. It would be
in October or November that you'd
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have the actual Diwali days.
And we would always only celebrate
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the third day of Diwali. And we like
I know there is the five days
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of Diwali, but in my household
with my parents and my siblings,
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we never did the first day,
then the second day and then the big
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third day and then the fourth
and the fifth. So it was only ever
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the third. And we would
start maybe a good two weeks
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before that, maybe even before that.
My mother would cook certain
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dishes, you know, getting
the ingredients from the big city
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of my travel to. Few things
would already be prepared food wise.
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But then come two weeks before that,
it would just be like scrub,
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scrub, scrub. You know,
everything needs to be clean. I say maybe
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you're just preparing your
indoor living for the dark months ahead.
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Maybe it can be seen as that
and maybe other people say, no,
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you are doing it because this
particular diety, you know,
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you're going to welcome him
or her into your nice, clean house.
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And the better it looks,
maybe they will actually come and drop
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off and grant you all
your wishes and wants.
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Maybe it's some of that. So I don't
think my mother would make
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-with flour and water
-And it's kind of like the roti
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-dough.
-No, but she would make little
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cups, and my mother used to make
her own ghee, and then we use
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cotton wool and she put the cotton
wool in the ghee in the cup that
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was made from dough. And we would
light the diyas, the little oil
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lamps. We would only
light the lamps at sunset.
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So, you know, come home from school.
There was no artificial
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light on in the house and mum
had cooked, house is nice and warm
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and everything. And then at sunset
we would light the lights
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and we would all like the lights
together and a each room
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of the house would get a lamp.
And that was really special. So we'd
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-be standing around in the kitchen.
-My mom would have a lovely tray
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and she'd put all the lamps on it,
all the lights, and then she'd
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light them one by one
and, you know, we'd get one like
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it wouldn't be the dough in our hands.
All the door would be
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-on a...
-In a bowl or in on a little plate
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of some sort, you know,
safety first always, and then we would
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carry that into the room that
you were assigned to put it. My mom
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had a white cotton cloth and it was quite
big. And she put that
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on the ground in my parents
bedroom. And so my mom would sit
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and we'd sit around her in a circle
and then she would say,
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your prayers know, not always
giggle because it's the prayers.
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You know, there is Om Shanti,
Shanti and my name .. we'd all be
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giggling then my sister
would be like She's praying for you.
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And we do the prayers and she'd
bless us and and then we go
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in the kitchen and then, you know,
stuff our faces. We get to eat all
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-the special Diwali food.
-So there'd be all these dishes
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that, you know, you don't eat
at another time of the year for us
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because they're
are very intensive make.
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But maybe it's also because,
you know, trying to keep it special.
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You know, as soon as Holi
comes, it's one after the other
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and and not just Hindu
festivals, even other religions, you know,
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there's even Eid also in between.
And sometimes what happens is Eid,
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Diwali and Christmas
will come back to back.
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So that has happened quite a few
times for me when I was growing
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up. So it's very difficult
to segregate it all, you know.
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And so, you know we live in apartment
buildings in Bombay.
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Most of us do anyway, and is different
people practicing
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different faiths, living
in different ways. And these
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are people from different
parts of India. So different different
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people of different faiths
from different parts of India have
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their own different
beautiful rituals and ways of celebrating
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all these festivals.
And you get to be a part
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of it because we are in such intimate
proximity with each other
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and all festivals are communal.
So even that house so (at) Diwali,
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you don't have to cook in our house,
we don't need to eat sweet
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sweets or buy sweets, make
sweets because the neighbours have made
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sweets and they come to our house
and then you get to rate -
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which aunty made, which sweet
better, you know, because we call
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all the neighbours aunties
and uncles, we don't take them
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by their names. They're
all related to you, but they're
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related to you in different
ways because they've seen you grow up.
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So we just call all our elders
aunties and uncles. Hmm this
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auntie made this sweet
'pedha' better than that. Or I think no,
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I think she bought that, you know,
all that carry on....that
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aspect the sharing of food.
Then there is the shopping.
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The shopping is intense.
Oh, my God.
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In Bombay, it is intense
because that's that's only my frame
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of reference, Bombay. So every
day there's a new outfit. Every day
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the rangoli is changed. Every
day the flowers are changed. Every day
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-the diya is lit or of course, now.
-But, you know, it's about
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bling-ing the house out
with the best lights possible.
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And, you know, and that could
even include LED crazy lights, like
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a light performance outside
each perosn's house. So it's like
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if you've got any kind of issues
with light sensitive, you know,
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it's not really good for that.
Ofcourse with the bright lights
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comes the the aspect of bursting
crackers, firecrackers,
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which causes all sorts of crazy
s**** pollution. And they're made
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in very questionable
circumstances. But people still
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buy them every year and kind
of breathe. And God forbid you have
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Asthma - it's kind of crazy.
So I'm trying to paint a balanced
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picture of what it is, what
Diwali is like. And many times every year
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people say, please have
a noise-less Diwali noise,
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-noise-free Diwali.
-So that's there's that commercial
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capitalistic perspective. And the other
thing during the Diwali
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is because it's also the beginning
of the new year and in the Hindu
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calendar, isn't it? I think
yes, it is. So many business-people
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start their books. And so there's
a wonderful pooja around that as
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well. And that's quite
special. And people buy a lot of gold
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during Diwali because that's
again, auspicious and there's lots
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-of Diwali parties.
-You know, it's like Christmas time
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there's parties and even
during Eid people will call
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you for eating lovely
biryani that's made at home.
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And so sometimes if Diwali,
Eid and Christmas happen very close
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-to each other. Right....
-So you've got biryani come from
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the other auntie's house.
You've got sweets, 'pedhas' come
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from the other auntie's
house. My mother would have sent cake
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-to everybody.
-So it's quite an amalgamation of
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cultures. That's that's my experience.
That's what's been
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my experience of Diwali.