Bygone Charms...

With the festival of lights just waiting to burst upon us, a friend and I were talking about how different things were when we were kids. I lived in a highly secular locality in an entirely different part of the country, where all of us neighbours would get together and celebrate a good many of these festivals, whether it be Holi, Diwali, Eid, or Christmas! Each had its own charm for us. While during Holi, we got downright filthy and smeared with colours, with not an inch to spare, Eid saw us wolfing down countless sweetmeats! Christmas was when we knocked at each door in the neighbourhood, singing carols into the wee hours of the morning!
Diwali had us lighting diyas on each step of every stairway and in front of every house door! Although the usual share of noisy firecrackers was inevitable, what I loved most were the light emitting ones. A gazillion memories are attached to each of these lovely festivals, but what remains uppermost in my mind is the harrowing experience of one particular Diwali.
My sister was busy setting up little diyas all along the stairway of our apartment, when her dress caught fire from an adjoining lamp! Her friend spotted the disaster even before she herself felt the heat closing in on her. What her friend did next is something I can never forget. She beat down vigorously upon my sister's dress, dousing the flames as best she could with her bare hands! So determined and quick thinking was she that before any of the parents milling around could've realized what was happening and douse the flames with water, the brave girl had curtailed most of the damage! The sight of the two friends hugging and crying, one with a blistered hand, the other with a ragged dress, is a sight that I've associated with Diwali ever since! They don't make them like that anymore!