Diwali memories from grandma’s house

As I used a candle lighter to light candles on the walls our Mumbai apartment this Diwali evening, I remembered a chubby ten year old boy who followed his grandmother on the terrace of her house in Kolkata one Kali Pooja evening. This was a year short of four decades back.

She had come up to light candles on the walls of the terrace. He watched with fascination as she used the flame from a big candle to melt the base of birthday candle-like flimsy candles which she stuck to the top of the boundary wall one after the other. Once done, she retraced her path and lit the baby candles with the big one. They then went to her pooja room at the corner of the terrace where she lit a diya, offered her prayers to the goddess Laxmi, blew a conch, blew off the flame of the diya, gave him the batasha (sugar candy) that she had offered as prasad. The two, grandmother and grandson, walked down together after shutting the terrace door.

The terrace doesn’t exist anymore and there are two floors built over it. It has been years since she has had the strength to climb a staircase.