oh yea it's diwali again

Ages and ages later am back to typing a blog :)
It's diwali time, just a day more to go. today someone was asking me if I bought crackers, and it made me walk down the past with nostalgia for a few minutes and I started ranting out to the someone how great diwalis used to be when i was a kid.
Even back then I was an insomniac so I would stay up the whole night instead of waking up early for the oil bath. And crackers, whoa, total fun. Used to love the thrill of starting the day with the 1000 wala. I still remember how we had the say no to crackers campaign at school (I was in fifth grade then) and i didn’t sign up coz I knew I wouldn't put it to practice. the standard contest among us flat friends- who wakes up first on diwali, lighting lakshmi vedi in hand and throwing it, running up and down for oodhuvathis, the evening get together at uncles house, new clothes, sweets, lights and sound, treat to all the senses.
Gradually things changed as I grew up, we shifted to another locality, no more flat friends, late mornings, crashing up in front of tv to catch the star interviews and tv premieres, no crackers, less sweets ( somewhere down the line I stopped liking sweets as much), but the new clothes still remained an important entity. But today even that has vanished. My definition of the festival has become - a once upon a time fun fest, now just another day. Yes totally and truthfully. The tv premieres are crap, star interviews- plz stay away, crackers- good from far with the sparks giving a rare warm peace, the get together-the only festive thing I do the whole day.
It’s just a few days back my cousin was voicing the same thoughts to me. he made a valid point, in those days diwali was the time for new clothes and festivity, these days we all shop at the drop of the hat, no company to burst crackers with, no big deal about waking up early- waking up as late as possible defying the parents has become the in thing :P to sum it up, oh diwali, good we get an off and that's all there is to it.
Me a self confessed kill joy i say!! Anyways happy diwali to one and all :)