Thread by @PankajSaxena84

1. Narak Chaturdashi or Narak Chaudas used to be the most memorable day of the Diwali season. Yes, even more exciting than Diwali. The run up to the great day was even more enjoyable than the great festival itself. This was the day some even dreaded a lot.

#NarakChaturdashi

2. For very early in the morning, before sunrise, the elders in the household would wake up everyone for the sake of taking a coldbath before the Sun would come up. Everyone competed to bathe first even before sunrise.

3. For the last one to take bathe was called ‘Lanka ka Gadha’, the donkey of Lanka. It was supposed to be an activity which would drive away ‘alasya’ or laziness from our lives, both mentally and physically.

4. Children especially dreaded the day but I scarcely remember a Diwali when we failed to complete this ritual. At least once in a year we all experienced what it meant to wake up in brahma muhurta and lead the day as does one who is given to sadhana.

5. It was an important experience. Even the late risers of any class or community had the experience of a practising Brahmin at least once every year. We knew the feeling, the sheer confidence, satisfaction and good sense that a simple cold bath in the morning instilled in us.

6. Festivals in this way gave everyone of us a window into a lifestyle which wasn’t necessarily ours. Even if forcibly, we were confronted with a different way of life, giving us a strange experience which lasted for the rest of our lives, as if giving us an option.

7. The rituals which plunged us into activities which we wouldn’t normally engage in enriched our lives, made it less monotonous, more full of different and varying experiences.

8. Then came freedom, prosperity & choice. Parents stopped ‘enforcing religion’ on kids. Kids retreated into private rooms, TV & internet. Every day became same as other, filled with entertainment & more entertainment. As the morning generation receded, night crawlers came out.

9. Narak Chaudas was a sign of morning culture. Kali & Krishna is said to have killed Narakasura this day. May the collective alasya of the Hindu society is killed on this day and we rebuild all Hindu temples that we ever lost. नरक चतुर्दशी की आप सभी को बहुत बहुत शुभकामनायें|