Across the country, and because of brain drain, the world in general, Indians are busy celebrating Diwali. I personally love Diwali-the festival of lights, because it also marks my own birth in the world. Imagine what a lovely time to be born, when e world lit up to drown the darkness! Anyway, we celebrate the return of Lord Rama, Goddess Sita and Lord Laksmana from their exile. As it is amavasya (no moon night) people lit their path with stings of oil lamps. The best part of Diwali is the food that is on offer. As Tamilians, our fried delicacies (palaharam, bakshanam if you prefer the palakad term) are mainly made from rice and urad (black gram) flour. But as we’ve lived in Bombay all our lives, some mix and match is inevitable. The savory platter here has omapudi (sev), ribbon pakoda, chennai mixture (which is store bought), poha chiwda, and chakli. The sweet platter has besan (roasted bengal gram) ladoos, Mysore pak, jhangri, boondi laddoo, and balushahi (most of which we commissioned. Both plates are owned by Annapoorna, the goddess of food. I also got to devour traditional maharashtrian snacks (or faral) (chakli, chiwda, shankarpalya, karanji and besan laddoos) and Gujarati snacks (or farsan) (puri, and chorafali) because of my awesome-sauce neighbors! How did your Diwali go?