Colourful ceremonies and Diwali bazaars heighten festive mood

MUMBAI: A selection of meaningful ceremonies brought colour to the festival of Diwali on Wednesday. Lakshmi Puja was the crowning moment late evening, but there was also the blessing of new books of account at Swaminarayan temple, Dadar, and the special mahurat trading session at Bombay Stock Exchange.

Both mahurat ceremonies unfolded around 5.00pm to welcome the new

Vikram Samvat

2075. Hundreds of traders and investors took part.

"Kuber Puja is also integral to Diwali, almost as the homecoming of Lord Ram after 14 years of exile," said Borivli priest Mukesh Trivedi. "Households light five or seven oil lamps, always in odd numbers, and offer white sweetmeats and

pomegranate

to Goddess Lakshmi."

Small groups of friends organised the customary card parties. Most people abstained from non-vegetarian food.

Large Diwali bazaars sprung up in localities like Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri, selling everything from jewellery to garments and puja items. "Every 5 metres along the half km stretch you had vendors with piles of marigold flowers, colourful diyas adorned with lace,

beads

and stones, ornate rangoli dies and powder and puja items. The only essential item that was absent this year is the hatri, the white puja tripod in which Sindhis place the offerings before Goddess Lakshmi. So this year we had to use a thaal to arrange the oil lamps, raw milk, mithai, mitera (small round gourd) and laee (

chikki

)," said Sunita Keswani, who lives in the third lane.

Vendors said the metal base used to prepare the 'hatri' was in short supply this year, the only seller being in faraway Charkop, Kandivli. So they were forced to omit the item from their wares.