Diwali: The Evening Itself

Diwali today. The evening has three parts and most people dress for only one of them.

The puja itself

Lakshmi Puja is done at home, at dusk, seated on the floor, around a lamp. It wants natural fibre, a pinned pallu and nothing that needs holding. A light Katan silk, a tissue saree, or for the men a plain kurta — kurta pajama sets.

Traditional colours here are the warm end: gold, red, deep pink, ivory. This is the one part of the day where the old convention is worth simply following.

The lamps, and the terrace

Then everybody moves outside, and the evening becomes standing, carrying, leaning over small flames and being photographed by six phones at once.

Say it once more because tonight is the night: synthetic georgette, chiffon and net melt near a diya; silk and cotton char instead. Pin the pallu. Keep the dupatta off the wrist you are holding a lamp with.

The visiting

By nine you are in somebody else's drawing room, and it is warm, and there is food. Anything that needed adjusting an hour ago is now a problem. The pieces that survive this hour are designer sarees that hold their drape, crop-top lehengas, and Anarkalis — things that stay where you put them.

The photograph problem, honestly

Phone cameras in low warm light flatten everything and push it orange. Cloth with texture — a woven Banarasi, a tissue, real zari — still reads as something. Flat printed fabric and heavy synthetic surface work do not; they photograph as a colour and nothing else.

It is a small thing that decides which outfit you remember liking.

Tomorrow, and then the weddings

Govardhan Puja and the family lunch, then Bhai Dooj, then the season turns and the invitations you were sent this week start happening. The six-week plan has what to buy for that, and the quiet week after Bhai Dooj is the last easy time to see a tailor before February.

Shubho Deepaboli.