Homework.
Diwali, the festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs, will take place over five days at the end of October this year. (It “floats” on the Gregorian calendar because it’s celebrated during the Hindu lunisolar month Kartika.)
Depending on who I’ve been speaking to, it’s either right around the corner or is still a ways away off.
Which left me in an interesting position when I got the all-parent text from school yesterday afternoon:
Dear Parents,
Please send the following for Diwali decoration activities by Friday. *four floating diyas *two plain medium sized diyas (mitti diya)
Now, I’m absolutely no expert on India’s major religions. But I knew enough to know that I needed to Google to find out exactly which type of small oil lamp I was supposed to be sending to school.
After a little bit of searching on BigBasket and Amazon.in, I was reasonably confident I had found the plain mitti (clay) diyas that I needed to buy. But, just to be sure, I shot a quick text to the other expat moms I know from school to see if I was right. One responded that her household helper said it was too early to find Diwali things in the shops. So, I ordered what I had found and said I’d get extras for them too.
Floating diyas though? Completely stumped. Sure, there were plenty of fancy LED ones on Indian Amazon, but I couldn’t imagine that was what the school wanted. Besides, they weren’t going to be delivered in time. I’m willing to be the lemonade-can-instead-of-orange-juice-can mom and have been known to pull carnival costumes out of thin air the night before, but I draw the line on sending my kid to school empty-handed when he’s supposed to bring something.
Luckily for me, I have made a Delhiite friend through 7 Cities, a semester-long program that has me learning about my new home through tours of important sites.
We sat together at lunch today and I used the opportunity to use the resources I had available to me. I pulled out my phone, found the message from school and shared my screen while mouthing “help?!”
I swear that not more than 30 seconds had passed before she had turned to the waitstaff and asked them in Hindi where we could find floating diyas nearby. She told me later that she figured we could make a quick stop on the way home.
But what happened next truly blew my mind: the restaurant staff decided they’d send somebody out to fetch some for me. And not only that, they’d send a picture before purchasing to make sure it was what I was looking for. (Of course they didn’t know that I had absolutely no clue.)
Fifteen minutes and a handful of rupees later, I was in possession of a pack of plain white tea lights with assurances that they would float and these were what I needed.
Only time will tell whether that’s actually true. I’ll bring the candles and the mitti diays that I found on BigBasket to school tomorrow and ask Nicolas’s teachers. If not, I’m only out a couple hundred rupees. (And one can never have enough tea lights, after all.)
I think I’ve earned myself an A for resourcefulness and at least an A- for effort. I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be a group project but they do say it takes a village…
