Diwali Party "Salty"

As a tradition, Diwali is celebrated in palemenwald strasse (student hostel) every year by Indian students who are studying in Hochschule Esslingen. So to keep up the trend all indians of the present batch were informed to meet at the 5th floor and take the tasks of their interests for the preparations of "Diwali party". It was 23rd of october and in the meeeting it was decided that Aarti will take place on 28th october (actual diwali day) and the party will be celebrated on 1st of november(weekend).


In the meeting some people choose to cook for the party, some choose to decorate the party hall, some choose to be responsible for the the (DJ) music ( poor guys never thought that it will turn out to be a nightmare for them). Anyways as every body knew there tasks, now it was time to contribute. We all decided to pool in Euros whereas some guys made excuses as they dint want to contribute. One of the funny excuses that one guy gave was that"My ATM card is blocked". To add to this when he was invited by us for the Diwali party, he replied that "can i see my schedule and let you guys know" (high blood pressure tablets helped each of us to calm down).


On 28th october every body excluding (ATM guy) got together in room number 414. A plate (pooja ki thaali) was prepared with some sindur, chawal and Diya along with a small temple. We started chantting "Om Jai Jagadish hare" and other aarti's (which were also played in laptop to keep the melody alive) or else it (boys singing) could have created a testing time for the neighbouring rooms. In the end we distributed "Prashad" and wished each other "Happy Diwali.


The next 3 days went in (event marketing) sending invitations to all the people of the hostel and friends. A Beautiful poster was placed in the elivator and in university's campuses. Since this party promised free drinks and dinner, every outsider was very exited about it.


November 1st was a sunny day and the kitchen of the 4th floor was announced as the headquarters for cooking. A team of cooks started the preparations, as a handful of people participated as helpers. At 12.00pm the whole 4th floor was buzzing with indians. By 3.00 pm cooking came into full swing with people standing on all the 16 burners with one hand on their hip and one hand occupied in making the dishes. By 5.30 the menu of the evening was ready which included Aaloo matar, Chole, Pulav, Raita, Irani Roti, Papad, Gulab Jamun and Kheer. This party was about to offer a perfect menu for every Indian after almost 60 days (since we arrived in Germany).


The party hall was very well decorated. The best part of decoration was in the "Gallery" leading towards the party hall which was completely ligthened by diya's (the only source of light made in the Gallery). The Dj's were ready with there Playlists, Laptops and Speakers which they perfectly placed in one corner of the hall. They started with light music as the fellow Indians gave the final touch to the party hall by placing all the food on the well decorated tables. It was observed that the Dj's were quite exited and happy about their job (thereafter they only smiled sarcastically).


It was 8.00 pm, the hall was packed with guests from countries like (Spain,China,Russia,France,Lebanon,Mexico,Germany,Turkey,Pakistan, Coloumbia, Brazil and in majority "India" , to our annonyance ATM guy also came). One of our senior gave the welcome speech and narrated (in short) the "legend" of Diwali, which was quite interesting for all foreigner guests (actually new for some indians too).


As the dishes were unrapped a "yummy fragnance" spread all over the party hall and every body helped himself with food. To our suprise we realised that we haven't bought spoons (a blunder, knowing that foreigners dont eat with their fingers). When asked by guests about spoons, we pretended that Indian food tastes better when eaten by fingers (only God knows what difference would spoons have made in taste). Anyways everybody adjusted their eating style. Soon we saw people licking there fingers (to eat Raita), making rolls of chapati with aalo matar. They called Gulab jamun (sweet Balls) which they mixed with kheer in a disposable glass and made a sweet dish of there own (they literally drank this mixture). Wonder why i dint get to eat all this because people drank the stuff (sweet dishes) which was supposed to be eaten.


It was now time for some "Dance shance" and the so far confident DJ's were playing some popular english numbers to keep the international crowd happy. Soon after to their (DJ's) annoyance came a request to play a tamil number. A request which if denied would have costed some "Broken bones".
So the poor guys played that tamil track on which the person who requested only danced. Recalled next day as "Bull Dance" (instead of Ball dance) by one of my European friend. The guests wanted to enjoy the Indian music and were trying hard to copy our "Bhangra steps" (their Efforts looked to us as the dance of Programmed Robot's).


As foreigners got tired with the indian way of dancing (unlike their's Ball dance) they started to leave. Since DJ's were responsible to hold the party longer, they played some Salsa and spanish dance numbers which was for us (Indians) very ackward as they (foreigners) were dancing in pairs with girls and all of us could only see (our excuse was that we are out of practise in Salsa).


Indians very soon got frustrated with this and the DJ's came back into the firing line of not playing Indian numbers to keep the local crowd happy. Very soon almost every Indian asked to play his favorite number (Nightmare for Dj's was at its peak) as now the party was divided into 2 groups.


It was 12 am as somebody announced that it was "Prassana's Birthday". What happened next was quite obvious, Prassana ran out of the party hall to escape himself from the Birthday "Bumps". But he soon saw himself hanging in the air and people coming and kicking him one by one. Some Indians took a long run up (like shoaib akhtar does) to swell up his A.... This sight left a big impact on all the guests. They enjoyed this Indian "tradition" very much and for (prassana's displease) some even tried out their " kicks"on him. Poor Prasanna came into the rescue of DJ's as all the attention was now diverted on him.


I promise that, that night every European, American and Asian (Paki, chinesse etc) would have given a thought on not to mess around with Indians in future as they can become very painful when "angry" (wondering how painful could their "love" be).


We ended up cleaning the hall and utensils at at 1.30 am. It was time for some group photographs and cherishing the funny moments of the day. A sense of satisfaction was clearly visible on our faces because every body has enjoyed the food and decoration. For many this "Diwali party" became a "w o n d e r f u l" memory and for someone it became wondardful memory.

BTW i was one of those unlucky DJ's.