Kids were playing outside, dressed in their favorite costumes, waiting for the sky to turn a few shades darker. Finally the doorbell went abuzz – ‘Trick or Treat!’   The first cute bunch with their pumpkin shaped candy kamandals was here!  Shaunak was asleep this evening when it all started.

To me the candy collection aspect of this Western festival so much like now mostly forgotten way to celebrate Lohri.

My dad has a vivid memory of how, when he was young – the kids used to recite the Lohri song, going door to door collecting rewdi , peanuts as treats and wood logs to aflame in a pyre. This tradition is still alive in the rural Punjabi dominant areas of the country.

When I was young, kids used to collect ‘holi ka chanda’ to celebrate holika dahan.

My wife wanted for Shaunak to witness this “treat or trick” action.  Now a little over two he was going to get dressed for the occasion – first time ever. To my wife’s disappointment, being woken up in haste he did not seem like an enthusiastic partaker.  He was not very comfortable under his Batman mask and we had to take it off after this photo!  “He is not going to be an anonymous blogger when he grows up” – I chuckled!

I observed that a carved Halloween pumpkin was set very next to the Tulsi Pot on our entrance and a lamp was placed inside this carved pumpkin. What a ghostly freaky Tulsi ka deeya! The two cultures just seemed getting amalgamated! I took my camera out to take some photos.

The third type of tulsi?

Talking of the Tulsi plant – Back home I used to hear that there are two common varieties of Tulsi – Ram Tulsi and Seeta Tulsi – their identification is done based on the shape of the leaves, Seeta Tulsi has more poited leaves.  I don’t know much about that but here I found a third variety with purple leaves.

I searched and I stumbled upon this page – I am finally glad to know that this purple Tulsi is also known as the Shyam tulsi – so I have two varieties now – Ram Tulsi and Shyam Tulsi.. I am looking for Sita Tulsi. (Thanks to the same article, now I know that the so called Seeta tulsi is better known as Vana/Van – [jungli] Tulsi).

More Photos

I wish, I could upload all the photos, but don’t whant to do it without the parents’ permission!

My neighbor Tim – ‘the tools man’ made use of his covered chainsaw [safety first] to scare the teenagers but, being the nice dude he is,  he spared the cute little ones! I live in a diverse neighborhood and its fun!