American Desi Style Diwali (with a toddler)

Happy Diwali to all of you! On Monday we celebrated Diwali: The Festival of Lights, of good overcoming evil and Love & Light. It’s the first Diwali since we moved to the US so I wanted to take a few extra steps to bring Diwali to our home, especially for Aisha. So here are a couple things I did:

Aisha’s Diwali Gift from Modi Toys-One thing that my husband and I feel strongly about is that Aisha shouldn’t forget where she comes from. Growing up as a South Asian kid, I always felt like the odd one out because it felt as if my peers weren’t aware of my culture. My local Indian community was very small, and there was very little awareness about the South Asian culture in general. However, a whole generation later, the conversation has changed. We still have work to do, but it’s amazing to see Diwali on the calendar, or Diwali decor available on Amazon. That being said, we got Aisha’s birthday gift from Modi Toys: a South Asian business that has toys and books inspired by Hindu roots. That’s such a beautiful thing to me. Therefore, we got Aisha to Diwali Bundle which had mini plush toys of Ganesha, Hanuman, and Saraswati. She can snuggle with them and learn about them all at same time. The best part is that she loves them. You can see that in this reel.

Diwali Decor-So originally, I had this whole plan to make a rangoli and decorate my space, but we ended up being out of town most of Diwali day. Therefore, I did a couple of small rangolis with colored rice that I got on Amazon, which got decorated with candles on Diwali day. It was perfect and beautiful for the occasion, and we got some great memories out of it.

So those are some of the Diwali bits that I incorporated while being here. A very Happy Diwali to all of you! Wishing you all love and light!